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Cathy Bogaart

world creativity - 0 views

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    This wiki is a repository of activities and events for World Creativity and Innovation Week all over the planet so that you can be stimulated with ideas of what others are doing and, to stimulate others with the plans you have for celebrating this and every year. Add your event on this page.\n \nIt's also a repository of people's stories about times when they felt really creative, when they got new ideas, used imagination and made new decisions that made the world a better place and made their place in the world better too.
Assunta Krehl

Online fundraising innovator named Canada's first certified B Corporation - a new corpo... - 0 views

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    Better the World Inc., a novel for-profit online fundraising platform, has been named Canada's first certified "B Corporation". Mention of MaRS working with Better The World to chart their progress and ensure other companies could benefit from their experience in gaining this designation through the support of a pro bono legal team from Carters Professional Corporation, Ogilvy Renault and Blake, Cassels & Graydon. March 11, 2009
Sarah Hickman

MaRS Discovery District - Recommended Resources - Global Market Reports - VHA Research ... - 0 views

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    "The United States spends more on health care-related research and development than any other country. In 2003, it was estimated that the Federal government alone spent over $26 billion. Pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers and other private companies invested over $10 billion more. At its best, the American health care system is capable of delivering care unsurpassed anywhere else in the world. Yet, a 1999 Institute of Medicine study estimated that as many as 98,000 Americans die each year from hospital related medical errors. A recent study by the Rand Corporation (a non-profit think tank) concluded that less than 50 percent of encounters with doctors and hospitals resulted in optimal, evidence-based treatment. Studies show that as many as 42 million Americans - almost 15 percent of the population - lack health care insurance. Surveys reveal that patients do not feel they have adequate information about their conditions, and that their experience with health care ranks below that of most other sectors, in fact below that of the post office. In the aggregate, the country is spending nearly $2 trillion on health care, and yet the nation's health care system does not meet acceptable thresholds for safety, quality, access or cost. In 2005, VHA Health Foundation's board of directors sought to better understand the reasons behind this paradox. The foundation commissioned Larry Keeley and his associates at Doblin Inc. to apply the rigorous analytical methods that are used in their evaluation of other American industries and companies. The project set out to discover when, where and how innovation was taking place in health care. It also sought to identify organizations that were developing model innovation processes, and to explore where opportunities for successful innovation might lay."
Assunta Krehl

Valentine's Global Heart Hour - take an hour and change your world - South Asian Genera... - 0 views

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    Global Heart Hour is a new grassroots global initiative to make a better world. This new concept was launched on Valentine's 2009 in Toronto. This year's event was held at the University of Toronto on Tuesday February 9th, 2010, with the theme "Think Haiti and Rethink the World.
Assunta Krehl

Science City - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

  • This is Toronto's research district, a maze of concrete and glass where the finest minds collaborate, turning the city into a global centre of biomedical discovery.
  • Nine research institutes employing 5,000 university faculty members, 2,000 graduate students and 1,100 postdoctoral and clinical fellows lie within a 20-minute walk of each other. This biomedical cluster at the heart of Toronto is one of the largest on the continent, and is one of the 10 largest in the world.
  • Tom Hudson from Montreal; cell biologist Ben Neel from Boston; and stem-cell biologist Gordon Keller, who came to Toronto in 2006, just months after New York magazine named him one of the scientists that city could not afford to lose. Toronto is also home to Tak Mak, who discovered the "key to the immune system" T-cell receptor, and John Dick, who discovered the first cancer stem cell in 1994 and last year grew a human cancer in a lab mouse for the first time.
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  • "There's an enthusiasm in the research community that's very exciting to be part of," says Dr. Keller, who now heads the McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine.
  • Dr. Hudson, who left Quebec to head the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, says the city's "tremendous power" is built on a strong history: Stem-cell research began here. "It's innovative," he says of Toronto. "I've never felt closer in my research career to thinking we will have an impact. I feel my goals are going to happen here."
  • Still, John Evans, board chairman of the non-profit MaRS Centre, which helps to turn research into viable businesses, envisages a day when research is seen as a social and economic driver, and the city shines as brightly as better-known centres such as Boston and Palo Alto.
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    Tenille Bonoguore, Globe and Mail features the MaRS Centre and meets 12 of its' "best specimens." MaRS is one of the 10 largest biomedical clusters in the continent.
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    Tenille Bonoguore, Globe and Mail features the MaRS Centre and meets 12 of its' "best specimens." Bonoguore states "MaRS Centre is one of the 10 largest biomedical clusters in the continent." Jan 5, 2008
Assunta Krehl

MaRS Discovery District - News - News Releases - 2009 - Toronto's MaRS Discovery Distri... - 0 views

  • Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District has combined the creative genius of science and technology with the drive of entrepreneurs and capital to create a marriage that will see more Canadian ideas commercialized in this country and for those efforts it has won the Canadian Urban Institute’s 2009 Creative City Award to be granted to MaRS on June 5 at the Urban Leadership Awards in Toronto.
  • “MaRS has found a creative way for science and business to collaborate rather than compete and to help Canada become a knowledge-based economy. This award recognizes them as a leader in stimulating the creative capacity of the city and advancing entrepreneurship, not only in science and technology but also in social ventures. 
  • Located in the Discovery District of Toronto, where billions of dollars of creative capital are created every year, the MaRS Centre first opened in 2005 in two new towers that bookend a heritage building that once housed the Toronto General Hospital. The three buildings, that total 700,000 sq. ft, house labs, companies of all sizes, business advisors and investors. Its professional services include hands-on advisory services, entrepreneurial programming and both structured and electronic networking. A second building phase of the MaRS Centre will add 750,000 sq ft and is planned to open in the next few years. “The underlining reason for creating MaRS is to capture the value of Canadian discoveries and to better commercialize these innovations at home in Canada,” said MaRS CEO Ilse Treurnicht. “Hub cities like Toronto are key drivers in shaping Canada’s innovation economy. MaRS works to strengthen the pull of that hub, acting as an accelerator and building the best ideas into companies that can compete on the world stage but are anchored here,” said Treurnicht.
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    "Mention of the the Canadian Urban Institute's 2009 Creative City Award being granted to MaRS on June 5 at the Urban Leadership Awards in Toronto."
Cathy Bogaart

Social Enterprise Gains Importance In Tough Times - The Leader World - 0 views

  • with self-belief and a preparedness to adapt to the new economic situation, social enterprise will thrive
  • Social enterprise, in many ways, is about generating value: for both society and business. What could be more important when facing difficult times?
  • leverage their natural resources for the betterment of both society and their bottom line
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  • New graduates are known as ‘Generation Yers’. Born between 1979 and 1998, they want to be successful business people, but they also want to do good with their skills. They want luxurious products, but won’t buy from unethical companies. For businesses to recruit and retain the best, they have to offer more than the corporate package. Community engagement is fast becoming a key competitive differentiator between professional services firms. In a recent survey of UK graduates by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 70% said that they will actively seek out employers whose corporate responsibility behaviour reflects their own. An Aspen Institute study shows business school students citing ‘business's responsibility to society’ as a top concern when choosing a job.
  • social entrepreneurship will be rattled by this economic situation, but we will make changes to our approach where necessary and come out stronger and more central to both business and community.
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    This article talks about how the recession's economic tightening is actually good for social enterprises as it forces the industry to be more innovative in order to survive. The author talks about asking for partnerships that are even more valuable than charitable donations. He also talks about why it's important for all companies to incorporate ethical business practices in order to stay viable in a generation of people who care deeply about where products come from. Times are better than ever for social entrepreneurs.
Tim T

iPhone Dev Center: iPhone Human Interface Guidelines: Human Interface Principles: Creat... - 0 views

  • A great user interface follows human interface design principles that are based on the way people—users—think and work, not on the capabilities of the device
  • a beautiful, intuitive, compelling user interface enhances an application’s functionality and inspires a positive emotional attachment in users.
  • model your application’s objects and actions on objects and actions in the real world.
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  • This technique especially helps novice users quickly grasp how your application works. Folders are a classic software metaphor. People file things in folders in the real world, so they immediately understand the idea of putting data into folders on a computer.
  • iPhone OS users enjoy a heightened sense of direct manipulation because of the Multi-Touch interface. Using gestures, people feel a greater affinity for, and sense of control over, the objects they see on screen, because they do not use any intermediate device (such as a mouse) to manipulate them.
  • An iPhone application is better than a person at remembering lists of options, commands, data, and so on. Take advantage of this by presenting choices or options in list form, so users can easily scan them and make a choice. Keeping text input to a minimum frees users from having to spend a lot of time typing and frees your application from having to perform a lot of error checking. Presenting choices to the user, instead of asking for more open-ended input, also allows them to concentrate on accomplishing tasks with your application, instead of remembering how to operate it.
  • Your application should respond to every user action with some visible change.
  • Keep actions simple and straightforward so users can easily understand and remember them
  • Whenever possible, use standard controls and behaviors that users are already familiar with.
  • appearance has a strong impact on functionality: An application that appears cluttered or illogical is hard to understand and use.
  • Aesthetic integrity is not a measure of how beautiful your application is. It’s a measure of how well the appearance of your application integrates with its function. For example, a productivity application should keep decorative elements subtle and in the background, while giving prominence to the task by providing standard controls and behaviors.
  • An immersive application is at the other end of the spectrum, and users expect a beautiful appearance that promises fun and encourages discovery.
  • appearance still needs to integrate with the task.
Tim T

Beijing plays hardball with Washington - thestar.com - 0 views

  • Western countries were preparing for a more assertive China to emerge over the next decade. No one thought it would happen virtually overnight.
  • "Before the (Beijing) Olympics everyone believed it was going to be gradual. People would have time to adapt. But over the past 18 months things have just developed so rapidly."
  • China's ability to survive and thrive through the financial crisis left many Chinese feeling their system is just better, says Stubbe Ostergaard
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  • While many Western countries experienced negative growth last year, China registered a jaw-dropping 8.7 per cent increase. Though much of it was achieved by a generous stimulus package, it maintained jobs and, in the end, helped fuel feelings of superiority.
  • Economic power is inexorably shifting away from the U.S. and towards China, he says, and coming with it is power and influence. "China is stronger now. It's more influential," says Yao. "And the Chinese banking sector looks better than the Western banking system."
  • "Saving face matters to the Chinese," he says. "But if you slap the Chinese face once, twice, three times, four times – that's too much." That language underlines the stark differences in the two nations' perception of issues such as Taiwan, Tibet and the Dalai Lama.
  • "China has risen to a different place. ... It's clearly an unsettling stage in U.S.-China relations, a new paradigm. No one is really sure how it's going to shake out."
Cathy Bogaart

He Gets Isolated Areas On The Air - from The Leader World - 0 views

  • RadioActive, a social organisation providing technical equipment and support to groups both with and without funding around the world
  • RadioActive provides training, equipment, and technical services to communities around the world. The group also partners with NGO-funded radio start-ups. One arm of the organisation provides funding and support, while the other aims to provide support to groups with established funds with training, installation and equipment.
  • RadioActive (has a goal of) making people’s lives better, making a difference, making people feel less isolated. Music is a secondary (focus)…these stations are not about promoting music but more about what radio can do as a tool.
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    This article profiles DJ Max Graef of London, England. This social innovator helps communities worldwide with next to zero resources start up a community radio station.
Sarah Hickman

Ode Magazine - A New Homepage for Intelligent Optimists - 0 views

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    A Netherlands publication, Ode's claim to fame is profiling interesting individuals and innovators before they are known globally (such as Patch Adams and Deepak Chopra) and making alternative media mainstream. Since 1995, Ode's goal has been to promote social, economic, and environmental ideas that change the world for the better. Available in Dutch and English, Ode publishes novel ideas, profiles interesting individuals that are making a change today, makes for a great social networking tool, and reports on people, culture, science and health, responsible business, and environment.
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