The fastest growing venture capital regions in US is the West Coast and Midwest and Washington Post reports that the capital is loosing ground.

The greatest strategic challenge facing leading global businesses in 2008 will continue to be regulatory and compliance risks, says a new report published by leading professional services provider Ernst & Young. These are closely followed by global financial shocks, which have already begun to have an impact with the recent global "credit crunch"; workforce and consumer aging, which will see a number of industries struggling to respond to dramatic shifts in demand and shortages in skilled labor; and the inability to capitalize on the rise of the emerging markets..

"Not all strategic business risks are the same-  they may be macro, sector or operational nor do they have the same impact in every business sector," says John Murphy, Global Vice-Chair for Ernst & Youngs Assurance and Advisory Business Services. "This research flags up the fact that all boards must have strategic business risks on their radar. Boards will have to decide where their greatest risks lie and how to deal with them. Ignoring them is not an option."

The report, "Strategic business risk: 2008 - the top ten risks for global business", identifies the top ten global risks across 12 of the worlds most important business sectors, as well as the five fastest-rising threats that could have a significant impact over the next three to five years.

The report was produced by Ernst & Young in collaboration with Oxford Analytica, and sought the views of more than 70 analysts from more than 20 disciplines. The top ten strategic business risks identified in the report are:

Regulatory and compliance risk
Global financial shocks
Aging consumers and workforce
Emerging markets
Industry consolidation/transition
Energy shocks
Execution of strategic transactions
Cost inflation
Radical greening
Consumer demand shifts

Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen, responsible for enterprise and industry policy said: "The continued improvement in innovation performance across the EU is very encouraging and offers further evidence that the Lisbon process and the broad-based innovation strategy are working. But the apparent slowdown in catching up with the US and in particular the increasing gap in public research and development show that reinforced efforts are needed if we are to create more world class innovation in Europe."  Read more about the The 2007 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). The whole report can be found at PRO INNO EUROPE.

Fantastic! Later this month, MIT will celebrate reaching its goal of having written portions, at least, of 1,800 courses - including materials from about 90 percent of its professors - available free on its Web site. Read more...

I was invited by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry the other week to participate at a EFTA conference in Luxenbourg to learn about CIP. What is CIP? This is the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme. It directly aims to boost the competitiveness of European enterprises. To fire up the activity there is a budget of  3.6 billion euros for the period 07 - 13. More data is updated as we speak at http://ec.europa.eu/cip/index_en.htm.
I will come back with more information as I learn more about the opportunities for small companies and entrepreneurs.

Donal Lang, Principal at Don Lang Design, asked this question on LinkedIn;
Creative people generate many ideas. It takes effort and commitment to convince funders and often 5 years to get a product to market, so we're selective about what we put our lives into. What do YOU do with all the rest of your innovations? Do you think there's a justification for an 'Open Access' system that puts out unused ideas for anyone to exploit? Would you use it? What recognition would you want?

This was my answer; Most of the ideas for all inventors stays in the head and die there. I for sure believe that there is a demand for "open spaces" where IP, good ideas, talent and capital can meet. In fat one of the companies I have a responsibility in are developing av method and scheme as we speak. Seed Forum Norway have been taking an international initiate that can easily can be converted from a physical marketplace into an "ideagora" or a knowledge market. You can in addition find good existing examples as yet2.com and innocentive.com, that are sites that I think will have a great future. One ot the most interesting books I have been listening to so fare this year is Wikinomics (Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams), that are based on results from several research projects where new ways of sharing and collaboration is central. I will for sure try to interact with as much persons and brilliant minds as possible in my subsequent projects.

Read more answers?

Want to join me at PodCamp Europe in Stochholm June 12 -13? It's an UnConference of podcasters, bloggers, and new media professionals & amateurs for two days to share, explore, challenge, and grow our abilities in new media. Learn about audio and video podcasting, blogging, photography, Second Life, Twitter, and all kinds of other new and social media tools. Whether you're a veteran or interested in getting started, PodCamp is for you.

When I was listening to the Audible version of Wikinomics I learned about OpenCourseWare and was jogging home to discover more. Whoo! What a course of knowledge his is at your fingertips. This is something that I hope all Universities and also Business Schools around the world can learn from. The competitive world is thoroughly flat and sharing is a valuable asset now and icreasingly in the future. Please look into this fountain of involvement and free sharing...