Contributor, Techonomy Media
Think twice before you throw out those leftovers—or maybe even take a picture. Globally, one-third of all food is wasted—1.3 billion tons of food in total. The U.S. alone trashes 40 percent of what it...
Are MOOCs all they’re cracked up to be? Over the past few years, the merits of massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been fiercely debated; some argue that they will radically expand and democratize higher...
In last week’s New York Times, Daniel Yergin gave readers three possible energy landscapes for 2030: a climate-friendly redesign, a renewable ideal, and a troubled, coal-reliant outlook. He admits that the rapidly changing energy industry...
The Labor Department has estimated that there will be 1.4 million job openings for computer-related occupations this decade. On the heels of less-than-stellar jobs numbers, this should be welcome news to millennials planning their career...
Airbnb hosts in New York are fighting back against policymakers who are trying to rein in the sharing economy. Last week the New York Attorney General subpoenaed the records of all New York Airbnb hosts,...
In a setback for the sharing economy, the Office of the New York Attorney General has issued a subpoena demanding data about all Airbnb hosts in New York, The Wall Street Journal reports. Airbnb announced...
When Randy Engler and his wife started renting out their two homes using Airbnb, they soon realized it was hard to provide a high level of hospitality to their guests, especially while away. Engler, who...
A New York City Airbnb host has won an appeal with the New York City Environmental Control Board after being fined for renting out a room in his apartment, Airbnb reported on its Public Policy...
“It took the U.S. and Europe 150 years to go through the Industrial Revolution. Now, you can go through your own personal industrial revolution in 90 days.” At least that’s what TechShop CEO Mark Hatch...
We have seen a glorified yet apprehensive vision of the future in literature and film for years, from Jules Verne to “The Jetsons.” These fictional portrayals of the future suggest that while new inventions and...
Kathy Cheng is used to walkable cities. She grew up near New York and went to college in Cambridge, Mass. Now she finds herself driving in the Motor City, as a Venture for America (VFA)...
When Chelsea Koglmeier left Cincinnati after high school, she never thought she would return to live in her home city. But barely a year after college graduation, she’s back, working for a company that makes...
In recent years many educators have endorsed the benefits of video games in learning, both for younger students and at the university level. But now brain scientists have discovered that a multitasking video game can...
There’s a new kind of journalism coming from the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The Mídia Ninja is a collective of volunteer citizen journalists who are using smartphones and cameras to record and live-stream street...
The U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution promising to make their cities more shareable, CollaborativeConsumption.com reports. The Shareable Cities Resolution states that mayors resolve to encourage a better understanding of the sharing economy and...
What will happen when hackers break into the “Internet of Things”? A growing number of Internet-connected home devices are hitting the market, but two security researchers are warning consumers of potential security breaches, according to...
Detroit may be known for its automobile manufacturing, but lately it has seen a burgeoning class of small manufacturers and makers of watches, bicycles, jeans, and other goods. This is happening “just as the country...
In the ongoing patent dispute between Samsung and Apple, the White House has finally put its foot down. It squashed a verdict handed down by a U.S. trade court that would have banned the import...
More graduates from Harvard Business School are going into technology, preliminary career data published by the school shows. Technology companies hired 18 percent of MBA graduates from the class of 2013, up from 7 percent...
Blerds unite! Blerdeology, a social enterprise to support and engage the black startup and STEM community, is rallying blerds (black nerds) across the country with its “Blerd’s Night Out Tour.” Blerdology is the first organization...
Kids today would rather be mayor than president, Thomas L. Friedman writes in a recent column. “The country looks so much better from the bottom up—from its major metropolitan areas—than from the top down,” he...
Who needs a computer mouse when you have your hands? The much-anticipated Leap Motion, which brings gesture control to Mac and Windows computers, started shipping this week, ABC News Reports. Much like Kinect for Xbox,...
Technology is not necessarily helping students become better writers, a new study has found. Although technology in the classroom has made students better collaborators, a Pew Research Center study has found that teachers are worried...
Maybe Millennials aren't as selfish as people think. Some college grads are turning down high salaries in finance and consulting for entry level positions at startups in cities like Detroit, New Orleans, and Baltimore—where they...
Wearable technology is becoming this season’s fashion must-have. Products like Jawbone and FitBit collect data on calorie expenditures and sleep habits, Under Armour’s Armour 39 tracks athletic training and even claims to measure willpower, and...
Software and tablets are allowing baseball players to better prepare for games than ever before, The New York Times reports. About 150 major league players and coaches are paying $700 per season for a subscription...
Instagram hasn’t quite figured out how to monetize mobile photo sharing—and the company is currently facing scrutiny about whether Facebook’s acquisition was in the best interest of Instagram investors. But hordes of users have turned...
Reporting a crime or life-threatening situation could just be a text message away. Text messages are silent and quick, and are now poised to widen 911 accessibility to millions of Americans with disabilities. Text-to-911 services...
The next victims of global warming are America’s skiers and snowboarders. Scientists say that climate change means the nation’s ski centers will eventually vanish, the New York Times reported today. After last winter’s record-breaking warmth,...
What can we expect from cloud computing in 2013? Joe McKendrick at Forbes has aggregated a list of analysts’ predictions, including more hosted private clouds, a greater integration of cloud and mobile, and the personal...
Just in time for the holiday season, Square has launched a new service that lets anyone receive gift cards that can be used at one of the more than 200,000 businesses in Square’s mobile payments...
Good news for U.S. manufacturing: Apple is bringing some of its computer manufacturing back to the United States, Timothy Cook announced on Thursday. The company plans to spend $100 million in 2013 on producing one...
As we approach a future of electronic, connected, and networked automobiles, will Detroit’s auto industry also evolve? Cars are relying more heavily on electronics (the market for electronic systems is expected to grow from $170...
Two Swiss inventors have developed the first solar-powered plane capable of flying at night. The Solar Impulse has already flown multiple overnight flights, including one 72-hour intercontinental journey, and by 2015 they hope to fly...
Staples has announced a new service called “Staples Easy 3D” that will allow European customers to upload designs to the Staples website, and then pick up the printed objects at a local store or have...
In the month since Superstorm Sandy left millions in the dark, solar power has become an essential part of relief efforts, especially in ravaged areas of Brooklyn and Queens, New York. For instance, a coalition...
What is the biggest threat to jobs in American manufacturing: robots or a skills gap? Many manufacturing jobs are vanishing because of computer-driven machinery, as discussed at Techonomy 2012, and nearly as many jobs have...
Who’s your biggest competition for that new job? Turns out, it could be a robot named Baxter. This humanoid robot, created by Rodney Brooks and his team at Rethink Robotics, is easy to program and...
Just weeks after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast, climate change was on the forefront of everyone's mind at Techonomy 2012 in Tucson, Ariz. In a session about geo-engineering, Harvard physics professor David Keith and...
The Techonomy 2012 conference outside of Tucson, Ariz. wrapped up with a session featuring two Facebook team members: Sam Lessin, Project Manager, and David Fischer, VP of Business and Marketing Partnerships. Together they explained an...
Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple: four Internet companies that are, arguably, the best of the best. They’re global goliaths that leave little room for competitors in a fast-growing online world. At the Techonomy conference outside...
As a go-to search engine and powerful online advertiser, Google has great influence over online consumers. But is this influence illegal? As Google has moved beyond search and search advertising and into online commerce and...
Can tablet computers educate the world? In two Ethiopian villages, illiterate children with no schooling are quickly learning their ABCs—and more—with Motorola Xoom tablets provided by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. OLPC is...
As companies adopt cloud computing solutions, CIOs universally report positive results. But what about their bosses, employees, partners, and customers? Are they finding cloud computing efforts to be beneficial? According to Andi Mann, vice president...
Who says Facebook isn’t making any money? On Tuesday afternoon Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company is making $3 million per day in revenue from Facebook’s flagship mobile ad product, Sponsored Stories. Add in the...
Forget the Wall Street Journal or The Economist—according to Business Insider, the most powerful business journalist on the Internet is Dan Roth, the executive editor of LinkedIn. Roth oversees and aggregates LinkedIn Today, which brings...
Every night around 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Michael Lazerow eats dinner with his family. Usually this means sitting down in his New York City apartment with his wife and three children. But sometimes, when the...
Near the end of last night’s presidential debate, moderator Candy Crowley asked President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney a common question: How do you convince companies like Apple to bring manufacturing back to America?...
Is technology ruining our teenagers? Today’s teens are constantly staring at screens of smartphones, iPods, tablets, computers and TVs. And the consequences are problematic, psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman has found. Teens’ addiction to gadgets is...
This presidential campaign has taken social media to a new level, expanding beyond Facebook and Twitter and into the world of Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, and Spotify. Both camps are reaching out to young voters...
A new $10 million federal program is bringing “hackerspaces” to high schools, the New York Times reports. Hackerspaces are community groups for hackers to build and invent technology (and take things apart). They are considered...
Student debt is so widespread that two-thirds of the class of 2010 graduated with loans averaging $25,250 each, according to the Project on Student Debt. At the same time, some experts say the country is...
Researchers at the US Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis say that the patent system should be abolished, SmartPlanet reports. Innovation will come from a patentless, cooperative environment in which technologies and discoveries are shared.
In a new approach to fixing the computer science skill gap, Microsoft is sending its own engineers to teach in high school classrooms. Volunteers for the program commit to teaching a computer science class for...
Finally, some good news for U.S. manufacturing. Despite declining for the past three months, manufacturing in the U.S. grew in September. The Institute for Supply Management's factory index rose to 51.4, up from 49.6 in...
Want to change the world, or at least an industry? To spark and nurture social change, impact investors need to focus on whole sectors rather than individual firms, writes Omidyar Network in a recent report....
A picture says 1000 words—or at least more than 140 characters. Instagram has beaten Twitter in daily mobile users for the first time, according toAllThingsD via an unpublished comScore report.
Google Glasses are the future of cheating, writes Jeff Bercovici at Forbes.com. Students are already using technology like smartphones and tablets to cheat on tests and homework, and, after recent scandals like the one at...
Managing “Big Data” is a big issue these days, especially within the energy industry, SmartPlanet reports. Companies are compiling huge amounts of data about energy supply and consumption, and cloud computing is enabling them to...
Female and minority entrepreneurs are few and far between in the technology industry, but lately there have been efforts to change that, Deborah Gage at the Wall Street Journal reports.
The annual field trip to the local pond has gone high-tech for some Massachusetts and New York middle-school students. Harvard education researchers are giving the kids smartphones loaded with augmented reality software to see how...
One Brooklyn company has flipped the manufacturing model on its head. Whereas most goods are made in China and shipped to the U.S., Watermark Design is making plumbing parts here and shipping them to China....
Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and Square, talked to MLive.com about the future of Detroit after speaking at last week’s Techonomy Detroit conference. Dorsey said that Detroit has reached a turning point, and mentorship...
Nuclear power is a big deal in Japan. Before the Fukushima power plant emergency in 2011, more than 30 percent of the country’s electricity came from nuclear reactors. Now most Japanese people are adamantly against...
Colleges are finding more uses for 3D printing, from art students creating sculptures of futuristic animals, to engineering students developing zero gravity fuel storage, to biology professors replicating dinosaur bones. All disciplines have the potential...
A Connect Michigan study has found that broadband availability in school increases test scores, CBS Detroit reports. As e-learning becomes an essential part of learning, increased access to broadband allows for critical online interaction, both...
At Techonomy Detroit last week, venture capitalist Tim Draper had some harsh words for the local crowd. Detroit automakers have lost the electric-car battle to Tesla Motors, he said, and the only hope for the...
Google’s helpful Autocomplete function has landed the Internet giant in German court. Former German first lady Bettina Wulff filed a lawsuit against Google after finding that searches for her name automatically adjust to include rumors...
Two entertainment moguls are braving the e-book publishing business with the launch of Brightline, a venture created in partnership with Brooklyn-based publishing start-up Atavist. Brightline will publish e-books and eventually paper books. With powerful founders—Scott...
Walk through one of the high schools in the Katy Independent School District in Texas and you’ll see students staring at cell phones, headphones in their ears and fingers on their keypads. On every table...
In anticipation of the Techonomy Detroit conference on September 12, we’re profiling six tech startups that are driving that city’s re-emergence as a center of innovation. Are You A Human? offers an alternative to CAPTCHAs,...
PicketReport.com, a website that aggregates information about neighborhoods and towns, is one of the latest tech startups in the Detroit area to garner attention. The site serves people relocating to unfamiliar areas, curating information about...
In anticipation of the Techonomy Detroit conference on September 12, we're profiling six Detroit tech startups that are driving the city’s re-emergence as a center of innovation. Quikkly was founded in Philadelphia, but moved to...
Here’s another reason to be excited for Techonomy’s Detroit conference next Wednesday, Sept. 12. Fast Company has included Detroit in its list of “10 Underrated Hotbeds of American Innovation,” highlighting the “gonzo spirit” of Detroit...
Taxi-hailing app company Uber introduced its service in 105 of New York City’s 13,000 yellow cabs—but the convenience of finding a cab via mobile app might be too good to be true. The legality of...
In anticipation of the Techonomy Detroit conference on September 12, we're profiling six Detroit tech startups that are driving the city’s re-emergence as a center of innovation. GreenLancer Energy connects freelance renewable energy engineers with...
The Apple-Samsung verdict will have lasting consequences in the consumer tech field. Shelley Palmer of MediaBizBloggers.com lays out the good (patent protection), the bad (fewer consumer options), and the sad (an uncertain future for tablet...
For nearly a decade, gaming has been touted as one of the next big trends in educational technology. At first, many dismissed the use of computer games as learning tools, but now both educational leaders...
When Marc Seigel’s honors students tackle their chemistry homework, they don’t crack open a textbook or pull out a worksheet. Instead, they lounge on beds with laptops balanced on knees, stand at bus stops staring...
