Columbus : Buzz

Through the convergence of technology development and design thinking, the IDEA Studio will focus on identifying important gaps or critical problems needing addressed and create technologies and solutions to solve these vexing problems.

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On Facebook, Allan Karl has 642 friends, 128 likes and 405 photos. But you wouldn’t know this if you searched for him by his actual name: Allan Smith.

Smith, a sophomore at Ohio University, switched to using his first and middle name on Facebook to carve out more privacy and make himself harder to find, especially for employers.

As more people like Smith seek more privacy, two Ohio State students have created a new social media site that revolves around providing it.

Dustin Studer, a junior in biomedical engineering, and Suprasanna Mishra, a junior in neuroscience, launched Capstory.com on Oct. 1.

“We wanted to give complete control to the user so they can do whatever they want with their content and not have to worry,” Studer said.

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Euclid Avenue was the spark in Cleveland, as a bus rapid-transit system ignited development along the important Downtown artery once lined with so many mansions it was known as Millionaires’ Row.

The rebirth of downtown Cincinnati started with Fountain Square and in Over-the-Rhine, a historic neighborhood filled with stately but crumbling homes.

In Columbus, the Arena District rose on the blighted site of a long-closed prison. This started a wave of development that has spread south, to the river and the land formerly occupied by the failed City Center mall.

Now, after many years and a combined investment of about $10 billion, Ohio’s three largest cities are enjoying downtown booms that have added residents, jobs, economic impact and vibrancy.

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For more information on the TechColumbus innovation awards, click here.

To its advocates, crowdfunding is a way for capital-starved entrepreneurs to receive financing that neither big investors nor lenders are willing or able to provide. To others, it represents a potential minefield that could help bad businesses get off the ground before they eventually fail, and in some cases could even ensnare unsophisticated investors in outright fraud.

Those fears are partly why the Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed rules allowing crowdfunding that were supposed to take effect this month as part of the JOBS Act (Jump-Start Our Business Start-Ups), signed by President Obama last April. The S.E.C. is wary of loosening investor protections that have been in place since the 1930s.

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Ohio rose to 33rd from 38th and Michigan remained at No. 47 in Forbes’ new list of “Best States for Business.” The rankings, at forbes.com/best-states-for-business, compare the states in six categories.

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Innovation and entrepreneurship are the engines of economic growth. For decades now, cities and communities across the United States have tried to infuse themselves with those two properties by emulating Silicon Valley, a never-ending quest to become the next Silicon Somewhere.

Brad Feld’s terrific new book, Startup Communities, takes us inside the real ecologies of innovation and entrepreneurship. Feld, co-founder of venture capital firm Foundry Group, serves on the boards of numerous high-tech companies. He recently chatted with Cities about his new book.

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A national study on high-tech jobs released Thursday shows that Ohio is quickly establishing itself as a hub of high-tech job activity. The Buckeye State is home to three of the top 25 cities for tech job growth -- more than any other state.

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Recently, FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron recommended to the Ohio Legislature changes to Ohio's energy efficiency portfolio that would essentially freeze the energy efficiency mandate found in Senate Bill 221 at current levels. As currently written, Senate Bill 221 calls for Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs) to undertake energy efficiency improvements by 2025 equal to 22% of 2008's energy consumption. FirstEnergy's proposed changes would end the mandate at the less than 3% cumulative reduction required to date.

Ohio's Legislature should consider carefully any request to alter Ohio's course on energy efficiency. For many reasons, a reduction in the energy efficiency goal does not appear to be a good idea at this time.

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Chrysler Group LLC is hiring more than 1,100 new workers at its sprawling Toledo, Ohio, manufacturing complex. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is looking for hundreds of bankers in Columbus. And the Cleveland Clinic has been adding registered nurses at such a clip that it rented out the Cleveland Browns football stadium for a job fair.
Long an emblem of rust belt decay and despair, Ohio is now outpacing the national economy.

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Ohio State University has agreed to buy 50 megawatts of wind energy – equivalent to 26 percent of power consumption on the Columbus main campus – from the Blue Creek Wind Farm in northwest Ohio.

The agreement is one of the largest purchases of wind power by a North American entity that is not a utility, the school said.

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The nation’s wind energy industry is growing, and that’s helping Ohio, according to a new report by an environmental group. The Natural Resources Defense Council says its new study finds that a wind farm, consisting of something like 10 wind turbines, creates a lot of jobs.

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