Today in Globe Business

Innovation may fuel economic recovery

When the economy finally snaps back, technology is expected be the catalyst that pulls Massachusetts out of its doldrums, just as it has done in the past. It may not be computers or the Internet this time, but according to analysts, entrepreneurs are likely to ride to the rescue in fields like cellphones, medical gear, and the batteries that power the cars of the future.

With the state jobless rate now topping 7 percent for the first time in nearly 16 years, the economy looks to be sliding to levels not seen since the late 1980s and early 1990s, when unemployment in Massachusetts peaked at 9 percent. That period was followed by a technology boom fueled by the personal computer revolution.

"Technology has led us out of the last three recessions," said George Colony, founder and chief executive officer of Forrester Research, a high-tech reseach firm in Cambridge. "It's obvious that the new economy - whatever we're going to emerge into - is going to be built by the innovation that will emerge during this recession."

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Alone together
As the ranks of free agents swell in a tough economy, networking is paramount

The two dozen professionals swapping business cards and chatting over sandwiches at Tavern in the Square included not only longtime independent contractors, but a new breed of reluctant free agents: people laid off from established companies.

"In this economy, there are a lot of professionals - attorneys, accountants - going out on their own," said Daniel A. Batterman, 42, a lawyer who runs a solo practice in Boston's Old City Hall. "There are just more people who are willing to try starting a business. And if they're not out there networking, they're at a disadvantage."

The federal government does not keep up-to-date figures on the number of self-employed workers. Nonemployer businesses, the government's category for one-person enterprises, rose from 14.1 million in 1992 to 20.7 million 2006, the most recent year for which the Small Business Administration has data. But the ranks of free agents have swollen in the six months since the economy turned downward, according to those tracking the trend.

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Researchers say science can help find bin Laden

Applying nighttime satellite images, advanced geographical techniques, and mathematical models to history's biggest manhunt, researchers say they have a strong idea where Osama bin Laden went after escaping from Afghanistan in 2001 - and where he may be hiding still.

The researchers, using what is billed as the first attempt to apply scientific methodology to the pursuit, point to the lawless frontier town of Parachinar in northwest Pakistan as a prime place to search for the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

"If bin Laden's alive, he could be sitting there now," said Thomas W. Gillespie, the University of California at Los Angeles geographer who led the study, published online in the MIT International Review.

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Blogger: Successes, not studies, boost state

Needed: A bolder brand for the state? Online discussions and newspaper stories have explored whether Massachusetts ought to do a better job of telling its innovation story to the world. Some say there's an opportunity to spread the word more widely about high-tech and life-sciences breakthroughs here. A new public-private effort, the Information Technology Collaborative, is funding a $150,000 study on the economic impact of technology, and the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative recently brainstormed about branding initiatives. Hewlett-Packard executive Antonio Rodriguez offered his take:

It is really simple: the only thing we need to "brand" ourselves as a technology powerhouse is more successes. We've got almost all of the ingredients in just about the right quantities. What we are missing is minor attitude shifts on the part of investors, start-up service providers (lawyers, landlords, etc.), and even entrepreneurs . . . Oh, yeah, and maybe some more global warming to take care of this "winter thing." But come on - a $150,000 study on branding? Come on guys, if this is how we are going to waste money, we deserve to become irrelevant.
theonda.org

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