Intel announced a $3.5 billion initiative “to support investment in U.S.-based growth-oriented industries and detailed a commitment to significantly increase jobs available this year for recent college graduates.”

The headline of Intel’s press release says, “Invest in America Alliance to Fund American Technology Companies, Create Jobs for College Grads.” The story was covered bytechnology reporter Claire Cain Miller in the  New York Times, as well as by many others.

Miller begins her article by saying, “Technologists have been worrying aloud for years that America is losing its competitive edge as other countries invest more heavily in technology education and innovation.”

The alliance is led by Intel and is supported by 24 leading venture capital firms and corporations, aims to further anchor America’s competitiveness on the global stage. Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini said the announcement represents ”an investment in the country’s innovators and a signal to the global marketplace about America’s commitment to innovation and future competitiveness.” (read the full transcript of Otellini’s speech).

Venture Capital firms joining the Invest in America alliance include:

• Advanced Technology Ventures
• Braemar Energy Ventures
• Bridgescale Partners
• Canaan Partners
• DCM
• Draper Fisher Jurvetson
• Flywheel Ventures
• Good Energies
• Institutional Venture Partners
• Investcorp Technology Partners
• Khosla Ventures
• Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
• Menlo Ventures
• Mohr Davidow Ventures
• New Enterprise Associates
• North Bridge Venture Partners
• QuestMark Partners
• Sevin Rosen Funds
• Storm Ventures
• Telesoft Partners
• Updata Partners
• U.S. Venture Partners
• Venrock and Walden International

Companies joining the Invest in America alliance include:

• Accenture
• Adobe Systems Incorporated
• Autodesk
• Broadcom Corporation
• CDW LLC.
• Cisco
• Dell
• eBay
• Inc.
• EMC Corporation
• GE
• Google
• Inc.
• HP
• Liberty Mutual Group
• Marvell Semiconductor Inc.
• Microsoft Corporation
• Yahoo!

In a blog post that could only have struck the most resonant chords in my heart, Jeffrey Phillips writes, “Innovation does not equal technology.”

Phillips isVP of Sales and Marketing at OVO, the innovation consulting division of NetCentrics. He blogged that while giving a speech recently to a university audience, he was confronted by a senior staff member who argued that innovation was equated to technology, and only scientists and engineers could bring new technologies to life. 

Phillips argument in response was (rightly!) that “that definition of innovation is awfully narrow.” Readers of this blog, and anyone who has taken my “Markting Complex Innovation” course will know that my cardinal equation is:

Innovation = Invention + Marketing

As I tell my students, and as I frequently tell our clients, transforming inventions into innovations is how money is made. And those transformations are not just the responsibility of your technical staff. To quote myself (because I can), “Without great technology PR, every great innovation is worth less, and maybe even worthless.” That is to say that innovation management is not only about creating a technology for the market, but also about creating a market for the technology, or what I like to call “engineering perception.”

Phillips says, “Technology innovation is a subset of innovation generally, and while all technology innovation is innovation, all innovation is not technology innovation.” Well put. And it’s because I love engineering and the technological invention it produces that I’ve spent most of my adult life dedicated to giving a voice to those technologies. Because that’s how invention turns into innovation.

Readers of my blog know I’m an unabashed fan of NYT columnist Thomas Friedman. Why? Because he consistently gets the world of innovation and how innovation drives, is driven by, and interconnects with so many aspects of geopolitics and economics (from micro to macro).

In his latest column, “More (Steve) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” Friedman says President Obama should launch a “moon shot” initiative to get millions of American kids excited about innovation and entrepreneurship again. Friedman calls for the President ”to make 2010 the year of innovation, the year of making our pie bigger, the year of “Start-Up America” (a veiled reference to “Startup Nation” perhaps?)

Obama should bring together the country’s leading innovators, Friedman advocates, and ask them: “What legislation, what tax incentives, do we need right now to replicate you all a million times over” — and make that his No. 1 priority.

Friedman’s line in the sand (and I would dearly love it if someone would put this on an index card and put it on the President’s desk tomorrow morning) is this: “Inspiring, reviving and empowering Start-up America is [Obama's] moon shot.” Readers of this blog will not be surprised to know that I LOVE IT.

Let us, the innovators, the entrepreneurs, and yes even (or especially?) the marketers, endorse Thomas Friedman’s epic call to action. Let us tell the President we stand ready to help launch a year, a decade, a century of innovation. Let us ask for his leadership, and then let’s march forward to ride the twin rocket engines of innovation and entrepreneurship to all the economic recovery this world needs.

• What a difference a year makes – (upbeat) comments and photos from CES 2010 http://bit.ly/68vt6X #
• Love this post by @timdyson "Why should companies use PR agencies?" http://bit.ly/56nXyu #
• Reading "Best CES 2010 Products" posted by @bbosker @huffingtonpost http://bit.ly/4RB46O #

I spent just one day at CES last week – clearly not enough time to take in all the gadgetry, but then again, it was plenty.

What I was certainly able to discern was the palpable difference from just one year ago when attendance felt tepid, and the mood was somber. At that time, we were just a few months removed from the economic nosedive, President Obama was still a couple weeks away from being inaugurated, and the stress of so much uncertainty was pretty much freaking everyone out big time.

This year, there was a bouyant giddyness in the air. Not only have we survived (sure, I know we could double-dip, etc., but…), but everyone seemed to be saying, “look at all this innovation we’ve produced while Rome was burning.”

In face, the Consumer Electronics Association says over 20,000 new products were unveiled last week in Las Vegas. That’s a lot of innovation.

3DTV technology abounded (I must have tried out a dozen different disposable eyeglasses), and numerous technologies sought to eliminate, once and for all, the tangled mess of wires that pervades our connected lives.

As a lover of technology, I was exceedingly pleased at the positive vibe pervading each and every acre of show floor space at this year’s show.

I boarded the red-eye home with a great feeling that my own optimism (based on how much innovation I see among our clients on a daily basis) is justified, confirmed and shared throughout this big innovative industry of ours.

• Please RT "Starbucks Love Project" video – people from 156 countries singing "All You Need is Love" for @productred
  http://bit.ly/7V9PAW #

I don’t often blog about anything other than technology and marketing related topics. But as an activist (and consumate Beatles fan), I had to share this one. It’s the Starbucks Love Project – a video of people all over the world singing “All you need is Love.”

As the video begins, it’s captioned, “On December 7, 2009 at 1:30 PM GMT, people in 156 countries joined together to sing at exactly the same time to raise awareness of AIDS in Africa. Here they are.” How wonderful.

The video project is part of the Product Red campaign, first launched in 2006.

Source: Starbucks Love Project

Also see: Product Red website

• Another cool thing I saw at CES was the Mikey by @BlueMicrophones. Sets up iPod/Phone for really nice mobile recording http://bit.ly/59YkcL #
• Listened to HifiMAN at CES today. Like iPod on steroids. Burr Brown DAC is super audio-output upgrade. http://hifiman.us/products/?pid=71 #
• Excellent day at CES. Lots of 3D technologies plus eliminate-the-wires stuff. Buzz & mood on show floor MUCH more optimistic than last year. #

• Definitely heading over to Hilton Hospitality Suite 4-106 to see demo of Wireless Laptop to HDTV from @wisair @internetontv #uwb #iptv #
• Just landed in Vegas for CES! #

• Reading "The Science Behind Exercise Footwear" in @techreview written by visiting professor @medialab http://bit.ly/7w3wVa #