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In true Anthillian style, the SMART 100 is an ever-evolving, ever-improving experiment. Designed to encourage, promote and support innovation in Australia, it identifies and ranks new Australian innovations by applying a combination of crowdsourcing, collaboration and common-sense. Who are this year's SMART 100?

We've seen countless pre-teens pound eye-melting video games into submission and treat laptops and mobile phones like the devices are extensions of their bodies. So we can't be completely floored by Thomas Suarez, a seasoned iPhone app developer who's about five years away from qualifying for a driver's license.

What’s your “maverick” quotient? We're not talking about Tom Cruise in Top Gun. We mean, whether or not you can “recognise” a maverick — a creative, independent thinker who can be brilliant but troublesome and can keep firms aggressive and competitive. See if you fit the Maverickism Scale.

The folks at MYOB love themselves a bit of statistic-y goodness. Their latest number crunching shows online SMEs are fairing much better than their not so digital counterparts.

Every year, we at Stately Anthill Manor await the first day of April with giddy anticipation. The array of innovation unveiled by companies of every stripe never fails to drop our jaws to the pavement. But none approach Ikea Australia's gift to man's best friend -- the Hundstol.

Ben Kaufman, who also founded mophie and kluster, is back with a new variation on NameThis: quirky. The premise is this: entrepreneurs and creative people in general are bubbling with far more product ideas than they can possibly pursue. Consequently, these ideas end up dormant or exploited by someone else. Described by Kaulfman as a "social product development company", quirky invites users to submit their product ideas for US$99 each - this ensures that only the best ideas are lodged. The quirky community selects one product from the pool of submitted ideas every seven days. From there, the community (known as "influencers") weigh in by voting, rating and influencing other people's product ideas.

According to a report in the New York Times, Swedish entrepreneur Anders Wilhelmson has developed and tested a biodegradable plastic bag that acts as a single-use toilet for urban slums in the developing world. The Peepoo can be buried after use, where a layer of urea crystals kills off pathogens that produce disease and converts the waste into fertilizer.

In a little over 10 days, we will be sending a fleet of mobile-billboards down the busy streets of inner-city Australia to promote our 2009 Cool Company Awards. I'm talking about Scooter Advertising, courtesy of our friends at Subterfuge. In accordance with my blog post of yesterday on using social media to promote the 'cools', it occurred to me that this exercise presents an excellent opportunity to promote two-way reader engagement. So far, we've developed three potential poster and themes (below).

In recent months, several companies have carved out innovative niches for themselves in the beauty industry, launching ground-breaking products and services designed to meet the needs of cosmetics consumers in unique, cutting-edge ways.

Have you thought about what your business is worth? When you come to sell it, it may not be worth as much as you think.

It's been an enjoyable ride watching the evolution of the University of Queensland Business School's Enterprize competition. The winners are always an inspiring lot. But so have been the various promotional videos that the University has created in recent years to promote the awards.

So, who won the big prizes at the Sydney Hackathon? Apps that help everything from planning a great date, to organising the internet were awarded. Plus, Eric Bae shares his five point success plan that helped him score the major award and a $10,000 investment.

With limited time and resources, recruiting staff in a small business is challenging. While recruitment agencies offer comprehensive end-to-end management of the process, for small businesses price can often be an issue.

This week, Barker and Gettlere talk with AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou on the AFL’s expansion plans, its business model and its involvement with communities outside Victoria, where the organisation is pushing development of the Australian Rules code. And what will happen if Australia gets the World Cup?

// WAIT! I'm not here to evangelise Twitter or to pick news items out of it merely because it seems to be a slow...

Is coworking the 'future of work'? Brendan O'Connor, the Minister for Small Business believes it may be the case. Melbourne Hub, one of many coworking spaces, is one example of how these environments attract companies both large and small. Is coworking the next step in mobile, 'knowmadic' workforce?

Two days of desert highways, roadside dining, sleep deprivation and feverish coding by 25 strangers delivered two web startups and a whole lot more, writes Matthew da Silva.

Got a mobile content or application idea but not sure how to take it to market? Want to hear from three industry experts about how...

This month, we have decided to explore the many facets of online marketing - from web development to the application of social media channels. For want of a better name, we’re calling this exercise Online Marketing Month. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be bringing you a range of opinions, articles and 'experiments' on this topic, culminating in an evening seminar and half-day workshop, to be held in collaboration with Design Victoria (aptly titled ‘Online Marketing by Design’).

1. A computer is a computer. Wrong. You get what you pay for. A cobbled together car from various parts is not a Commodore -...