The Next Web is a media partner forGROW 2011, taking place August 17-19 at the Vancouver Convention Center. GROW 2011 is described as “a unique three-day conference that brings together the top minds in business, entrepreneurship, technology and startup investment to inspire and engage the next generation of disruptive entrepreneurs.” So why should you be there? Well, here are 5 big reasons that you’ve got to be at GROW 2011 in two weeks’ time....

What were you doing at 16 years old? Chances are you weren’t speaking in front of a group at a former USPresident’s Global Initiative, trying to raise half a million dollars in funding or cramming 4 years of high school into 2. But these things are exactly what Zak Kukoff ofTruantTodayis doing. As a recent graduate of the grueling TechStars program in Boulder, Colorado, Kukoff has formed some incredibly actionable pieces of advice that apply to any entrepreneur, not just ones that haven’t yet gotten a driver’s license....

5 simple ways to keep your company culture alive while working remotely The world has changed, but not our needs — so adapt. 1. Host special virtual get-togethers for the team to socialize In a recent internal survey we ran, 30% of our team marked ‘loneliness‘as one of biggest challenges they face, right after not being able to unplug. As the numbers confirm, people long for social contact when working from home....

Rather than attending conferences I like to consume video online because I find that it gives you the exact same experience but from the comfort of your home or office and at a fraction of the cost. The online downside being that you miss out on the networking. The big problem is that there are literally 1000s of videos about social media floating around every day of the week and most of them are not worth watching....

The forthcoming launch of theJames Webb Space Telescopeoffers unprecedented new opportunities for astronomers. It’s also a timely opportunity to reflect on what previous generations of telescopes have shown us. Astronomers rarely use their telescopes to simply take pictures. The pictures in astrophysics are usually generated by a process of scientific inference and imagination, sometimes visualized in the artist’s impressions of what the data suggests. Choosing just a handful of images was not easy....