Friday, December 16, 2005

good news and bad news in computing: nytimes

dec 16th

good news: several competitors are collaborating to create the next generation of computer scientists. there was at one point a move similarly for indian IT services companies to get together and build products so that none of them risked too much on their own. somehow that collaborative effort never came together. in the us too, sematech, a collaborative effort, was not a roaring success, although it did ok.

i wonder if this business of co-opetition: cooperating in r&d and then competing like mad in the marketplace, is too hard for americans (and indians) to do. japanese seem to have done this well in the days of MITI, but MITI is now a shadow of its former self.

bad news: DARPA money is drying up in computing. i wonder where it is going: materials science, biotechnology, etc. i suppose. DARPA funds created the internet (it was originally called DARPAnet) and many of the great inventions in the business.

similarly, i wonder who is funding advanced applied science in india. despite the great dr. mashelkar, i am not sure CSIR labs will do well into the future, as the researchers are being seduced by the funds and interesting work at GE Research, etc.

there may be a crisis in public funding of technology in both the us and india.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/15/technology/15research.html

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