“You don’t have to slow down to be passed by others; they speed up.”
These evocative words from Bran Ferren, Co-Chairman Applied Minds, resonated through the Potomac Institute’s symposium – Effective Innovation: Keeping America On Top. Whether from slipping national investment in R&D or poor STEM education among the student population or inadequate processes for tech transfer, we are losing our national competitiveness in innovation. If there was ever an issue for improved technology policy, this is it.
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This is clearly an issue of concern to anyone in the western world. IMHO the key is tech transfer and how best to stimulate that. A lot of people here in the UK are getting excited about a phenomenon that is (slightly comically) referred to as ‘Silicon Roundabout’ – this idea may not travel very well as you tend not to have roundabouts on the roads in the US but see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14808977 for more. I’m not sure how much credit for Silicon Roundabout can be assigned to official agencies and how much simply to happenstance? It’s an interesting question for anyone engaged in technology policy.
Robert Holier