inNOvation

It is amazing to me that in a seemingly tight Presidential race that NEITHER candidate has made innovation an issue, this article from the NYT on former Cisco CTO Judy Estrin:

“I am generally not an alarmist, but I have become more and more concerned about the state of our country and its innovation,” she said last week, explaining why she wrote her book, “Closing the Innovation Gap,” which arrives in bookstores Tuesday. “We have a national innovation deficit.”

Ms. Estrin’s book is the latest call to action during the last several years by scientists, technologists and political leaders worried about the country’s future competitiveness in technology.

In 2005, the National Academies published “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” a report requested by Congress, which found that federal financing of research in the physical sciences was 45 percent less in 2004 than in 1976 and that 93 percent of students in grades five through eight learn science from teachers who do not hold degrees or certifications in the topics.

...

“There is a remarkable telescoping in of vision and an unwillingness to make long-term bets,” said Vinton G. Cerf, the chief Internet evangelist at Google.

Geez, its like no one ever read "The Only Sustainable Edge" or something...

Comments

[Curphey]

very interesting indeed. I was in New Zealand on Tuesday (yesterday for me now as I am in Australia now) and they had the two leading politicians on stage before the keynote pitching for their upcoming elections. It was all about fiber to the home and making New Zealand a connected island, removing the tyrany of distance etc.

Complacency about technology advantages can bite people in the but given the pace of change I guess....

[Ben]

Even the Mythbusters are concerned about this and beginning to lobby for improvements. Adam Savage has an interesting bit on Popular Mechanics this month, referenced here:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/how-mythbusters.html