China tangent

["Larry Seltzer" <larry () larryseltzer com>]

(Warning, arguably bigoted and jingoistic opinions within, not safe for
children!)

With few exceptions, it seems to me, the world's software industry is
concentrated among English-speaking peoples. In fact, one of the largest
concentrations of exceptions to the rule is in security, where eastern
Europeans seem to be capable not only of making a living but of breaking
into western markets. (I once asked Eugene Kaspersky about this and he
got really defensive: "We have very large software industry!" Really, I
didn't mean to be down on Russia, at least not about that.)

But for the most part, the fact that computer science is an "english"
(the language) science means that proficiency requires some knowledge of
English, and so English speakers have an advantage.

I'm sure there are many companies writing software in China, largely for
the Chinese market (which probably pirates everything they try to sell),
but even mature technological countries like Japan don't really have a
commercial software industry that sells well into the west.

Do they?

What got me thinking was Paul's Ira Winkler quote about China drinking
Google's milkshake. How far can China go without real involvement from
western software companies? Or perhaps they can just farm it out to
India like we do.

Larry Seltzer
Contributing Editor, PC Magazine
larry_seltzer () ziffdavis com 
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/

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