IT EXECS WARN U.S. LOSING EDGE IN HIGH TECH

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

It is a lot worse than Pat is saying. Djf

------ Forwarded Message
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>


IT EXECS WARN U.S. LOSING EDGE IN HIGH TECH

Intel chief technology officer Pat Gelsinger told attendees at last
week's Agenda conference that the U.S. is at risk of losing its
dominant position in information technology: "Perhaps the current
downsizing of the U.S. IT industry is not a temporary thing. Maybe we
are headed for becoming a second-class citizen in the world of IT."
Gelsinger's comments were seconded by Microsoft CTO Craig Mundie, who
noted, "If the U.S. cedes its leadership in IT there will not be a
second chance." Gelsinger and Mundie cited three fundamental concerns
contributing to their pessimism: a "disastrous" decline in the
national commitment to IT R&D; a dearth of engineering graduates; and
the low penetration of broadband compared to other countries. "The
percentage of gross domestic product spent on government-funded R&D
is less than half what it was in the 1950s. In software R&D,
Microsoft outspends the total Defense Department by a factor of
three," said Mundie. Meanwhile, Cadence Design Systems CEO Ray
Bingham chimed in with his own lament: "China produces 600,000
engineers a year and 200,000 of them are electrical engineers." In
contrast, the U.S. last year granted 70,000 undergraduate electrical
engineering degrees and 37,000 graduate and doctoral degrees. More
than half the doctorates went to foreign students, many of whom will
return home to work. Finally, the slow deployment of broadband is
hindering further technology advances and postponing the huge
investments in hardware and software that will finally occur when
high-speed access has penetrated most of the market.

(Fortune.com/CNN 25 Oct 2002)
<http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/10/23/fortune.ff.us.tech/index.html>

Archives at: 
<http://web.wireless.com/index.php?name=Mailing_List&fn=viewml&mid=4>


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To unsubscribe or update your address, click
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=125275&user_secret=1aa8f2d6

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/