Whither the future of US science and technology?
It’s coming fast and furious these days.
An article discussing the impact of offshoring in Silicon Valley (and other places I’d wager). Business types saying it’s just a normal trend; the unemployed angry, not philosophical.
“I am not angry with companies for trying to conserve costs, but at the same time, we do have to acknowledge that it’s going to create more problems for us domestically if we don’t create more jobs for U.S. citizens,” said Humphries
“I think overall, long term, the U.S. economy can take it. But there’s going to be a huge amount of restructuring pain,” said Rafiq Dossani.
14 million jobs up for grabs?
Back to a favorite topic of mine: offshoring. Why am I so obsessed with this? Two reasons:
- FI Space is about looking at the future context in which ACS must operate, and the outsourcing/offshoring situation may portend a fundamental shift in the global economy and the fortune of nations, including the US. I happen to think it is a pretty strong indicator that long-lasting changes are taking hold.
Things are changing
InfoWorld: Tech CEOs defend offshore outsourcing: October 22, 2003: By Tom Sullivan: Platforms
“U.S. domination of the IT era has ended … and the prosperity enjoyed by developed nations is cascading down to developing nations, at least those that embrace the information age.”
The good news or the bad first?
On the matter of whether the US technical community is losing ground to international competitors, Andy Grove, long-time, now retired CEO of Intel, offered his views recently. He introduced himself by saying to his audience, “I’m here to be the skunk at your garden party.” Andy is very concerned about the software and technology industries being able to compete with India and China. He thinks they may surpass the US in jobs by 2010. Other US industries have taken hits like that before and not fully recovered.
On the other hand…
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