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<TITLE>Re: [squeakland] [IAEP] Plan Ceibal y/and General Electric</TITLE>
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Alan -- <BR>
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I’ve seen many organizations claim to be committed to “innovation,” while eschewing “invention.” Everyone harvesting while refusing to sow makes for bad strategy, both societal and corporate. I guess it’s “rational” in some short-term sense and another example of the free rider problem. There’s an insidious side-effect as well. By rejecting invention, those organizations implicitly or explicitly restrict the consideration set for even incremental innovation. It’s hard to reach for even small aspirations if you’re always being told to not be “too far out.” So my experience matches your general point. <BR>
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I don’t make much experience, however, with the specific example that you were referring to. I’d like to hear more about your perspective about the guiding principles pre and post ‘82, and how each set of leaders/funders rationalized their viewpoints. I’d also be interested in your sense of the trend on this topic, since we have a new generation of high tech corporate leaders and funders and, clearly, another round of massive wealth being generated.<BR>
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Regards,<BR>
Chunka<BR>
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On 2/5/11 1:11 PM, "Alan Kay" <<a href="alan.nemo@yahoo.com">alan.nemo@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'>Hi Chunka,<BR>
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I've been challenged on this point more than once, and have challenged back to come up with one invention that was done after 1980 that matches up to the top 10 done before 1980. <BR>
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This has not happened. I've been able to show the prior art for all suggestions.<BR>
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Essentially everything in the last 30 years has been commercializations and other forms of "innovation" based on what was funded by ARPA, ONR, and by extension, Xerox in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.<BR>
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The important point here is that there are many new inventions needed, and they can be identified, but no one has been willing to fund them. It's not that the early birds got the worms, but that most of the needed worms out there are being missed.<BR>
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Cheers,<BR>
<BR>
Alan<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><FONT FACE="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="1" WIDTH="100%"><B>From:</B> Chunka Mui <<a href="chunka@cornerloft.com">chunka@cornerloft.com</a>><BR>
<B>To:</B> Alan Kay <<a href="alan.nemo@yahoo.com">alan.nemo@yahoo.com</a>><BR>
<B>Cc:</B> Carlos Rabassa <<a href="carnen@mac.com">carnen@mac.com</a>>; "<a href="america-latina@squeakland.org">america-latina@squeakland.org</a>" <<a href="america-latina@squeakland.org">america-latina@squeakland.org</a>>; squeakland.org mailing list <<a href="squeakland@squeakland.org">squeakland@squeakland.org</a>>; Maho 2010 <<a href="maho@realness.org">maho@realness.org</a>>; IAEP SugarLabs <<a href="iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>>; voluntarios y administradores OLPC para usuarios docentes <<a href="olpc-sur@lists.laptop.org">olpc-sur@lists.laptop.org</a>>; olpc bolivia <<a href="olpc-bolivia@lists.laptop.org">olpc-bolivia@lists.laptop.org</a>>; OLPC Puno <<a href="olpcpuno@gmail.com">olpcpuno@gmail.com</a>><BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Sat, February 5, 2011 10:53:44 AM<BR>
<B>Subject:</B> Re: [squeakland] [IAEP] Plan Ceibal y/and General Electric<BR>
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On Jan 30, 2011, at 9:21 AM, Alan Kay <<a href="alan.nemo@yahoo.com">alan.nemo@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<BR>
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</FONT></SPAN><BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">GE is being congratulated for recognizing that the iPhone and iPad are pretty good ideas and technological realizations. But isn't this like the congratulations Bill Gates got for finally recognizing the Internet (about 25 years after it had started working)?<BR>
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Seems as though Apple had a lot more on the ball than Bill Gates or GE here (they used to do computing in the 60s, but couldn't see what it was).<BR>
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And most of the ideas at Apple (and for personal computing and the Internet) came from research funding that no company or government has been willing to do since 1982.<BR>
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Alan -- Could you say more about this point? Surely there's been tons of CS and IT funding since '82, both govt funding to universities and massive research budgets at msft, hp, <BR>
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Regards,<BR>
Chunka<BR>
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</FONT></SPAN><BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12pt'><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Cheers,<BR>
<BR>
Alan<BR>
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</FONT><FONT FACE="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="1" WIDTH="100%"><B>From:</B></FONT></SPAN><FONT FACE="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><FONT SIZE="2"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:10pt'> Carlos Rabassa <<a href="carnen@mac.com">carnen@mac.com</a>><BR>
<B>To:</B> <a href="america-latina@squeakland.org">america-latina@squeakland.org</a>; squeakland.org <<a href="http://squeakland.org">http://squeakland.org</a>> mailing list <<a href="squeakland@squeakland.org">squeakland@squeakland.org</a>>; Maho 2010 <<a href="maho@realness.org">maho@realness.org</a>>; IAEP SugarLabs <<a href="iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>>; voluntarios y administradores OLPC para usuarios docentes <<a href="olpc-sur@lists.laptop.org">olpc-sur@lists.laptop.org</a>>; olpc bolivia <<a href="olpc-bolivia@lists.laptop.org">olpc-bolivia@lists.laptop.org</a>>; OLPC Puno <<a href="olpcpuno@gmail.com">olpcpuno@gmail.com</a>><BR>
<B>Sent:</B> Sun, January 30, 2011 4:11:49 AM<BR>
<B>Subject:</B> [IAEP] Plan Ceibal y/and General Electric<BR>
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We try to learn from those who have succeed for a long time:<BR>
<BR>
<<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1XWm2q8nQ-l5KUJ_PWkQruLDx-nZ7nsKDfg4idDlsU50">https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1XWm2q8nQ-l5KUJ_PWkQruLDx-nZ7nsKDfg4idDlsU50</a>> <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1XWm2q8nQ-l5KUJ_PWkQruLDx-nZ7nsKDfg4idDlsU50">https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1XWm2q8nQ-l5KUJ_PWkQruLDx-nZ7nsKDfg4idDlsU50</a><BR>
<BR>
Carlos Rabassa<BR>
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