Czech EU Presidency plans to focus on improving the patent system, better regulation, and support for R&D and innovation
The Czech Republic recently released its work program for the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU (which started on January 1 and will end on June 30). Given the current global state of affairs, the Czech Presidency intends to focus on preventing any further economic downturn while at the same time stimulating competitiveness. The three key areas of the Presidency are therefore the economy, energy and the place of the EU in the world. Of particular interest to ACT and [...]
Awoogah! Anti-Open Source FUD Alert!
The Evil Empire is back at it again. It's telling lies and half-truths about Open Source and Linux in an effort to keep the Open Source movement down! From a series of recent blog posts, it appears that the dreaded "Get The Facts" campaign is back to tearing down the concept that Open Source is inherently cheaper than proprietary software. Just look at these recent blog quotes: "If you hear a CIO say he is going to reduce his costs [...]
China issues 3G licenses
Yahoo!Tech reports that “China issued long-awaited third-generation mobile phone licences Wednesday, a move that will pour billions of dollars into new networks as consumers buy video- and Internet-enabled handsets. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued licences covering the three major standards in China, Europe and North America, in a move that could fundamentally alter the way telecom operators do business. ‘Telecom operators used to provide only access to network and did not care much about content. But now they'll [...]
The Problem—Or Perhaps ANOTHER Problem—With “Open”
The folks over at Americans for Tax Reform hosted a debate Monday among the candidates for chairman of the Republican National Committee. At one point, ATR President Grover Norquist asked representatives of RebuildTheParty.com to ask the candidates a few questions based on their organization’s “A 10-point action plan to strengthen and modernize the Republican Party.” Number one among those points is to get the GOP to more effectively utilize technology, specifically the Internet (or “Internets,” as a certain Republican might [...]
Critical Reading for Economic Stimulators – Why Silicon Valley is Busted
For all those in the Obama administration-to-be, Congress, and policymakers around the country looking for ways to "stimulate" the American economy, I suggest reading Steve Hamm's great BusinessWeek article, entitled "Whatever Happened to Silicon Valley Innovation?" Hamm clearly outlines a phenomenon that America needs to address if it's going to fix its economy not only for tomorrow, but for the decades to come: the disappearance of Silicon Valley startups that matter. The kind of startups that will evolve into the [...]
Should start-ups put their head in the sand – or put their house in order for when the upturn comes?
Over the past few weeks, venture capital firms from New York City to Silicon Valley have called in their portfolio companies to tell them that they better prepare themselves for a protracted economic downturn. As we pointed out on our blog, the VCs’ cataclysmic announcements sure made it sound like the start-up community should downsize its expectations for 2009. But are VCs really as gravely concerned as it seems, or is there a little more to their gloom-and-doom presentations than [...]