As President Obama noted in his State of the Union address, the federal government has played a crucial role in the growth of the Internet and our most innovative businesses. The technology at the Internet’s core was funded by a Defense Department program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Silicon Valley has been a substantial beneficiary of federal research funding, and the dividends are apparent. Giants like Google, Cisco and Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) all emerged from federally funded research projects.
But as the Internet continues to grow in prevalence and complexity, what can we do to replicate our past two decades of success?
Barbara K Iverson 