I have been thinking about innovation more than usual. Is it really an individual activity as we typically think, in the spirit of Steve Jobs or Edison? Is the government responsible as Obama has been accused of believing? I have another non-partisan view.
There was a time when American had two great idea machines-Bell Labs and the Palo Alto Research Corporation, better known as PARC. Bell Labs was in the East and PARC was in the west. One or the other of these two genius factories were behind most every innovation I can imagine in the last 40 years. There are already some great books on the subject detailing the innovative products from these two marvelous innovation machines. From the Internet to Computers, it started in these places. Apple made the money from the graphical user interface, GUI as it is called, but the concept was developed at PARC.
PARC was funded by Xerox. Bell Labs was funded by the original, pre-split-up, Ma Bell company. The culture of innovation at these places has never been duplicated and they do not exist in their original form anymore.
And with their demise, American innovation is looking for another place to spawn.
Have some fun. Google PARC and Bell Labs.
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