Outsource Software
U.S. Tech Lead Challenged by Globalization
The exodus of much software development has proven to be a lightning rod in the U.S. debate over outsourcing. But an expert at the symposium said the U.S. remains the clear innovation leader in terms of patents. Chris Forman of Carnegie Mellon University said software services are being outsourced, mostly to India, while innovative database and office automation software continues to be written here.
That could change, however, if the steady decline in federal research dollars continues along with the decline in U.S. computer science graduates, Forman said.
For now, the experts concluded, America retains the keys to innovation. The question, they added, is for how long?
Full article by George Leopold at EETimes
Quick Commentary-
Correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t ”clear innovation leader in terms of patents” fade if/when clients of outsource software development move further towards Open Source based solutions. See previous post: Open Source and Offshore Development
April 26th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
Patent and copyright are not mutually exclusive with open source licensing; they can and do co-exist. Also, consider that being the leader in innovation in a certain industry, no matter how that might be measured, doesn’t necessarly mean that production in that industry will be in the innovators geography - especially today.
Arguably, however, innovative concepts in an industry will come from where that industry’s production occurs. Innovation in steel production and the automotive industry mostly come out of Asia now, though some still comes from the USA.
Another point is that areas of interest change. Steel, Railroads, Automotive, Aerospace, Telecommunications, Electronics, Software, Digital Everything, Nanotech/Materials Science, Biotech, Genomics, Proteomics, Interactomics, Analytics - interests change, innovation happens in new areas. What’s next? What’s after that? Those are the questions for innovation - not who’s doing software development the cheapest.