In The News

IT Mergers Have Feds Flailing Against Tech Globalization

J. Nicholas Hoover April 4, 2006
The US Department of Defense aims to scrutinize any foreign entity that wants to buy US information-technology (IT) firms. Before Canada-based Nortel Networks purchased government-contractor PEC Solutions, it had to set up a separate subsidiary and allow the Defense Department to monitor e-mails. Election-year politics in the US could lead to more intense scrutiny. In particular, the government...

China and the Break-Up of the Net

Michael Geist March 30, 2006
The internet community experienced a bout of trepidation earlier in March when “The People’s Daily” announced pending changes in China’s domain name system. The move could signal an attempt to break away from the single-body control over worldwide net domain names by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, a US non-profit organization that controls website accessibility...

Anxious America – Part II

Susan Froetschel March 14, 2006
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In the second part of this series, Susan Froetschel examines how closing of the door, out of US security concerns, only encourages research and development efforts overseas. The US is building barriers to science within its borders – with security restrictions and limits for professional visas, combined with decreased federal R&D funding as a...

Low Costs, Plentiful Talent Make China a Global Magnet for R&D

Kathy Chen March 14, 2006
The number of foreign-invested R&D centers in China has more than tripled since 2002. Analysts once downplayed China’s potential in the R&D area for purposes other than studying the Chinese market because of weak patent protection. Yet more corporations, including Proctor & Gamble, Microsoft and Motorola, are taking the risk and developing basic research and new products in China. A...

China Creates Own Net Domains

Hiawatha Bray March 6, 2006
Many governments around the world resent US control of internet regulation. To bypass that regulation, China has set up a new family of Chinese-language alternatives to .com and .net. The move could lead to greater censorship, or it could simply ease the search for words in Asian characters that go unrecognized by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, the US agency...

Truly a World Wide Web

February 24, 2006
As modernization of the world accelerates, access to computers and the internet are also increasing. A recent Pew Global Attitudes poll reveals more people using computers and spending time online than in 2002. Some of the poll’s specifics are surprising: For example, in many countries, new computer use is most prominent among people over 50. However, in countries with low internet use, young...

An Age-Old Salt Lake May Yield a Washday Miracle

Marc Lacey February 21, 2006
The otherworldly microbes in Kenya’s Lake Bogoria have proved instrumental in perfecting many worldly goods. Genencor International, Inc., has patented and used enzyme samples it purchased from scientists who visited the lake to enhance such mundane commodities as detergent and blue jeans. While Genencor touts the commercial success of innovative science, however, Kenyans demand that the...