Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Science Policy
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Innovation Friction
What enables some groups, companies and regions and even countries to be innovative over long periods, whereas others struggle to adapt to changing technologies, economic circumstances and social expectations? Technology change, despite its many challenges, is relatively easy. Culture change is far more difficult, for people and organizations cling to the familiar as if it…
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TechAmerica Cloud Commission Report
Today, the TechAmerica Foundation released its cloud computing report. I was privileged to be the commercial co-chair, working with a host of industry and academic leaders. The report addresses two key issues, raised by the U.S. Federal CIO and Secretary of Commerce. First, to identify the principles and actions that could accelerate the uptake of…
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Being Bilingual: Speaking Technology and Policy
Over the years, I have learned that being bilingual in matters of science and technology and in matters of strategy and policy is far rarer than I might have first hypothesized. How do we cross the intellectual divide, providing technical advice to policy experts in ways that they find useful and actionable?
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White Spaces and Adaptive Communication
The demand for wireless communication continues to grow, placing unprecedented demands on spectrum management and allocation. Spectrum is like beach front property; we can’t make more and we must use it wisely. New, more adaptive management approaches are needed.
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Nothing Lasts Forever
No exponential continues forever, at least outside the mathematics textbooks. All technology-based advances are ultimately limited by something, usually some physical or economic limit. Innovation then shifts to other metrics, against which advances can be measured and valued. Computing is no exception.
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Microsoft/NSF Cloud Research Partnership
Today, Microsoft and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the latest awardees for the joint Microsoft-NSF research partnership in cloud computing. All of the award recipients were selected via NSF’s rigorous peer review process, which emphasized the scientific merit of the proposed work. The Microsoft/NSF partnership is but one part of a broader international…