From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: IND: (1) Media Lab take a drubbing, (2) American industry behind 
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1992 05:57:31 GMT
Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab, Univ. of Wash., Seattle



(1) The Media Lab odyssey goes on. 
 
Excerpted from BUSINESS WEEK, February 10, 1992, 

	"Ideas Galore, But Where Are the Goods?" by Gary McWilliams
 
	... Founded in 1985, the Media Lab aimed to be the place 
	where companies could jointly explore 21st-Century computer
	technologies.  The lab's 48-year-old founder, MIT professor
	Nicholas Negroponte, has raised $42 million for research so far.
	Lab researchers have won 9 patents, filed for 17 more, and 
	signed 3 licensing deals.  But just two of their innovations have
	gone into products.  And 12 corporate sponsors have dropped
	out in the past 30 months, leaving about 60 in the fold.  The lab
	"hasn't lived up to its initial charter," asserts Michael A. Isnardi,
	a former researcher there who heads the systems-research group at 
	David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ.  Now,
	Negroponte is taking steps to make the lab more effective.
 
The article goes on with tales of woe, but 60 sponsors isn't too
bad -- and the energy that the Media Lab has stirred has been good
for the entire industry.  However, is this just a local phenomenon, or is a
backlash developing against cutting edge research generally?  Since Negro-
ponte never embraced virtual worlds, one can't blame the Media Lab's
troubles on our field.  Nevertheless, there is a lesson here to be learned.
 
				*       *      *
 
(2) In a related article, on the very next page, under "Developments to 
Watch," is this note edited by Fleur Templeton:
 
	"Why U.S. Companies are Losing Ground in Their Own Backyard"
 
	Why do American companies keep falling behind their foreign
	rivals?  One possible answer is starkly revealed in a new study
	by John R. Norsworthy and Show-Ling Jang of Rensselaer
	Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.  The researchers compared the
	technology at U.S.-owned factories with that employed in foreign-
	owned or affiliated plants in the U.S.
 
	They discovered that the foreign-controlled plants in the U.S.
	were far more up-to-date, using 30% more of such advanced
	methods as computer-aided manufacturing and design.  The
	differences were most striking in industries where American
	companies have been losing market share, such as semicon-
	ductors and automobiles.
 
	The foreign-owned factories also continued to invest more money
	in new machinery and equipment.  The trend doesn't bode well
	for the future of U.S. industry, Norsworthy warns.  "I think it will
	turn out that these advanced technologies have an impact on
	productivity."
 
Is anyone who has tried to sell VR research to an American corporation 
at all surprised?
 
Bob Jacobson
Moderator