SSTI Weekly Digest Turns 400

There are less than 100 of our readers - now approaching a total of 100,000 - that may be able to look into their electronic mailboxes and even eight-year-old paper files to see that this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest is our 400th. What began in March 1996 as a two-page weekly fax to key science and technology leaders in most states has evolved into the one of the most widely read e-news sources for the tech-based economic development community in the U.S. The addition of the funding supplement to the Digest in January 2001 made the publication a powerful and popular tool for encouraging research, innovation and entrepreneurship by increasing local access to and awareness of federal and foundation research and economic development grant opportunities.

The explosive growth of readers can be explained in part by the phenomenal growth of the field over the past eight years as more and more cities, universities, regions, states and countries recognize the important role investment in science and technology can and will play in creating higher wage jobs, economic prosperity and sustainable growth.

The theme of SSTI's annual conference this year, Building Tech-based Economies: Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges, plays well into a mini-theme of our 400th issue: the global race for scientific supremacy. Even the popular press in the past two weeks has covered the challenges to U.S. dominance of patent production. While much of that attention is focused on the rapid percentage growth of Asia patent activity, the Digest looks this week at bold, big-dollar initiatives unveiled in two of the world's strongest research players -- Britain and France. We also record the recent activities of one province in our northern neighbor Canada, itself an increasingly important player for the world innovation markets. (As an aside related to the Austrian academic paper covered in this issue, Canada, with its ISRN project, also is funding some of the most impressive long-term research into understanding the composition, unique ch aracteristics and underlying policy elements of regional innovation systems, but we'll cover that in more detail in an upcoming issue of the Digest.)

We aren't political cartoonists, but we wonder if one might not draw a picture of Uncle Sam dressed in a Roman toga with a fiddle while looking out a window at kindling and logs being piled up around the base of a research lab. Someone might be asking Uncle Sam if he's going to play the violin, and he replies, "No. I'm still tuning."

That, perhaps, may mirror real life too closely, however. Below are the first two paragraphs from a July 15 story by David Hatch that ran in the PM edition of the National Journal's Tech Daily:

"The chief science adviser to President Bush is closely eyeing the establishment of research centers in foreign countries as part of the larger trend of U.S. companies moving jobs and facilities overseas.

'I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing,' John Marburger, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute on Thursday. Nevertheless, he said it is a trend worth watching."

The story's headline was "White House Notes Movement Of Research Centers Overseas."

Coming back to possible explanations for the impressive growth in Digest readership, we can thank all of our subscribers who forward the publication or post articles (with appropriate citation) when seeing a story or issue that they think others may appreciate or be able to use. Perhaps this issue may elicit a similar wave of e-mail to Washington policymakers. If the arms race of the cold war has been replaced with an international race for global supremacy in scientific research and innovation, then we'd like to see the U.S. maintain its dominant position.

On a closing note as we mark our 400th issue, SSTI would like to extend a very public and very special appreciation for the organizations that have become SSTI sponsors and affiliates. Without the financial support of these leaders in state and local science & technology policy, the SSTI Weekly Digest would not be celebrating such a milestone. To join this list of illustrious leaders for the field of technology-based economic development and help to ensure the Digest remains freely accessible to all interested parties, please visit http://www.ssti.org/sponsors.htm.