Changing Everything

Since its beginning, the US has led innovation on the internet. In many ways, this spirit of innovation can be used both to maintain our leadership in this area as well as in other areas of high tech and beyond. Despite some of the calls that the internet is destroying businesses, (like music) those that have been able to adapt have been able to flourish, like Apple with IPods. The internet has already changed news and advertising in huge ways. It wasn’t too long ago that news was available from the morning paper and in the six o’clock news and what was covered was chosen by the newspaper editor and network executives. Advertising ran along the same lines with the affordability of advertising for small businesses limited to buying space on a page in the Yellow Pages. The internet now enables small businesses to run affordable and effective advertising campaigns which can reach an unlimited number of potential customers for a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. Industries with business models which are now evolving on the internet include the delivery of entertainment, real estate, and commerce. These evolutions are already well under way but are still likely to change these landscapes dramatically over coming years. The two areas where initial changes are occurring but are only the tip of the iceberg are education and healthcare. The innovations by the US and others on the internet have changed the modern economy to one that runs primarily on the exchange of information, and the education and healthcare fields will benefit dramatically as new methods of sharing information are delivered into the classroom and doctor’s offices. In both cases, the internet will soon eliminate the problems of the scarcity of information and tools that have been primary inhibitors. With the US at the lead of Internet innovation, there are things we must do to retain that lead as well as to grow our economy. They are: Modeling the entrepreneurial mindset of Silicon Valley to businesses and industries across the country rnAllowing talented people to go where their skills are most needed, this is a restriction placed by US immigration policiesrnFocusing on the importance of innovating in areas that have a direct impact on the quality of peoples’ lives including the Internet, healthcare, energy, and education. With each year the internet changes industries that may not have seen it coming. Predicting what will happen and where innovation will occur is a matter of looking at what has already happened. It wills virtually everything we do in one way or another and that process won’t stop for people, companies, and the government and beyond.