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Federal News Radio
Why government
can’t be Silicon Valley
By Tom Temin
March 23, 2016
If you want to know the difference between Silicon Valley and
Washington, D.C., one way is to understand the life of Andy Grove, the
co-founder of Intel. He died Tuesday after battling prostate cancer and
Parkinson’s disease. You can read what the company says about Grove, or
better, this account by long-time tech observer and writer Michael
Malone.
By sheer intellectual power, decisiveness and an iron will, Grove
became a seminal and enduring force in an industry that has become
indispensable, at a company that has led the way for 35 years. Grove
managed to escape both the Nazis and the communists in Europe to reach
the only nation on earth big enough for his dreams and ambitions, the
United States of America.
Henry Ford famously said he invented the modern age. Grove could have
said the same thing. If you have woken up today, worked, traveled even
one block, heated coffee and looked at a screen, you have in some way
used or been served by multiple microprocessors. The Model T had no
computers. A Ford Fusion probably has 25.
The government is now dotted with innovation labs, idea hubs,
development groups like the General Services Administration’s
18F. Defense Department and Homeland Security officials are
streaming to Silicon Valley like the lame sought waters from the grotto
at Lourdes. I hope they’re looking for the right thing. Because there’s
a fundamental and, in some ways, insurmountable difference between
government and industries like the microprocessor business...
Read the rest of the article with links at Federal News Radio
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