I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the role of public funding in innovation…. I’ve been reading this exciting book: The Department of Mad Scientists – How DARPA is Remaking our World, From the Internet to Artificial Limbs by Michael Belfiore. Its a particularly compelling story for anyone who wants to support the notion that great innovation need to be financed by government programs. And as you may know, our Fusionopolis office is shared by the public servants of A*STAR, Singapore’s agency for research and development. The type of research that is conducted there is the kind that is more fundamental in nature, and is not getting much attention by the private sector, because most of them wont be economically viable project in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, wouldnt this funding be just as smart if it was directed at “commercial” technologies? There are endless angles from which to address this topic… So lets try to simplify the problem by asking ourselves one simple question:

Tell us if you feel the Internet would’ve become what it is today without DARPA? And how?