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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (177006)	2/12/2004 4:59:33 AM
From: Amy J	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

OT Hi Lizzie, Webservices started in 1994. Things like WebEx started in 1996. And so on. By at least 1999, Intel entered webservices, meaning it was getting mature. Under the Internet boom, maturing accelerated. Compare this to today, where it's taking Kleiner Perkins as long as 4 years to get simple social networking portals off the ground, not even IPO, meanwhile webservices went from start-to-IPO-to mature in Internet speed of 5 years. RE: " So can we assume the USA gets to benefit from these taxpayer funded initiatives" Our universities have extremely strict IP laws and are diligent in enforcing them. When VCs do diligence, they inspect your code, copyrights, and IP agreements. Each university has a licensing office. No VC would dare to invest in a startup where the IP is in question. RE: "for 6 mos before it is deemed "mature" and sent offshore by whoever the market share leader is at the time?" From an engineering standpoint, Webservices matured unusually fast. (Not from a marketing/sales standpoint.) RE: "free R&D from universites" RND is not free from universities. In fact, Univ licensing offices sometimes can be overly aggressive, but it's an excellent source of revenue for them. Take a look at the royalty payments on batteries sometime, as an example. But software IP is possibly too easily transmitted out of the country. You cannot ship IP out of the country without the approval of FedEx Export and USA Govt Export Customs (certain things you can't ship out of the country). Even shipping harmless, ultra common components approved by our gov't for shipment to an overseas site, seemingly results in an unexpected and unsolicited visit from an overseas military that curiously asks what you are about. Spooky. RE: "(startups are) locked out because they don't have the skill to open some offshore facility" WebEx hired 1,500 Chinese developers a couple of years ago, followed by another 1,500 the next year. Startups do know how to shift development jobs overseas, funded by our VCs here too. RE: "My former CEO didn't much care for it though. And Accel is not thrilled either." Accel leans more on the conservative side. I like Accel. There are a lot of startups whose founders have said they will not move jobs overseas due to IP theft concerns - some of these are software and chip startups. One Mainland guy located in China does a good job helping Silicon Valley people about the risk of IP theft. I probably shouldn't say this, but he basically says don't bring it to China unless you want to see copycats sprout up. Possibly the best business model is one that uses this copying to an advantage. There's a huge, huge manufacturing boom going on in China - today, they can't even find enough educated labor to do all the work they have, amazing when you think about the one million unemployed students, and they are trying to get people from Silicon Valley to move there to help out. But I wouldn't advocate protectionism. This creates short-term gains for long-term pain. Makes a country non-competitive. After some thinking, doubt I'd be for a Software credit since this artificially distorts allocation of productive resources. At most, I think the govt needs to correct the accounting to better reflect the actual depreciation of a product, and possibly a tax incentive for consumers to drive purchases. And maybe ask China to modify their currency just a tad to reflect their new economics, but definitely not float currency - this would create spiraling inflation and wildly impact USA into yet another recession. Overall, it's much better if Silicon Valley moves on to the next innovative thing. On a related note, liked Roach's article you posted. I agree with it too, on all fronts for the most part, aside from timing. Regards, Amy J