15
November
2006
|
06:56 AM
America/Los_Angeles

TechNet: Silicon Valley billionaires all agree - life is getting better!

I didn't go to today's TechNet Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley but I did receive a candid report from a member of the press, who would prefer to be nameless:


"The event was so much hot air. I got fed up of hearing all these tech billionaires talking about how life is getting better. It is certainly getting better for them!

And the Charlie Rose interviews were so full of  *!@#. I couldn't believe how he let people like John Doerr use his show as a platform for their agenda. Who do they think they are telling the President what he should be doing! As if they are so important because of their money. The entire event was a waste of time."


Pretty strong words and I'm glad that I didn't go. Silicon Valley's attempts at doing good in the world are quite pathetic, they can't even improve things in their own region. Cisco says it will build a high-tech ball park yet it can't build a high-tech school system - that's an infrastructure investment if I ever saw one.

Am I being harsh on our local leaders and businesses? No, nobody has called them on this stuff and they are big boys and girls and hopefully they can stop patting each other on the back so vigorously and exhaling gobs of carbon dioxide and do some good. Do No Evil is passive. Do Some Good is active, IMHO.



The event, moderated by eminent television journalist Charlie Rose, coincides with the announcement of TechNet's new Green Technologies Initiative, which will push for a heightened U.S. commitment to adopt innovative green technologies to fortify national security and address global energy and environmental challenges.

Today, the technology industry is creating new alternative and renewable energy technologies including advances in solar, wind, biofuel and fuel cell technologies, as well as developing technology solutions that drive energy efficiency, environmental protection and economic competitiveness.  These groundbreaking innovations hold the potential to be the next great disruptive technologies.


Held at Stanford's historic Memorial Auditorium, the TechNet Innovation Summit featured Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft; Scott McNealy, Chairman, Sun Microsystems; Reed Hastings, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Netflix; Jerry Yang, Founder and Chief Yahoo, Yahoo! Inc.; John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Brian Halla, Chairman and CEO, National Semiconductor, KR Sridhar, Co-Founder and CEO, Bloom Energy and Charles Giancarlo, Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer, Cisco Systems and President, Cisco-Linksys, LLC.