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View Full Version : Finland captures #1 in Technology Use Crown!


Stik
02-21-2003, 01:28 PM
Finland gets the 8) award....

Source- CTIA Daily News

U.S. Slips to No. 2 in World Technological Competitiveness

The United States slipped to second place, behind Finland, in competitiveness in technology, according to a study of the state of information technology by the World Economic Forum, in partnership with INSEAD (one of the world's largest business schools, and based in France) and the Information for Development Program of the World Bank. The 2003 Networked Readiness Index rates the economies according to their degree of preparedness to capture fully the benefits of the networked economy. The study considers the roles played by the major stakeholders - individuals, businesses and governments -- in its examination of the networked readiness of 82 economies according to three dimensions: the environment for information and communication technology (ICT), i.e., the market conditions, the political and regulatory framework, and the infrastructure for ICT; the readiness of individuals, the business community and government; and t he actual usage of ICT by the three stakeholders. According to the study, the U.S. continues to offer the best market environment for networked readiness, but slipped from first to second place due to less competitive performance in terms of connectivity and diffusion of ICT. Finland ranks first in the Networked Readiness Index, boosted by the best performance in terms of technology usage by its citizens, businesses and the government. The remainder of the top ten are: Singapore, Sweden, Iceland, Canada, Britain, Denmark, Taiwan and Germany. (Source: AP, World Economic Forum Release)

Rirath
02-21-2003, 01:41 PM
I demand a recount!! :lol:

ironguy
02-21-2003, 04:41 PM
I've seen this coming for some time now. What is happening is that many of these countries that would be considered technological countries, haven't kept up in the last few decades. In Sweden, for instance, POTS (plain old telephone service) was not everywhere. The time comes for new phone services and what do they do? Cell phones.

In the US, we jump on new technologies and implement them slowly, or are implemented by people who can afford them. This goes on day in and day out. Thus we have a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

What if we all had waited a year or five for wireless broadband implemented country wide instead of cable here, DSL there, satellite other places, and finally dial up to finish it off?

We have, in the past, been able to afford 'upgrading' our technologies when we please. Now, however, our economy is a bit on the stagnant side. Maybe we should hold off until standards are agreed upon, companies become willling to upgrade to keep customers, and we'll all be happy! (That 'companies become willling to upgrade' part will be the toughest part).

Examples:
HDTV: HDTVs have been around for some years now. We still don't have a connection standard (component, DVI, etc), nor are there a lot of shows being broadcast.
DVD read/write: How many formats are there?
PCs: I need a new one, mine's old - 15 months!
PPCs: ARM, XScale
Internet Connection: Dialup, Cable, DSL, satellite, wireless

Just thought I'd post my thoughts and observations!