The Ilham Winter 2010

11THE ILHAM A Journal of Contemporary Digital Policy The rise and fall of innovation in the Muslim world GOING BACKTOTHE PASTTO SAVETHE FUTURE. Innovation begins with a single idea or concept. Henry Ford applied assembly- line technology based on a simple, single concept and, as a result, the automobile industry remained centered in the U.S. for much of the 20th century. Ford was an innovator.Thomas Edison was an innovator. Microsoft’s Bill Gates changed the world with the concept of an operating system, enabling anyone to employ digital, computer technology with the click of a mouse. In turn, this led to numerous, other innovations – the world wide web, search engines, chat rooms, blogs, on-line commerce and social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. The evolution of technology is based on a series of innovations, but notice that the above examples all took place in the United States. Indeed, the U.S. fosters innovation. It’s cultural foundation is a pioneering spirit and the willingness to take risk, characteristics of many “new societies.” Older societies tend not to innovate. Consider Japan in the modern world. It is a leader in the manufacture of automobiles and other high-tech products. However, these products began as innovations elsewhere in the world. Japan, China, South Korea and other Asian nations have become manufacturing states. These industrialized nations improve on technology, streamlining manufacture to lower costs and increase levels of product quality.Today, there isn’t a single U.S.- based television manufacturer.Virtually all electronics – from laptop computers to cell phones – were conceived in the U.S. but usurped by Asian manufacturing states. WHAT IS INNOVATION? Innovation is the ability to envision the solution to a problem. In 1994,Yahoo introduced the first, primitive search engine and for several years, this company controlled the search engine market. In 1998, Google became a corporation founded by two Stanford University graduates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The two innovators developed a more sophisticated algorithm to deliver more relevant search engine results and, in two years, overtookYahoo as the leading search engine in the West. Innovation continues across the manufacturing and technology spectrum, ignoring international boundaries and creating new dynamics such as digital networking, outsourcing and cultural engagement across ethnic, religious and political lines to immeasurable degrees. However, countries in the Middle- and Near-East have been slow to adapt web-based innovation, leaving this region to fall further behind in technology advancement and, on a more practical level, to fall further behind in the growth of an entrepreneurial class. Instead, many Middle- East governments and other cultural institutions have reacted with suspicion toward new technology, and in some cases, these in-place institutions have even limited access to emerging technologies. VoIP,for example,is a convenient,low-cost means of data sharing yet this technology is not readily available in some Near-and Middle- East countries despite the obvious benefits of global communications at lowered cost. Social sites,which are breeding grounds for innovative thought,are banned by certain governments in the region. The reasons behind the Middle East’s reluctance to embrace these new technologies will leave these nations behind as new layers of technology are created by