On 23 Aug, EC & SD Bawden wrote:
> A couple of them are firstly, how effectively can knowledge be
> measured as a national resource?
That's a really good question to which I have no answer, except that I
can point to a (fairly) recent and well documented example of how
knowledge (supposedly) helped the allies survive and then win against
the Nazi's in WW2.
I cannot remember references (possibly Linkers can help here), but there
was coverage in the 60/70s (and possibly earlier and probably later)
that discussed how the UK in particular had used its banked scientific
knowledge to develop war winning technology in WW2.
Just how 'real' this example is I could not say, as I feel that there
was a certain amount of self congratulation involved in this. From my
reading, more critical was the fragmented approach to technology
innovation under the Nazi's and the impingement of ideology (cf their
characterisation of some science as 'Jewish' and therefore
unacceptable).
-- Robert Hart hartr@redhat.com Red Hat Asia-Pacific, Unit 15, 23 James St, Brisbane, Qld 4006, Australia Tel +61 (0)7 3872 4808 Fax +61 (0)7 3257 4800
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