Why is Israel the worlds second largest silicon valley? | ABC radio
For a country of 8 million people, with all the issues and concerns going on around it, it’s difficult to fathom why a country like Israel looms so large in the technology space and carries the title of the world’s second largest silicon valley.
Tim Holt of ABC radio South East NSW was keen to explore this further and we chatted about some of the underlying structures that may have contributed to this including the Governments willingness to spend 4% of its GDP on Research and Development (Australia spends approx 2.4%) and back innovation as a key economic stimulus.
We explored the world of digitisation, the notion that everybody and soon everything would be discoverable with the ability to connect to each other and our belongings.
Very soon waking up in the morning will trigger a cascade of routine activities to occur in your home from heating to opening blinds, to showers turning on to breakfast being started and then on into the car and through your day, each activity being analysed to ensure that all that you want to do and have to do can be done and suggesting and making adjustments for you as in advance of you even knowing you need it.
Evidence of this was clearly demonstrated at the Consumer Electronic Show earlier this year and we chatted about Samsung’s desire to own this new frontier and their demonstration of it.
Our chat then turned back to Israel to look at new technologies like Waze that has not only changed the way they drive, but anecdotally changed their motoring habits and along the way picked up a cool $1 billion from Google which as of this morning has announced that Waze will now be preloaded on all new android devices.
We also took a quick tour through Bar Ilan University to meet with some fellow futurist and to try on Occulus Rift virtual glasses allowing me to soar above the desserts and dive into the oceans all from the comfort of my university arm chair.
We finished our chat by asking the perennial question: “why can’t we do this in Australia?”
My answer is always the same – we do and we are, but there isn’t the funding, interest or apolitical backing to see us truly take advantage of the brilliant minds and innovations we have in Australia.
Let’s turn this around and collectively demand that innovation receives more funding, more kudos and greater importance, if Israel can land $16.4 billion of tech sales last years imagine what Australia can do!
Have a listen now (20 minutes) and then share your thoughts…
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