If you've been following the debate about U.S. innovation, you might want to check out an article that I wrote for Tech Central Station: "The Death of Idea Factories... and the Birth of Idea Networks." Business Week recently ran a cover story article about "Outsourcing Innovation," claiming that the same outsourcing trend that swept through the manufacturing sector is set to wipe out the U.S. R&D sector as well. That's serious stuff, if indeed the U.S. is willing to outsource innovation to places like China and India.

The fallacy, of course, is thinking about innovation in terms of factories, manufacturing and "things." In other words, R&D units are not "idea factories" that manufacture innovation and design and other goodies. Hence, the title "The Death of Idea Factories."