AS04: The academics gain ground

Professors influence IT's future

Are academics - not the corporations - the real innovators in IT today? Based on the results of our Agenda Setters poll, says Sylvia Carr, it sure looks like it.

Academia is providing innovation and leadership on all of the biggest issues in tech this year: grid computing, wireless, copyright, privacy and software patents.

When looking for representatives from these areas, our panel chose not the CEO of the company with the largest market share but the individuals shaping the underlying technologies and thought.

Academics have played a role in past Agenda Setters poles but never in such numbers as this year.

A total of five individuals come from universities in 2004, as opposed to two in 2003, one in 2001 and none in both 2002 and 2000.

The two Agenda Setters most closely linked with specific technologies are Ian Foster (number 23) and Joe McGeehan (number 25). Both shun the ivory tower and are involved in the private sector along with holding university positions.

Foster, who holds a joint appointment at University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, is known for his work developing grid computing technologies and then applying them to complex data analysis problems.

Our panel praised his work educating the major web services players - the Oracles, IBMs and the HPs - about how to best use grid computing.

Foster's presence on the list also reveals the panel's belief that the grid computing is on the rise. In his second year on the list, he's jumped 5 spots.

Agenda Setters panellist and Quocirca head of research Clive Longbottom said: "Whatever you want to call it, at the end of the day we're moving toward a grid-type environment... Anyone who's working on grid is automatically setting an agenda."

Joe McGeehan, professor at University of Bristol and MD of Toshiba's European telecoms lab, was singled out as one of the minds bringing about the wireless revolution.

For wireless to take hold, networks need to be both high-bandwidth and reliable. McGeehan works on providing just that, by improving the underlying infrastructure and speeding up mobile communications at the most basic level.

Panellist Longbottom said: "His work is really going to change how people look at mobility... and change how vendors drive home mobility and the solutions they provide."

The highest ranked academic Agenda Setter was Lawrence Lessig at number 22, a professor at Stanford Law School who was singled out for his work on copyright issues.

Panellist and Sheffield Hallam MP Richard Allen said: "On the content side, his work is quite seminal and is going to be very important with things like the Creative Archive."

The Creative Archive is a BBC project that will releases BBC content for non-commercial use. "It is going to revolutionise intellectual property law. It tears open all sorts of questions," Allan said.

And Lessig is the person the panel sees as being able to answer them.

Donald E. Knuth is the only academic besides Foster who's appeared on the list before. He came in at number 30, 4 spots higher than last year, chosen for the role his work on computer algorithms plays in the software patent debate.

Panellist and consultant Martin Brampton said: "Because he has written all these [algorithms] down and made sure they're in public domain, at least there is a defence" for companies hit with copyright infringement suits.

The final academic on the list, LSE fellow Simon Davies, snuck in at number 50 as an antidote to the government officials - US Secretary of Homeland Security (number 4) and UK Home Secretary David Blunkett (number 5) - seen to be chipping away at civil liberties.

Davies's group Privacy International is leading the fight against issues such as the UK'S ID card scheme, monitoring individuals' web use and RFID passports.

The panel also gave the thumbs-up to his annual Big Brother awards - which single out the "government agencies, private companies and individuals who have excelled in the violation of our privacy", according to the awards' website - for always causing a stir among their recipients.