Gates, McNealy, Schwarzenegger at tech summit

Stanford, Calif. — Attendees at the TechNet Innovation Summit event at Stanford University on Wednesday got more than they bargained for. Besides an hour of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and panels featuring Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy and other key executives, they were treated to an appearance by newly re-elected California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Gates waxed on about technology as well as global issues, touching on topics ranging from improving the plight of healthcare worldwide to the upcoming Windows Vista operating system. Gates was preceded by panels discussing innovation and energy issues, featuring dignitaries such as McNealy and Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of NetFlix. TV interviewer Charlie Rose was the host for the event.

Gates cited the United States’ evolving role in the world. As other countries mature and become players in the world economy, the United States will have to accept a less lopsided role in global affairs, but Americans still are looking at a better future, Gates said.

Given that technical education is catching on more in other countries and lagging here, other countries will begin to contribute more to the technological pie, according to Gates. The United States must get used to the fact that its share of everything and its ability to make unilateral decisions will no longer be so disproportionate to its status of having only 5 percent of the world’s population. But this is a good thing, he said.

“The U.S. has been sort of spoiled because it’s been a leader for so long,” and that may require an adjustment, Gates said.

The United States benefits from advantages such as its universities but also has problems such as high costs, Gates said.

Commenting on the Windows Vista OS due to the consumer market on January 30, Gates emphasized its inclusion of capabilities such as anti-spyware and parental controls.

Microsoft has made some mistakes of commissions and omission over the years, Gates acknowledged. “Internet search, we should have gotten serious [about it] four years earlier than we did and that’s omission. Those are the worst. I hate them,” Gates said.

But search rival Google is like Microsoft because both are software companies, Gates said.

Gates emphasized that there is plenty of room for further innovation in the PC world, with capabilities such as speech functionality possible.

“The PC I dream about having for myself is far better than what we’re delivering now,” Gates said.

Regarding his plans to step down from Microsoft on a daily basis in 2008, Gates said multiple people have and will continue to play critical roles.

“There’s always been this illusion of one person playing such a key role. It’s always been literally thousands of people with different roles,” Gates explained.

Gates also applauded Apple for its success with the iPod but said Microsoft’s own Zune system offers a differentiator by way of wireless Wi-Fi communications. Microsoft’s Linux interoperability deal with Novell, meanwhile, fits in with the company’s interoperability goals, Gates said.

Schwarzenegger gave a brief speech hailing California’s technology and its economic recovery. He also emphasized a need to rebuild infrastructure. The state still has challenges in areas such as healthcare and education, Schwarzenegger said.

“We work hard and our economy now has come roaring back,” he said. Californians also are optimistic about the future now, Schwarzenegger said.

Earlier in the day, executives from companies including Cisco Systems, NetFlix, Yahoo, and National Semiconductor conversed about innovation, the concept of a video-driven Web 3.0, and offshoring issues.

“I think we’re about to see a growth of technology and innovation,” in the next 10 years to rival the 1990s, said Charlie Giancarlo, senior vice president and chief development office at Cisco Systems and president of Cisco-Linksys. Innovation will be developed that replaces the need to travel while also providing capabilities when away from home. Interactions will be digitized, he said.

Web 3.0, meanwhile, will be about video on the Internet not only to rival but also surpass TV in terms of volume. “You’ll have video all the time. You’ll have the video Web,” Hastings said. Homes will have an average of 10 megabits of connectivity, he said.

Internet-based TV will provide 300 million to 500 million channels, Hastings said. “That’s the Web 3.0,” he said. “We’re still a couple years away.”

The executives noted the surge in overseas technical education and griped about the limit on issuance of H1B visas, which currently is set at 65,000 per year. Although some jobs will go overseas, jobs actually will be created domestically because of technology, said Brian Halla, chairman and CEO of National Semiconductor.

“It’s inevitable that parts of technology will go offshore,” Halla said. “New parts of technology will evolve here in the U.S. and create jobs.”

Also noted by the panelists were issues such as wireless connectivity and mobile ecommerce. “I think there’s a big opportunity for mobile commerce,” that has not yet been tapped, said Jerry Yang, founder and chief Yahoo at Yahoo.

Outmoded government policy has impeded the spread of broadband connectivity, Giancarlo said. Policies now in place were set up to regulate telephone companies 50 years ago, he added.

“I think we’d settle for either no policy or enlightened policy, but we’ve got just the confused policy,” Giancarlo said.

Energy and environmental issues were weighed by another panel that featured McNealy; John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and KR Sidhar, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Energy. Panelists touted technologies such as solar energy, clean coal, ethanol, and nuclear power as well as concepts such as electronic commerce and telecommuting to cut energy use and clean the environment.

“Let’s [have the nuclear power] conversation again,” McNealy said. “Do we worry about radiation fallout or drowning? I think it needs an enormous amount of investigation.”

In referencing drowning, McNealy was referring to the global warming phenomenon, in which greenhouse gases are melting polar ice caps and raising sea levels.

“I think we can solve the waste issues,” that have held back nuclear energy, McNealy said.

“We need more nuclear. Nuclear is clean, nuclear is cost-effective,” Doerr said. “We have lots of coal, we have to clean coal,” he added.

Doerr advocated market-based approaches to reducing pollution such as enabling companies able to sell off carbon emission credits after reducing their own emissions.