Links

The folks over at WorldMapper.org have some pretty fascinating maps of the world, including one that shows the size of countries proportional to their contribution to the world’s patenting (data are from 2002). Where is the Southern Hemisphere you ask? (You can see pictures of it in National Geographic of course!)

Obviously it is not exactly an “innovation map” but they also have a similar map showing contribution to scientific literature (data from 2001). Patenting and scientific literature have been shown to be useful proxies at least for scientific and technological innovation in many studies. Of course, what these both leave out is every other kind of innovation.

But it sure throws the disparity of participation in the idea economy into bold relief. And it raises the legitimate question of whether the idea economy will really have the flattening or leveling affect that is often claimed. To the extent that intellectual property is one of the most important economic assets of the new millenium, what can the southern half of planet Earth do to participate in the idea economy?

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