Re: [9fans] crazy idea - drawterm in javascript?

[blstuart@bellsouth.net]

> How useful a research could be which is not backed by a business idea?

That's kind of the point I was getting at.  Asking how research
is useful isn't asking the most telling question.  Research isn't
always about utility; it's about intellectual contribution.  Of
course, it's great when research results find their way into
application, but not having direct application (yet) doesn't
devalue the research.

> Who will fund such projects, why and for how long?

Although this seems to have been systematically ignored for
the last 30 years or so, I would argue that an enlightened
organization will recognize that to be innovative in the future,
they must ask the questions no one knows the answers to
now.  Some fraction of those questions will lead to practical
applications and some won't.  Whether you are measuring
success in competitive advantage or in papers published,
that's why an organization will invest in research.

One way I've described it before is that if you gather together
smart people, give them resources and freedom, you won't
know ahead of time what they'll come up with, but you can
count on them coming up with something.  In some cases,
what they come up with is driven by application, like with
the transistor.  In some cases, the main applications will
be discovered later as people study the results.  To some
extent the LASER falls into that category.  And in some cases,
the result has little or no practical application, but it becomes
part of what defines us and our understanding of ourselves.
I'd count the discovery of the cosmic background radiation
in that.  IMHO we would all be diminished had any of those
avenues of research been cut off because they were a "cost"
that didn't have a short-term ROI.

> OTOH, nobody is going to stop anyone going his/her own way; everyone has
> a right to beat his/her drum and that too either at any rhythm or no
> rhythm at all ;)

Absolutely, and from where I sit, that's a key part of the 9fans
ethos.  If someone has a good idea, then they are encouraged
to implement it and report on what they learn.  The results
might get ignored, or they might spark somone else's creativity
to take it further.  If it's a practical application that sparks the
idea, great.  If it's pure curiosity, that's great too.

BLS