loopback0 – Douglas Gourlay's Blog Data Centers, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing

Compete.org – Delegation to Brazil

Am packing my bags for a long trip coming up tomorrow, and I haven't packed my bags for a long trip in a while so TSA be ready...  and as those of you who follow my Twitter feed may remember I was spending some time at the Brazilian Consul in San Francisco recently as well, so here is why:

I recently was introduced to the US Council on Competitiveness via the US Department of Energy.  The US Council on Competitiveness has been championing a multi-year project and engagement with the Movimento Brasil Competitivo and ABDI.  The three partners have convened six workshops – “U.S.-Brazil Innovation Learning Laboratories” – with the support of the US Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

To meet these goals, the U.S.-Brazil Innovation Learning Laboratories has engaged forward-looking CEOs, university presidents and peers from the public sector – in both Brazil and the United States, representing a broad range of industries, large and mid-size firms and organizations, and leading academic institutions.

The Innovation Learning Laboratories will aim to:

• Map the innovation ecosystems of the United States and Brazil.
• Identify key barriers to – and opportunities for – change and collaboration.
• Design a policy strategy that will build the competitiveness potential of both economies, as well as the Western Hemisphere; and lay the groundwork for the 2nd U.S.-Brazil Innovation Summit in 2010.

These Innovation Learning Laboratories are intended to produce fresh insights, real-time analysis, consensus-building and action recommendations – across the public and private sector – that will lend motivation and momentum to achieving a joint U.S.-Brazil innovation and competitiveness policy agenda for the planned 2010 U.S.-Brazil Innovation Summit.

With the focus on emerging and continuous growth geographical markets,  how to speed innovations to market, and the application of lessons learned to avoid mistakes of the past or leapfrog ineffective choices this crosss-functional team of industry, government, and academia will be a rewarding experience.

I was asked to discuss some of my favorite green IT and data center technologies, and how virtualization and cloud computing can be part of public policy, if anyone has any ideas on what else I should discuss please feel free to comment - am all ears.

dg