<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18876">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>Per Lundin wrote about "a collaboration between the
Div. of History of Science and Technology at KTH,The Swedish Computer Society
and the Swedish National Museum of Science and<BR>Technology."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>James Cortada wrote "</FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman">The Swedes have done more to document their recent
history than most other European countries so far."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>If I may be permitted an observation.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>In my first career I worked in the IT industry in the
UK, which was competitive in a global context. In ICL my boss came from
Texas and his boss came from Minneapolis, both centres of IT.
Mrs T came along and demolished the industry in the early 1980s saying
that we should all become investment bankers. British governments have
followed this policy until the folly became visible in the recent financial
debacle. Too late!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>In my second career I was forced to follow her advice,
founding and being responsible in the 80s and 90s for European technology
research for Merrill Lynch. I regularly visited US investment fund
managers who tend to be located in Boston, Minneapolis, Texas, and San
Francisco. Whereas technology represents about 15% of the US stock market
it is only notional in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain stock
markets. On the buy side there are very few investment managers in those
countries who understand technology. However the technology industry is
extremely significant to the economies of Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, and
Sweden being a greater percentage of the stock market than the US. These
countries comprised most of my work where, in addition to world class companies,
they also have first class investment fund managers who understand
technology.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>In my third career I have studied the history of
technology in the UK and was initially amazed by how small community is.
One of the best history of technology papers I have heard in recent years was
about the fountain pen! However one day during a coffee break at a SHOT
meeting in Europe where the volume of high quality papers given by Swedes,
Dutch, and Danish all exceeded the tiny number of Brits I suddenly realised that
in order to have a successful community studying history it is necessary to have
a successful industry practising today's technology. In fact there is a
synergy between the industry itself, relevant investment knowledge, and
historians. All three are required.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>It's too late for the UK but the rest of you please
nurture what you have.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>kind regards</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond>neil</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Garamond></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>Dr Roger Neil Barton<BR><A
href="http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/">http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/</A></DIV></BODY></HTML>