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The fields of optics and photonics have experienced dramatic technical advances over the past several decades and have cemented themselves as key enabling technologies across many different industries. This paper explores past milestones, present state of the art, and future perspectives of several different topics, including: lasers, materials, devices, communications, bioimaging, displays, manufacturing, and industry evolution.

Entrepreneurs have long been drivers of innovation in developed countries. They start companies and create new industries that keep economies strong and prosperous. Today, however, in developing nations such as China, state-controlled economies are building robust industries at stunning speed and siphoning off jobs from the West. How can entrepreneurs function in the face of this challenge? Can they continue to create economic value in a globalized business environment? This book addresses the crucial issue of state planning vs. free enterprise and examines specific problems surrounding entrepreneurship in the global economy through nine case histories of entrepreneurial companies. It also looks at how and why government gets involved in economic growth and how entrepreneurs contribute to economic value. Based on this analysis, the authors argue that companies can succeed, even in controlled economies, by understanding the customs and policies of countries where they do business.

Without venture capital, many of the companies whose technical innovations sparked the digital revolution would not exist. Venture investments funded these firms to develop their bright ideas into commercial products that created new business models and established whole new markets. In Investing in Dynamic Markets, Henry Kressel, a partner at multi-billion-dollar global investing company Warburg Pincus, takes you behind the scenes of the private equity process. He draws on his extensive experience to show how venture capital works, why venture capitalists fund certain companies and not others, and what factors influence the success or failure of their high-risk, high-reward investments. He also discusses venture capital's future, now that the commercialization of technology requires larger investments and global market access. Written in clear, non-technical language, the book features informative case studies of venture capital funding in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, software and services, semiconductors, and the internet.

Computer technology … is the technology of how to apply knowledge to action to achieve goals. That is, it provides the capability for intelligent behavior. That is why we process data with computers – to get answers to solve our problems … That is what algorithms and programs are all about – frozen action to be thawed when needed. Thirty years ago, before the dawn of the PC age, software was already a big business. Most of it was written for mainframes and minicomputers. Software vendors, including the computer companies, contracted with the corporations that owned this “big iron” to create or customize programs for their business needs. The general public was blissfully unaware of what software was and how it worked, and few understood the difference between software and hardware. Now that most people use PCs, they know what software is and does. They may use a word processing or spreadsheet program at work, a genealogy or personal finance package at home, and an e-mail program and Web browser everywhere. There is a software program to enhance every aspect of modern life. Packaged or “shrink-wrapped” programs such as games, word processors, or video editing suites are the most important products in today's consumer software market. But there is a big market for business applications, most of which are customized adaptations of commercial software products. Banks, airlines, government institutions, customer service organizations – they all rely on software to run their business processes, record orders, track activities, and more.

Everybody knows that digital technology has revolutionised our economy and our lifestyles. But how many of us really understand the drivers behind the technology - the significance of going digital; the miniaturization of circuit boards; the role of venture capital in financing the revolution; the importance of research and development? How many of us understand what it takes to make money from innovative technologies? Should we worry about manufacturing going offshore? What is the role of India and China in the digital economy? Drawing on a lifetime's experience in the industry, as an engineer, a senior manager and as a partner in a venture capital firm, Henry Kressel offers an expert personalized answer to all these questions. He explains how the technology works, why it matters, how it is financed and what the key lessons are for public policy.

I n just fifty years digital electronics have transfigured every aspect of human life and redrawn the economic map of the world. Their effect has been revolutionary. But revolutions produce displacements as well. We must now assess the impact of digital technology on some key industries and the consumers they serve. We will discuss the implications for national economies in Chapter 9, keeping in mind that changes are so rapid that conclusions are risky. We began our exploration of digital electronics by defining the breakthroughs of the 1950s and 1960s: the devices, systems, and software that launched the digital revolution. We also looked at how scientists and entrepreneurs created and commercialized the resulting products and services that grew out of these innovations. Their efforts changed the world at incredible speed, often in unanticipated ways, and with far greater effect than even the most optimistic visionaries could have foreseen. Since the 1970s powerful digital systems have transformed the way people work, talk on the phone, send messages, acquire knowledge, play games, access entertainment, and even cure diseases. This is especially true of the Internet, the ultimate embodiment of the digital technology's power and reach. Nor have the benefits accrued only to wealthy nations. Electronic devices are now so inexpensive that hundreds of millions of consumers in developing countries use cell phones, PCs, and MP3 players. Just two or three decades ago many of these people would have considered a standard telephone to be an unattainable luxury.

M y career as a researcher gave me a front-row seat during the period when electronics quickly advanced from primitive prototype transistors and lasers to incredibly tiny devices, sophisticated software-driven systems, and vast computing and communication networks. It was an exciting time to be a scientist, and to make my own contributions to the progress of the field. As a venture capital manager, I've had an equally fortunate vantage point. I saw digital technology become a global force, delivering new services and creating opportunities where none had existed before. I also had the opportunity to arrange funding for innovative companies that helped move the technology forward. No one in the 1950s and 1960s, when the fundamental discoveries were rolling out of US corporate laboratories, could have imagined that digital electronic technology would help to lift whole countries from isolation and poverty into participation in the global economy. But I've seen first hand how these revolutionary innovations have improved the human condition and even realigned the economic order among nations. Today we live in a global village sustained by digital computing and communication technologies. It is a much more complex world, technologically, socially, and politically. To conclude this study of the nature and influence of digital technology, we will look at what the globalization of technology means for developed and developing nations alike, and how innovation and manufacturing can build prosperity at both stages of economic progress. We'll begin with an assessment of the current situation.