Milken Institute's 2008 Tech and Science State Rankins

Now, I find this very interesting. In this years ranking of the top 10 States, 6 are in the East, 2 in the West and surprisingly 2 in the Middle (west, sort of middle).

I can understand Massachusetts taking the top spot with all its academic resources. It is surprising to see Maryland with the second spot and Colorado with the third spot. Interestingly, California (the mother of Innovation for the USA came in 4th place.) Virginia came in 6th place in my opinion due to its addiction...I mean dependency...on the defense industry.
It is a known fact that Virginia has ceded the ground on biotech to Maryland, perhaps another reason for the standing of each state.

Lots here to digest and percolate and I will not play editor on this one any longer...

http://www.milkeninstitute.org/tech/

Ok, one more....

Interesting to note that California- while not taking the top spot- is still the greatest source of new ideas. So what does this fact say about California? Could it be that the creative, open environment makes the difference?

I know, here I go again. I am not making this stuff up, however. Richard Florida author of the seminal book The Rise of the Creative Class, documented the positive impact (via econometric models) of creativity on GDP. For more on him go to http://creativeclass.com/.

Mr. Florida did a lot of his research and work while at George Mason University in Northern Virginia. Unfortunately for us in the USA, while we were consuming ourselves with wars, unethical leaders and self-inflicted economic disasters, he was given $20M + by the city of Toronto, Ontario to develop a creative center there.

Btw, Canada is emerging as a leader in the area of innovation, creativity and social and human development.

Got to love globalization....

Good work Milken Institute...

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