The medialab scam

Regrettably, this scam was pumped up to industrial levels with Science foundation Ireland

Sunday Tribune, late 2003 An Irish academic has been delivering a controversial lecture in US universities which blames the government for the economic difficulties facing the Irish software industry. Sean O Nuallain, a DCU lecturer who is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford in the US while a dispute with DCU is being resolved, gave the talk at UC Berekeley two weeks ago and says that he has since been asked to give the same lecture at UC Irvine. The lecture is called ŒRequiem For the Irish Software Industry; A Cautionary Tale of Governmental Incompetence¹ and reflects O Nuallain¹s view that the government, rather than the economic downturn, is responsible for the job losses and company closures experienced by the Irish software industry in the past three years. ³The rot started in 1997,² said O Nuallain. ³Before that civil servants had taken the approach if it moves, fund it and if it doesn¹t move, kick it till it moves, then fund it. They operated under the radar of politicians and from that we got companies like Trintech, Iona and Riverdeep.² O Nuallain argues that it was the involvement of politicians that skewed industrial development policy, diverting resources to projects that he believes have been failures. O Nuallain argues that MediaLab Europe and the Digital Hub are the fruits of politicians¹ involvement, and that the resources spent on those projects should go directly to startup software companies instead. ³There is enough money there to allow young, technically brilliant guys to get through this with some dignity,² said O Nuallain. ³What I think needs to be done is for MediaLab to be shut down instantly and the resources made available to startups and let the Darwinian process kick in.² O Nuallain does not believe that it is the sharp global downturn in the technology sector that has been responsible for the Irish sector¹s woes. ³There has been a downturn, but the problem has been the misdirection of government resources,² he said. The lecture delivered by O Nuallain strongly criticises the state agency responsible for indigenous industrial development, Enterprise Ireland, and O Nuallain said that he believes the agency does not have sufficient expertise in the software sector. ³It is just not true that we have directed funds away from startups. We funded more startups this year than last. In fact we are funding as many this year as are available and there is no scarcity of funds for startups,² said Patricia McLister, Enterprise Ireland¹s divisional manager for software and international services. ³World markets have been in recession globally. Companies are now looking for return on investment within 6-12 months and companies have to work hard to secure sales; that¹s just the world companies have to live in,² said McLister, who said that the body does have technology expertise. ³When people approach us we call in technologists to asses the proposal, just like a venture capitalist would. We focus on the business plan.² Another plank of technology industrial development has been the establishment of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a body that funds basic research. O Nuallain believes that the long term focus of SFI is not appropriate, and that funding should go to struggling companies on a shorter term basis. ³Experience has shown that investing in the kind of research that is being funded by SFI with proper couplings between academia and industry generates innovation, raises productivity and new wealth in successfully developed economies,² said a statement from SFI. ³Sun MicroSystems, Yahoo! and Google were all spin outs from an academic research culture.² ³We still have brilliant programmers and technologists,² said O Nuallain. ³But if something isn¹t done for the industry in two years, not 10, there won¹t be a software industry any more.² Wall street journal July 5 2001 By DAVID ARMSTRONG | Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Media Lab Europe arrived in Ireland last year with a certain swagger. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern toasted the advanced-technology research center at a swank grand opening in Dublin. Hometown superstar Bono, of the rock band U2, took a seat on the board of directors. The hoopla was understandable. The center was the first offshoot of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's original Media Lab, one of the best-known research centers in the world. But today, few in Ireland are lifting a glass to the newcomer. Mr. Ahern finds himself defending his government's sponsorship to critics in Parliament, Irish academics accuse the lab of siphoning off national resources, while research has barely gotten off the ground -- and Bono has yet to attend a board meeting. The problems have significance well beyond the Irish border. MIT and the Indian government launched a one-year exploratory project under the name Media Lab Asia that will determine the framework of a 10-year, $1 billion plan for a permanent Media Lab in India. A Latin American Media Lab site is also being considered. But the Irish experience highlights the difficulty of exporting the concept. One holdup is that MIT's faculty members have been decidedly cool to the idea of leaving the school's campus near Boston to work in Ireland. A couple of them have rejected entreaties to lead the project, says U.S. Media Lab head Nicholas Negroponte. Added to that, corporate financial backing, the core support for the U.S. Media Lab, has only recently begun to materialize in Europe. Only six research scientists, eight research associates and assistants, and 16 graduate students are now working, or will be in the next few months, at the Media Lab in Dublin, a warehouse renovated by the Irish government to house 250 researchers and students. "People are really nervous because it is growing slowly," says Glorianna Davenport, a researcher at the U.S. Media Lab who helped start the Irish version. Ms. Davenport is enthusiastic about the prospects for the European lab, and says the process of hiring the most-qualified researchers shouldn't be rushed. The idea for a European Media Lab seemed like a natural. The first Media Lab has attracted $500 million in corporate funding from big outfits such as Motorola Inc., Intel Corp., and United Technologies Corp. Media Lab research has helped develop sensors to prevent air bags from inflating dangerously on children, toy robots for Lego AG, wearable computer devices and other new technologies. Before turning to Ireland, Media Lab was spurned by the Swedish government, which decided to launch a similar facility using local universities. Prior to that, plans to open a Media Lab in Germany collapsed. Although Ireland was willing, it took two years to negotiate terms. "The Irish agreement took such a long time we lost some momentum," Mr. Negroponte says. "That has to be rebuilt." The Irish government is spending $48.8 million to start the lab, including a $9.5 million payment to MIT for the right to use the Media Lab name and intellectual property, according to John Callinan, a former Irish government official who is now the research center's chief operating officer. The amount astounded local academics, feeding longstanding complaints of inadequate university funding. Some Irish researchers created a Web site lampooning U.S. Media Lab projects such as musical sneakers -- footwear with a wireless sensor card that transmits a dancer's moves to a personal computer that produces musical streams -- and Duncan the Highland Terrier, an effort to construct a virtual dog. Many Irish academics resent the implication the country needs MIT. "We are academics of much better standing than anything they will ever attract to Media Lab Europe," says Sean O Nuallain, a computer-applications lecturer at Dublin City University. " We have been doing very well on very limited resources. Frankly, this is as horrendous a scam as I have actually seen." Other critics question whether the European lab will promote economic growth, as the government has promised. The U.S. lab "doesn't have a great record of spinning off companies," says Kevin Ryan, the vice president of academics at Limerick University, who formerly headed another research facility in Ireland. Rejecting that criticism, Mr. Negroponte says the U.S. Media Lab's technology has spun off 50 companies. "MIT is real different and very entrepreneurial," he says. "Maybe this will be a kick in the pants for [Irish] academics." Connor Long, the director of research at Dublin City University, says the "colossal" sum granted to the Media Lab was awarded outside the normal competitive process required of local universities. "It is simply strange that taxpayers' money would be spent in this way for an institution with no history in society, that didn't contribute to society before it arrived," he says, while Irish "institutions have contributed to a generation of graduate students and the overall society." Mr. Ahern, responding to similar criticisms in Parliament, has defended the deal as a smart investment, saying the country was "blessed to have an institution such as MIT coming here." He also noted that government funding for local research is being increased significantly. Mr. Negroponte acknowledges Media Lab Europe has not taken off as quickly as hoped but adds that he is happy with the January hiring of Rudolph Burger, an expert in digital photography and a former Xerox Corp. vice president, to direct the Dublin lab. In addition, the Irish facility has begun to attract corporate sponsors, including Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson and Eircom PLC, who have promised a total of $3 million in annual support. The U.S. lab has 170 sponsors contributing $36 million a year. Partly to placate critics, the Irish government has come up with $1.1 million more to start a dozen joint projects teaming Irish universities with Media Lab researchers. Mr. Negroponte says the projects will provide the foundation for more ambitious work in the future. Write to David Armstrong at david.armstrong@wsj.com

The story was originally broken internationally in the Wall Street journal of July 5, 2001 wsj