China : Blogs, IT Ecosystem & Progress

Irving Wladawsky-Bergerwrites that he is really impressed by the changes in china so many dimensions. As he sees it the advances in economic development are remarkable and the university system is equally impressive and notes that china's progress is particularly impressive when one considers what the situation was like just 25 years ago when the country started opening up to the world after the tumult of the Cultural Revolution. Huge progress has been made in the last ten years let alone the last twenty-five. He finds that many blog sites are blocked in China, including that of his – which he says could not be accessed there. I can confirm that this blogsite is also blocked in China. He also finds that even Wikipedia, too was blocked. Not surprising knowing things there – this reflects in the maturity of the IT ecosystem there - that’s shows in many ways - Look at how the state of disarray of chinese software companies. While there is a near unanimous belief that China will be a useful source of skills for Indian companies , the reality is that scaling up is disappointing further confirming the notion that china would not be a big force in IT services. As noted here, for the next three to five years, China has to focus on building the cornerstones of its economy and as important as we think software is, it is not a cornerstone - massive political, economic and demographic shifts must occur before IT/Software can begin to realize its potential. As such we hear murmurs about disappointed investors in china. As Paul Johnson articulates ,this way China won't be able to match India and reasons out, that to have a truly innovative economy, freedom of thought and expression must be encouraged. That is the most important lesson of the modern age. India has this precious tradition, as well as the rule of law, both of which are legacies of British rule. The rule of law is essential to long-term investment on the largest possible scale- clearly a precursor to the formation of a vibrant ecosystem. Its time that china looks for a massive turnaround – its determination to move ahead is palpable and clearly yielding results it has done similar things in the past – in fact no other society could pull off such a massive change – the scale of which no one in history has ever recorded.