Billionaire wants EU to fund Google competitors

[Dinner]

Yes, many universities get grants from private sources in order to help create jobs in their areas. Places like Standford and the University of California system do it all the time. There is even a market incentive for universities as they'll fund research, get to keep any patients, but will give sweet deals to the former students to use those patients to start new companies hoping to make money which they can use for additional research/patients.

All in all it benifets the community due to new jobs, the uni because they make money, and the students because they get research funded.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by DanS
European universities are almost uniformly public universities and it's tougher for them to be be business-friendly. But it would seem to pretty easy -- even in Europe -- to at least be slightly friendlier and get the ball rolling.

And I don't think it's happening. Much of the reforms (in Flanders, and the EU-wide Bologna process) are centered around integration (between universities) and rationalisation, not greater independence from the state or more interaction with the private sector. The holy cow of equitable access is an idea very few want to sacrifice.

[Seeker]

Why don'tcha branch off. create a series of new insitutions whose sole purpose is educating, concentrating, and tapping the best and brightest in society, and call them 'Newniversities'...totally different from universities which can remain Equality Factories churning out degrees.

Newniversities will offer Newgrees, not Degrees.

[Last Conformist]

If he's a billionaire, why doesn't he fund it himself?

[Qilue]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
If he's a billionaire, why doesn't he fund it himself?

What a quaint notion, private businesses not being subsidised by governments.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
If he's a billionaire, why doesn't he fund it himself?

I guess he doesn't want to lose his status.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Colon™
(in Flanders, and the EU-wide Bologna process)

Well, this is obviously proof that you guys need subsidies. The US discovered the Bologna tech years and years ago and is now working on soylent, the next step in the evolution of processed meats.

[DanS]

Originally posted by Qilue
What a quaint notion, private businesses not being subsidised by governments.

That's so... 1890s.

[realpolitic]

Why isn't he honest about what he's doing, and flush his money down the toilet?

Unless he has an idea that can catch on... It's going to be lost in the crowd.


The last search engines that caught were yahoo and google, eons ago. Yahoo was different, and google indexed everything when the others were indexing only 50 million or so. I doubt there are ideas that will turn people on enough to buy.

[asleepathewheel]

Yeah, I don't see any new search engines becoming viable unless they were incorporated directly into a browser, and even then google already does that, albeit with plugins. I think its foregone for now except for MS, unless something drastic happens, like a breakup of google or california falling into the pacific.

[Seeker]

One potential opening would be if Google ever stopped indexing controversial sites because of politics. (example in China)

A hungry new kid could take advantage of that by indexing everything everything.

[pchang]

Google still indexes everything. They just have a crippled version for China. Any hungry kids would just get banned by the MSS.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by realpolitic
Why isn't he honest about what he's doing, and flush his money down the toilet?

Unless he has an idea that can catch on... It's going to be lost in the crowd.


The last search engines that caught were yahoo and google, eons ago. Yahoo was different, and google indexed everything when the others were indexing only 50 million or so. I doubt there are ideas that will turn people on enough to buy.

Didn't the French state launch a French language search engine a few years back? I believe they were directly subsidizing it plus attempting to digitalize every French language book in the world so anyone attempting to search French language books would have to use their search engine. The problem is Google came up with a plan to scan every book in every langange which is great for the world eliminated one of the few reasons to bother with the French state owned website. As I recall DanS started a thread (maybe it was JohnT) laughing at the French for whining and calling the Americans imperialists because Google was digitalizing French books for free much faster then the French state could manage. As if having more free information for the public was some how a bad thing.

[DanS]

This brings up an interesting side issue. In fact, even though Silicon Valley is a direct descendent of a Stanford University initiative, it is an indirect descendent of the original gift that created Stanford University with so much land that was the basis for the initiative. Google is an indirect descendent of Microsoft, in that Bill Gates gave money for the Stanford Computer Science building in which Page and Brin had their offices. Why don't European billionaires such as Mohn give money to their alma maters? Is it merely that there isn't a tradition of doing so in Europe?

From the FT...

Nike founder in $105m pledge to Stanford

By Rebecca Knight in Boston

Published: August 1 2006 22:04 | Last updated: August 1 2006 22:04

Philip Knight, founder and chairman of Nike, has pledged $105m to Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business - the largest donation in the school’s history and believed to be the largest given to a business school.

The bulk of the gift - $100m - will be used to build a new $275m campus for the Mr Knight’s alma mater, to be named the Knight Management Center. The school plans to break ground on the new management center in 2008. The remaining $5m of the gift will be used to match other donors’ gifts for faculty endowment.

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Robert Joss, dean of the business school, said the new centre will include a 450-seat auditorium, breakout study rooms as well as more flexible classroom space for the greater number of small seminars the school will offer. “This will provide the physical infrastructure for the academic vision we have for ourselves,” he said.

Over the years Mr Knight, who founded the $22bn athletic gear company in 1964, has given millions of dollars to Stanford, including money for the construction of the business school’s Knight Building in 1999, and gifts to the athletic department.

The iconic Nike swoosh will not adorn the new building. “Phil has been a great supporter of Stanford, and he is modest,” said Mr Joss. “It’s not Nike, it’s Phil Knight.”

Business schools are increasingly the recipients of multimillion-dollar gifts. Last year, there were three gifts between $36m and $50m given to university business schools last year. According to Giving USA, a report published by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

In 2004, Stephen Ross, the New York City real estate developer, gave $100m to the University of Michigan’s business school which was subsequently renamed the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. In 2000, San Antonio businessman Red McCombs donated $50m to the University of Texas’ business school, which was also then named after him.

“The gifts are certainly getting bigger,” said Rae Goldsmith, vice-president at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a fund-raising association in Washington. “This reflects how educational institutions are getting more sophisticated about working with major donors and actively soliciting big gift.”

“The costs of higher education are going up – just like industry. These institutions are heavily technology and human resource oriented, they need to recruit top talent and they are trying to cope with the rising costs of healthcare. Plus their buildings tend to be historically old and tend to need updates to their infrastructure,” she said.

Mr Knight, who was raised in Portland, Oregon the son of a lawyer turned newspaper publisher, has built a fortune estimated at $7bn.

He attended the University of Oregon, where he was a middle-distance runner for track team, and he graduated with a degree in journalism in 1959. He enlisted in the army for a year, then enrolled at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford. “Stanford Business School was an important part of my life,” said Mr Knight. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to give back to the school.”

[Colon™]

Originally posted by DanS
This brings up an interesting side issue. In fact, even though Silicon Valley is a direct descendent of a Stanford University initiative, it is an indirect descendent of the original gift that created Stanford University with so much land that was the basis for the initiative. Google is an indirect descendent of Microsoft, in that Bill Gates gave money for the Stanford Computer Science building in which Page and Brin had their offices. Why don't European billionaires such as Mohn give money to their alma maters?

That's probably sociology that comes into play: it's been observed that whenever the state funds certain matters, people expect the state to fund it, and feel much less of a duty that give private donations themselves (welfare, arts, education...). Mohn likely simply doesn't feel it's a responsibility of his to finance his alma-mater, that's what you got the state for.