John Doerr's advice to Obama: Take Bill Joy

SAN FRANCISCO--In an interview with John Heilemann at the Web 2.0 Summit here today, Kleiner-Perkins VC John Doerr, formerly a Hilary Clinton supporter, relayed the technology advice he would have for President-elect Obama.

As Heilemann noted, Obama has announced that he will look at appointing a chief technology officer to the United States. He asked Doerr about that, and unsurprisingly, Doerr thought it was a "great idea, long overdue."

John Doerr at Web 2.0 Summit

(Credit: CNET Networks / Josh Lowensohn)

And who would be a good choice for the job? Doerr recommended, "Bill Joy. Or if not Bill Joy, then inventor Danny Hillis." Doerr said he would miss Bill Joy from the Kleiner-Perkins team, but he seemed willing to make the sacrifice.

Doerr said the top three things this new CTO should focus on are energy, green technology, and "more basic research."

"The most important thing," Doerr said, that Obama needs to do is, "kick-start a huge amount of innovation and research in energy."

"We invest less than a billion dollars a year in energy, compared to $32 billion in health care." About energy, he said, "It's the challenge for the generation, it's the scourge of the economy."

Of course, a very big part of technology advancement is education. So, Doerr said, "I would create a specific program to double the number of engineers we graduate in the U.S. from 30,000 a year to 60,000." India, he said, graduates 300,000 engineers a year.

Also, regarding foreign students educated in the U.S., we should, "staple a green card to the diploma of anybody who graduates with a degree in the physical sciences in the U.S."

Finally, he'd like to see DARPA restored to pure research, and move its focus off of "mission-based" projects.

Doerr also relayed 11 things entrepreneurs need to do in this economy. It was the same list he gave at a Venture Beat conference last month, with this addition: Cut once. Cut deeper than you think you need to, but only do it once.

See below for video, split into two segments, of Doerr's appearance (courtesy of TechWeb):

Video: Doerr on energy, R&D, a federal CTO, and more.

Video: Doerr on start-ups and the economy

[PandemicSoul]

Bill Joy? The noted future-phobe of "Why the future doesn't need us"? Yeah, no thanks. I want to try and make some progress with this administration -- not see our technology smashed under Luddite feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_future_doesn%27t_need_us

He's right about the only leapfrog advances come from pure research, not mission-based. But it can cost a lot and the benefits aren't predictable. But it's more important than anything.

And Bill Joy? Sorry no way. Not someone who is afraid of our pursuit of technology, who doesn't believe in a bright future but a dark one. There are too many people like him ALREADY running the world and involved in politics. We need to get them out, not put them in charge of scientific direction.

[bemused2]

John Doerr is uninformed of some important facts. His research comments are spot on and important, to be sure, but carrying them out would not be a big "change." The Bush Administration has invesested heavily in energy R&D -- proposing $4 billion in FY09 alone as versus the $1 billion Mr. Doerr claims. Over the course of his Administration, President Bush has invested much much more in this area than the Clinton-Gore Administration ever did, with an important focus on basic research (breakthroughs) not just more demonstration projects -- a favorite but fruitless DOE course since its creation. President Bush also proposed the American Competitiveness Initiative to fund more basic physical science and engineering research -- to double the budgets of the NSF, DOE Office of Science, and NIST Core over 10 years. Unfortunately the Democratic Congress has refused to fund these increases. Hopefully, President Obama will re-propose such vital basic reseach increases, and now Mrs. Pelosi's and Mr. Ried's Congress will see fit to fund them.