ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been a flurry of stimulation activities by governments in countries across the world to accelerate the development of so called high technology industries. Many of these initiatives, such as the TELIDON program in Canada, based upon a new method of data compression, in which $250 million was
fruitlessly spent jointly by government and industry, have been high cost failures. In an attempt to develop a model of government stimulation which might be more effective, the author, as Director of Innovation Policy for Communications Canada designed the following study to focus upon correcting two of the reasons for failure of earlier programs: over ambitiousness and failure of major players to comprehend salient properties of the technology in question.
