Americans Look for Star in the East
December 21 2006
The 'next Bill Gates' is more likely to come from either China or Japan (49%) than from the United States (21%), according to a poll by Zogby International and 463 Communications. The poll also looked at perceptions of the Internet and its effect on work and society.
'The next Bill Gates has already been born', comments 463 partner Tom Galvin, 'and time will tell what country is providing the environment of innovation, entrepreneurism and opportunity to enable him or her to flourish with the next great idea'. [Thus clearing up the no-doubt-considerable suspicion in the minds of some readers about how the phrase 'the next Bill Gates' was intended – Ed.]
Thirteen percent of respondents believe the person will come from India, according to the Zogby/463 Internet Attitudes poll.
Majorities also believe:
- that kids are more Internet-savvy than Congressmen – 83% think a typical 12-year-old knows more about the Internet than their member of Congress
- that the printing press is a greater invention than the Web - Johannes Gutenberg beats Tim Berners-Lee by a ratio of about 2 to 1 although the Net scores higher among African Americans and actually wins among Hispanic and Asian Americans, 85% of the latter voting for it.
- the car is more important to their work than email. When asked 'What would make it harder for you to work – your car not starting, or losing Internet and email access?', 78% chose the car and only 10% the Net. Higher earners were far more likely to choose the Internet.
- that 'new camera and Internet technologies are turning us into a nation of voyeurs and paparazzi' - two in three Americans agree; and
- that while TIME magazine chose 'You' as this year's 'Man of the Year' reflecting the growth of consumer-generated media, evening news coverage is preferable to a citizen video report on an event - 70% chose the evening news although fully 25% of 18-49 year olds would chose citizen video.
Zogby polled 1,203 adults by telephone between 5th and 8th December. The firm is online at
www.zogby.com while strategic communications consultancy 463 is online at
www.463.com .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
