I am very skeptical of these state sponsored technology ventures. Consider the "Quaero" project, which was a joint venture between France and Germany to develop

I am very skeptical of these state sponsored technology ventures. Consider the "Quaero" project, which was a joint venture between France and Germany to develop a search engine that rivaled Google. Among other issues, the two countries could never agree on the overall direction for the project; should Quaero focus on text-based search or multi-media search? As expected, after several years of development the two countries ceased cooperating and now France is apparently pushing forward with the project on its own. With private enterprise (particularly new ventures), the central concern must be on creating value for customers and subsequently capturing some of this value. When government gets involved, the customer always takes a back seat to politics. This doesn't make for a successful venture.