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As the UK government talks about innovation and Digital Britain, the US government's Chief Technology Officer (CTO) got a rough ride when visiting the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and was told to keep government out of innovation!

A national study by Zogby International released at the show found that 96% of respondents believe innovation is critical to the success of the US as a world economic leader. But the CEA said that there are a number of problems facing the nation. The Association wants to make it easier for skilled workers to come to the US from countries like India and China as well as demanding a change in trade policy to enable US exports to compete with goods from other countries.

"When it comes to innovation there's a lot the government can do, and there's a lot they should not do," said CEA head Gary Shapiro. "The government doesn't spur innovation or entrepreneurship. The government often gets in the way. The government is often a barrier. High taxes and regulatory bureaucracy are barriers."

US government CTO Aneesh Chopra himself had hoped to take the lead on the issue, declaring that more innovation was needed for the greater national good. "We don't have to agree on every issue, but we can always say we have room for improvement to spur innovation and entrepreneurship," he admitted. “We have to eat our own dogfood - Gary is right about the federal deficit. We are in an economic crisis but we are going to tackle it. We have to get this right.”

He cited the healthcare sector as a potential hotbed of innovation. "We don't have a lot of innovation yet about how consumers can communicate with our electronic health record systems and smart meters and frankly education technology," he said. "If you ask how many people receive an electronic record of their health information after they visit a physician or a hospital... I would be shocked if it was more than five percent. It's probably more like two percent. That's one of the provisions we're calling for -- the ability of patients to get records within 48 hours of their request. We should have a fairly open standard that will allow entrepreneurs to make that a low-cost product that physicians and hospitals could acquire.”

Chropra said it was vital to get a universal broadband infrastructure in place to support a digital economy. "We believe the digital infrastructure is equally important," he said, describing broadband investments as "building blocks" that will serve to spur innovation and investment, and ultimately lead to technologies like the smart grid that can address critical national challenges.