As I mentioned in my previous blog that I'm going to share the messages I got from the MSRA Forum I attended. So, here it goes:

1) Dan Ling and  Hsiao-Wuen Hon was asked about their vision about IT in 5 years.

Dan Ling said, despite the global decline for interest in IT nowadays, he see that the demand for IT professional will rise. But there might be a shift. This shift is becoming more and more obvious. It is the focus on cross disciplinary technologies. Pure software experts will be expected to participate largely in this.  Hsiao-Wuen Hon goes to add that therefore we need people that has global views and brains that can create solutions tailoring to the local community. He also said that it is always his belief that students should have the following skills as thier fundamental skill set:

• Math / Logical thinking 
• Programmingg skills
• Team player

(I'm sure this is not the first time we hear people saying this, but I think it's quite important to reinforce the message)

2) Why Beijing for MSRA?

It began with Dan Ling's vision of the rise of Asia for the IT industry. And it is also their belief that you can only get the best from a "talent pool" -- which is now in China. [LJ: it's not hard to understand. Just think about statistics. Assuming God is fair (He is anyway!), He'd place a proportional number of "bright" people in a place. Therefor if China has the biggest population, it's natural that it would contain more number of bright people as compare to other places in Asia.] This is not to say that we do not have talens in the US, Europe or other continents. But people do not come to you anymore in the US. It's because there are too many research institutions and good companies that are all very attractive.

3) Then they are asked about their strategy in penetrating China

Hsiao-Wuen Hon said, well, hire the best minds and integrate with the local facilities and institutudes.[LJ: The answer is rather simple. Or maybe there is something more that cannot be revealed. But we can see that from the frequent coorporation between MSRA and universities in China and Hong Kong lately]

4) Their comment about the issues between China and Taiwan (if we put it more directly, I think they want to ask how about a research lab in Taiwan?)

Dr. Tzeng said that there are also many talents in Taiwan. And one of the major difference between people in China and Taiwan is that people here embrace diversities, which is something you need to be innovative. Being skilled is only one, but we need to be more than simply skilled. Dr. Tzeng himself is into brain science research. And he thinks that Microsoft might want to tap into that too. Hsiao-Wuen Hon and Dan Ling responded to that. They say, having MSRA in China is just the start and it means something beyond having it build in a "country". What they intended to do really is to attack the "mass" first (there are A LOT of people) and then spread the initiative outwards to other countries / region -- outside of Beijing, Hong Kong, Taiwan then down to the South East. They say, that is one of the primary reasons why they wanted to visit Taiwan! (laugh)

5) Opinion on Education Policy. How can an Education institude be ready for the emerging challenges?

Dr. Tzeng was asked about this question because he is the former Head of the Department of Education. He goes to say that it is important to get students aware of the global competition. There is also the need to continue to lessen the gap between the academe and the industry. Another thing that is particularly true for Taiwan is that people have the tendency to all dive into the same area / field when they see light in it. There are 150 universities. All are making themselves to become type A; there is one single mode for teaching. Dr. Tzeng said, it is good to be agile about the need of the world, we cannot afford to put all the eggs in the same basket. The government has to guide the schools. Try to make diversities of talents (rounding back the need that we have in the future -- diversities and cross disciplinary knowledge)

Ok, so the above is half of what's on my notes. Let me post the rest later on.