By legally putting these tools in the hands of students world wide, Gates and Microsoft are cultivating a new generation of innovators and entrepeneurs in what is the vanguard of broad based human efforts (I'm excluding things like genetics and medicine development, since these are very specialised) to better our world and society.
One of the striking things about human progress is that so many of the world's most important new ideas were the work of young people. From Isaac Newton's discoveries as a 23-year-old that formed the basis for calculus, to Charles Darwin, who surveyed the Galapagos Islands at age 26, and Albert Einstein, who published his paper on relativity at age 26, young people have been responsible for breakthroughs that form the foundation for much of our understanding of how the world works.
Young people have played a central role in many other fields, including business and technology. Paul Allen and I were in high school when we started thinking about the personal computer, and I was 20 when we founded Microsoft. Steve Jobs launched Apple at age 21. Sergey Brin and Larry Page were graduate students at Stanford when they developed their first search engine. Yahoo was launched by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo.
Why do young people play such an important role in innovation, even though older people have greater breadth of knowledge and a deeper understanding of their field? My theory is that young people aren't as constrained by traditional ways of thinking. They haven't yet completely absorbed the "right" way to do things, so they are free to pursue ideas that seem impossible to those of us with more experience.
I often see this at Microsoft. It's not unusual to have the best solution to a tough problem come from one of the youngest people working to solve it. Often, our first reaction is that what they are suggesting is crazy, until we understand that they have come at the problem in a creative, new way.
I saw this kind of innovative thinking when I visited the University of Waterloo this past week and spent time with students there who are focused on pushing the envelope in science, engineering, and other fields.
I am optimistic that college and high school students will continue to produce groundbreaking ideas that will change people's lives for the better in the years ahead. But I have some concerns.
In particular, I'm concerned that too few young people are acquiring the knowledge they need to use technology in creative and innovative ways. During the last decade, the number of college students who study math and science in Canada and the United States has declined dramatically. Today, there simply aren't enough people with the right skills to fill the growing demand for computer scientists and computer engineers. This is a critical problem because technology holds the key to progress, and to addressing many of the world's most pressing problems, including health care, education, global inequality, and climate change.
We can all help address this issue. As parents, we must help our children appreciate the joys of learning and discovery. Teachers and educators must find ways to teach science and math so it is relevant and exciting. We look to government to help improve educational excellence in our schools and ensure that all high school graduates have solid math and science skills.
Companies like Microsoft must contribute, too, by working with schools to foster interest in science and mathematics and provide training that is relevant to the needs of business. That's why we recently launched a new program called Microsoft DreamSpark. Through DreamSpark, we are providing professional software development and design tools to university students around the world as a download at no cost.
Our goal is to help students expand their skills and knowledge, and, hopefully, to inspire them to find new ways to turn their great ideas into businesses that create real opportunities and solutions that address real-world problems.
Although the world has changed dramatically during the last 30 years, I believe we are only at the very beginning of what is possible. If we do our jobs as adults, and equip young people with the knowledge and skills they need to turn their great ideas into breakthrough innovations, I believe they will find solutions for many of the difficult problems our world faces today. Their future - and ours - depends on it.
