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Information Technology Landscape in Nations

Timeline: Key moments in technology park history

1939 - Hewlett Packard founded by Stanford University graduates in Palo Alto, California, the beginnings of "Silicon Valley." 

1951 - Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) partners with General Electric to establish the GE Advanced Electronics Center

1951 - Stanford Research Park founded (Menlo Park, California), the United States' first on-campus technology park

1959 - Research Triangle Park formed in North Carolina

1960 - Pierre Laffitte , principal of the Mines of Paris, designs the International City of Wisdom, Sciences, Arts and Technology. His goal is to establish a center for "cross-fertilization" among high technology companies and research centers. 

1963 - Technology park begins development in Atlanta, Georgia, partnering with the Georgia Institute of Technology

1967 - INRIA (The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) Created in 1967 at Rocquencourt near to Paris

Early 1970's - MATAM Scientific Industry Center founded in Haifa, Israel

1971 - Technology Park/Atlanta, Inc. founded by Georgia Tech alumni

• The first incubators were started in the 1970's.  The National Business Incubation Association was formed in 1985 and today has over 1,130 members.

Stevenson, Joel C. and Thomas, Martha Wetterhall, USC's Technology Incubator, Business & Economic Review, January-March 2001, p. 12.

1974 - Decision to implement the "Parc International d'Activités de Valbonne" in Valbonne, France.  FRANLAB becomes the first company to set up on the site of Sophia Antipolis

1980's - The decade of highest growth for technology park development begins.

Early 1980's - Israeli government passed legislation to encourage industrial research and development, including the distribution of grant money

1981 - Funding authorized for the Rensselaer Technology Park, to be operated in conjunction with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York)

1982 - University of Oulu partners with Finland's state-owned research and electronics center to create what would become Technopolis Oulu

1983 - Japan passes Technopolis Law.  "The purpose of this law was to erect major incubators of original technologies under the keen international competitions, not only in the dominant metropolitan areas but also in the frontier areas of Japan."

1984 - National Technological Park founded in Limerick, Ireland

1991 - India establishes Software Technology Parks of India

1999 - Communications Technology Park established in El Ghazela, Tunisia.  Tunis' Institute of Advanced Business Studies creates an MBA program in information technology and e-commerce to provide workers for the park.

International Technopark of Panama founded

2001 - Expansion efforts underway in many established technology parks and many new technology parks planned throughout the world.