Multinational corporations (MNCs) have increasingly located research and development (R&D) in developing countries like China and India since the 1990s. On the one hand, governments in developing countries are eager to attract R&D to their local economies; on the other hand, developed countries are concerned about losing their competitive advantages due to R&D offshoring. At the same time, intellectual property (IP) protection is a growing concern considering the weak IP institutions that developing countries typically have.

Presenting both survey findings in Beijing and several case studies on individual MNC R&D labs, Dr. Quan examines MNC R&D labs' activities in China and puts forward a 'hierarchical modular R&D structure' as means of IP protection in weak IPR regime countries.

Quan has extensive research experience in the areas of technology & innovation management, international business, strategy, entrepreneurship, and regional economic development. Besides her recent publications on the Chinese software industry and on Chinese and Indian immigrant professionals in Silicon Valley (with Saxenian), she also has a number of publications in Chinese academic core journals such as "China Industrial Economy." Quan holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, an M. Econ. degree and a B.S. degree both from Beijing University, China.

Before sexology and medical science prevailed in Japan as the accepted forms of "knowledge" of human sexuality, by the 1910s and '20s, other discourses competed with sexology's binaries of "normal sex" and "pathological sex," and so on. Leslie Winston will discuss the paradigm of intersexuality in the work of Shimizu Shikin (1868-1933) and Tokuda Shûsei (1872-1943) as a counter-discourse to the dominant narratives on sexuality. The body of the hermaphrodite confirmed that the roles the state insisted women should assume, in fact had no basis in "nature." As sexologists and scientists were making efforts to eliminate hermaphroditism, Shikin and Shûsei were invigorating it as an alternate discourse.

Leslie Winston is Visiting Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at Dickinson College. Her research focuses on subjectivity, particularly the female subject, in Japanese literature of the 1890s and early twentieth century. Her current interest lies in the discourse on intersexuality and its production of knowledge of the categories of "woman" and "man." She earned her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.A. in English Literature from Stony Brook University, and an M.A. in Communication Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Open source software (OSS) is widely used as operating systems (Linux), web tools (Apache, JBoss), database platforms (MySQL) and a range of applications. Creating OSS is widely believed to be a relatively easy process compared with proprietary software. Its growing use and support from large firms such as IBM and HP have led many to believe that OSS will ultimately replace proprietary software. While this is hotly debated, there is little doubt that as its use increases, it will impact how software services will be delivered. In particular, low cost global delivery centers might benefit from ready access to OSS code. The panel will discuss these and other issues related to the globalization of software services caused by OSS.

Panelists:

Mike Balma is HP's Linux Business Strategist. Mike has helped drive HP's strategy for Linux and Open Source software across HP since 1999. Mike is a member of HP's Open Source Review Board that reviews HP open source projects. He was involved in the Linux port to Itanium. He also helped create an exchange for open source software development. And he helps drive HP's Linux strategy in the public sector including the security related technologies and certifications.

Mitchell Kertzman is a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. He has over 30 years of experience as a CEO of public and private software companies. Most recently, Mitchell was chairman and CEO of Liberate Technologies, a provider of platform software for the delivery of digital services by cable television companies.

Rajesh Setty chairman of CIGNEX Technologies, Inc., a company that he co-founded in late 2000. Setty has managed technology projects and practices over the last 14 years in several parts of the world (India, Singapore, Malayisa, Hong Kong, France and the United States.)

In Thailand in 1997 reformers drafted a new constitution. They hoped to trigger dramatic improvements in the country's political system. Analysts, activists, and politicians alike blamed many of Thailand's problems on shortcomings of a party system seen as dangerously weak and fragmented. Accordingly, the new charter was designed to strengthen political parties while reducing their number. These constitutional changes profoundly affected Thai politics, but not always in the ways or for the reasons that reformers had in mind. Have the changes improved or worsened the quality of democracy in Thailand? In addressing this question, Professor Hicken will highlight the unintended consequences of constitutional reform and the nature of governance under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his Thai Rak Thai Party.

Allen Hicken studies political institutions and policy making in developing countries, especially in Southeast Asia. Countries he has worked in include Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Cambodia. Writing-in-progress includes a book manuscript, "Building Party Systems: Elections, Parties, and Coordination in Developing Democracies." He has published in the American Journal of Political Science and Electorial Studies, among other places. At Michigan he is affiliated with the university's Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Center for Political Studies. He earned his Ph.D in political science and Pacific studies from the University of California - San Diego.

From August 2003 to May 2004, the Korean Supreme Prosecutors' Office, under the leadership of Ahn Dai-Hee, then-chief of its Central Investigation Department, conducted a major investigation of the use of illegal funds in the 2002 presidential election.

This criminal investigation, Korea's largest, targeted illegal activities of leaders of the major political parties and major Korean conglomerates, which had funneled illegal funds to the political parties.

The independent and strictly evidence-based investigation resulted in the arrests and indictments of numerous political and business leaders, and revealed serious corruption in Korean politics and business (also referred to as "government-business collusion").

Mr Ahn's talk will include personal reflections on the investigation and discussion of its impact on political reforms in Korea, including how the investigation helped to significantly reduce corruption in Korea.

Ahn Dai- Hee is Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul High Prosecutors' office. He began his legal career as Army Judge Advocate after passing the national bar examination in 1975 and while still a student at Seoul National University. A prosecutor throughout his career, Mr Ahn's straightforward leadership of the Korean Supreme Prosecutors' Office's investigation into illegal funds in the 2002 presidential election earned him national recognition. Mr Ahn's publications include Criminal Tax Law published by Bobmunsa in 2003.

James S. Fishkin holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication at Stanford University where he is Professor of Communication and Professor of Political Science. He is also Director of Stanford's new Center for Deliberative Democracy.

Fishkin received his B.A. from Yale in 1970 and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale as well as a second Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cambridge.

He is the author of a number of books including Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform (1991), The Dialogue of Justice (1992 ), The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy (1995). With Bruce Ackerman he is co-author most recently of Deliberation Day (Yale Press, 2004). He is best known for developing Deliberative Polling-a practice of public consultation that employs random samples of the citizenry to explore how opinions would change if they were more informed. Professor Fishkin and his collaborators have conducted Deliberative Polls in the US, Britain, Australia, Denmark, Bulgaria, China and other countries.

Fishkin has been a Visiting Fellow Commoner at Trinity College, Cambridge as well as a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and a Guggenheim Fellow.