OMG The U.S. Is No Longer Tech King

1. Denmark
2. Sweden
3. Singapore
4. Finland
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. US
8. Iceland
9. UK
10. Norway

See the order of those flags (read left to right people)? Those represent the world's top 10 most tech savvy or to better put it, "network ready" countries. The U.S. is in 7th place knocked all the way down from 1st. What the hell happened and what does this mean?

Answering the latter question first. The annual report is compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). Countries are judged on integration of technology in business, education, the infrastructure, innovation, government policy and promotion of the latest technologies. That being said, Scandinavia swept the top 10 with Denmark leaping to 1st place. Countries you normally associate with high-tech like Japan and South Korea are numbers 14 and 19. So how did Denmark make it to number 1?

Apparently Denmark has adapted to new technological trends faster than any other country. Everything from their telecommunications sector to government services are online and networked.

The U.S. dropped out of 1st because of a deterioration in the political and regulatory environment. HELLO BUSH ADMINISTRATION! However, the U.S. still has two of the most important ingredients to regain 1st place; innovation and the power of the almighty dollar. That's right, we have the ideas and the money. We just don't have the execution anymore.

Of course, I could care less about reports like these since they don't seem to take SIZE into consideration. I mean Singapore is essentially a city-state. If they can't network one city, then they really need some help. And what about my favorite tech nation, Japan? Well, it seems the Japanese have the same problem.; TONS of ideas, LOADS of money, but poor execution.

via BBC

Download the entire report here (pdf)