FIGURE 1 Examples of government-sponsored IT research and development in the creation of commercial products and industries. Federally sponsored research lies at the heart of many of today's multibillion-dollar information technology industries—industries that are transforming our lives and driving our economy. Ideas and people flow in complex patterns. The interaction of research ideas multiplies their effect. The result is that the United States is the world leader in this critical arena. Although the figure reflects input from many individuals at multiple points in time, ensuring readability required making judgments about the examples to present, which should be seen as illustrative rather than exhaustive. SOURCE: 2002 update by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of a figure (Figure ES.1) originally published in Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council, 1995, Evolving the High Performance Computing and Communications Initiative to Support the Nation's Information Infrastructure, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.