What country will produce the next Bill Gates?

By J.W. Elphinstone

updated 7:30 p.m. ET Jan. 2, 2007

Seattle produced technology great Bill Gates, but where will his successor come from? Not here, most Americans said in a recent survey.

Nearly half of Americans said that the next great technology leader will come from China or Japan, while just one in five believe he or she will hail from the United States. Thirteen percent think India will produce the next tech great.

Zogby International and 463 Communications released the survey.

“The next Bill Gates has already been born, and time will tell what country is providing the environment of innovation, entrepreneurism and opportunity to enable him or her to flourish with the next great idea,” said 463 partner Tom Gavin.

The survey also showed that Americans overwhelmingly believe that the average 12-year-old knows more about the World Wide Web than their Congressman.

Two-thirds of Americans also believe that the Internet will be accessible anywhere in the world in the next ten years.

But for all the change the Internet has created and will create, only one-third of Americans said it’s a greater invention than the printing press.

The survey polled 1,203 adults by telephone in December.

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