A panel of CEOs from Xerox, Ford and Verizon spoke on education and innovation during CES as reported by Vegas Inc. The executives pointed out that better education and economic diversification were the key to the United States catching up to leading businesses around the world.

“We must fundamentally improve our educational system,” Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox, said during the CES’ Innovation Power Panel session. “We need to make science and math a desirable place to be. We need great teachers. We need excited learners. We can’t complain if we don’t have them, if we don’t invest in them.”

She went on to say that a part of the solution was to make students realize that four or six more years of education after high school could change their financial outlook and success.

“Unfortunately, it’s still not cool to be that way,” Burns said. “And it’s amazing to me how few people are thinking that way.”

CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro, moderator of the panel, said that the aftermath of the death of Steve Jobs put an emphasis on his role as an innovator. It was good for the industry as it showed the importance of innovators and the need for a solid education.

Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford, said that the United States needed to get back to letting businesses grow.

“Manufacturing can be a big part of fueling U.S. growth,” Mulally said. “It’s almost like we’ve decided not to be competitive.”

John Stratton, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, said that his company was fostering innovation through the opening of centers in Boston and San Francisco that invite entrepreneurs to develop phone apps and services.

Stratton blamed the government for not establishing new tax policies and putting regulatory burdens on companies as the main reasons behind their stifled innovation.

The executives praised the section on the CES show floor called Eureka! Park that features more than 100 new technologies. Shapiro said that the area featured product categories like broadband services, safe driving and sustainable technologies. It’s his hope that venture capitalists will invest in these new technologies to bring them to market.

While he wasn’t inventor of Xerox copiers, Jacob Goldman, a physicist and visionary, made an even more important contribution to your life: he was the chief scientist of Xerox’s research center that invented the modern personal computer. So today, when you bitTorrent the Fast and Furious series or tweet about how long it’s taking you to move through the ordering line at Panera, take a moment to respectful observe the contribution of Dr. Goldman for he has passed. He was 90.

Xerox has been so successful in the realm of office copiers that its synonymous with any copying machine, not to mention that it’s now been verbified (“Peeeter, what’s happening? Hey, could you go Xerox 30 copies of this for me? Greeeaaaat, thanks.”). Foreseeing that the people of the future would want to copy things in a new way, a la “copy and paste,” Xerox entered the realm of computer manufacturing. Xerox brought in Dr. Goldman to helm the mission to shrink and personalize the computer (these were still the days of living room-sized computers you see in old sci-fi war rooms) and, voila, about 40 years later you probably couldn’t figure out how to turn on a faucet without your personal computer.

While Xerox fumbled their future with personal computers, you still have Dr. Goldman to thank for the fact that you can read this from your laptop, tablet, phone, whatever. Just think, we might not have had Saint Jobs had it not been for Dr. Goldman’s innovative, brilliant mind.

Apparently Google and Yahoo are willing to accept either of a couple explanations for why they’re not guilty of infringement.  Reuters reported, "In filings in Delaware federal court on Thursday, the defendants sought declarations that they did not infringe the two patents at issue, or variantly that the patents are invalid and thus cannot be enforced by Xerox."

That’s a rather interesting approach, but one that’s hard to argue with.  It’ll allow Google and Yahoo’s lawyers to look for loopholes even as they claim that the patents are too broad (one covers generating queries based on keyword searches, while the other relates to updating pages based on user reviews).

Also, even if the tactic seems a little unrefined, a whole lot of products – including AdSense, AdWords, Google Maps, Google Video, YouTube, the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Shopping, and the Y!Q Contextual Search tool – might be affected by the outcome of this case, so it’s natural that Google and Yahoo would explore all possibilities.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on how these cases progress, although there’s no reason to believe that the matter will be resolved in the near future.

Xerox claims that Google and Yahoo have infringed on two patents it holds.  Susan Decker explained earlier this morning, "One patent, issued in 2004, is for a way to automatically generate a query based on keyword searches. . . .  The second patent, issued in 2001, is for a way of updating pages based on user reviews."

Xerox would like to be compensated for Google and Yahoo’s alleged infringement, and also wants to bar them from using the tech again without its consent (which could probably be obtained via a licensing agreement).

Of course, Google and Yahoo aren’t liable to hand Xerox a blank check.  One of Google’s lawyers has already described Xerox’s claims as being "without merit," and Carol Bartz isn’t the type to shy from a fight.

This could turn into quite a legal battle, then, and the operation of AdSense, AdWords, Google Maps, Google Video, YouTube, the Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Search Marketing, Yahoo Shopping, and the Y!Q Contextual Search tool might be affected by the outcome.

“Xerox Corp. says its new search engine based on semantics will analyze the meaning behind questions and documents to help researchers find information more quickly,” reports the AP’s Stephen Singer.  “FactSpotter promises to help by returning a specific portion of a search document that is relevant to the query.”

Singer then relays an example of what semantic search is all about.  “For example, common searches using keywords ‘Lincoln’ and ‘vice president’ likely won’t reveal President Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president.  A semantic search should yield the answer: Hannibal Hamlin.”

But here’s where Xerox may have a problem, as, following a Google search for “Lincoln vice president,” I can see Hamlin’s name in the second, sixth, ninth, and tenth results – without even bothering to click or anything.  Whatever Xerox can do, Google may be able to do better.

Then there are the companies that only do semantic search.  Powerset’s engine hasn’t yet been released, but a lot of people have been impressed by some early previews.

Still, Xerox’s product isn’t yet “out there,” either, so it’s too early to judge how things will go.  “FactSpotter was introduced in Grenoble on Wednesday and will launch next year,” states Singer, “initially to help lawyers and corporate litigation departments plow through thousands of pages of legal documents.  Xerox expects the technology to eventually be used in health care, manufacturing and financial services.”

A recent BtoB Magazine article by Carol Krol, “Copy this: Telemarketing big with Xerox” shows that, although the phone may not be as buzz worthy as other lead generation tools, it remains the backbone to successful lead generation.

Still, as Krol’s article shows, the telephone shouldn’t stand alone. It functions best as the integrated hub for all other lead generation modalities and the central point for qualifying inquires and sales ready leads. And I have found no other tool is as accurate when it comes to collecting the qualitative information salespeople require to justify pursuing a lead.

It is fascinating to see just how versatile–and necessary–the phone is, with such applications as:

• Initial prospecting and qualification.
• Qualifying inquiries from various sources.
• Appending data and information.
• Reconnecting with past customers and leads.
• Centralizing leads for profiling and scoring.
• Following up on requests for information.
• Driving seminar and webinar attendance.
• Inviting and following up on trade show attendees.
• Validating direct marketing lists.
• Following up on direct mail campaigns.
• Building a database.
• Scheduling sales appointments.
• Developing relationships.
• Getting internal referrals.

To use the phone as an effective lead generation strategy, consider creating a specialized teleprospecting function within the marketing group. The teleprospecting program is extremely helpful in creating a functional bridge between the sale and marketing teams.

Creating a teleprospecting or lead management team, as an internal unit is easier said than done. So it is not surprising that more organizations are outsourcing their teleprospecting activities to companies like mine.

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Brian Carroll is the CEO of InTouch Inc. InTouch is a 50-person company focused on delivering effective lead generation solutions for “the complex sale.”

Brian authors the very interesting B2B Lead Generation Blog which focuses on B2B lead generation, sales leads, and marketing for the complex sale.

The space agency has a few bugs to work out of the system first. In testing, the voice recognition system had an error rate of ten percent, far too high for potential use in space. After collaborating with Xerox, they’ve lowered the error rate to only five percent.

Called Clarissa, the software has been designed to be a general purpose “procedure reader.” This will help with the lengthy complex checklists of steps astronauts must follow when performing experiments.

“Just try to analyze a water sample while scrolling through pages of a procedure manual displayed on a computer monitor while you and the computer float in microgravity,” challenges astronaut Michael Fincke, who recently completed a six-month stay on the International Space Station.

Scientists from NASA and Xerox demonstrated the technology at the Association for Computational Linguists’ 25th annual meeting at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

“Clarissa is a fully voice-operated ‘virtual crew assistant,’ enabling astronauts to be more efficient with their hands and eyes and to give full attention to the task while they navigate through the procedure using spoken commands,” said Beth Ann Hockey, project lead on the team that developed Clarissa at NASA Ames.

Early versions of Clarissa tried to analyze all dialogue spoken by astronauts in testing. To say that could be dangerous to astronauts were the system widely integrated with the functions of a space station or craft would be understatement.

In 2004, Clarissa lead implementer Manny Rayner of NASA Ames contacted Xerox researcher Jean-Michel Renders of Xerox Research Centre Europe about a possible collaboration. They hoped that Xerox’s experience in machine learning, linguistics and text categorization would increase the system’s accuracy on the ‘open microphone’ task.

Xerox delivered. The Clarissa system can now more accurately analyze what is said, and recognizes words, sentences, and context of usage. A sophisticated machine-learning algorithm weighs the various pieces of positive and negative information. Clarissa can better recognize differences between system commands and innocuous conversations.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.