Since basic needs are satisfied for this group, high technology can make a difference in their everyday lives.

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"This is how technology can make a difference, " said David Shaw, director of the GeoResources Institute at Mississippi State University.

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But for knowledge workers whose jobs involve collaboration, the right technology can make a big difference.

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Even assuming a start-up can develop a technology innovative enough to make a difference, the cost of indexing the Web--which now includes billions of pages--is far higher than it was a decade ago.

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Talent--combined with technology and political will--can make difference.

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To make a real difference, a technology would have to not only offer a low price, but also satisfy a significant share of demand.

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But the market also seems to have penalised some good firms as well as bad (though since so few new technology companies make money, it is often hard to tell the difference).

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The big difference for 2012 is that the technology is in place to make it happen.

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This is a company that is specializing in LED lighting, has been extraordinarily effective in driving down the costs of high-efficiency lighting that is, over time, I think going to make a huge difference, not just for businesses who use the technology, but also for a country that needs to figure out how do we operate in a more energy-efficient way.

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Not every alternative will succeed or make a deep difference, especially not ones for which their only merit is political favor rather than technology progress.

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