Could You Reproduce Silicon Valley Elsewhere?

[dismayed]

This is an interesting read that I stumbled upon recently. The author tries to tackle the big question... why is Silicon Valley Silicon Valley, and could it be reproduced somewhere else?

The author is no slouch, he has computer science degrees from Cornell and Harvard, has written several technical books, and most importantly has been involved in several hi-tech start-up companies. Hope you enjoy!

[Out of respect for the author's work I will just link to his webpage]


How to Be Silicon Valley

[Kerry]

Interesting article. However, the original silicon valley is shadow of its former self. Half of the buildings on Cisco's campus are vacant and most of their reseach and development is now done in North Carolina and Intel is in the process of closing it last silicon valley plant. Most of Google's new projects are taking place in areas like eastern Oklahoma. Silicon Valley will not become the next Detorit. Unlike car companies that grew up and never moved away from Detroit, information companies grow up and move away.

[BDP]

Most of Google's new projects are taking place in areas like eastern Oklahoma.

I thought it was just one of their data centers and it's been delayed, last I heard.

What else are they doing out there?

No doubt silicone valley is nothing what it was in the 90s. The peninsula is even more barren compared to what it used to be, but you're still talking about one of the highest median income areas in the United States where most of the top minds of these companies still live, work, and spend their money. It's also one of the highest educated zip codes in the country, where lots of innovation and investment in technology development takes place.

Obviously, these companies are going to farm out their data and customer service operations as it makes no sense to pay someone 90k in CA to maintain your data center when you can pay someone in eastern Oklahoma 48k to do it. However, i think the point of the article is how to foster an environment like silicone valley that creates a magnet for investment dollars, as this is where the real money is. Clearly, it begins and ends with highly educated and highly motivated people. If you can foster an environment where innovative people want to love and work, I think the money will follow.

[Karried]

That's where I grew up. I think the problem is that to attract a qualified workforce, the housing has to be in line with the salaries... and it got waaayyy too out of whack.

[bluedogok]

Google closed its development office here in Austin after the first of the year. It really hit Austin hard when the tech bubble burst around 2001 because they were so concentrated in the sector with Dell, HP, IBM and others having large campuses here.

High-tech is a fickle market, we have many high-tech companies here in Austin and the other assorted things that feed them like venture capital concerns. It has been an up and down industry here, some move in from California and some move back. Manufacturing plants are built (Samsung recently completed a very large plant in northeast Austin) and others keep closing up. AMD builds a huge campus here and then goes through layoffs. Three years ago I worked on the new Midway Games offices (150+ employees), they closed them up a couple of months ago.

Diversification is the key, Austin has diversified some but is still tied to high-tech for the most part. Most of the "old Austin" people haven't liked the influence of the Californians who relocated because of the tech sector but it did get a bunch of those residential towers kick started...to them $300/sf condos were a bargain.

[Centerback]

I think you could produce silicone valley elsewhere but it would probably be called saline valley and just would feel as natural...

[stlokc]

I don't think OKC has much of a chance of being a Silicon Valley, if that was the point of floating the question. I do, however, think that if OKC is looking at its natural advantages and what growth industries it can get in front of, an excellent place to look would be wind energy companies. In 20-30 years that is going to be a huge part of this nation's energy grid. If the first big ones begin to set their HQ in OKC and OKC became where the focus of the talent was, That would be a great addition to the economy. And really, what major metro area lies closer to the "wind belt" across the western Great Plains?

[soonerguru]

Most of Google's new projects are taking place in areas like eastern Oklahoma.

Say what? This "project" is a freaking server farm. Big whoop.

In order to be a Silicon Valley, we need inventive, educated people and capital.

[Luke]

Say what? This "project" is a freaking server farm. Big whoop.

In order to be a Silicon Valley, we need inventive, educated people and capital.

Technically southeastern Oklahoma would work because there are valleys there. That would go a long way to reproducing silicon valley. That may be the only similarity between the two though.

[BDP]

I don't think OKC has much of a chance of being a Silicon Valley, if that was the point of floating the question. I do, however, think that if OKC is looking at its natural advantages and what growth industries it can get in front of, an excellent place to look would be wind energy companies. In 20-30 years that is going to be a huge part of this nation's energy grid. If the first big ones begin to set their HQ in OKC and OKC became where the focus of the talent was, That would be a great addition to the economy. And really, what major metro area lies closer to the "wind belt" across the western Great Plains?

I think this is a good point and I believe there is a company in Norman that is a relatively big player in the small turbine sector.

I think as we see the energy sector diversify, it would be a good for Oklahoma to diversify with it. I think that we need economic diversification across the board, but it would really suck to see us suffer because we didn't even diversify within one of our strong areas.

[soonerguru]

The first step would be to psychologically rebrand ourselves as an "energy state." Right now, the term of art I hear most commonly is that we are an "oil and gas" state. Intrinsically, we are defensive of our carbon fuel sources. Fine. But we need to expand our thinking. If it's energy, we should be experts at harnessing and marketing it, period. I'm not clear whether we have the infrastructure to make this happen at our universities, but if we don't, we need to be moving in that direction. OKC and Tulsa, with Stillwater and Norman, could be like a research parallelogram, if not a "research triangle," like they have in NC.

[Stan Silliman]

I think you could produce silicone valley elsewhere but it would probably be called saline valley and just would feel as natural...

Saline is an updated product so the idea is workable. But to have a progressive high tech innovation center you have to have a song. SV had it with Simon and Garfunkel's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"

Without a song there's no valley, no mission, no raison d'etre'.

If you need help in this area, let me know.

[dismayed]

My thought is that the things the article describes really work for any modern industry. My condensed take on the article:

The first thing is that there must be a magnet, something to draw people in the field in. Capturing them while they are young and keeping them here would be the best strategy. President Boren's idea of making OU the 'Harvard of the Plains' may be the best way to do this.

Next we have to make sure we are creating a city that smart people want to live in. Students, investors, graduates, nerds... they should all come here and say, "wow, I had no idea OKC/Norman/Edmond/etc. was X, I think I'll stay." We have to make sure our cities have lots of landscaping and side-walks and are generally pedestrian friendly. Large-scale cookie-cutter development projects should be completely banned by city ordinance. The city should have a charming personality of its own and this can be accomplished by ensuring that locally-owned restaurants and shops are healthy and thriving in the community. City development should be planned out in such a way to place emphasis on a city core and population density. The city must have personality... what makes it unique? What is its history? Why should it be a tourist destination?

Continuing with the city development, we need to make sure people are happy to live here, that the real estate/economics of the situation is good, that there are cafes, book stores, hiking and parks nearby and that there are attractions that appeal to the young (not children per se, the young). A college atmosphere (e.g. a tolerant atmosphere that allows oddness and strange ideas... after all you have to be a bit odd to think you can start a business from scratch and change the world) should be present.

It's up to individual people, companies, and civic organizations to do the dirty work and attract the right talent. It is NOT government's responsibility... they will fail at it.

Maybe the most important thing that I take away from that article is that all it takes is for one start-up to hit it big, then the next thing you know it is drawing tons of companies to it, lots of wealthy people are being created who can turn around and fund other start-ups, and so on.

[soonerguru]

dismayed,

I completely share your ideas on this matter, but we will always have an ultraconservative, churchy hierarchy trying to convince us that "we don't want that here. You might as well move to San Fran if you don't like it."

That said, OKC already has a lot of these things.

To your list, I would add serious urban living options, a broader array of grocery stores and food stores, a slightly better music scene, a newspaper whose editorial voice isn't planted in the 1950s, and political leadership that isn't always trying to attack gays and progressives.

[soonerguru]

I should add: the business community has made enormous strides here, as have the Chamber of Commerce. Still, a lot of our politicians eat sleep and breathe the "Right to Work" is going to bring us industry, if only we had "Worker's Comp Reform" and "Lawsuit Reform" we would transform our economy dogmas.

Not saying some of those things aren't factors, but the biggest BY FAR, is access to talent. Everything else is secondary. If talent wants to be here, we have a shot. If we don't have enough talent, no shot, regardless of tax base, incentives, etc.

Of course, with Right to Work we can always go after the bottom feeder employers until they ultimately offshore to Mexico.

[bluedogok]

I think this is a good point and I believe there is a company in Norman that is a relatively big player in the small turbine sector.

Bergey Windpower is based in Norman and started by a former OU professor from research done while he was at the school.

[trison]

It wasn't that long ago that Barry Tapp and Bob Funk were touting that the land that they acquired along the turnpike between N.W. Expressway and 39th Street was going to be the next Silicone Valley. The city was set to do a tremendous amount of infrastracture work but the deal seemed to fade away. At the time they were stating that they were in negotiations with several hi-tech companies but I'm not sure what happened.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Saline is an updated product so the idea is workable. But to have a progressive high tech innovation center you have to have a song. SV had it with Simon and Garfunkel's "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"

Without a song there's no valley, no mission, no raison d'etre'.

If you need help in this area, let me know.

Lots of songs about the plains!

We should write a new one.

We'll put cowboys and Indians in it. Probably add a verse about buffalos for good measure as well. THAT'LL BRING THE TALENT!

[lasomeday]

I think that we already have a niche that is growing and set to explode in the next ten years, and that is the Weather Center in Norman. They are attracting companies like crazy. I predict that there will be four or five more companies moving to Norman in the next 18 months.

[Spartan]

Ever heard of the Silicon Prairie? aka Dallas. The nickname will never take on because people will prefer to know Dallas as the Big D. But they've already promoted themselves as the Silicon Prairie, officially even, to recruit more high tech companies.

Really Dallas isn't even #1 in their own state for tech. That would be Houston, with the world's largest concentration of medical research.

OKC's best bet is to follow Houston's path, not Dallas or San Jose. This is because we already have a great head start on a medical research district similar to the southwest of DT Houston, only like 1/100th in size. I would still say OKC probably beats Dallas NOW for medical research, and will never beat Dallas for non-medical research, so clearly medical is the way to go. OMRF is a great foundation. OU is turning into a huge player in OKC.

[dismayed]

lasomeday, I agree. I think Norman is our best bet for up-starts right now both because it was voted in the Top 10 best cities in America by CNN and because it has arguably the brightest and the best climate for weather research in the entire world, something which truly is unique.

I almost mentioned it earlier but it seems like any time I get too positive about Norman the OKC folks get upset!

PS - Also agree that great things are going on at OUHSC and the surrounding areas in OKC.

[Spartan]

OKCers seem to prefer thinking of Norman as a less important Edmond.

[soonerguru]

OKCers seem to prefer thinking of Norman as a less important Edmond.

Not me. Edmond has NOTHING on Norman. Literally nothing. It is a bedroom community and scarcely more.

[bluedogok]

It wasn't that long ago that Barry Tapp and Bob Funk were touting that the land that they acquired along the turnpike between N.W. Expressway and 39th Street was going to be the next Silicone Valley. The city was set to do a tremendous amount of infrastracture work but the deal seemed to fade away. At the time they were stating that they were in negotiations with several hi-tech companies but I'm not sure what happened.

Are you talking about this one which was based on an Intel wafer plant. The Kilpatrick is going through the middle of the drawing with NW Expressway on the right and Wilshire on the left.

[Spartan]

It probably would have happened if not for the Epic Fall of Bob Funk.