From The Washington Post
Diversity, cultural networks power innovation
By Vivek Wadhwa
University of California, Berkeley School of Information’s dean, AnnaLee Saxenian, often talks about a visit, in the ‘90s, by a high-level delegation from Japan. The Japanese kept asking where the government’s administrative offices were. They wanted to meet the people who did the central planning for Silicon Valley in order to learn directly from them. They couldn’t comprehend, said Saxenian, that such an authority didn’t exist -- that Silicon Valley thrives without government intervention.
People in Silicon Valley laugh when they hear these stories. But I have friends in Washington D.C. who, to this day, believe that government has a role to play in Silicon Valley-style innovation. They are mistaken, as are countries, such as Japan, that have invested billions of dollars on science parks and top-down clusters. To stimulate innovation, they have to first understand what really makes the Valley tick....
(Vivek Wadhwa is a visiting scholar at the School of Information.)