ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the sources of Silicon Valley’s success and issues that have arisen due to “too much success, inducing, a “Katrina effect,” similar to the long-term consequences of the hurricane for New Orleans. Silicon Valley’s extraordinary success came as a result of following the classic US “Endless Frontier” innovation model of concentrating resources and “picking winners” behind a laissez-faire façade. The dislocation of people in New Orleans caused by the Katrina hurricane is happening not only in San Francisco, but in the whole Silicon Valley region from the influx of firms like Google, Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter. Silicon Valley’s current employment growth is driven both by the location of branches of firms from Asian and Europe seeking to tap into the region’s technology as well as the expansion of indigenous firms, both iconic and startups in long-standing and emerging technology fields.
