[TUHS] Re: Demise of AT&T

Ric, Thanks for the great reply. Like Unix, there were a lot of actors who contributed to the success of Silicon Valley, all on the critical path. Terman & his work with Stanford is a big certainly part of the story, but I don’t agree with the Stanford view that they were wholly, or mainly, responsible for Silicon Valley. Terman tried very hard to sell his model after 1966, but nobody could see how to implement it - suggesting to me it was only possible within the context of California. Carolyn Tajnai, 1996 From the Valley of Heart's Delight to the Silicon Valley CSL-TR-97-713 <http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/97/713/CSL-TR-97-713.pdf> California grew rapidly before and outside Silicon Valley, Hollywood springs to mind. It’s grown faster than every other US State and all other nations, at least from 1900-2000. While it’s population has grown largely from immigration, the GDP per person has also grown faster than elsewhere. The “mainly” Stanford / Terman hypothesis isn’t the whole story IMHO, because the prior 50+ years of growth in California shows somehow it was “special”. Other people point to the climate, cheap Real Estate, lots of jobs, business opportunities, good pay and other factors… [ there was a significant ‘barrier to entry’ for settling in The West - the high cost of getting there ] [ Most / all of the Immigrants from ‘back East’ were educated middle class with savings & ambition ] [ New York, in comparison, had immigrants living in slums and working for subsistence wages, ] [ NYC was a recreation of the Feudal social hierarchy they’d fled. Very few got rich, nearly none without money ] None of those reasons is necessary & sufficient, IMHO. California also has progressive politics, even under Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state has been a leader in pollution & environmental laws since the 1960’s. Although the term, “vigilante", was coined in San Francisco before it had strong law enforcement, was part of “The Wild West” where cowboys carried firearms and ‘settled differences’ by shooting, California now has stricter gun laws than most states and lower rates of gunshot deaths. <https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/> Perhaps the stronger environmental laws is partly explained by a Constitutional protection preventing ‘capture’ of the legislature & judiciary by Political Parties & elected officials, allowing the citizens to force change directly: Citizen Initiated Referenda / Initiatives [ links below ] This forms part of the context of California, something different about its culture, but isn’t “the One thing”. As I said, I’ve sifted through a lot [ for me ] and not been able to find a definitive casual link, leading me to think it’s a constellation of reinforcing conditions that created & sustained Silicon Valley. Stanford & Terman were necessary in this, of course. Thanks for the comments & good links. cheers steve j ================ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_ballot_proposition> There are three forms of direct democracy in California state elections: mandatory referendums (part of the Constitution of California since 1856), optional referendums, and initiatives. The initiative and optional (or facultative) referendum were introduced as Progressive Era reforms in 1911, by a constitutional amendment called Proposition 7. History of California Initiatives <https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/resources-and-historical-information/history-california-initiatives> ================ Gregory Gromov in “El Dorado” notes another contributing factor - banning of ‘anti-compete’ clauses in employment contracts. <http://silicon-valley-history.com/> With this catalyst of scientific and technological process acting locally in just one American state, a very special law was enacted in California in 1872. The law in question declared null and void any contract between a business owner and employee if said contract in any way restricted the employee’s freedom to change employers, even if that meant joining the former employer’s competition. In other words, any previously signed agreements—for example, an employee contract signed upon hiring— that could in any way limit the employee’s right to freely choose his or her place of work were deemed unenforceable in this 1872 law. More specifically, those clauses that were in conflict with this law were deemed unenforceable. As a result of this cascade of direct and indirect consequences from the application of this law in Silicon Valley, today a number of generally operating U.S. legal standards, including some of the most important, are practically blocked (“de facto” canceled). ================ -- Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design 0412 786 915 (+61 412 786 915) PO Box 38, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA mailto:sjenkin@canb.auug.org.au http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin