Local Knowledge

Abstract

The ubiquity of information makes it easy to overlook the local character of innovative knowledge. Nowhere is this local character more overlooked yet paradoxically more evident than in Silicon Valley. The Valley persists as a densely interconnected innovative region, though its inhabitants loudly proclaim that the information technology they develop renders distance dead and place insignificant. It persists, we argue, because of the local character of innovative knowledge, which flows in social rather than digital networks. The locality of innovative knowledge highlights the challenge of developing other regions for the modern economy. Should these abandon traditional local strengths and strive to become another Silicon Valley? Or should they concentrate on their traditional strengths and rely on Silicon Valley and the other established high-tech regions to provide the necessary technology to survive in the digital age? We argue that they should do neither, but instead develop new technologies in service of their existing competencies and needs. Finding new ways to address indigenous problems is the right way, we believe, to tie to the region expertise, talent, and capital that might otherwise be lost to the lure of existing high-tech clusters.