It’s amazing how far Silicon Valley culture travels

I've been living in Silicon Valley for four months now, and I find it a continual source of amusement that the people here seem to think that just because so many Internet and tech companies are headquartered here, that the rest of the country (or, in my case, Canada) doesn't use that technology. It's like the Big Three in Detroit thinking no one outside of Michigan drives Chevvies -- ridiculous.

Ironically, from my perspective as someone who's from Toronto, you're quite backward here, technologically speaking. I almost laughed myself silly when I saw you still use paper slips in banks -- haven't seen those for years in Canada. And try to ask a retailer in Canada if they'll take a cheque. They'll look at you like you have two heads -- no one uses cheques anymore. Canada had the first bank to offer online banking, and the rest of ours followed quite quickly. Not only Silicon Valley but the entire U.S. seems about 5 years behind on that front. There are other examples, but I can already feel the flames so I'll stop.

okay, just wanna say a few things... While the American culture is preading its influence, I still say there are other countries that are becoming far more advanced. Japan and South Korea are really going up fast. Nokia from UK, I love the phones! WIFI network? it doesn't work that well. silicon valley may be a state of mind, but it's not at the top of everyone's list.

Simon: hmmm, I'm streaming around HD in my house over an 802.11a network. The trick is to get an "A" network, not a B or G.

But, gigabit ethernet sounds fun for those LAN parties. :-)

To talk about the tech again,

Wifi!, you got to be kidding! ditch that garbage ! get the house flood cabled with gigabit ethernet, its the only way to go, ok maybe have some 11g for the visiting pda's but I draw the line there.

I had Wifi installed back in 2000 after visiting MS in seattle and saw it for the first time, and now after a fair few wifi upgrades I've finally got rid, it just cannot cope with HD content streaming, cable is the only way to go.

Besides, my brothers nephews uncles sisters aunts cousins brother told my fathers brothers sisters cousins nephew to pick up a blank ink cartridge from Wal-mart last night and he said it was made in silicon valley too!

Robert, you sure you ain't from Ole Kaintuck Too?
Juss Kiddin. ; )

Robert, if you re-read what I wrote, you'll note that not only did I put the better in quotes, but that the 'you' in the paragraph was the American people in general, not you specifically.

I was trying to get across the general American attitude to the rest of the world, rather than yours specifically; you only need look at your media to realise that is generally the case.

I help CIOs source technology from around the world and it is delightful to see all the neat mobile apps from Korea, vertical BPO from India, open source from Scandinavia etc, neat gadgets from Taiwan etc.

Having said all that, here is the reality. The US buying power and US capital drives the majority of tech innovation and demand. Some Indian offshore vendors derive 75% of their revenues from the US market. SAP's biggest market is the US. The US doesn't have to be that open - people like Lou Dobbs would love for us to be far more closed

Till Germany or China or India step up and become the engines of tech innovation and growth, like it or not the US will continue to lead the market and yes be somewhat immodest about it. If you don't like Robert's POV show him - with cold dollars or euros or rupees. We in the US need to increase our exports anyways...

Awar: did I say anything about my culture being "better?" No. Again, that's YOUR perception of what I said, which I find extremely interesting.

Tim: oh, you are so kind! Generally I think we've perverted the good old queen's English.

It's amazing how humans have come up with so many languages.

I went to America the other day (specifically Redmond) and they were all speaking English! Well, near enough English that I could understand them anyway.

Those Americans are so cute, using our language so nicely.

I didn't say it is rebellious, it is just funny. And more and more natural. And valleyish.

attilachordash: I wore my Firefox and Apple shirts to work a lot of times when I was at Microsoft (one day I met some members of the Firefox team and gave them a tour around Microsoft too, which was very weird). There were lots of Apple machines, and there's a whole team at Microsoft that works on nothing but Linux stuff.

So, that's not quite as rebellious as it might seem.

forsalebylocals: yeah, but the Wi-Fi Alliance's R&D lab is in Silicon Valley: http://wi-fi.org/contact.php and most of the world's networking companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley too. But, good use of Google! :-)

http://www.wilcorpinc.com/wifi_history.htm

Wi-Fi was apparently invented in the Netherlands Where's that fact-checking article... took all of 30 seconds on...err..ummm....google :P

T

The Microsoft Building here at Cambridge near the Cavendish Laboratory is a nice place, I visited it once in my Google T-shirt and MacBook and my german friends there are working with Linux on Apple laptops exclusively. :)

Deepak: I predict that within 10 years Baidu will bring out English-language services that'll take on Google. There are too many smart people in China to ignore and many of them speak English.

Simon: not sure, but the guy who named Wifi lives in San Francisco.

But, good point about Silicon Valley being a land of immigrants. Very few people in Silicon Valley were born there.

Yup, that's true. I know Microsoft has research labs in Cambridge, too, where part of Xbox Live was developed (among many other things).

Loving the fightin' guys! LOL! Not sure what it's all about - globalisation is undeniable. Besides, I thought we were all friends here!

I'd have thought it was pretty obvious that the influence of America culture can be felt in most countries of the world, though e.g. Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Google. Some people like it, some don't. But you can't deny it.

Not sure, though, that wireless networking was either invented, or its use pioneered, in Silicon Valley. Neither am I sure that the 802.11 group of standards is a Valley thing either.

And, obviously, there are major modern pieces of software that have come out of Europe, and have had a big influence in Silicon Valley e.g. Skype, Linux, MySQL.

And then, we have a European company, Nokia that was one of the big pioneers of that little thing called the mobile phone. It's only had a minor impact, of course on culture of course - just a trillion SMS messages a year being sent around the world.

Then, we have liquid crystals, that power so many of the world's (and Silicon Valley's!) HDTVs and computer screens... they were invented in England.

And bringing it back to Google and Wales.... Google's largest pre-IPO investor was actually a Welshman...

Not sure what all this proves... except maybe that innovation happens in all corners of the planet...

I sure hope not. Considering that I spend more time on google than anywhere else. You bring up an excellent point in Baidu. From what I hear it's a great search engine, but it was developed for a local audience. It wasn't developed for you and me, and there's nothing wrong with that, since there are a billion people who understand chinese.

Google and other web technologies are incredibly democratizing, and they have had a huge impact on the worlds, and if you had presented it that way, I don't think there would have been the flurry of replies that you got. Using the web is not silicon valley culture. I doubt Google was developed just to satisfy the thirst for search of people in the bay area. The consumer is worldwide. The culture is the environment, the VCs, the talent pool. At least that's how I interpret culture.

Deepak: I bet you would. After all, I've heard about Chinese search engine Baidu, even though I can't use that engine cause I don't speak Chinese. Funny enough, who did I hear about that from? Danny Sullivan, who lives in the UK.
Ahh, I see why people are taking it the wrong way. They think I'm making fun of them for using Google. Just the opposite. I'm noting that Google has had a huge impact on the world's culture.

If you are talking about an environment that fosters startups, you have a point, but there is a big difference between the availability of money (and subsequently an imported talent pool) and culture. Using search as a means to access information is hardly a silicon valley monopoly. Also, as someone pointed out, the South Koreans and the Japanese are light years ahead of the US in mobile phone usage and bandwidth.

If someone in Wales comes up with the next great search engine and someone in San Jose uses that search engine, would we say, look at the spread of Welsh culture? I doubt it.

Tomi: yeah, I'm getting punchy. Maybe it's the three beers I had with Robert Gale. Heheh.

I think jet lag is slightly spicing up this conversation.

But let's not forget this Sir called Tim-Berners Lee.

Sorry, next we are fighting about who invented zeroes and ones... ;)

There are a great many things that have come from Wales that you use on a daily basis Robert, albeit not many that date from the last few years.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wal...

The issue is not that these things come from Silicon Valley, but that you are somehow surprised that we are using these things in the rest of the world. *That's* what we are having issue with--your own American-centric view of the world, that anywhere outside your borders is somehow second-rate, and that we should be grateful to you and your countrymen for the globalisation of American culture.

That's not to say it's all bad, and we *do* have a lot to thank you for; but your own success as a country is built on the shoulders of *many* international giants, and your position in the global scheme of influence should not be allowed to make you somehow 'better', or allow you to display the national arrogance that you currently do.

Wake up, look around and see that your country is *not* the world, and that everyone on this planet has something to offer.

JL: >>You don’t travel much, do you?

You must not visit my blog much. I've been to China, Japan, UK, Ireland, Mexico, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Everywhere I look I see American culture. I should tell you about the Starbucks and KFC in Newport too.

Craig: look at where GOogle and Wifi were invented. Silicon Valley. So those terms STARTED in the valley and moved out from there.

Why, again, is it off base? If I were German and visiting Silicon Valley I would note how many Mercedes and BMWs are there.

I think the comments I'm seeing here are funny. Demonstrates more about you than about me.

ummmm when was "googling" and having "wifi" a Silicon Valley thing? The whole premise of your posting is way off base. Sort of shocked here that someone would have such a centric view of the world.

Deepak: really? Why haven't any of the countries in Asia come out with Yahoo, Amazon, Google, or many of the Web 2.0 types of things?
It isn't the string that brings the bits to your house that matters. It's what you do with the string that matters.
The fact that Maryam's brother's son says "he Googles" tells me a lot about how far Silicon Valley's culture travels.
Name one thing that you've used that came from Newport, Wales.
I can't name one and I'm here looking around.

I am with some of the others in this thread. This is not silicon valley culture. Meetups and events around the software industry, especially the web and startups, might be very silicon valley, esp if VCs are involved, but in terms of connectivity, etc, many countries in Asia are far ahead.

jeremy and others: you misunderstood. The fact is that Silicon Valley and American culture (both technology and culture) ARE being picked up here. It wasn't Europe that invented Wifi or Google, yet they are being used in droves here.

Boy you guys are touchy! Is the jealousy of Silicon Valley really that deep that you need to say "we aren't waiting for it?"

I'm jealous of the mobile culture here. Robert Gale says he's looking forward to the 3G network that is opening up on December 1st.

Yeah, agreed. I'd rather use a broader term, say Californian Entrepreneurial Gold Rush Mentality, I had one too, although I am in Europe, concerning biotechnology, regenerative medicine and the Californian Stem Cell Rush. It applies too that area as well. :)

Well It was about Maryam’s family's take on svculture not his perceptions :-)

and wired is more secure and faster.

Any how as a SEO I can tell you its not surprising a lot of people use "Google" in that way. Google has 85% ish of the search market in the uk

Any how everyone going to hydepark rember to brush up on your best Dick Vandyke Cokernee acents and dance routines :-)

The difference it seems to me is that away from Silicon Valley, as in the examples you cite, people are doing things as opposed to using technology. it's the end result that matters to users not so much the elegance of how yo get there.

Try that again...sure didn't work the first time...
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" The rest of the world doesn’t just sit around, mouths filling with drool, waiting for web 2.0 morsels to drop from silicon valley like manna from heaven. "
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I would venture that that is also true here in the U.S.

>> The rest of the world doesn’t just sit around, mouths filling with drool, waiting for web 2.0 morsels to drop from silicon valley like manna from heaven.

Err... Robert... You don't travel much, do you?

Gee... and you were in the UK! I mean, Europe, for God's sake! I guess if you came to Perú and found that more than 50% of the population has access to the Internet and that everyone has a cell phone you would faint from the sheer shock of realization...

Were you specting a victorian-era coach and telegraphs in the UK like in the movies? Hmmm... Do you think we wear feathers down here and drawn lines in the desert to follow the stars? Man, I was connecting to QSD France through my 600bps modem in 1987, not walking my pet llama.

I just got back my Macbook from being serviced (logic board had to be replaced...long story) and they had forgotten to connect the WiFi antenna inside the laptop.

Talk about a rude awakening and a blast from the past. I had to stretch a too short Ethernet cable across the room to my wireless router just to get internet, curving my laptop on my desk just right so the cable could reach the ethernet port on the laptop. It was almost like going through detox. I just wanted WiFi!

Yesterday the WiFi was fixed thanks to the Apple Store. I spent all night using the Macbook pretty much anywhere I could think of in my condo.

Another stunning example of the typical US=whole world attitude, the primary cause of so much American-ill-will across the world.

You and your country don't have a monopoly on technology or science, and the rest of us certainly don't sit like idiot children waiting to soak up your products and culture, as if we don't have our our own.

Indeed, a lot of what we /do/ have is imposed upon us because we need to interoperate with a society in which a large proportion has never been outside its own borders, and is completely ignorant of any other countries' views, contributions and even geographic locations.

Welcome to the the big wide world Robert, it's nice to have you visit...

Silicon Valley culture? Google searches and WiFi?

As jeremyet stated, the rest of the world is just fine, thank you. The US is historically behind in broadband speed and penetration when compared to places such as South Korea. The US is light years behind in mobile usage when compared to Norway, Japan, Finland, Sweden, etc.

The US has a lot going for it, but there's a big world out there.

Online gaming? The Asian countries are driving it.

Japan is one big "gadget city".

hi robert

Frankly it amazes me that you are suprised about this. The rest of the world doesn't just sit around, mouths filling with drool, waiting for web 2.0 morsels to drop from silicon valley like manna from heaven. The US is not the country with the highest broadband penetration, the greatest number of cellphones per head of capita or any number of measures of techno-geek distribution. Are you going to be suprised at how well they speak English over here as well?

jeremyet
London, UK