In search of the spirit of invention in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley—we know it’s there, but its borders elude us. The region is synonymous with innovation, collaboration, and the cutting edge. It’s known for spectacular successes and equally spectacular failures. So, what does define Silicon Valley? And what does it take to make a hot spot of invention? 

Silicon Valley East. Flickr photo by Andrei Z.

Such questions are central to the Lemelson Center’s ongoing research into places of invention, communities where a critical mass of creative, dedicated people, networks, institutions, and resources converge and innovation flourishes. The Center explores such places through the Hot Spots of Invention showcase, monthly podcasts, and more.

Inside the Tesla Motors assembly warehouse in Menlo Park, CA, March 2010. Photo by Amanda Murray.

The power of place was central to the Spirit of Silicon Valley bus tour organized and hosted by the Lemelson Center for this year’s National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) conference in San Francisco. My colleague Jeff Brodie and I traveled with NCIIA conference attendees to some of Silicon Valley’s places of invention. Our destinations: the iconic Hewlett-Packard garage, where electronics pioneers William Hewlett and David Packard designed and built audio oscillators long before they built printers; SRI International, known for pioneering innovations in communications, computing, and more; and the assembly and testing facility of Tesla Motors, a leader in developing high-performance electric cars. (I have my eye on the orange one.)

Like a cross-section of NCIIA’s own membership, our 15-person tour groups included students, engineers, entrepreneurs, and university faculty with interests in innovation. HP’s Corporate Archivist, Anna Mancini, took us inside both the story of a legendary partnership, and the modest Palo Alto home and garage where the company took root. At SRI International, we were treated to demos of a medical automation robot and of the game-changing new smart-phone application-Siri, “Your Virtual Personal Assistant”-that is truly an extension of SRI’s legacy of innovation. In the 1960s, Douglas Engelbart and his team at SRI, then the Stanford Research Institute, developed revolutionary ideas and methods for using computers to augment human intelligence. (Hypertext? That’s all Engelbart.)

HP Corporate Archivist Anna Mancini inside the restored Hewlett-Packard Garage at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto, CA, March 2010. Photo by Amanda Murray.

What about the “spirit” that ties all these places together? Our guest tour guide, Matteo Bittanti, a curator from the Tech Museum of Innovation, suggested that Silicon Valley is a state of mind, that the Valley’s geography matters less than the collaborative attitude of its entrepreneurs. (Although collaboration is a key feature of Silicon Valley as we know it today, the case was not so when orchards outnumbered electronics firms. The Santa Clara Valley was mostly agricultural, home to just a handful of radio electronics companies, as late as the 1940s.)

Leslie Berlin, our other guide and Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford, pointed to the role of serendipity. For instance, William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor, moved his operations to California simply to be closer to his mother in Palo Alto. Shockley’s company, but especially its spin-offs, made the region a hot spot for electronics innovation in the 1950s and 1960s.

Several of our bus tour participants had never been to California, let alone the towns that anchor Silicon Valley. We didn’t set out to reach a consensus about the spirit of this place, or to see of all its landmark institutions. Rather, we aimed to get people thinking and talking about the seen and unseen factors, through history and today, that make Silicon Valley a region that is often imitated but rarely duplicated.

What do you think it takes to make a hot spot of invention? Add your ideas in the comments section below.

Amanda Murray is a project assistant for the National Museum of American History’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation.

Comments

[Roberts]

Culture also plays a huge part in making a hot spot of invention, besides innovation itself. Of course we all still need to look where an idea had started, and what's the best place to start with, culture!

Innovation is widely recognized as a key ingredient of productivity success. There is a strong positive relationship between measures of fundamental innovation, labor productivity and GDP per capita across most countries. The existence of an innovation gap between countries is generally evidenced by lower R&D/GDP ratio and the lower rate of patenting by countries. Without serious innovation a country simply cannot compete effectively.

[Andrej Mikula]

Thank you for a great article about innovation and your view of the spirit of the Silicon Valley. Let me tell you, I've never been to never been to California, because I've never been to USA.

I live in Slovakia and I am about to move there to try and live my Valley dream :)

Thank you again for a nice post that made me think.

[Bob Sukesh]

I liked the read, especially the panoramic view. Yes Silicon Valley is like the lode stone of this century and a lot of aspirations lie here. Its not about success or failure but the fact that innovation is at its core.

[Sean]

@henry

I tend to agree with you about serendipity and having the right mix of people in a place to create something special, however I wonder if there may be more to it.

Are the like minded and talented people in the same place because they are drawn there by the opportunities that place provides, or by the attitude of the people in that place.

Also how often have inspirational and gifted people been in the wrong place at the wrong time and never got the projects off the ground.

However I must agree that when it works are the right people get together in the right place the results can be truly outstanding.

[Eric]

Serendipity seems to play a big role in innovation. When you look at revolutionary innovations in art and music like the impressionist school, The Harlem Renaissance or Motown, you always see a group of gifted and like-minded people coming together in a certain place and time and a resulting explosion of creativity--the Beatles are another prime example.

Of course great art can be produced even on a limited budget. The same can not be said about modern technology. I think that if we want 21st century America to be as innovative as it was in the 19th and 20th centuries, funding from both the public and private sector is going to be a necessity.

We still have the best universities in the world, but we no longer have the largest concentration of capital--most of the money is now in the Far East. Competing with Japan, Singapore, Korea and China--countries that do consciously direct massive amounts of money to developing modern industrial technologies--will require not only ingenuity but also lots of money.

A top priority of our government should be increasing investment in education and research, both independently and in cooperation with business, to provide both young people and our best minds the opportunity and facilities to use their talents.

[Henry]

The innovative culture of the silicon valley is greatly out-lined here. That is why the next generation green vehicles, autonomous vehicles and many "re-inventions" are taking shape here.

It is the Vatican for engineers.

[autoMedia]

A hot spot for electronics innovation ... I think we still have to look favorably at the coming of the electric car and the many car companies that are playing a part in its development. Recently Honda laid out its plans:
The near-future electrified Honda products:

* 2010: A plug-in hybrid will begin real-world testing in cooperation with the city of Torrance, California, home to Honda’s North American headquarters.
* 2010-2011: A battery-electric car will be field tested, in cooperation with Google, Stanford University, and Torrance.
* 2011: Redesigned Civic Hybrid to feature Honda’s first lithium-ion battery application.
* 2012: The battery-electric car goes on sale in the United States.
* 2012: Plug-in hybrid system is introduced for midsized and larger vehicles in the United States.
* 2012: Small diesel engine launched in Europe.

[Jamie Bennett,]

Well, It seems that Silicon Valley is certainly the technological hot spot of invention. What about other areas of invention and their hubs- such as Automobiles and Detroit. I'd say there is certainly a case for the emergence of hot spots of innovation rising from a few independent actions and activities by forward thinkers, entrepreneurs and leaders. Thus, the spirit of Silicon Valley seems to be present in past circumstances and continues to provide inspiration for the thought-leaders and innovators of the future.

[Harrison Barnes]

Innovation is widely recognized as a key ingredient of productivity success. There is a strong positive relationship between measures of fundamental innovation, labor productivity and GDP per capita across most countries. The existence of an innovation gap between countries is generally evidenced by lower R&D/GDP ratio and the lower rate of patenting by countries. Without serious innovation a country simply cannot compete effectively.

[David]

Indeed, creativity and innovation mostly go hand in hand. As rightly pointed out by the author, it is collaboration that matters rather than the geographical location. Further, bright mind attracts other bright minds. GREAT READING! KEEP IT UP!

[Roy]

Innovative ideas have always been the result of complex problems in economic down turns like we're in now. For some reason the harder the problems the more our creativity is squeezed to produce ground breaking ideas and solutions.

[Sophi]

When it comes to the "modern age" no single geographic area has delivered more in ways of innovation than Silicon Valley. This area is a melting pot of some of the brightest minds from very diverse backgrounds. Silicon Valley should no longer be viewed as the geographic location in California, as the people, technologies, and companies have spread their tentacles to all parts of the globe. Silicon Valley is everywhere.

[Frank]

I agree, innovation is a state of mind, not bound by physical limitations. I think what really drives innovation is the possibility to produce a profit and solve a problem at the same time.

[Manjunathds]

Indeed, creativity and innovation mostly go hand in hand. As rightly pointed out by the author, it is collaboration that matters rather than the geographical location. Further, bright mind attracts other bright minds. Moreover, Creativity and innovation are contagious and they can spread like wild fire once set. It only needs a spark for a bright mind!

[Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.]

Innovation is the key to long term success in education or in any organization. Innovation and Intrapreneurship create not only new jobs, but new products or services, and strong growing companies As a successful serial high tech focused Intrapreneur (PR1ME Computer’s PR1ME Leasing, Anaconda-Ericsson Finance, Corona Data OEM Private Label); Senior Executive at TeleCommunications Inc; and successful entrepreneur creating, building and selling of RETIX, and as an academic scholar (author of “Intrapreneurship Success: A PR1ME Example”) I have personally witnessed the power of Innovation in building successful companies and first had seen them grow from just a small startup to major NYSE traded companies in just a few years . Dr Howard Edward Haller, CEO, www.IntrapreneurshipInstitute.com