Cue the time machine. In 2007 I wrote about Silicon Valley and what it was like in the year 2000. Strap in, here we go:
The Silicon Valley Story, Year 2000
It was so much fun to be here in the year 2000. The future was exciting, everyone was giddy with the possibility of tech as miracle. And it was. It made money out of nothing; but then gave it back. However, SiliconValley is resilient and now, in 2007, we are back with more and more and the new, new thing. More conservative perhaps, maybe not. This might come to be known as the Social Networking Era.
Everyone blogs now. I was an early adopter and began in 2000. So long ago it was called a weblog, its original name.
This was the introduction to my blog. On Blogger. Which was not owned by Google. Imagine that.
| In his best selling book on Silicon Valley, “The New New Thing”, author Michael Lewis explains that until 1994, Silicon Valley was simply the source of a few high tech companies. In April of that year, Netscape incorporated and a sea change occurred. Lewis says unprecedented wealth was created. And it has. This wealth has changed forever the face of this area. as housing, food, cars, are all at unheard of prices. But the sea change involved more than just the creation of newly minted mega millionaires. Places we used to call San Jose, Santa Clara. Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos and Palo Alto are no longer discrete communities in the eye of the world. They are Silicon Valley. A place or a state of mind? The people who live here, work here are at the eye of the storm. Their homes are worth millions and yet they did nothing to increase the value; the “dot-comers” did it. Yet, these same people with the enormous wealth in their homes resent the invasion of the techno culture and all it brings. New restaurants, the demise of others, the SUV’s, the Starbucks, all are lightning rods for the anger and resentment. Yet, the net has come and change won’t flow backwards. The media has been in charge of how the world views the Valleyand its lifestyles, its tech innovations and the people that come here, attracted by the talent, the money, the possibilities. But what about the people themselves. What do they have to say? What’s it like to live here, to be one of the ones creating the new technologies, the new wealth? And what does it mean to be here and not be part of the techno culture, rather to be someone caught up in a world of change, unbidden, unasked for? |
| All of us have different visions, views and stories of Silicon Valley. This weblog has been created to be a place for those views to be heard. Whether you remember this as “the valley of heart’s delight” or just arrived to be part of the techno-culture, it is only when we hear all the voices, unchained from the media’s interpretation, that the Silicon Valley story will unfold as completely as it can. It’s your story too, talk to us. |
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