
Next Silicon Valley (list) - achille
http://brighton.io/Next_Silicon_Valley
======
phatboyslim
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://brighton.io/Next_Silicon_Valley)

Cache timeout seems to take a while, so posting the brief synopsis here. The
article lists a number of cities (actually locations) with a corresponding
news article claiming that particular city/location "The Next Silicon Valley".
Locations listed were:

US: Mississippi, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Jacksonville, San Diego,
Detroit, New York, Asheville, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago,
Sacramento, Arkansas, Denver

Europe: Ireland, Russia, Ukraine, France, Berlin, Prague, Lisbon

Apac: Beijing, Vietnam, Sydney, Philippines, India, China, Singapore

Middle East: Israel

Americas: Mexico, Cuba

Others: Small Town America

~~~
ChuckMcM
Thanks for the cache link, basically its a collection of links to any news
article that said "<x> can be the next Silicon Valley".

I really liked Brad Feld's take on this which was that trying to be the "next"
Silicon Valley was a losing proposition, instead just focus on removing
barriers for people who want to innovate and you'll get the economic growth
you desire. It is amazing how unsettling that is for local governments.

I talked with a state representative from New Mexico on a flight to Denver who
wondered what it would take to make New Mexico the next "Silicon Valley". I
asked if they had enforceable non-compete agreements there (which they do),
and then asked what it would take to change that. He said it would be really
really hard given the commercial interests. And I said, "Well that answers
your question, New Mexico will never be the next Silicon Valley." It kind of
stunned him when he understood it.

~~~
st3v3r
It's a combination of that, and making the place someplace that's welcoming
for all. Things like anti-discrimination policies for LGBT persons are a must,
as well as having a welcoming community. Having great weather doesn't hurt,
either.

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pseudometa
Ugg, this is simply a list of cities cited in News Articles as being "The Next
Silicon Valley". This isn't actually an article itself.

~~~
Cheyana
I think the motivation behind the list is to point out how this subject seems
to be in heavy rotation in the media. EVERY city and EVERY country in the
world wants thriving and powerful economic development, and now they all have
the means to disrupt with their own tech sector. This is going to be rinsed
and repeated all over the world for the next 50 years, nanotech here, space
travel there, machine learning, robotics, medicine, you name it.

Now it's not like we all weren't competing before, but now it seems the
playing field is getting more and more level. Which can mean nothing but good
for the average person. Right?

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wmccullough
"Please allow 5 seconds to check your browser for Cloudflare DDOS protection"

 _45 seconds later_

 _closes tab_

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return0
Still waiting for that Silicon-Valley-As-A-Service startup.

~~~
SkyMarshal
They're already here.

[https://angel.co/](https://angel.co/)

[https://www.ycombinator.com/](https://www.ycombinator.com/)

~~~
st3v3r
At least YCombinator still requires location in Silicon Valley, don't they?
Until they start going "on tour", I don't think that'd be what the poster was
looking for.

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jboynyc
This kind of inventory is not a new idea. In fact, the "definitive collection
of Siliconia on the Web" [1] is nearly twenty years old, though sadly it
hasn't been updated in fifteen years.

1\. [http://www.tbtf.com/siliconia.html](http://www.tbtf.com/siliconia.html)
"Siliconia are appropriations of names beginning with 'Silicon' by areas
outside Silicon Valley."

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josh-wrale
Raleigh-Durham-RTP, NC were missing. Edit: Someone added it.

~~~
sixo
As are Toronto and Pittsburgh, which I've seen articles about in the last
week.

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logfromblammo
Will Cityfieldlandburgvilletondalepolis, USA, be the next Silicon Valley?

No. No, it will not.

It almost seems like the site is intended to shame the attention-economy
publications and sites into ceasing the continual recycling of the same old
article over and over. But I don't think it will work. Those guys have no
shame, and the article format for "Is Y the next X?" has been around forever.

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cag_ii
What exactly does it mean to become the "next Silicon Valley"?

It seems to me a boring cliché used to make article headlines from nothing.

~~~
Kluny
It means that marketing agents from the city in question want some Silicon
Valley money and they're trying to get some by imitating it.

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empath75
Probably not the city that site is hosted in.

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paavokoya
> Apple co-founder Woz says Ireland could be next Silicon Valley

Seems they're fluffing the Irish government so they keep their hands off
Apple's cash..

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Cheyana
Funny. Phoenix is on that list from 2012 and I was reading yet another article
about it just yesterday...

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/us/phoenix-focuses-on-
rebu...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/us/phoenix-focuses-on-rebuilding-
downtown-wooing-silicon-valley.html?_r=0)

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beatpanda
The thing that makes Silicon Valley a hotspot for tech is just a boatload of
money controlled by people willing to put it into tech.

Literally any city could be "like silicon valley" if a bunch of rich people
start a fund and hand out cash to people creating technology companies.
Anything else is just window dressing.

~~~
tirrellp
Its always been my opinion that not only are "entries" (funding) a necessary
precondition, but also EXITS. Thats the magic momentum of SV; \- Hordes of
post-exit entrepreneurs funding the next generation of businesses and
providing mentorship to the next generation of entrepreneurs. \- A good number
of capital sources who have had enough successes to keep rolling the dice.

~~~
henrikschroder
Niklas Zennström of Skype founded Atomico, they're not bound to northern
europe where they started, but they've been at it for ten years.

The king.com founders started Sweet Capital, which might be headquartered in
Stockholm, but they obviously have an office in SV as well.

So even exit money from non-SV companies end up being reinvested in SV,
instead of growing more non-SV companies, and that's just hard for other tech
hubs to compete with.

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api
Based on trends I see in funding, jobs, talent, buzz, etc., here's my list. It
would be much smaller:

Portland: obvious, though many locals hate it.

San Angeles: it's kind of one city overall, but tech activity is concentrated
in: San Diego (downtown area), Irvine/Costa Mesa, Santa Monica, Pasadena, and
maybe downtown LA. I live near Irvine now and everyone I talk to says the tech
scene has grown a lot and is still growing, and I see evidence of that myself.
One of the strengths of this region (other than sheer size and being a few
hours by cheap plane ride from SV) is something people like to bash it about:
it's one big giant mass of sprawl with either many city centers or none
depending on how you look at it. While that's not hot and trendy these days,
it also means that this region can grow _a lot_ without catching acute real
estate hyperinflation disease. There's just so damn much of it and there are
so many town/city governments that nobody can establish a NIMBY monopoly. It's
not exactly cheap but it's not "$2M for a starter home" crazy and probably
never will be unless you insist on the absolute hippest neighborhood or living
within walking distance of a surfing mecca beach. Self-driving cars are going
to absolutely revolutionize transit down here and fix the region's commuting
problems in the next 5-10 years.

New York: already #2 or #3 depending on how you count it. Could grow a lot
because it's just so huge and has tons of money available. Also has great
transit to offset the real estate costs-- you don't _have_ to live in
Manhattan or the trendiest parts of Brooklyn and you don't have to have one
car per person. Commuting from as far away as Connecticut and New Jersey south
of the crummy areas is entirely possible.

Boston: Boston really _should have been_ Silicon Valley in the first place--
the reasons why it's not are beyond the scope of this post. (I lived there for
a while and could almost write a book.) If these things can be fixed they have
more than enough talent and the city itself is very nice.

Some longer-shot wildcards:

Denver: it's cool and has appeal and seems to be drawing a crowd.

Pittsburgh: it's like Boston lite with numerous great schools but less
expensive and less stuffy. It lacks many of the cultural problems that keep
Boston from being Silicon Valley in spite of Boston's incredible talent pool.
Uber and Google have added gravity.

Detroit: being kind of re-settled by an interesting mix of people. Things have
happened there before and could happen there again. It's got a "cool factor"
to it that other rust belt cities that have fallen on hard times just don't
have. If I were 20 years old and in a different life-phase I would
_definitely_ consider going there, since escaping the real estate death spiral
treadmill would offer a great opportunity to work on longer term "high risk /
high payoff" projects. Think of $20k homes as a very light personal version of
the DARPA fund for big ideas. (Assuming you have little fear of ghetto, which
in my case is true.)

Toronto: close to a very good tech school (Waterloo) and UToronto is not bad
either, a very big cool city, and doesn't have the real estate madness of
Vancouver. Otherwise the latter might also make the list. (SF/SV can at least
_survive_ its real estate madness because it's so prosperous otherwise, but
Vancouver doesn't have the muscle to overcome this handicap.)

I do think tech is geographically re-diversifying, so I wouldn't totally count
out other places. But those are the ones I'd say have a good shot of
developing into true "centers" as opposed to just places with some tech stuff
going on.

~~~
jbpetersen
I was surprised Portland didn't show up on the list. First thing I did after
viewing the page was come back here and ctrl-f for it.

Strongly considering moving there within a year from now.

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mmanfrin
Could probably add a whole lot more records by searching for 'Silicon Valley
of ______'.

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tmaly
What was the criteria to make this list?

I wish Connecticut could do something to get off the opposite list.

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ScaryRacoon
"List of cities"....3 states right off the bat. Wat?

In all seriousness, there won't be just one. Technology centers will continue
to grow. Our economy is becoming even more centered around information and
technology. If your city isn't positioning itself to attract business and
talent, it's gonna be a rough future for you.

~~~
sscotth
And 10ish countries

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ld00d
Well the error page is interesting at least...

