As someone who does not live in Silicon Valley but is influenced personally and professionaly, I have always looked for articles, books and movies that capture the origins, history and nature of the most successful strip of land in the area of business technology, if not the world. That’s right: Silicon Valley.
Some background, from Wikipedia.org:
Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The term originally referred to the region’s large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high tech businesses in the area. Even though it’s not truly a valley, it is a metonym for the high-tech sector generally.
The term Silicon Valley was coined by journalist Don Hoefler in 1971. He used it as the title of a series of articles “Silicon Valley USA” in a weekly trade newspaper Electronic News which started with the January 11, 1971 issue. Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, while Silicon refers to the high concentration of semiconductor and computer-related industries in the area. These and similar technology firms slowly replaced the orchards which gave the area its initial nickname, the Valley of Heart’s Delight.
For many years in the 1970s and 1980s, journalists often referred to it as Silicone Valley. This was before the name became commonplace in American culture. Unfamiliar with silicon, writers assumed that it was a misspelling of silicone, a material used in caulking, breast implants, and other products that had recently been introduced to the public.
As a sidenote, the first time I traveled to San Francisco was to meet Yahoo!, Google, a bunch of ad agencies and IGN, the company who bought my last company. If I had to be 100% honest, my then-boss and I were not even 100% sure of the pronociation (does it rime with cone or con?), I mean, we sort of knew, but not really…
As such, I was excited when I came across In Search of the Valley via TechCrunch (which in of itself shows just how influential TC is…). All to say, I was intrigued.
In Search of the Valley is the story of “three friends’ personal journey into the psyche of Silicon Valley, when in September of 2004 they swapped London for California, spending one month visiting and talking to many of the valley’s heavyweights and biggest personalities.”
The three friends are Steve O’Hear, Fleeta Siegel and Selwyn George. “Not that it matters” but O’Hear happens to be wheelchair-bound but judging from his website, he certainly falls in the category of folks who overcome everything and anything… but what struck me, if I had to be honest (this is so not politically incorrect or anything but who cares), is that Siegel and George did not let the challenges of traveling with someone in a wheelchair stop them from this adventure. I know that sounds horrible when you read it but ask yourself how many blokes would travel from London to SF and then drive around a van with someone in a wheelchair while filming a documentary. Props to them for doing that, and, I guess, shame on me for pointing this out.
Anyway, onto the movie: The trio does manage to get some face time with many interesting people, both with people who are in front of the spotlights as well as people who are mainly behind the scenes. For example, we all use Adobe products (be it directly or indirectly through acquisitions), but few of us have ever heard of let alone heard words from one its co-founders, John Warnock (poolside to boot).
Other more prominent interviewees include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Guy Kawasaki, the part-time VC and full-time speaker/blogger/industry cheerleading extraordinaire…
While on the one hand it might have been nice to see even bigger names, the truth is that these would have been somewhat less sincere and candid. Marc Canter for example is pretty direct about everything.
Tim O’Reilly provides some nice insights, John Warnock is indispensable. As far as I am concerned, it’s just nice to get footage of Steve Wozniak who is always in the shadows of you know who… Marc Canter too is great, he’s the founder of Macromedia, one of the more influential companies in digital media today (part of Adobe). Craig Newmark, whom we’re big fans of, makes an appearance along with many others: Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak; Adobe co-founder, John Warnock; Macromedia co-founder, Marc Canter; Craiglist founder, Craig Newmark; O’Reilly Media founder, Tim O’Reilly; Apache developer, Brian Behlendorf; Digibarn co-founder, Bruce Damer; Videographer, Al Lundell; Macintosh developer, Andy Hertzfeld, Academic, Brenda Laurel; Personal Computer pioneer, Lee Felsenstein; and many others.
My favorite part though is the scene when they get to a lobby (I saw it at 2am in my hotel room) and asked for someone, only to hear the reception say “such a person does not work there.” That captured their adventure probably better than most things.
Another was the cult of personality that some in the Valley have grown to develop. The mere thought of hearing one intrerviewee talk about having nearly met Steve Jobs once years ago but not having ever had the chance to do so again makes you realize that, well, sometimes it’s a good thing to be far away from the Valley. Then again, it is Steve Jobs, after all.
And while we’re on the topic of Apple… what is up with Steve Wozniak’s necklace. Silicon Valley really is different…
All to say, I think the documentary is entertaining for people who live, breathe and work out of the Valley. For people who work in the space but don’t live in the area, and as such might not be privy to many obvious things, it’s simply a must see. It last approximately 90 minutes, not too short, not too long.
Check it out here.
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