The ‘Hit Factory’

When one thinks of Silicon Valley, what comes to mind are smart engineers, savvy entrepreneurs and wealthy VCs scouting for start-ups. Moreover, Silicon Valley has great geography and fabulous weather, and you can find some of the best Indian food in the US. One always thinks of the Valley as Ground Zero for new ideas and technology innovation.

Googling the Linux kernel

At the beginning of May, Andrew Morton, the Linux kernel’s second in command, delivered a “State of the Kernel” talk at Google’s breathtaking campus in Mountain View. This open source developers talk exemplified what I regard as some of the Valley’s best qualities. The audience listened with rapt attention to every word Andrew uttered as he walked through the current status of server, desktop and embedded Linux. He described what’s being done to fix some of the problems and reviewed upcoming features and bug fixes targeted for the 2.6.22 kernel. From virtualization, multi-core enhancements to power management, direct-rendering buffers, and dynamic ticks for OLPC — it was a solid overview.

But what struck me the most was the opportunity that Google provides Andrew to work on a project he has a great liking for and which does not directly benefit Google. Andrew does not build a product that Google sells. Google certainly uses Linux widely, but they would hardly go out of business if they didn’t employ Andrew. Andrew could work at many other places and corporate Google would derive practically the same benefits. But the leadership that Google demonstrates by industry sponsorship of great developers and great open source projects, is inspirational.

The sense of community at Andrew’s talk was palpable. Andrew generates a quiet excitement about the engineering phenomenon that Linux has become and the potential that many smart minds working collaboratively can realize. There are only a handful of places on this planet where hundreds of top developers talk tech in real time, sharing ideas for improvements and new features, as well as promoting new visions of technology. The energy of these creators, supported by sponsors like Google, permeates such gatherings. Google policy encourages its developers to spend 20 per cent of their work time on cool projects they select to grow personally and professionally.

“Providing the environment to nourish good ideas is key for making Bangalore or Beijing another Silicon Valley.”

Mixing and re-mixing

The chorus of creators and investors networking, discussing and innovating, mixed with a liberal culture and a competitive university and business environment makes the Valley a super winner.

Any project, business or invention is only successful when the creators can combine forces to take an idea from inception to production. Silicon Valley shines with that combination. Whether engineers are employed at HP, eBay or Google, if they are working on an open source project like Linux or OLPC, they constantly communicate, collaborate and work on common goals. Gone are the days when software engineers worked within isolated cages serving only their own employer. Today, if you’re not visible on the Web in your area of expertise, you’re not serious.

Next stop: Bangalore or Beijing?

With the right people in the right proportions, the culture of Silicon Valley can be recreated in any part of the world — Bangalore or Beijing. But creative people, wealthy people and entrepreneurs all have to be in the same place at the same time and with an underlying stable infrastructure — a bold, liberal and free environment crafted to nourish good ideas, grow smart communities and create cutting-edge technologies.

Just as physical infrastructure is key for a Silicon Valley even to exist, so is the requirement for creative individuals to be encouraged in the pursuit of what they like to do and to be supported generously in becoming the best they can become.