This morning, I listened to this story on the history of how the Silicon Valley came to be with great interest. The story appealed to me for three reasons. First because there’s a local angle (RLG was located in the heart of the Silicon Valley and now our OCLC offices are just north of what I’d consider to be the “classic” valley). Second, the piece hooked me by quoting an archivist at Stanford (and I’m a sucker for stories that use archivists as sources). Third, I’m interested in examining the “ingredients for success” for a particular industry. In this case, it was marrying a group of talented scientists with the idea that they could be the company (instead of finding a company to work for) and then putting that together with some investors that were willing to invest. Taken together these were novel ideas, and magic could happen.
It’s also interesting to think of the role that place, and the culture of place plays in all of this. A recent posting from Pando Daily looks at the “Midwest Mentality” and why it’s so hard to get start up traction in a place like Chicago.
What are ingredients for success where you work? The Feral Librarian has been reflecting on this from time to time — what do others think?
The series on Silicon Valley will continue this week and I look forward to hearing the next chapter!
Merrilee Proffitt is Senior Manager for the OCLC RLP. She provides community development skills and expert support to institutions within the OCLC Research Library Partnership.
