The Great Seduction

Googling innovation

I was in Amsterdam a couple of weeks ago speaking to a group of marketing executives at Royal Philips about the forces that drive the Internet revolution in America. "So what is it about Silicon Valley that makes it so innovative," one Philips executive asked me after my speech. "How easy is it to replicate this innovation in Europe?"

It's a great question -- one that has intrigued me since 1983, when I first arrived in northern California as a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley. Indeed, it's such a good question that I instantly Googled it when I got back to America.

No, I didn't ask the artificial algorithm. I actually had the good fortune to get through to a real human being at Google. Kent Walker is Google's General Counsel and the guy responsible for running all of the company's legal affairs. What is particularly interesting about Walker is that he's a Silicon Valley native -- having grew up in Palo Alto, the home of Stanford University and both the intellectual and business hub of the Valley. So, when I talked to Walker last week, I asked Google's top lawyer to explain the special relationship between Silicon Valley and technological innovation.

Walker gave me a whirlwind history lesson in the evolution of Silicon Valley. He started his narrative in what he calls "the growth of the military-industrial complex" of the Fifties which he sees as setting the essential backdrop for all later innovation. Indeed, Walker's father had originally been in the American navy and then worked both for Stanford University and for the aerospace company Lockheed. Growing up in Palo Alto in the Sixties and Seventies, Walker was exposed to technology at a really early age -- first doing very primitive programming in elementary school and then, as a high school student, playing Star Wars games on Stanford university computers.

While Walker believes that the cultural foundations of Silicon Valley revolution need to be understood in the context of the rugged western individualism of the 19th century Californian farmer/rancher/cowboy, he also sees the counter cultural Sixties as adding a curious twist to the local story of technological innovation. It was the radical libertarian spirit of San Francisco in the Sixties, he believes, that provided an ironic remix on the the frontier spirit and risk taking ethos that we now naturally associate with the technology entrepreneur. And he suggested that there is a curious historical parallel between the dreamy hippies of the Sixties and the kids today sitting in Stanford university dorm rooms and dreaming up next generation search engines and social networks.

In addition to the culture of western individualism, Walker believes that liberal bankruptcy laws and laws that make it very easy for individuals to switch companies have also significantly contributed to the uniquely innovative nature of the Silicon Valley economy. This pro entrepreneurial legal culture, with its high toleration for failure and its encouragement of an infinitely mobile workforce, enables what Walker calls "Schumpeter's gale of creative destruction" to successfully blow through Silicon Valley. This is heaven for capitalists and it's why, according to Walker, the region is now the critical engine of the global information economy.

So let's return to that question from the Royal Philips executive -- how easy is it to replicate the innovation of Silicon Valley in Europe? The answer, I fear, is hard, very hard. The strip of flat land between San Jose and San Francisco has a unique cultural, social and economic history. Silicon Valley is an incredibly unlikely beast -- a sui generis hybrid of frontier risk taking, Cold War technology and the counter cultural revolution of the Sixties. Lightening only strikes once – and it's already struck Silicon Valley.

Anxious America: The First 30 Days

"My fellow Americans, we are a country in debt and decline," Thomas Friedman kvetches today in a ominous column entitled "Anxious in America". Things have gotten to really bad in the USA, so bad, a hysterical Friedman complains, that we are at a "34 year low". What with the credit crunch and gas prices and our lack of national savings and the failure of American politicians to confront real issues, that we, as American citizens, have a responsibility to shovel ourselves out our collective mess:

"And digging out of this hole is what the next election has to be about and is going to be about — even if it is interrupted by a terrorist attack or an outbreak of war or peace in Iraq. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started. Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best. Nothing else matters."

But America needs more than a new President at this time of intense anxiety -- we need an expert in change. And I've found the dream candidate for rebuilding our national confidence. Her name is Ariane de Bonvoisin and she is the founder and Chief Change Optimist (CCO) at First30Days, a website focused on the art and science of change. She's also the author of a book called, predictably, The First 30 Days, a practical guide to changing one's life.

As I argue in my Independent column this week, de Bonvoisin and her First30Days brand is a uniquely American enterprise, reflecting that faith in second acts which distinguishes America from the rest of the world. Her optimism is infectious and she needs to come up with a 30 plan to change America. My suggestion for the first day? Lock herself in a room with Thomas Friedman and give the old kvetch a personal tutorial in cheerfulness.

Googling group sex

I'm still digesting the meaning of Matt Richtel's fascinating piece in last week's Times about Google's role in determining communal morality. Apparently, the legal defender of a porn website in a Pensacola, FL  obscenity trial is using Google to prove that the site's content failed to violate communal standards:

In the trial of a pornographic Web site operator, the defense plans to show that residents of Pensacola are more likely to use Google to search for terms like “orgy” than for “apple pie” or “watermelon.” The publicly accessible data is vague in that it does not specify how many people are searching for the terms, just their relative popularity over time. But the defense lawyer, Lawrence Walters, is arguing that the evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that interest in the sexual subjects exceeds that of more mainstream topics — and that by extension, the sexual material distributed by his client is not outside the norm.

If one accepts this argument, if enough people in a community enter "group sex" into Google then this establishes the media distribution of group sex acts as an acceptable communal moral standard. Instead of the wisdom of the crowd determining knowledge, what we have here is the morality of the crowd determining ethical standards. Google's artificial algorithm, then, becomes both the judge and the jury in establishing what is good and what is evil.

As a hilarious follow up to the Richtel piece, The Silicon Valley Insider's Eric Krangel researched the ten American cities most likely to search for obscene material on Google. Louisville, KY came first, followed by Rochester NY and Philadelphia. (Los Angeles was ranked fifth and Las Vegas eight). This may well be great economic -- if not cultural or moral -- news for Louisville. Given that the vast buik of American online porn operators are based in either Lost Angeles or Las Vegas, expect a mass migration of the industry to Louisville where local "community standards" will provide them with much more protection in the courts.

Anyway, I'm looking for some group sex action this afternoon. Anyone in Louisville interested?

Globalization and American discontent

The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel thinks there are four big economic issues for the next US President:

1. The budget deficit.
2. Health care.
3. Inequality.
4. Globalization

Wessel argues that the issue of globalization can be partially resolved by dealing with the first three issues, particularly health care and inequality:

The solution doesn't lie in tweaking trade laws (though they could use tweaking) or in applying band aids to an archaic, inefficient system of assisting laid-off workers (though that system needs replacing). It probably lies in assuring Americans that they aren't fending for themselves in an increasingly competitive economy -- that their health insurance won't evaporate if they lose a job and that the U.S.'s schools are preparing their children to succeed.

Robert Hormats and Jim O'Neill, vice-chairman and head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs International, add education to Wessel's list. In today's Financial Times, they argue that to cope with a new global economy in which Brazil, Russia, India and China are all increasingly competitive, "the challenge for the next President is to help more Americans derive greater benefits from globalization. Hormats and O'Neill want to see a "robust response" in the development of American intellectual and environmental infrastructure:

A robust response requires vastly improved training and education, especially in mathematics, engineering, physics and science. More than ever this must benefit minorities and immigrants, the fastest-growing portion of the US workforce. Critical also is acceleration of government and private-sector investment in research and development to create competitive new jobs, products and industries. This is especially true in energy, where a variety of new sources and new technologies are urgently needed: such measures can produce increased employment opportunities, reduce oil dependence and the attendant massive outflows of funds, and sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions. The financial system and tax code must encourage greater domestic savings and investment, and channel funds to the most productive sectors.

Which of the candidates are best positioned to respond robustly to the cultural and economic perils of globalization?  Unfortunately, McCain seems less of a hostage to reactionary economic nationalists than Obama. As Clinton did in 1992, Obama needs to frame a radical centrist message which focuses on rebuilding American intellectual and environmental infrastructure. The children at the Daily Kos and MoveOn.org won't like this message, of course. But unless Obama pursues this innovation friendly strategy, he is likely to be a hostage of economic nationalists when he comes to office. And that would mean globalization continuing to fuel American discontent rather than curing it.

David Puttnam interviewed

Last week, I had the rather paradoxical honor of filming an interview with Lord David Puttnam. The paradox, of course, is that I'm a complete amateur when it comes to making movies while Puttnam -- who directed Midnight Express, Chariots of Fire, The Killing Fields and many other feature films and documentaries -- is one of Britain's most distinguished movie producers. Rather than talking about movies, however, we mainly discussed the Internet which Puttnam, in his current role as a Labour peer in the House of Lords, sees as a positive force for both improving education and protecting the environment.

The American reawakening

Gary Hart believes that we are the verge of America's next chapter. Borrowing from both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Arthur Schlesinger Jr, Hart suggests that American politics works cyclically, alternating between what he calls "periods of reform and periods of consolidation."

And guess what cycle Hart believes is about to begin?

Yes, the cycle of renewal. It's all premised, of course, on an Obama victory in November which I think is all-but-certain. That said, I agree with Hart and I like his observation that the new cycle will be shaped by how we deal with what he calls "a host of new realities":

They include globalized markets; the expansion of the information revolution into places like China; the emergence of new world powers including India and China; climate deterioration; failing states; the changing nature of war; mass migrations; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; viral pandemics; and many more.

To rise to the challenge of creating a new cycle, Harts wants Obama to introduce three new "elements":

1. National security requires a new, expanded, post-cold-war definition.

2. America must transition from a consumer economy to a producing one.

3. The moral obligation of our stewardship of the planet must become paramount.

Hart says that "most Americans" get this challenge, thus the overwhelming popularity of the change candidate Obama:

They instinctively realize that old politics, old parties and old policies are increasingly irrelevant to our lives, to our revolutionary times and to our country’s future. The next cycle of American history is as yet unframed, awaiting a national leader who can define a new role for government at home and a new role for America in the world of the 21st century.

So how do we get to this new chapter? Paradoxically, for all his talk of the "new", Hart is really talking about a return to traditional American values within a global economy. He's calling for honesty, productivity and moral responsibility -- for a return to the Puritan ethic.

A photograph of digital democracy

Here's an idyllic image of democracy on the Internet (courtesy of the New York Times). As I explained last week, the Korean demonstrations against  American  beef imports were begun online by social networking schoolgirls worried about catching mad cow disease. Judging from this photo, it looks like a lot of Koreans have already caught the disease. 

Loving and hating America

If I was ever to write a novel about America, it might begin: It was the worst of countries, it was the best of countries...

Why the worst? As Fouad Ajami noted yesterday, in response to the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey, America remains loathed overseas:

So America is unloved in Istanbul and Cairo and Karachi: It is an annual ritual, the June release of the Pew global attitudes survey and the laments over the erosion of America's standing in foreign lands.

We were once loved in Anatolia, but now a mere 12% of Turks have a "favorable view" of the U.S. Only 22% of Egyptians think well of us. Pakistan is crucial to the war on terror, but we can only count on the goodwill of 19% of Pakistanis.

But, as Ajami argued, this anti-Americanism is mostly hype. And this is underlined by a report released yesterday by Manpower, a leading recruitment company, who asked white collar employees around the world about their preferred destination for work. And, guess what, America came out first. So America remains both the promised land where the world wants to work and also the evil empire that the world loves to hate.

Pew interviewed 23,000 workers for their survey, while Manpower interviewed 31,000 people. The world clearly both loves and hates America. What a dramatic, romantic story. It would make a great novel.

Cody's Books: The End

I'll be in London next Friday to speak at The Bookseller conference about the future of the book, an event appropriately called Digitise or Die. Sadly, the conference won't help Cody's Books of Berkeley which, in the face of competition from both online and mass market chains, shut its doors on Sunday for good. The death of Cody's is what Chris Anderson glibly calls the "road kill" on the route to his digital cornucopia. This is what Anderson told the LA Times about the death of high quality, independent bookstores like Cody's:

"The clear lesson of the Long Tail is that more choice is better. Since bookstores can't compete on choice, many once-cherished stores are going to be road kill."

This is entirely wrong. Like me, Anderson lives in Berkeley. He and I and thousands of other Berkeley people have infinitely less choice without Cody's. Now, when we want to buy a book, we have to go online to make our purchase. No more trips with my kids (who adored Cody's) to let them explore the store's fantastic children's section. No more lazy afternoons browsing new releases. No more Christmas eve buying sprees where I could do all my holiday shopping in an hour.

The Internet's infinite choice can't and won't replace stores like Cody's. Book retailing is dying in America. And we are all horribly impoverished by it.

Two Turkish triumphs

It's been quite a weekend for the Turks. First their football team stole the Euro 2008 quarter final in Vienna on Friday night in the last kick of extra time from the brilliant Luka Modric (the new Cruyff) and his Croats. And then, today, Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines announced an equally stunning victory for the charismatic Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen and his surfing Sufis in their poll to find the world's top public intellectual. 

I wonder what some of my more xenophobic Greek friends must be thinking. It's the Greeks, of course, who are the reigning European champions, having sensationally upset Portugal in the Euro 2004 Lisbon final. But, in this year's competition, the Greeks were publicly spanked, badly losing all three of their games to the Czechs, Russians and Spanish. And now the Greeks might have to watch the Turks lift the Euro 2008 trophy in Vienna. All the Turks have to do now is beat the Germans in their Wednesday semi-final and then overcome either Spain or Russia in Sunday's final.

But I'm sure it's the Gulen victory that has my Greek nationalist friends really crying into their Retsina. After all, rather than on the football pitch, it has been in the generation of public intellectuals that the Greeks have historically most excelled. And now, the Turks have stolen that mantle too, with Gulen formally anointed today by Prospect and Foreign Policy as Socrates 2.0. Worse still, the Greeks didn't have a single living public thinker in the top 100, while Turkey also took at the #4 spot in the intellectual hall of fame with the post-modern novelist Orhan Pamuk. 

National triumphs usually come in threes, of course. So what's the next victory for the Turks? Is that old Turkish-Greek chestnut, the Cyprus issue, about to be solved by EU foreign ministers, thereby paving the way for a triumphant Turkish entrance into the European Union?