Jay Boisseau
Sep 1, 2018 · 2 min read

I am not sure I understand how the articles makes the points in the subtitle: “Its primacy as a technology hub is on the wane. That is cause for concern.” If primacy is defined as relative (fraction of the sum) instead of absolute, then sure, but is there data that the scale of technology in SV is decreasing — that it is shrinking in net innovation, impact, etc? Are other innovation hubs actually gaining on it appreciably? I’m not sure it’s primacy as a technology hub is decreasing — just that there is also more innovation in tech as the whole sector grows. Moreover, why would it waning as a hub be a cause for concern, if it’s because more and more places are home to innovation, increasing the diversity of inputs and thus likely the innovations? (You have a great paragraph that discusses many reasons why more innovation in more places is a good thing.)

I think the most interesting and concerning point is the role of the dominant tech companies. I would love to see someone provide quantitative analysis on how their increasing scale and dominance impacts innovation, but the timescales are still very short (and the lack of a control makes anything harder to measure). The recent dominance — not just large scale, but dominance — of a handful of platform/ecosystem companies may have an interesting impact on innovation. I’m not sure if it will be net positive or negative; it’ll be interesting to watch over the next few years as AI (for sure), blockchain (maybe), and IoT (slowly, but almost certainly) become more important. Each has interesting opportunities and implications for innovation… and I’m not sure how the dominance of the hyperscalers and global platforms will impact it. It’s going to be interesting to watch!

    Jay Boisseau

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    Technologist with expertise in HPC, AI/ML/DL, and smart cities. www.vizias.com/jayboisseau, www.linkedin.com/in/jayboisseau, www.twitter.com/jayboisseau