Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley

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What is the magic formula for turning a place into a hightech capital, the ?next Silicon Valley?? Margaret Pugh O?Mara, former Miller Center Fellow, now deputy director of the Center for the Study of the North American West teaches history at Stanford University. She considers why high-tech development became so economically important and why Silicon Valley?s magic formula of jobs, people, capital, and institutions became so difficult to replicate. O?Mara argues that high-tech regions are not simply accidental market creations but ?cities of knowledge,? planned communities of scientific production shaped by the ?original venture capitalist, the Cold War defense complex.? A book signing will follow the Forum, and an excerpt from O?Mara?s book is available here.