Siberia - The Next Silicon Valley? 184
eldavojohn writes "CNN Money is running a story about Siberia's rising tech industry.The movement towards tech is centered in Akademgorodok (Academy Town), with a 15 percent annual increase in the number of firms. Even though the area industry's worth is still fledgling compared to other areas, the growth cannot be ignored. 'President Vladimir Putin has also taken note, backing the construction of a $650 million technology business district with $100 million in state funding for infrastructure. "We simply mustn't waste this chance," Putin declared in Akademgorodok following a 2005 trip to tech-savvy India, "especially as other countries have achieved success without such a strong starting position." High tech is the sort of thing that the Kremlin, realizing that Russia's natural resources can't last forever, would like to develop.'"
The Russian Hacker (Score:5, Insightful)
Why?
Surely, I reasoned, with the amount of time they took to set up that scam and avoid authorities, they could have gotten a job like I have and done something good for even more cash--but, that's my naïve American attitude for you. The job market probably doesn't exist there where they live.
Nothing would make me happier than to see these people given an opportunity to move somewhere close to make money, help their economy, establish an industry/infrastructure for future generations & to get these programmers off the street and into a job
On an offtopic note, I used to "cool" my computers in Minnesota by placing them next to the window during the winters, I'm certain you could cut down cooling costs in Siberia using similar strategies.
NOT Silicon Valley (Score:5, Insightful)
Banished to Siberia (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Russian Hacker (Score:5, Insightful)
According to your link, we should be hiring the Polish. The Russians did better than the US's 4 out of 48, but they still didn't take any sort of lion's share at 8 out of 48. And in any case, TopCoder is not a useful metric of anything except for, perhaps, cowboy coding. Many of the key skills required to launch a successful technology business are not measured by simplisitic coding riddles.
I hope you realize that Siberia is not a frozen wasteland. Siberia covers such an area (where you'll find many of the Chukcha tribes), but it also covers more temperate climates. Not to mention that these programmers wouldn't be a bunch of smart guys packed into a cold little shack. They'll probably be in a building not much different than those found here in America. Which means that they'll have the same cooling and heating problems as we do. (We have horribly cold Chicago winters, I can assure you that they help cool our servers very little.)
The truth is that most of those who have the willpower to do something "good" for even more cash, also have the will to go where the dollars are. Which means that many of them immigrate to other countries rather than hang around in Russia. With Moscow's economy booming, that may eventually change. But for now, Russia has a difficult time holding on to their talent. That talent that they do hold onto may feel their talents underappreciated in the nascent Russian tech economy.
Re:NOT Silicon Valley (Score:2, Insightful)
If a company is using more resources (labor, gold) than it produces it's not adding value to the economy. This is expressed as profit's or in this case, a loss. Faced with theft/piracy firms will adapt their business processes, i.e. keeping staff's children as hostage or hiring former Spetznas trouper's to kill anybody who pinches their wares. On the other hand, if the company pirating (as you'd say - I'd call it 'liberating') their stuff is able to afford better goons, or to bribe off the first companies' heavies, then it is by definition more efficient - if not it wouldn't have the money to do so.
In summary, rule of law is for wussies and communists.
(1) taken from one of my speeches on the subject that I give regularly around the world
Re:Good Essay on the Matter (Score:3, Insightful)
And they've got land to spare, or so I hear.
Re:Good Essay on the Matter (Score:3, Insightful)
In my opinion there is. After all the Cold War was a competition between the two different ideologies, and no matter what you might think, Soviet Union did not lack innovation.
Re:NOT Silicon Valley (Score:3, Insightful)
The rule of law is for people who want to live with other people. That's why every successful society has one.
Re:A definite plus (Score:2, Insightful)
What's this, the 9th "Next Silicon Valley"? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ultimately all of the talented people who live in places designated to be the next Silicon Valley end up moving to Silicon Valley! We live in a beautiful area and get paid better. Top talent won't stay in Siberia, or Champaign, when they can live in San Francisco.
If there's any "Next Silicon Valley", it would be Los Angeles. Recently it seems that more of the interesting startups are in LA than the Bay Area. Given that so many of the Web 2.0 properties are more about entertainment [myspace.com], this kind of makes sense. And the proximity to Silicon Valley makes it easy for traditional tech investors to go down there.
Re:Good Essay on the Matter (Score:5, Insightful)
And yet China still manages to have top scientific researchers in every field -- and continues to liberalize both economically and politically. See this [stanford.edu]. And how does that differ from the US? Economic power is being concentated in fewer companies and individuals, who will be more easily able to affect government -- we've seen it already. Will the pendulum swing back? I don't know, in the age of mass media, whether we can check the power of the few.
Again, how does this differ from the US? KBR. Diebold. ExxonMobil. Boeing. The ones who write the laws are the lobbyists for the companies that benefit from them.
China, Russia, and the US are approaching each other in terms of politicoeconomic systems. The major difference still remaining is that of IP regulation and protection. If the rigid IP control system is doomed to fail (as many slashdotters believe) then China and Russia are poised to dominate -- since IP is relatively worthless in those countries, and is ignored almost at will. Seems to me that they would have a competitive advantage, in having hugely successful businesses in that climate already.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:NOT Silicon Valley (Score:4, Insightful)