Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley is in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations.[1] The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the American high-tech sector. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States and the world, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading hub for high-tech innovation and development, accounting for 1/3 of all of the venture capital investment in the United States.Geographically, the Silicon Valley encompasses all of the Santa Clara Valley including the city of San Jose (and adjacent communities), the southern Peninsula, and the southern East Bay. 
Origin of the term 
The term Silicon Valley was coined by Ralph Vaerst, a Central California entrepreneur. Its first published use is credited to Don Hoefler, a friend of Vaerst's, who used the phrase as the title of a series of articles in the weekly trade newspaper Electronic News. The series, entitled "Silicon Valley in the USA," began in the paper's issue dated January 11, 1971. Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, while Silicon refers to the high concentration of companies involved in the semiconductor (silicon is used to create most semiconductors commercially) and computer industries that were concentrated in the area. These firms slowly replaced the orchards which gave the area its initial nickname, the Valley of Heart's Delight. 
Economy

According to a 2008 study by AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association) in 2006, Silicon Valley was the third largest high-tech center (cybercity) in the United States, behind the New York metropolitan area and Washington metropolitan area, with 225,300 high-tech jobs. The Bay Area as a whole however, of which Silicon Valley is a part, would rank first with 387,000 high-tech jobs. Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of high-tech workers of any metropolitan area, with 285.9 out of every 1,000 private-sector workers. Silicon Valley has the highest average high-tech salary at $144,800. Largely a result of the high technology sector, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area has the most millionaires and the most billionaires in the United States per capita.

The most famous companies there: Apple Inc, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google Intel, Yahoo!

The idea of basing Silicon Valley

During the 1940s and 1950s, Frederick Terman, as Stanford's dean of engineering and provost, encouraged faculty and graduates to start their own companies. He is credited with nurturing Hewlett-Packard, Varian Associates, and other high-tech firms, until what would become Silicon Valley grew up around the Stanford campus. Terman is often called "the father of Silicon Valley".

During 1955-85, solid state technology research and development at Stanford University followed three waves of industrial innovation made possible by support from private corporations, mainly Bell Telephone Laboratories, Shockley Semiconductor, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Xerox PARC.

Social roots of information technology revolution

It was in Silicon Valley that the silicon-based integrated circuit, the microprocessor, the microcomputer, among other key technologies, were developed. The region employs about a quarter of a million information technology workers. Silicon Valley was formed as a milieu of innovations by the convergence on one site of new technological knowledge; a large pool of skilled engineers and scientists from major universities in the area; generous funding from an assured market with the Defense Department; the development of an efficient network of venture capital firms; and, in the very early stage, the institutional leadership of Stanford University.

The Skolkovo Innovation Center is a planned high technology business area being built at Skolkovo near Moscow, Russia. The site aims to be a highly modern complex created to encourage science and technology companies. The Skolkovo Innovation Center is tasked with concentrating intellectual capital and encouraging the development of various technologies. As corporations and individuals become "residents" of the city, proposed projects and ideas receive financial assistance. Skolkovo was announced on 12 November 2009 by then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. The complex is headed by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and co-chaired by former Intel CEO Craig Barrett.

On the construction site, things move faster: dozens of workers are busy putting in walls and heating ducts. If things go to plan, Skolkovo, near Moscow, will be one of the world’s biggest high-tech cities in a few years. At nearly 400 hectares, it is twice the size of London’s Olympic Park. It will boast a research university with 1,800 students, 40 corporate research and development (R&D) centres and a “Technopark” housing up to 1,000 start-ups.

More important, of course, will be what doesn’t meet the eye. Skolkovo will be a special economic zone, a bit like Shenzhen in China. Companies based there will receive whacking great tax breaks. They will also get special treatment when it comes to visas and imports.

The aim is for Skolkovo to become the basis for a vast ecosystem that spans all of Russia and brings together researchers, entrepreneurs and investors in five “clusters”: IT, of course, but also biomedical, energy-efficiency, space and nuclear technologies, all of which have deep roots in Russia. This new ecosystem, its champions hope, will help Russia modernise.

In other countries, such ambitious government-led schemes have usually flopped. Nonetheless, Skolkovo’s backers remain optimistic. Dmitry Medvedev, then Russia’s president, gave the green light in 2010. Since then the government has earmarked $3 billion over four years for the project, and will spend billions more indirectly, for instance via tax breaks.

The Scheme of Work

In March 2010 Vekselberg announced the necessity of developing a special legal order in Skolkovo and emphasized the need to offer a tax holiday lasting 5–7 years.

In April 2010 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev charged the government with working out specific legal, administrative, tax and customs regulations on Skolkovo.

In May 2010 Dmitry Medvedev introduced two bills regulating working conditions in Skolkovo. The bills were adopted by the State Dumain September of that year and, on 28 September 2010, the President of the Russian Federation signed the bills into federal law.

In August 2010 Dmitry Medvedev introduced a bill easing migratory policies in regards to Skolkovo.

Innovation City

The main elements of The City are the University and a Technopark. The City will also feature a Congress Center, office buildings, laboratories, fitness centers and stores. An efficient rail transport and a logistically optimized layout will enable commuters to reach the center of Moscow within 40 minutes. The City will measure roughly 400 hectares and have a permanent population of 21,000. Employees, including commuters from Moscow and surrounding regions, will comprise about 31,000 people.

Skolkovo has already lured some big names. Attracted by the perks and anxious not to upset the Russian government, their largest customer in the country, some 20 companies have signed up, including Cisco, IBM and SAP. Each of them will open a sizeable R&D laboratory and co-operate with SkTech.

Not everyone is reassured. Skolkovo is Mr Medvedev’s baby. Will it thrive now that he has been demoted to prime minister, or will it end up as just another office park? Vladimir Putin, the current president, seems supportive. His government recently decided to host the summit of the G8 in 2014, when Russia holds the group’s presidency, at Skolkovo. Victor Vekselberg, the president of the Skolkovo Foundation, who made his billions as an oil oligarch, says: “This is no longer Medvedev’s or Putin’s project, this is Russia’s project.” He adds: “If the country really wants to change it needs something like Skolkovo.” Others retort that for Skolkovo to work, Russia would have to change so much that it would no longer be necessary.