We are in Silicon Valley between 1999 and 2000, in the period
of New Economy, a time and space of flows - Internetted, global,
anb networked. The world is conquered by Manuel Castells and his
Network Society Troops. Only a few villages resist.
4.
A Silicon Valley knowledge worker goes to work in Cisco village
together with 8000 co-workers, all in equal cubicles.
Sarah: Cisco will change the way people live, play, live and
learn
The storyteller: But how?
Sarah: We do everything online
Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose, June 2000
5.
In the year 2000 Silicon Valley people log on to company
Intranets, check emails constantly, get SMS, answer cellphones,
plan meetings, get instructions, and work face-to-screen.
6.
Technology is paramount reality and money and progress the only
measures of success.
Silicon Valley people spend their time, energy and effort in a
constant interplay of spaces.
7.
In the year 2000 everything is global and networked
8.
Storyteller: Whats your workday like?
Robert: I spend my day building start-up companies. I see them
every day, set up meetings for them, coach them, encourage them,
and listen to them
Storyteller: Whats your biggest challenge?
Robert: Trying to convince venture capitalists to drive up to
Concord even though it interrupts their lunch schedule
Meanwhile, in Concord, 2 hours driving and 1 Bay Bridge away from
Silicon Valley
9.
There are others who resist, too. Dans Internet incubator has
Berkeley as a niche. Privileged access to start-ups, professors
pass on deal-flow, and Dans network of contacts is indispensable to
young entrepreneurs.
(An email arrives on the Palm Pilot): Rooftop party for
Internet professionals in San Francisco. Be there
Storyteller: Virtual culture has sexual needs
Enter Storyteller (watching a drum-circle on the Berkeley
university campus):
10.
Choir (chanting): Those who use Internet for everything will
not taste the apples of Concord or San Franciscos Rooftop
pleasures. Technology can not take away the limits - the
socialities, moods, and materialities - of the human condition
Enter Deus ex Machina
11.
Storyteller (soliloquy):
To become Silicon Valley workers, aspiring start-ups engage in
convincing work - being there when places emerge and making places
happen.
One month later, during a walk late at night on Ocean Beach, San
Francisco
12.
Silicon Valley is not a hub in a space of flows. The Valley is
a laboratory where things (ideas, people, visions) are mobilized to
build companies. This happens by way of engineers, helpers, and
tools (capital, experience, technology).
The Valley is above all a place, a geographical area where
people meet and are passionate - about simple things like women and
fast cars as Knorr-Cetina says, but also about technology, about
the beach, and about visions of the future.
13.
Communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) arise because knowledge
is embodied (STS). In order to be a persona (a person with a mask,
who plays a role), you need to act
To act you use props (Internet, apples) and show up on stage to
make new places and make yourself heard in established ones
(markets)
14.
Other storytellers will speak of Castells conquests when they
are over. Are Open Source movements or Financial Markets truly
Avant-Garde or merely shortlived spaces of flows?
15.
Robert and Dan: Regardless of my international links, my use of
Internet, and the global markets we are embedded in our own place
of work
Sarah: Cisco is my social circle. Work is my life. I love
Sherry Turkle
