Dr. Dobb's Journal April 2007
Sitting in a packed airport lounge at 2:00 am in Bangalore, India, I wondered why I ever agreed to put that silly globe on the cover of the magazine. In retrospect, it was a lot like leaning into a left hook, what with the boss glancing at the cover and saying, "You've been talking the globalization talk, now start walking the walk." She said "walk," but she meant "fly."
The next thing I know, I'm sitting in the Helsinki airport with some guy who had been snacking on raw herring asleep on my shoulder. Not that I ever went to journalism school, but I bet they don't teach you about that.
Next up were the Dr. Dobb's Best Practices India conferences in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore, which were exciting and rewarding. Along with Scott Meyers, Hugh Thompson, Ken Pugh, and Andrew Stellman, I met old friends face-to-face (some of whom have written articles for DDJ), and made lots of new acquaintances.
But what I walked (okay, flew) away with was a clear understanding that when it comes to software development, we really do live in one world, and a small one at that. Programmers in India and Finland face the same challenges, have the same requirements, and use the same tools as their peers in Silicon Valley. And, of course, the Internet is the tie that binds us together. From what I can tell, the only difference is how people drive. I've safely puttered around the Silicon Valley for years on an 80cc motor scooter, but wouldn't last 5 minutes on a Hyderabad street.
While much of the globalization dialog has focused on offshore outsourcing and the loss of jobs in industrialized nations, there are indications that the phenomena is turning around, at least in the Silicon Valley. That's according to the 2007 Silicon Valley Index, a study produced by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (www.jointventure.org). At the outset, I don't know of any biases the organization might have. (I do know it has the biggest Board of Directors—more than 40 members!—I've ever seen.) For all I know, it is a feel-good organization that unabashedly promotes the Valley. And that's okay, because the data is interesting and seems to be important.
It is also worth noting that the study examines all aspects of Valley life, from the environment and education, to transportation (no mention of motor scooters) and affordable housing (that's a hoot—"affordable housing" in the Silicon Valley).
According to the report, the Silicon Valley is doing just fine, thank you, in both competing and collaborating with tech centers (like Bangalore) around the world. One fact that leads to this conclusion is the area has added more than 30,000 new jobs—an increase of 2.9 percent—in the year ending June 30, 2006. At the same time, the area's unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent. (As a point of reference, a population of 2.44 million increased by 1.28 percent with a net increase of 31,869 people over 2005.)
What's particularly interesting is that global relationships between Silicon Valley and offshore tech centers have strengthened. For instance, 36 percent of its residents were born outside the U.S., international copatenting is on the increase, venture capital from international sources is up, and outbound international venture capital is going to countries such as China, India, the U.K., South Korea, Japan, and Israel, among others.
As for wages, the study reports that the average annual salary in the Computer and Communications Hardware Manufacturing arena was about $160,000 in 2006 (up 15 percent compared to 2005), and $149,000 for Software (up 1 percent).
A noneconomic factor that underscores the globalization of the Silicon Valley is spoken language diversity. From 2002-2005, language diversity increased 7 percent in the area. While English-only is still dominant (52 percent), Chinese, Hindi, Korean, and Japanese had stronger growth rates than in the U.S. in general, and California in particular. Chinese is spoken in 7 percent of the homes, Vietnamese in 4 percent, and Hindi (and other Indian languages) in 3 percent.
As Joint Venture CEO Russell Hancock says, "Valley companies are now thoroughly global." In the process, the Silicon Valley has become one of the world's most culturally diverse regions, with 40 percent of its workforce coming from overseas.
Not that I get to enjoy that diversity. The boss just handed me a plane ticket to Russia for Dr. Dobb's Best Practices Moscow (www.sdexpo.ru), mumbling something about less talk, more walk. "Poka," she said, "that's Russian for 'so long.'"
Jonathan Erickson
Editor-in-Chief
jerickson@ddj.com