January 1, 2014

I’ve asked dozens of thought leaders around the world the same question: Where do you think the first Social Silicon Valley will arise?

Here are a few selected answers:

• Goh Chok Tong (2011): unsure, but not Singapore
• Muhammad Yunus (2012): a village
• Sonal Shaw (2013): Nairobi
• Sasa Vucinic (2013): San Francisco or Hong Kong
• Peter Corbett (2014): New York City or San Francisco

Important note: No one has been firmly committed to a single answer; these were their informal “best guesses” at the time I asked. They should not be taken as definitive views by any stretch of the imagination.

Corollaries to the question include: Will any Social Silicon Valley (SSV) ever even appear? Will there be many SSVs, perhaps each with a different focus? Will physical proximity matter, or will an online SSV somehow be possible? Does the concept of a SSV even make sense if it were decentralized?

My analysis of Singapore as Asia’s Social Silicon Valley.