Silicon Valley, the source of so much innovation, has invented its own version of the salon. In Berkeley, a group chews over patents and pizza at Fred and Sylvia's CyberSalon. In San Francisco, a young Internet executive hosts elaborate Thursday dinners featuring organic vegetables at his home overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. He and others note that the trend partly reflects the development of an elite, as the valley and its high-tech fringes mature and depart from the computer industry's meritocratic roots. But the industry's nerd roots also come into play.
People here say they are so connected electronically that they feel unconnected from fellow humans.
They yearn for regular face time to swap ideas, socialize and network. In suburban Redwood City, at a small ranch house, entrepreneur Russell Brand hosts a potluck dinner on the first Tuesday of every month. There were many people whose social skills were not up to fine dining. As people dive into boxes of Chinese take-out on a recent Tuesday, an engineer in Birkenstocks goes on about his struggle to patent an electric scooter bike. A geneticist vents his frustration at unraveling genes.