Meanwhile, globalization also increases what economists call networking effects. One reason why people see the latest film is to be able to participate in the buzz of social and office life. We will examine these questions in some detail with reference to a narrow strip of land between San Francisco and San Jose that used to be known as the Valley of Heart's Delights and now might be more appropriately rechristened the Valley of Money's Delights. Indeed,Silicon Valley is in many ways an exaggerated version of the sort of society that globalization is helping to create everywhere else. Whether as a showpiece for the virtues of immigration, meritocracy, and flexibility, or as the home of the world's most borderless industry, or even perhaps as the ugliest industrial center in history.
Silicon Valley is something of a test tube for globalization.
To consider its success, one need look only for would-be imitators. Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia has set aside twenty billion dollars and a space roughly the size of Chicago for a new Multimedia Super Corridor that will supposedly include an information-technology city of one hundred thousand people, called Cyberjaya. And even this understates the Valley's influence. Look around the developed world, and you will see the gradual Siliconization of many sorts of commerce, not just high-tech industries. Everywhere, big firms are becoming looser organizations, breaking themselves into smaller units or devolving more power to their frontline workers.