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2005-05-05 - 9:06 a.m.

I�m in the midst of finals, as I�ve mentioned. So what exactly does that mean, you may be wondering. Aside from a lot of work for me.

Well, the following isn�t even a final paper, although it was due this Monday during finals time. I don�t think it�s even a terribly good paper. It�s for my �Corporations and Global Cities� class, in which I was about to say that I think I�m inevitably getting a B. But the professor just emailed me and said it was an A paper, in fact the best he felt I�d written in the two classes I�ve had with him.

This actually presents somewhat of a predicament now. Because if I can write an A final paper, I can ace the class. When I thought I had no hope of getting an A, and hence no motivation to perform well, at least the pressure was off. Hmm�

Besides the final paper in that class, I have one in �American Masculinities�, which I�m writing now about FDR (I never realized the extent of his disability � he couldn�t take two steps unassisted � and apparently neither did a lot of people, Hitler for example, in his pre-television era). Also another on images of the New York subway (I wrote a very similar paper last year, but of course I can�t find a copy).

I�ve already completed my pass/fail market research class, and I still have one incomplete paper from last year to finish. At least I don�t have final exams this semester (I�ve used a laptop for them in the past, my handwriting being slow and illegible). So here it is, minus the footnotes (and please let me know what you think if you�ve had any involvement with high-tech in New Mexico). It�s pretty short:

Silicon Mesa: Albuquerque�s Attempt to Forge a High Technology Cluster
A tremendous number of regions have adopted names aping California�s �Silicon Valley� to promote a would-be emerging high technology cluster � Silicon Gulch, Hills, Glen, Island, Beach, Swamp, ad nauseum. Albuquerque, New Mexico�s chosen sobriquet of �Silicon Mesa� is particularly appropriate, as there are real structures called this on computer chips and circuit boards are actually manufactured in the region. The name �Silicon Mesa� seems to have been applied to the area by the mid-1990s and was in common media use by 1997. Albuquerque does indeed have a number of high-tech military and university research sites which might be expected to form the base of a regional high-tech cluster. But thus far, this institutional knowledge production has not translated into significant private-sector industry. The nature of the federal research sites does not seem conducive to developing a knowledge cluster or social network that would lead to further regional growth.
Technology businesses that are currently in the area do seem to have located by following existing social networks of capital. Intel Corporation was one of the earliest companies to locate in the region (Microsoft Corp. started in Albuquerque, but is long gone), building a semiconductor plant in 1993, lured by favorable local development bonds and the (eventually found to be false) promise of a tremendous underground aquifer to supply their water needs (a company spokesman later noted, �If we had known, would we have come to an area so short on water? Probably not.�). A few years later, a major supplier of silicon wafers to Intel opened two production facilities in the area, noting that �we did not move here because Intel was here, but that was a plus�. Much as top individual workers within a firm will serve as a node to attract other workers, the presence of a top firm itself will draw other firms to a region. Several other semiconductor or electrical parts producers have been drawn to Albuquerque by low local wages and cost of living. But these firms lack support from many area research institutions in fostering a true social network and community of practice which would further develop a regional cluster.
Like Silicon Valley�s pre-computer high-tech industry roots in ship-to-shore communications and other sectors, Albuquerque�s technological research dates back to the Cold War, with emerging missile testing ranges (including White Sands) and military laboratories (including the Air Force Research Center, Los Alamos, and later Sandia National Labs) located in the area. But unlike California, these military institutions seem to have led to little development of private-sector expertise or a regional technology cluster. The inherently secretive nature of military and governmental research may simply not lead to the open sharing of component knowledge that builds the skills of a local high-tech cluster. Knowledge is transmitted informally via social network ties, but this is obviously limited when individual technology workers are sworn to secrecy and the like. Furthermore, federally-employed researchers are less likely to switch employment among organizations which would lead to network links in the private sector.
Federal installations also have little economic incentive to contribute to the growth of a regional cluster. There is no competitive advantage, as military and departmental funding will continue regardless of the surrounding environment. Laboratories such as Sandia have spun off companies to commercialize the results of research, but once these start ups are beyond the stage where they will benefit from direct physical proximity to the knowledge base of their initiating institution, there is no reason they cannot be developed elsewhere (and the fact that an Albuquerque location may seem far less exciting to young company founders than, say, San Francisco, should not be discounted).
There has only recently been an alleged effort to translate institutional research into local private industry. In 2003, the area�s government and military technology development centers formally joined with local universities in launching a �Technology Research Corridor� intended to �transform discoveries from research into marketable commodities� , although it is somewhat unclear how this is actually implemented. However, there are differing motivations among players within this collaborative, between federal and military laboratories, which have little interest in seeing their research privately developed locally, and state-sponsored players such as universities which do. Such purported cooperative efforts may be just decorative and good political press. The main act in effecting the technology corridor seems to have been the signing of a �memorandum of understanding�. An earlier agreement for a proposed nanotechnology center followed increased federal funding of several national laboratories and may have been simply the collaborating University of New Mexico�s attempt to share this wealth somehow.
Thus, federal laboratories, with their traditionally guarded research that is not transmitted between organizations to enhance the overall regional skill set and their limited economic motivation to foster a local social network, do not seem to be good contributors to building a regional technology cluster. The low number of remaining non-federal knowledge producers mean there is a relatively limited informal community of practice in which high-tech workers can stay abreast of industry changes and trade information . What knowledge is shared in the Albuquerque cluster may help educate area workers and even initiate new companies, but these workers and firms generally quickly move elsewhere. As a local technology executive noted, �When folks become technically competent, they find jobs outside the state.�
There is little direct recorded accounting of federal research institutions hands-off attitude towards encouraging a regional technology cluster. But an apparent lack of substantive action such as business incubation or start-up funding by the so-called Research Corridor, three years after its founding, suggests that these institutions are not interested in their surrounding environment. Certainly some private high-tech industry exists in Albuquerque, but the region faces significant � and possibly unique � challenges to develop into a sustainable technology cluster.

� 2005 Geoff Gladstone

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