<i>PR is being decentralized. Thanks to blogs, Skype, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook you can get onto TechCrunch no matter where in the world you are.</i><p>If your idea of decentralized PR (or effective PR) is "you can get on Techcrunch from anywhere in the world" you may have been living in the Valley too long.<p><i>Silicon Valley used to have a lock on geeks.</i><p>That's so wrong I don't even think it is worth refuting.
I think this mistakes cause and effect. The hypothesis of the article is that new trends, like the cloud, being exploited globally make the Valley less important. But I think that other places are adopting Valley trends, like exploiting the cloud, because the Valley is becoming more important. And the reason the situation is improving for entrepreneurs in those other places is because they are copying Valley trends.<p>I know Cambridge, UK best since that's where I'm from. And increasingly, new companies are forming there with little funding and young, highly technical founders. More people there are reading TechCrunch, have heard of Y Combinator, and are more able to re-locate to the Valley thanks mainly to the spread of knowledge. In the future, the startup visa might come into play too.<p>The Valley's culture is going global, and other locations will benefit as a result, but the main beneficiary is the Valley itself.
I was with the author before the lame foursquare plug. I am not going to go to a coffee shop anywhere and ask anybody what foursquare is, because that does not prove anything and I am not going to foursquare's advertising for free. But I am going to make mental note that any blogger that mentions foursquare gratuitously without relevance is a shill and should not be trusted.
The first paragraph says it all: worldwide to Scoble means US, UK, Canada, France and Israel. What does Scoble know about how hard it is to start up in Hungary or Russia or ...? Nothing.
There's far better places to startup than the valley, there always have been though. That's nothing new.<p>Probably if you're into the whole 'build to get acquired' thing, then it's an advantage, but if you're in it to build a profitable company then I'd say the valley puts you at a disadvantage. High cost of living, no public health care, not to mention all the software patent DMCA sue everyone legal risks.