Toward a Sustainable Technopolis - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 168

concluded that ''Cultural factors such as value gaps between the two worlds
(government bureaucracy and engineering culture) are… responsible for the
unsuccessful outcome of S&T policies.''
Peter Hall ( 1998 ) analyzed historic creative cities, showing their heydays las-
ted, on average, a few dozens of years. North ( 1990 ) gives wealth-creating
economies a few centuries. It is reasonable to think that today's pace of techno-
logical change will narrow these windows. Each region must choose a techno-
logical pony to ride toward economic development. Today those ponies get
winded sooner. The region's external network is also the means for finding a fresh
pony. Every region that builds wealth on an industry cluster must, in a few years,
stake its next wealth-building strategy on a new or redefined industry.
Should an aspiring technopolis region depend on government support, or drive
progress locally? In this section, I have emphasized that local characteristics—
including the propensity to network and drive progress locally—are key success
factors; that the gap between government and technical cultures is a wide one; and
that continual self-renewal is the name of the game, which implies a flexibility that
government may not be able to deliver. In an earlier section, I stressed the political
risk in extending government assistance to projects that might be seen as helping
the few rather than helping the many. Furthermore, regions may feel a responsi-
bility to absorb available government funds, rather than to produce projects of real
merit.
All these things speak to the desirability of local, grassroots technopolis ini-
tiatives rather than dependence on government initiatives. It cannot be denied,
though, that government measures have had terrifically beneficial results.
Accomplishments like Hsinchu and Oita are absolutely spectacular and much to be
praised (notwithstanding that the Hsinchu park is just now experiencing a turbulent
time due to reallocation of central government funding 1 ). I conclude that even with
central government support, vigorous local and private initiatives are necessary.
The efforts of Stan Shih and Alvin Tong at Hsinchu are good evidence for this
conclusion.
Austin's success was very much grass-roots. There was never a massive gov-
ernment allocation for an ''Austin Technopolis,'' though there were smaller grants
for individual projects supporting the technopolis. We always asked local gov-
ernments for small amounts of money, just to make them feel part of the effort.
When a major initiative or success was rolled out, we invited government officials
to the press conference. If an impression was created that the credit for the success
should go to these officials, so much the better.
1 TIME magazine March 23, 2009: ''At Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Based Industrial Park, home
to many of the island's flagship tech firms, most workers are taking unpaid leave at least one day
a week. Ryan Wu, chief operating officer of the job-search website 1111 Job Bank, say conditions
at Hsinchu have never been so dire. 'There's extreme panic right now', Wu says''.