The measure of innovation is patent registrations? I'm not convinced by this measure. Sure, it allows them to draw a nice graph, but if the underlying data is trash, the graph is less than useful.
That's the scale for the chart - The article (that it links to) claims: "analyzed over 700 variables, including those driving innovation (business environment, government and regulation, human capital, infrastructure, and local demand) along with proxies for innovation output (for example, economic value added, journal publications, patent applications) to identify trends among the success stories"
Also measuring US Patents is obviously going to skew it towards US hubs, not to mention many things are patentable in the US (software, business methods) which aren't patentable elsewhere.
The problem with "number of patents" is that it counts the touch-scroll-wheel for the iPod as the same as any random patent, although it will have a lot more influence on the world.
Nice to see Brisbane, Australia on there, although the whole reason I left is because it certainly didn't seem like a "hot spring". That said, universities there were certainly doing some great research (very cutting edge all things considered), and getting a lot patents, etc.
I know the McKinsey is a subscription - but does anyone know if the complete data set available? In particular, I'd like to know how other Australian cities were positioned (I'm in Melbourne).
I think the author is missing the point. You can find people anywhere in the world to fund a website that "shows cat videos" as long as you don't approach investors with that thesis. And really, it's ok to fail anywhere, not just Silicon Valley. It's what you learn from it that counts. Sure, it's probably not ok to fail because you became a heroin addict (even in Silicon Vallye). But if you're a computer scientist in Utah that tried to come up with, for example, new encryption methods for banking software security but failed to get funding, does that make the technology itself irrelevant because your business failed?
