] “The most crucial aspect of Silicon Valley is its networks.”
] There is no proposition so universally agreed upon and so
] little studied. We see two main reasons for this. The ?rst is
] that the analysis of social networks has been mainly the
] province of sociologists, but only in recent years have they
] become interested in industrial organization. The second is
] that methods for systematic study of social networks are of
] very recent origin.

] Thus, in this chapter we will introduce some key ideas about
] social networks, sketch some of the vital institutional sectors
] in Silicon Valley where they operate, and present an initial
] exploration of the formal analysis of how these sectors
] articulate with one another.