Silicon Valley everywhere?

Why are almost all of the great websites and internet applications created in the Silicon Valley? Think of Google, Amazon, PayPal, Digg, eBay, Facebook etc.

Is it the proximity of the universities, Stanford and Berkeley? The venture capital powerhouses residing there? The inspiring environment? The multiple founder phenomenon (founders starting their 2nd or 3rd website)?

Probably it's a combimnation of all these. Certainly the universities have contributed a lot by fostering an entrepreneurial and creative climate. And the money was there to make the entrepreneurs think big. As well as the trial and error approach to founding companies. Many successful websites are the consequence of ideas taken from others that were not so successful or even went bust. Serial founders like Marc Andreessen, Max Levchin, Kevin Rose contributed a lot by being the living examples of entrepreneurs making dozens or hundreds of millions out of multiple companies founded by them. Very attractive and inspiring for other young talent to join their firms, found their own, having the ambition to make it there, too.

Will this climate also emerge elsewhere on the planet? Will the next big thing come from the Valley again? Or from Russia, India, China, Bresil, South Africa? Anyone could do it, anywhere. Web 2.0 makes it easy. Little investment is needed. So, let's see what comes next. Hot spots are the Web 2.0, the iPhone, the social networks, ...