Tartan Technology: Scotland's Quiet Riot

Scotland's finest export, contrary to the stereotypes, is neither kilts nor cashmere sweaters. Golf and whiskey, loved almost equally around the world, may make the short list, but also aren't the nation's most memorable sellers. Lovely, buttery shortbread (wrapped in tartan packaging, of course) may be emblematic of the cloudy country for many, but it, too, is not Scotland's greatest gift to the globe.

Wonderful though all these may be, Scotland's shining export is an idea. That concept, put forward more than 200 years ago and outlined in a treatise called "The Wealth of Nations," is Adam Smith's vision of capitalism. As if led by an "invisible hand," Smith said, everyone working in his or her own interest will create what is best for all.

Home of Silicon Glen High-tech, software and Internet companies dot the landscape between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Smith likely never envisioned Silicon Glen, a cluster of high-tech, software and Internet companies nestled between Glasgow and Edinburgh that produces everything from business-to-business programming to video game shoot-'em-ups starring talking nightcrawlers, but it certainly encapsulates his ideals.

Computer programmers, venture capitalists and joystick jockeys -- each questing after his or her own personal goal -- are turning the Glen into a driver of the Scottish economy. The region, modeled loosely after California's Silicon Valley, now accounts for about a quarter of Scotland's manufactured exports and is expected to continue flourishing. And like its American predecessor, Silicon Glen is rapidly changing not only the makeup of Scotland's economy, but its conception of itself.

In this four-story TSC special, U.K. correspondent Nick Watson examines the companies, culture and future of the Glen. On Tuesday he gives an overview in A Stroll Through Silicon Glen and looks at e-commerce in Scottish Firms Refine Their Internet Plans. On Wednesday he turns his attention to computer games companies in Let the Games Begin and software hotshots in Scotland Has Cultivated Software Talent. Now Can It Get the Show on the Road? Buckle up. The Invisible Hand has got the wheel.

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