Is Washington D.C. the Next Major Technology Mecca?
Claire Cain Miller writes in the New York Times Bits Blog that Barack Obama’s masterful use of technology in the recent presidential campaign may attract techies to Washington instead of traditional high tech hubs like Silicon Valley:
Indeed, for the first time, techies are whispering about a brain drain from Silicon Valley to Washington. In the past, “they have felt that government is moving so slowly that it’s not interesting to them,” [Matt] Lerner [Chief Technology Officer of FrontSeat, a Seattle software company that recently launched ObamaCTO.org] said. “But with the innovation around the Obama campaign and Obama appointing a C.T.O., technologists feel they really might have a role to play in helping the government become more innovative.”
U.S. Capitol image courtesy Architect of the Capitol.
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Nate Nash says:
Nov 17th, 2008
*Next* Tech Mecca?? As a resident of the District, I gotta stand up for the technologists who are already here.
Andrea Baker says:
Nov 17th, 2008
@Nate I was just typing the same thing, when I thought I might hit refresh to see any other comments since I stepped away.
I totally agree. We have already an abundance of technologist in the area. Some are doing their indy start-ups and many have great ideas and already work in Government. I see them at work everyday.
The issue is the political red-tape that many great ideas are a project within an agency. But that problem is being worked on, many agencies have seen the value of Enterprise Data Layers and collaborative user-generated tools. The next thing, which is beginning to happen, is go cross agency with the tools. More than likely, someone else across the street is looking for a similar, if not same solution.
One last note, I’ve been following you on twitter and must have slipped by me the great content from your blog. It is definitely applicable to my daily interactions with Intellipedia. Hope you don’t mind, but I am going to add you to my blog roll.
Dean Thrasher says:
Nov 18th, 2008
The are lots of techies in DC. Many of them work quietly for the government — either directly in federal agencies or indirectly for one of the many consulting firms and systems integrators in the area. (Hi Nate! Hi Andrea!)
What the capital area doesn’t have is the high-profile tech start-up community of Silicon Valley, Seattle, or Boston. I’m hopeful that will change — I started my own little software company here, after all — but I don’t think it will happen quickly.
Andrea Baker says:
Nov 18th, 2008
Hi Dean, you are right, while we don’t have the name cache of a big tech firm here in DC that stands out. Google does have a DC satellite office, so that’s a start and all the big companies have HQs around here. Northrup Grumman, Massive (ahem) I mean General Dynamics, CACI, Mantech. All these companies are known as technologies companies for Government. Its just not as public as Google is known. Every day you connect with Google somehow. But that little piece of tech you might use in your house or fly over your head protecting you, might not seem to fit in that technology “category” stuck in your head.
I do bet that due to President-Elect Barack Obama’s presence in the White House that more startups might pop-up with transparent Government solutions. As for startups, I know we do have a bunch around here. I see them out at these DC tech events meetups.
http://www.dctechevents.com/
Rick Osborn says:
Nov 29th, 2008
Washington DC is a big I.T. subscriber. Not a large I.T. innovator. This is outside of the obvious exceptions (NSA, CIA, FBI). I think this is the crux of the article.