(2007-09-13) Messina Sili Valley Anywhere

Chris Messina says you don't have to feel Silicon Valley-envy, just grow your own local Start Up EcoSystem where you are. Ask just about anyone who's thrown in a BarCamp in the last three years what kind of community they thought might exist after the fact, and I can guarantee you the majority will be shocked at just how many people in their own neighborhoods were into social media or, more importantly, wanted to connect to people like them locally but just didn't know where or how to go about unearthing them... Well, I'm here to tell you that the next thought should be, "Oh wait, what we want isn't to become another Silicon Valley with all their disfunctions and navel-gazing - what we really want is a community that is self-sustaining and a culture of sharing, opportunity and hope.!"... It's not about imitating what you think we have out here; it's about creating and instituting an attitude and mentality that shares the same philosophical underpinnings that allow us to define success for ourselves and then go about achieving it, however we best can... And I can tell you that, just as this kind of thinking has taken root in the culture of Silicon Valley and continues to define it, the seeds of this approach are on the wind and have permeated the network. They are finding new homes in your backyards and in your neighborhoods and starting to grow. (He points at widespread CoWorking efforts.)