This proves that Silicon Valley frowns up the innovation of tech that comes from either public government or the social justice nonprofit sector. I’m not completely shocked about that but it proves why there is such a disconnect with technology and the social aspect of people [users] and how they would truly use a product.
There should be a partnership in Social Tech that I haven’t seen happen yet and this piece may explain why. Software apps like Amplify and the team behind it gets the value of both. If you truly incorporate the social and tech you get a better quality product.
That leads me to diversity as well which Silicon Valley seems to have a void in many aspects but they love @chamillionaire so here is my video with him on that topic http://www.vimeo.com/13830059
With apologies to AOL and Frank Gruber
, few big tech hits have come out of Washington DC. Which is strange, because on paper, DC has those “ingredients” for a high-tech ecosystem that so-called experts love to tout.
It has money, it has universities, it has AOL which could theoretically spin smart coders off, it has a big, honking, recession-proof customer right there in the form of the government. And there are a ton of smart tech people in the city. On the book tour for Sarah’s last book, nearly 400 people came to the DC event where she did a signing—a record on the 15-city tour.
But for all these attributes, DC has struggled to define its tech scene as more than just AOL. That may be changing. There is a cadre of smart, young techies pulled in by the Obama campaign and its social-media-can-win-elections-after-all aftermath. A lot of those people are spinning into companies that hope to use SMS, Twitter and other basic social media tactics to do more than just win elections—to change the world.
What’s interesting about this world is how much of a mirror image it is to Silicon Valley. It’s about trying to take tools created here and use them in innovative ways. And it’s not about getting rich—many of the most innovative techies in DC are starting non-profits. Increasingly, DC techies aren’t trying to be another Silicon Valley—they are creating their own ecosystem that’s in tune with why people move to DC and what DC has that no other place has.
Today, more than 90% of large companies use open source technology, and yet the largest software companies in the world are still proprietary vendors. Might we see something similar with social media? Taking out the handful of obvious winners like Facebook and Twitter, will the social impact—the change in how we donate money, talk to friends, live life and participate in government—be ultimately greater than the returns to shareholders?
We asked Scott Goodstein of Revolution Messaging
Read more at techcrunch.com
