Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

Something that many people forget about SiliValley is that it wasn't
intended as some pioneering experiment in VC-funded startups, or an
incubator for the driven entrepreneur when it first started attracting
attention. It was the home of a few big companies' West Coast offices,
such as Fairchild Semiconductor, who is still based in Maine IIRC. Sure,
it was a new office, and several key employees went on to found little
companies like Intel, but the Valley got its start with the full resources
of the military industrial complex and some very large research and
development institutions behind it.

Anyway.

I'm hoping that this group can gradually change the attitudes of local
investors and VCs and entrepreneurs - who think, for the most part, that
once they've used local resources for their ill-funded startup phase, it's
time to move on to the "big time" and use big name firms in NYC, Atlanta,
DC, and so forth. I've worked with or am good friends with many people
from those firms, (USWeb/CKS, iXL, Razorfish, USi, Strategic Interactive,
Studio Archetype - now Sapient, etc.) and they're rarely doing anything
that local firms can't do, are usually more expensive and less willing to
commit their top resources to RTP-based firms, and are not often used
again past the first project. Many of them staff up too fast, using any
contractors they can find, and guess who gets sent to work on the jobs
that aren't in the company's local area. 

I'd like to sound a wakeup call that lets local investors know that they
don't have to go outside the Triangle for quality work, anymore than they
have to go outside for quality employees.

It's all about changing attitudes and forming long-lasting bonds here in
RTP. It's ridiculous that when my team and I were looking for community
a couple of years ago, we had to join mailing lists in SF and NYC. Our
Web design and development mailing list has over 750 members, and I'd say
of that, only a dozen or less are from the Triangle, /including/ the folks
who work for hesketh.com. At least partly as a result of the list, we're
better known in Australia/New Zealand, Great Britain, Russia, Brazil,
Israel, Sweden, France, etc. than we are in RTP. We have clients in NYC,
Tel Aviv, London, DC, Atlanta, and so forth, as well as local clients,
but we still encounter a great deal of reluctance on the part of VCs to
use us on the same projects that - once they hire a Big Name Firm - the
Big Name Firm farms out to us anyway :) It's silly.

So let's make some noise and change some minds.

Steve

-- 
business: http://hesketh.com ...custom medium- to large-scale web sites
the book: http://dhtml-guis.com  ...Building Dynamic HTML GUIs from IDG
punditry: http://a.jaundicedeye.com       ...negative forces have value
personal: http://hesketh.com/schampeo/  ...info, projects, random stuff