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

[Edward Wesolowski <ids AT idisplay.com>]

I knew it, I just felt that somehow the Internet and e-commerce, and 
related technology and work was going to reduce the # of SUV's on the road, 
even the increasing need for new roads.  I knew it! ...good call Paul.
Ed Wesolowski

At 11:44 PM 8/1/00 -0400, you wrote:
> Monday, July 31, 2000
>
> DIGITAL NATION
>
> Cool Counts in Luring Hot Techies
>
> By Gary Chapman
>
> Copyright 2000, The Los Angeles Times, All Rights Reserved
>
> The No. 1 problem for high-tech firms these days is the shortage of
> skilled workers, especially those with the talent to make an entire
> company succeed. And the "talent wars" -- firms raiding one another for
> top people -- are going to get even worse. What's also interesting is how
> the shortage is influencing the character of communities and, in turn,
> urban politics.
>
> Richard Florida, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon
> University in Pittsburgh, produced a fascinating report in January titled
> "Competing in the Age of Talent: Environment, Amenities and the New
> Economy" (http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~florida/talent.pdf).
>
> Florida's yearlong study looked at how cities and regions compete for
> technical talent in the new economy, and the role that environmental and
> "quality-of-life" factors play in this competition.
>
> "Knowledge workers," says the report, "essentially balance economic
> opportunity and lifestyle in selecting a place to live and work.  Thus,
> lifestyle factors are as important as traditional economic factors such as
> jobs and career opportunity in attracting knowledge workers in
> high-technology fields."
>
> Five years ago, some pundits claimed that the flexibility of the new
> economy would spell trouble for cities. George Gilder, for example,
> proclaimed that the Internet would lead to the "death of the city."
>
> What he didn't anticipate is that young people tend to like being around
> other young people. The result is that hip, young technology companies
> have revitalized many downtown neighborhoods, as in Manhattan's Silicon
> Alley, Seattle's Pioneer Square, San Francisco's China Basin, Santa
> Monica's downtown area and Austin, Texas' Congress Avenue.
>
> Florida says that because young workers can essentially choose to work
> nearly anywhere, they gravitate to places that offer a fairly distinct mix
> of environmental quality, social life and "amenities,"  including youth
> culture, sports, night life, music and "coolness" -- in short, an urban
> identity that everyone knows exists but that is difficult to describe
> completely.
>
> "Due to the long hours, fast pace and tight deadlines associated with work
> in high-technology industries, knowledge workers require amenities that
> blend seamlessly with work and can be accessed on demand," Florida wrote.
>
> Austin Mayor Kirk Watson -- a young politician to watch with a
> record-breaking 82% of the vote in the city's last election -- is one of
> the few political leaders who seems to sense this transformation.  Watson
> calls it "convergence." He means that, just as city governments are trying
> to figure out how to reconcile economic growth with environmental quality
> and avoid sprawl, the dynamics of the labor market in high tech are
> helping point to a solution.
>
> Young high-tech workers are not attracted to sprawling, remote and sterile
> suburban developments, or even to "edge city" clusters of campus-like
> high-tech companies. They want to be where the action is and,
> consequently, companies want to be there too. That provides growing
> support for so-called "smart growth" strategies, more dense and diverse
> communities, more redevelopment of under-used real estate and more
> attention to environmental quality in protected natural landscapes.
>
> This is happening in Los Angeles too, although it is only just emerging.
> Jason McCabe Calacanis, editor of Digital Coast magazine, says Los Angeles
> is attracting young workers who want to put the Internet to use, the
> creative people who are more interested in content than in chips.
>
> "They don't care what browser people are using. They don't care how fast
> your computer is," Calacanis said. "Everyone thought that technology would
> be the driver of the new economy, but it turns out it's content, it's art.
> That's why in L.A., you see energy and entrepreneurship." He says the
> "epicenter of the Internet in Los Angeles" is the Coffee Bean cafe on 4th
> Street in Santa Monica.
>
> Ross C. DeVol, a senior researcher at the Milken Institute, agrees with
> Calacanis. "In the recent past, we've had earthquakes, riots, fires,
> recession, etc.," he says. "Sometimes Los Angeles can be its own worst
> enemy. But last year, we had the first positive domestic migration to Los
> Angeles in any year since 1989. That's a good sign for L.A. Young people
> come here to work with cool technologies, like computer games, movies,
> animation, special effects and Web design."
>
> What this all means for political leaders eager to promote economic growth
> is that they now have to pay attention to the idea of a "place," a concept
> far beyond the traditional blend of tax rates, labor costs and business
> infrastructure. The hot technology companies don't have time for
> negotiations over tax abatements and new highways. They just want to be
> where the workers are. The workers want to be where the fun is. And
> political leaders now need to figure out how to get all those ingredients
> to work together.
>
> This is all good news for those few places that have the right mix of a
> high-quality environment, plentiful outdoor activities, a robust urban
> youth culture and what Florida calls a "thick labor market" of talented
> young technical workers -- in other words, lots of them with lots of
> churn, job-hopping and innovation.
>
> Other places are unfortunately out of luck. There's a steady "brain drain"
> going on across the U.S. as communities that are less than "cool" lose
> their best and brightest and thus slowly sink into economic stagnation or
> decline.
>
> It's also tough if you're not a good fit with a hothouse culture of young,
> type-A personalities who do everything at top intensity. The emerging
> culture of the new economy is hard on older workers, workers with families
> and on women and ethnic minorities who haven't absorbed the tastes and
> energy levels of young, affluent techies, entrepreneurs and new-media
> hipsters.
>
> As with most other developments brought on by technology, these social
> changes tied to the new economy are Janus-faced -- encouraging and
> discouraging, appealing and alienating, creating new winners and new
> losers all the time.
>
> Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the University of
> Texas at Austin. He can be reached at gary.chapman AT mail.utexas.edu.
>
>
>
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