No hot blog action for a while, as I’m motoring up to the Portland, Oregon area for a fairly extended stay. I’ve got a client in the consumer products business up there, and we need to put our heads together on the future of some of their key technologies and build the next big thing. I’ve talked with some 25 companies in Silicon Valley over the past year on product planning and engineering in the areas I know — protocols, wireless, broadband, audio-video, open source, protocol verification — without finding anyone as sharp as these consumer guys. It’s sad to say this, but there’s precious little innovation in Silicon Valley any more. Sure, there are lots of people burning lots of venture cash making minor enhancements to big ideas hatched a decade or so ago, but precious little in the way of big ideas with the potential to fuel a new new economy, one that’s not based solely on hype, creative bookkeeping, and stock fraud.
The Valley’s really, really stale. It’s always been a sorry place to live, but one I could deal with because the work was so much fun, but lately the work has begun to suck as bad as the rest of it. I’m not ready to say “Silicon Valley is over” but without an infusion of creativity, and a big parade of lemmings over some cliffs, it may as well be.
I’ve never been to Portland before, so I’m also looking forward to exploring some new geography and meeting some new people. This isn’t a permanent move yet, but if it goes as well as I anticipate, in a couple of months I’ll be loading stuff in a truck and committing major finances on real estate. But I get ahead of myself.
Got any things I should know about Portland? Leave a comment, e-mail’s not likely to get answered for a few days.
“hype, creative bookkeeping, and stock fraud. The Valley’s really, really stale.”
Silicon Valley doesn’t have monopolies on any of these things. Unfortunately, the places that have shown to be hotspots for post-dotcom ideas: Cambridge, Manhattan, Raleigh, or Dallas…they’re all about as stale as the Bay Area is…arguably worse. I wouldn’t hold your breath for Portland (or anywhere else) to be what Silicon Valley was in 1996-99.
Place to see: Bagdad Theatre. Microbrewed beer and movies. Think the Parkside in Oakland, but a little less diverse crowd.
Call me when you’re ready to take this baby to market…if you’re fired up about it, I guarantee you that I will be.
The nicest neighborhood is NW 23rd Street in Portland, followed by the Pearl District which is on the north side of Burnside downtown.
Email me when you get here if you have time…
You’re probably already aware of this, but I just read about spammers calling themselves Preteen, among other monikers, at Winds of Change. There was some discussion of how to protect from their onslaught. The link’s at http://windsofchange.net/archives/004141.html