It seems like there are a blue million technology groups in Nashville these days and I love it. There is also lots of talk today about all of the different pieces and how they fit together. This is a post about how I see it. It is inspired by / in response to this post from Sleepydad and this post from Milt on Venture Nashville.
The technology culture in Nashville has been growing by leaps and bounds for a few years. When I first moved back to Nashville there really was not much going on. It was just after the bubble busted and there were not very many startups. One thing that really sucked about Nashville in the early part of this decade is that I felt very isolated. There were very few programmers that I could find on the web. There were not many bloggers in Nashville that I could find in Technorati, let alone tech bloggers. This was fortunate for me because I was able to own many Nashville technology related searches, but the flip side is that no one seemed to be searching.
Sure, there was a “tech” sector in Nashville. It was based on .NET and Java. It was based on medical billing applications. It was not for me. The Nashville Technology Council existed, but it was not for my kind of technology. I tried to be into NTC. I went to a few events. The topics seemed more tailored to middle managers making decisions about which middleware to implement rather than to programmers trying to push forward on the open source / open information revolution that was taking place on the web. In Nashville the the technologies / ideas of “the web” were second class citizens.
Then, through blogging and changing jobs a few times I started meeting other like-minded people. I knew there had to be more, but connecting was difficult. I would meet new people every so often through the internet, but the growth of my local network was slow. Painfully slow.
As the web has gotten more social and more hyper-local, the existence of a connected group of “geeks” in Nashville was only a matter of time, but I think it boils down to 3 main points:
- When Mike Sechrist, Terry Heaton, and Brittney Gilbert released Nashville Is Talking at WKRN, they not only found and connected many people, but they provided a “conversational web” focal point for local geeks to discus. This was a huge first step in developing the current tech culture that we have in Nashville.
- BarCamp Nashville 2007. Last year’s BarCamp was something that needed to happen for a long time (ahem). I met quite a few new geeks at last year’s BarCamp.
- The lack of a governing body. There have been many self-starting leaders who have organized events and groups in Nashville. Had there been an official body trying to make it happen over the past year, the Nashville tech culture would not have been able to grow as fast as it has.
That last point is a tough one for me. I am absolutely certain that the rapid development of Nashville as a tech center would not have been able to happen if it wasn’t for the disconnected and often times conflicted organic organizing that took place. “Geek” seemed to be the central theme, but “geek” was never defined (and that was important).
However, I now have way too many Nashville based profiles on the internet. I love the existence of the many different groups that are sprouting up, but I do hope they can find a way to work in conjunction some. It would be great if Nashville Geeks could aggregate content, Digital Nashville’s website seems to be a good place for forum discussions, Facebook is still a great (the best?) local organizing tool. Event based groups like BarCamp and StartupWeekend are super events, but they don’t really need their own websites. A blog is great, but Facebook could handle all of the RSVPs, etc. Or Digital Nashville. Or Nashville Geeks. Or the Nashville Technology Council? Though NTC is probably best suited to be the corporate interface to the larger technology community in Nashville. Let’s not forget the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation; I still love what they are doing even though they tell me that Memphis is kinda kicking Nashville’s ass at least in regards to startup capital (note: we do need more startup capital in Nashville).
I love that this is a decentralized group. I just wish it was decentralized with single-sign-on (admittedly, most of us “geeks” probably did miss the NTC roundtables on single-sign-on solutions sponsored by ActiveDirectory and Novell). It is really great that there are so many passionate organizers and I love the work they are doing to make Nashville a tech powerhouse. Each group is starting to find their niche and I don’t want to incite any power struggles, but every group doesn’t have to be every thing. I think it is starting to become clearer.
I am doing my best to be involved in all of it. I am not that into podcasting so I missed PodCamp, but I really try to be at a lot of Nashville tech events and participate on their respective websites. I even want to see NTC be pulled into the “geek” fold. I have been talking to NTC about being on the Aug 7th roundtable about Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing (which makes Milt’s post at Venture Nashville very ironic to me, of all the events he could choose). I know other Nashville “geeks” speak at NTC events from time to time, but I don’t know many Nashville “geeks” who actually go to the events. I am not exactly sure why that is (though I have some hunches), but I do hope there is more overlap in the near future. I have heard there are efforts to make that happen.
I feel like I know a million geeks in Nashville now, and I meet more all the time. There are lots more people out there that are doing cool things who have not yet been brought into the fold. I honestly think that the more cohesive and supportive the Nashville tech culture gets, the more likely Nashville will be recognized as a national tech hub. It is amazing how this city has changed over the last 3 years and I am very grateful to each and everyone one of you who have helped make it happen.
The rest of the country hasn’t taken notice of Nashville yet. I think it is just a matter of time.
