I'm sitting here with Burke Shartsis, having just finished an ice cold beer and B-B-Q'ing at my apartment, talking tech. Question posed: where's the best place to be on Earth - RIGHT NOW?
Answer: right here, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Why? Well, hardware and software are just about to burst out into a second Renaissance. And here's some of the cool stuff being developed just down the road from my apartment.
1. AI - check out what Google's doing in this arena.
2. Multi-touch sensing - first reintroduced by Jeff Han at TED, several companies right here are building upon this technology. Just look at what Microsoft's done... and yes, I've seen the iPhone before.
3.Easy and Cheap Production - anyone can create anything they can imagine now, with relative ease at low cost. If IBM and some other corps have their way, these programs will even be open-sourced. Ergo, free production software with a global brain to make things more exciting. (And yes, to any Apple employees that may be reading, Final Cut is easy to use to... here's your link.)
4. The death of physical space - check out what SJSU is doing in virtual space. The cost to operate in the real world has serious economic consequences - education, business, and everyday communication are being digitalized to make way for much efficient purposes to fill real space.
5. The Advertising Renaissance - If you've been in a hole for the last decade, then you might have missed the quiet revolution being waged by Google. And if you don't keep an eye on it, you might miss the changes headed this way by Blip.tv and Metacafe.
6. History is Alive Here - Besides being home to the Internet Archive, it's also the home of Creative Commons, which is allowing more and more people to share the world WITH the world.
7. Wi-Fi Hotspots are EVERYWHERE! - and that's going to become increasing important, as T-Mobile and other VOIP services expand their Wi-Fi plans.
7.1.0. It's always cool here (approx. 80 degrees, F, currently). I know that's not geeky, but it sure beats the hell out of anywhere else.
8. Bay Area News - the word "aggregation" comes to mind. Want to find out ANYTHING about ANYTHING in that Long Tail of an internet, there's plenty of Silicon Valley companies will to find it for you. Search, interface, databases, and so much more are connecting and supercharging everything.
9. The Birth of Oversight - tired of corporations going unchecked with unlimited power? For the first time in the history of man, the same corporations based in Silicon Valley that are empowering people to change the world... are being reemed by the same people that they've empowered. Poetic cyber justice, or just another day in the Valley?
10. People GIVE A DAMN - Now, I know Californians in the Valley get a bad wrap for all being liberal hippies, smoking dope and not showering - and granted, there's plenty of that - but there's also something here that is unique and insanely powerful. It's also THE reason I think that this is the best place to live on the planet, RIGHT NOW. Check out Hugg, TreeHugger, Digg, Myspace, Facebook, MoveOn, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, Cisco, Sony, or the million other corporations and sites based out of the Valley.
You'll find the kind of people that make city life interesting. People that not only WANT to change the world, but PEOPLE with real opinions and hopes and dreams, THAT ARE CHANGING THE WORLD. It's like living in Rome at the height of its empire, except with better sewage treatment and internet access.
Who could ask for anything else?
