You can quibble with parts of this speech by Paul Graham (one of the developers of Viaweb), but I found this part interesting in terms of the Jacksonville economy:
With this amount of noise in the signal, it's hard to tell good hackers when you meet them. I can't tell, even now. You also can't tell from their resumes. It seems like the only way to judge a hacker is to work with him on something.And this is the reason that high-tech areas only happen around universities. The active ingredient here is not so much the professors as the students. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them work on the same projects. The smart ones learn who the other smart ones are, and together they cook up new projects of their own.
One of the somewhat hidden treasures of the First Coast is FCCJ, known nationally for its technological programs. In the long run, I think, the school is important because it can bring together creative people and get them working together on projects that will have long-term impact.
Posted by tgibbons at August 10, 2004 01:02 PM