Last Friday, I was invited to speak on an inaugural podcast for We Are Silicon Beach, a new website dedicated to the local tech community. The geeks behind it are Eduardo Henriques and Fabian Socarras of Micstura and serial entrepreneur Ulises Orozco. All three work out of Brikolodge, Miami's only co-working space co-founded by Henriques, where we recorded the podcast.
There isn't much on the website yet, but it's promising. "We're just now developing the site," said Orozco before the podcast. "It's a community portal. We want to open it up to contributions, ideas and suggestions. For now, we will aim for a weekly podcast with different guests to discuss local tech issues and news."
The idea of a one-stop shop for all things tech is a good one. Silicon Beach has heard time and time again from many geeks about the lack of cohesiveness in the community. Socarras agreed: "We get together and get excited about projects and ideas. But then we go back to our work and the excitement fizzles."
Those get-togethers usually take place monthly at Refresh Miami, BarCamp, specialty code meetups and corporate happy hours like Tech
Tuesdays. But you won't often see BarCampers at TechTuesdays for example, or vice-versa.
While
all organizers have done an extraordinary job of bringing the local
tech scene to life, it will benefit everyone to have a single site
where anybody who's curious can get a bird's eye view of who's doing
what and when; this would be especially useful for potential angel
investors who are willing to take risks in Florida. I also recommended
that the website have a job board, a forum, regular blog posts and an
impartial editor; as with any field, egos inevitably clash, but
everyone deserves equal exposure.
Overall, a community portal
that's easy to find could help those in the dark get out of their cubby
holes and connect. "I met an iPhone developer at BarCamp," said Orozco.
"He only knew about it because he happened to work in the same
building. But he didn't know about Mobile Monday, for example."
How
did we define Silicon Beach last Friday? We all know it's a take on the
California valley, of course, and a shared geographical feature along
the coasts of Florida. I suggested that while there are thousands of
tech companies in Florida, there are also many creative individuals
doing interesting, forward-thinking projects right here in the
tri-county area. But ultimately, Silicon Beach will define itself as it
evolves.
Click here
to hear the podcast.
Henriques (@coworkingmiami), Socarras (@fa6ian) and Orozco (@ulisesorozco) invite anyone interested to contribute, share and get involved.
