This post has been imported from the NML Research Blog…
On the flight to Oregon I read Michael Indegaard’s Silicon Alley: the Rise and Fall of a New Media District. “Silicon Alley” mostly runs along Broadway from the Flatiron to the Financial District (see map below). Indegaard makes two important points in his book: 1) that the backers of these ‘new’ media companies were hardly new – realestate interests and wallstreet venture capitalists. And 2) how the physical location of ‘dot.com’ companies shaped them – and visa versa. Rather than minimize the importance of place, the new media companies tended to locate themselves within ‘new media districts’ – drawing their resources from and providing content for the local (physical) industry.
NYC has Silicon Alley; Boston has the Cyber District (and the state of MA has invested money in a PR campaign to re-brand the state as the “.commonwealth” – emphasis on the ‘dot’); San Fransisco has Multimedia Gulch; LA and San Diego share the Digital Coast & Detroit has Automation Alley. And of course there is Silicon Valley…
After whitewater rafting in Hell’s Canyon Oregon, some friends and I decided to stop for dinner in the city of Halfway Oregon. The city, with a little more than 300 residents, sounded familar but I couldn’t figure out why – until Michael (my partner, not the author) informed me that Halfway, in a deal with Half.com (a Philadelphia based internet company), was the city that changed its name to Half.com.
Yes its true… Halfway changed its name to Half.com in 2000 for 1 year for a reported $73,000 and computers for their schools. The “World’s First Internet City” apparently returned to its gold-rush-roots and saw the name change as a much needed boast to their tourism and economy. After the deal was made the town used their new riches and the riches they expected to make in the future, due to their new found ‘fame,’ to build a new Fairground. Needless to say, the town’s fame didn’t last very long and their contract with Half.com was not renewed – leaving Halfway with no way to pay for their $400,000 Fairground. As one member of the Halfway community put it (according to AP) “Apparently, they were counting their chickens before they were hatched.” Meanwhile, after literally ‘putting itself on the map’ Half.com (the company) was sold to eBay for $300m.
Reflecting on the city of Half.com and other silicon spaces that populate the country, I wonder what effect being in NYC has on the new media we are all making and what effect our new media creations will have on NYC and other places?
