What The NYC Technology Ecosystem Is Missing

I am not a New Yorker, in the sense of having been born, raised, and educated here. I am an economic migrant, like most of the people I know and admire in New York, and the great majority of people I know are the same. New York seems to be in the early days of a tech start-up boom, created largely by other migrants: talented developers and entrepreneurs, and smart investors.

There is growing awareness on the part of city government of the role that it can play, as Mayor Bloomberg demonstrated this week at the TechCrunch Disrupt event (see Bloomberg Talks At TechCrunch Disrupt). But my sense is that at least one major element is missing for this recent spike in start-up activity to grow into a long-term and deep shift in the regional economy; where New York could become an international leader in technology like it is in media, finance, fashion, art, and entertainment.

As I said, I am not a born New Yorker. I am a product of Massachusetts educational institutions, where I did K-12 in Brookline, Massachusetts, graduated from the University of Massachusetts, and received my masters in computer science from Boston University. When I attended BU in the ’80s, Boston was a region where the many universities were deeply involved in the development of tech start-ups, and there were a thousand activities going on at local colleges that brought in and involved entrepreneurs. I attended lectures at MIT, get-togethers with researchers at IBM, regular meetings of programmers, and dozens of other local events. Many of my teachers in the computer science program were former or current employees of local companies, like DEC, Symbolics, and BBN. And obviously, the same sort of networked relationships between education and work centers on Stanford and the other Bay Area schools.

For what ever reason, I don’t see New York’s colleges playing this role in NYC’s tech explosion. What’s happened in recent years in tech has been largely driven by migrants with little or no connection with NYU, Brooklyn Poly or Columbia. I know that New York colleges have professors who are pushing the boundaries on new media — Jay Rosen and Clay Shirky leap to mind — but I can think of no corresponding professors involved in entrepreneurialism, or software development.

Mayor Bloomberg, in his comments at TechCrunch Disrupt, stated that the city was going to be involved in the launch of a new media lab later in the year. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard anything about it, and also that he would half-announce it in this way: without naming the school involved or the leadership heading it up. My sources have hinted that this project is more smoke than substance, intended more as PR than the aggressive development of an institute focused on ground-breaking research and education around the rise of the web and its impact on society, media, and business.

A Web Institute of the sort I think the region needs would focus on the world that the web is making, and the intersection of web technologies, media, policy, business, and entertainment, and their study. A major goal for the institute would be developing programs that would bring together the academic and entrepreneurial worlds: to act as a bridge between these groups. I think this is too central a social good to leave to a collection of tech meet ups and one off conferences.

If what my sources hint is true, that the media lab is mere PR, it’s a shame. Because I believe that such an institute would be tremendously helpful as a rallying point, a nexus that could involve the burgeoning tech start-up community, and to build a bridge between that community, and the researchers and students in NYC’s colleges.

I hope that some part of the energy and funding that the city and investors are pouring into funds to help NYC start-ups get off the ground will be directed toward building a Web Institute that could fill this missing piece. My hunch is that NYU’s Stern School would be the best place, if it was to be managed by a single school, but Columbia and Brooklyn Polytechnic might have their own aspirations. But I have no doubt that this will require visionary leadership — in all communities in the city — before this can take place. Perhaps identifying the need is the first step, though.