21–28 of 28 posts
Arguably Bangalore already has that status, it's certainly produced several multi-billion dollar tech companies which puts it ahead of most cities (both in the developing and developed world).
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Simply put, in a country where US$3000 is a decent annual wage, a company founder can hire more than one person to work with them on the kind of revenue they'd need to eat and pay rent in Silicon Valley. On the other hand, it's still quite possible for a Philippines-based startup to generate most of its revenues from wealthier countries. Silicon Valley is a mecca for entrepreneurs looking for funding to form fast-gro…
Could you set an example or parameter for what constitutes as low risk, medium-based business on the web? Aside from local clones, I'm unable to think of anything that fits that bill. Especially if we're talking medium-return businesses internationally the likes which would be considered high-return in this country. There's things like setting up your own online shops but that kind of setting is not conducive to form…
The fact that medium-returns internationally would make you rich in the Philippines is part of the appeal.
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Hey, I know what you mean, I'm also from a third world country. Though I've been living in Canada for years now so I might have forgotten what things are like. Something that might help: Myers-Briggs personality indicator. SJ types tend to work on a corporate mind-set. Try to find NT or NF types; they might start with a corporate mindset (assuming that's the prevailing mindset around them) but they can easily change…
Thanks. Good luck on your side, I'm just hoping on my side too. It all seems so far away but someone has to try and find answers to the question eventually. From what little I know, Tezuka did want to clone Disney in a sense. Prior to this there were comics before that resembled gag manga and Tezuka, finding difficulty in amassing resources to clone a Disney movie, tried to convert Disney unto paper with the current…
I would start with attempting to produce (or translate) good material that has the potential to produce programmers who understand their craft really well and have a really good understanding about systems (to the extent that they can manage a web server, for example, and ssh into it, and edit files with vim, and all that stuff).
Maybe also having a few projects that people can clump around, something that's open source, interesting enough for people to want to use it and contribute to it.
Again I don't really want to clone Silicon Valley per se, what I want to clone is online open source communities. And again, it's not really about cloning, but about using that model as something to aim for, at least initially.
Man, living in Brazil i can attest to you that there are plenty of hackers around, but no nasdaq. Maybe it can't be done, and maybe we wouldn't really like it if we got it. In Raghuram Rajam's book (Fault Lines) there is something about half of what a country needs to develop is capital, and part is the human organization that can turn this capital into development. As in sane institutions and sane business procedure…
No please continue digressing mrpsbrk. I was actually hoping you would expand more on "maybe we wouldn't really like it". I do understand the context of your question but it's kind of a weird thing for me to answer. For you see, I don't have an "official" employed job currently and if I were to be given a choice of what to have - I would certainly choose one that is more of a freelance type of job than a static month…
I just meant that the whole culture, you know, the boom-and-sell and become a millionaire, that this just isn't the best thing in the world. That it makes all the sense there but that i think that a real grassroots "technology experimentation mecca" should better develop it's own culture and views about life and machines and stuff --- one better than this American-culture offshoot that i am guessing Silicon Valley is.
So technology is cool, hacking is cool, how does this affect our lives? It seems to me a bit too US-high-school thing that to prove you're cool you have to become a millionaire. Haven't you wondered why the cool guys like Woz depart and the pinpricks like Jobs stay? Too much macho display, i say. We are like Peacoks, instead using our brains as display?
For example, there is this TED talk about this one guy who leaves some internet-linked comps in the middle of nothing in India and then just comes back 6 months later to see what the children did with that, this guy is certainly not making as many millions, but i believe he is nurturing a certain "relationship with technology", and this, to me, is the one thing that is valuable about Silicon Valley.
By "socially contextual mode of analysis" i was trying to express something like "could the old lady living on a shack on the middle of nowhere share your dream of a Philippino Silicon Valley?" Is it possible to share this vision? Not that Old Ladies should code, obviously, but could you make a girl secretary that is likelly to become this old lady in 50 years, could you make her proud to be working for a high-tech fling? Proud enough to stick with you after being offered a better pay?
Could you have girl coders? And could they do it because they like it and not because it is "a right thing to do"? Because, you know, coding is fun.
I am deeply convinced that money is almost never the solution. And that when there is no "solution" to speak of, the simple injection of money will create pain. So what i am saying is that there must be a culture before there is a market, or something like it. That the idea must not be written in dollars, but in expectations and dreams, in enthusiasm, and, finally, in the good-old curious spirited hacking.
That said, have you seen "leadership lessons from dancing guy"? Do read the post too, after you see the video. Really worth your time.
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No please continue digressing mrpsbrk. I was actually hoping you would expand more on "maybe we wouldn't really like it". I do understand the context of your question but it's kind of a weird thing for me to answer. For you see, I don't have an "official" employed job currently and if I were to be given a choice of what to have - I would certainly choose one that is more of a freelance type of job than a static month…
>> I was actually hoping you would expand more on "maybe we wouldn't really like it". I just meant that the whole culture, you know, the boom-and-sell and become a millionaire, that this just isn't the best thing in the world. That it makes all the sense there but that i think that a real grassroots "technology experimentation mecca" should better develop it's own culture and views about life and machines and stuff -…
Thanks for clarifying what you mean by socially contextual mode of analysis. I think it's very possible in this country but it needs some stability which it will not get from the government soon. That's really where most of the money issue stems from.
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Could you set an example or parameter for what constitutes as low risk, medium-based business on the web? Aside from local clones, I'm unable to think of anything that fits that bill. Especially if we're talking medium-return businesses internationally the likes which would be considered high-return in this country. There's things like setting up your own online shops but that kind of setting is not conducive to form…
Niche self-service SaaS, Phone/Facebook apps and games, affiliate-driven product/price comparison/finding/recommending services...basically anything with a medium term strategy to generate profit rather than aggressive growth to attract buyers/investors... provided it doesn't need a US-based sales team, rare engineering skills or high non-people costs like up-front marketing, licensing or datacentres. The fact that m…
Maybe I am mistaken since I haven't personally participated in a start-up but the appeal just often leads to our major businesses eating up the smaller businesses. If there are small businesses that do indeed grow from this without being bought, it becomes such a brand-centric concept that promotes copycats rather than idea inventors.
I hope I am able to convey myself clearly. It's not that I disagree with your idea, it's just that I feel we already have this already. It certainly could be faster or more aggressive but nothing that would develop an idea culture. Even in the money culture - I fear it would end up morphing too much like an online MLM type of educational/culture development - a concept who's offline variety is already very popular among the poor and even middle classes in this country.
Any place that wants to be successful really needs stable rules. If a country doesn't protect property or people's economic freedom (move jobs, invest, sell) then I don't think you can get a successful environment for development. In other words, the little guy needs to be able to beat the big guy or the friends of the government.
As much as I agree that economic freedom is important, it's not like in hindsight richer countries were able to shrug off corporations and the little guy managed to beat the big guy.
If anything it was merely the allowance afforded by being a richer country and the competitive culture backed by a competitive and often (at the time) unique society/political education movement that created the sort of economic illusion of being free which allowed for the little guys to rise/want to rise.
I am merely stereotyping though and even in my attempts at stereotyping I could be wrong but considering the current state of the world (or mainly America), it just appears to be the correct assumption.