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Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

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Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#51

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

There's a small village (250 people) in rural New Mexico that until recently was home to both the 2nd programmer at Amazon and the main inventor of the Kindle. That was close to 1% of residents, but the kindle guy left :)

More seriously, I'd say that I love doing "tech work" out here. Almost none of my neighbors know anything about what I do, and most of them don't want to know. Suits me fine. I'd rather talk about tech stuff online with people who know, and about everything else with my neighbors.

I also like that my village is more of an artist community (famous, and not so famous) more than a tech community. Generally more interesting people for own personal tastes. Also, living around the corner from my cookbook idol (to the extent that I have cookbook idols) is both interesting and intimidating.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#52

Post by coward123 »

I live in a town of 35,000 people, where the economies of several counties in each direction are based in agriculture. There are tech people here - and I expected there would be a lot more by now - but it is very slow growth. Internet service isn't bad, there is a small co-working space or two, but the bigger issue is one of demographics. We have a lot of retirees coming for sunshine and a perceived more affordable lifestyle, but younger people are slow to want to bring their families here even if they could be remote workers. There are a couple small tech firms (like under 10 employees), but none of the biggest issues is that there are really only two smallish employers who can offer any kind of competitive compensation. That risk - that you are reliant on remote work - keeps a lot of people from being willing to move here.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#53

Post by julianlam »

mdasen wrote: post #48

> I've heard that people tend to be very different to those you find in a city In a lot of cases this is true - and it's not just about tech. Rural communities are often more religious, more conservative, lower income, lower educated, and have a lot less access to opportunity. Cities also mean that there's often a critical mass for many interests and minority groups. Are you LGBT? Are you a religious or racial minori…

It seems peculiar to me that there is no standard process for the winding down of city governance when population dwindles. It's probably just the human element. I don't mean to be promoting some sort of libertarian "self-governance is great!" philosophy, just thinking out loud.

Imagine a city building game where city expenses increase with each population milestone (due to new positions in local government, new departments, etc.). One would naturally expect that if the city population were to drop below a specific threshold, the appropriate departments would be wound down to curb expenditure. If there aren't enough people to economically support a parks department, then (sadly) let the parks go wild.

Perhaps it's just hard to fire someone because an algorithm told you to do so. Real life is messy, after all.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#54

Post by rich_sasha »

Uk Oxford and Cambridge are bona fide tech hubs, and towns of ~150k people but in either you can totally live in a village with a 20-30 min bike commute.

We’re talking cows in pastures and dark skies. Hell, I know someone who helped raised some cattle on a common in return for a share of the meat... while actually within Oxford City boundaries.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#55

Post by mminer237 »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #5

I'd like to know, too. My guess: You need at least a town with a state college. (Do you consider Fort Collins, Colorado to be "rural"? It's about 110,000 people. Decent tech scene there.)

This is basically Champaign-Urbana, Illinois too. You have the university, Wolfram Research, Volition, tech startups, etc. downtown. You drive two miles south and it's just corn galore.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#56

Post by CalRobert »

Well, I moved to a village of about 250 people in rural Ireland, and I've met some other rural Irish tech workers online, but don't know of any concentrations of tech workers, we're all far apart. I do wonder if this will change over time as housing in cities gets less and less affordable.

It's.... Fine. The locals are mostly bemused. I'd struggle to do it in rural US where the political divide is much wider. I'm only here because it's cheap though.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#58

Post by niblettc »

Huntsville, AL, & Chattanooga, TN both have tech communities. Huntsville has NASA's MSFC and Redstone arsenal, so there's a ton of tech talent from all over the country there. Companies like Boeing, Blue Origin, Lockheed all have a presence. They're now starting to see non government / defense tech companies spring up, Like CommentSold. Gener8tor is launching a new accelerator program there.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#59

Post by CalRobert »

toast0 wrote: post #23

Some of the Seattle 'suburbs' get fairly rural, lots of trees, at least some lots are a couple acres, a few working farms, lots of hobby farms, but still have a lot of tech workers. If remote work is important to you, check out internet options. There's a chance of Comcast and CenturyLink, but both get shifty about actually servicing homes in places (Comcast won't run a drop to my house even though their cable is on…

I'm on a train and just went through some charming town south of Centralia. Wonder if it would appeal to remote tech workers.

Re: Ask HN: Are there any rural tech communities?

#60

Post by shasts »

Would there be a backlash from the local community? I think unless the said tech community makes a positive impact to the native society live there, the reception is not going to be welcoming, I think.

Majority of the places I have seen tech people move to, the first thing to happen is increase in prices, be it housing or services.

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