Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where did you get that text from?
It appeared when I clicked on the link. Maybe it's UK-only or something.
Weird - I'm in the UK and just see a generic 404.
Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
11–20 of 71 posts
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#12Gentrifiers complaining that they've been out-gentrified. There were people living in Hackney and Dalston before the hipsters moved in and starting pricing them out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in, but what goes around, comes around.
Also, silicon roundabout is at 5 min walking distance of the heart of the city of London, so any kind of success would have priced them out. The council is doing what their own success would have been doing in a few years.
It would have required tremendous effort by the government to maintain the right balance of cheap business place and accommodation required to let the community survive. 100 meters away from one of the world finance capital ( and only sector still working in the UK ) that's an impossible challenge.
You cannot bootstrap a startup community too close to such location. You need some room for the community to create a culture and some momentum.
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#13Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#14Nice little bit of criticism of the Hackney council and I like the summary of the startup scene in general:
A common pattern in startups is to go to work for one,
watch it implode and team up with a colleague or two to
move on to another startup; repeat several times until you
have agglomerated a bunch of people you know, like and
trust; then do your own startup with them. As far as I can tell this is on the rise and is central to most university budgets. What could happen to "burst" this supposed "bubble"?
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#15Gentrifiers complaining that they've been out-gentrified. There were people living in Hackney and Dalston before the hipsters moved in and starting pricing them out of the neighbourhoods they grew up in, but what goes around, comes around.
Also, silicon roundabout is at 5 min walking distance of the heart of the city of London, so any kind of success would have priced them out. The council is doing what their own success would have been doing in a few years. It would have required tremendous effort by the government to maintain the right balance of cheap business place and accommodation required to let the community survive. 100 meters away from one of…
We have had a lot of Silicon-whatsits in the UK. Silicon Fen in Cambridgeshire and Silicon Glen somewhere in Scotland. There's a big electronics scene in Bristol.
Tho' this is something that it's impossible for governments to do, really, all the money will be creamed off by "advisers" and "consultants", small companies given impossible bureaucratic hoops to jump through, etc. The best thing the government can do is just take a step back.
Or my pet harebrained scheme: resurrect the original Acorn Archimedes and buy a million of then, requiring that all govt departments use indigenous British computing technology...
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#16Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where did you get that text from?
It appeared when I clicked on the link. Maybe it's UK-only or something.
link to the post that links to the google cache: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7359526
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#18Removed article ?
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#19I've worked in the area since 2004. Although I agree with the points he is making, I don't really see the author coming up with any solutions. The problems are rooted in the right to private property.
I'm also fairly certain that Hackney have an issue with corruption. The way to flip properties in the area is to buy up a building with a B1 use (office), then apply to planning permission to build a residential penthouse or two on the top of the building. Build the flats, sell them for an insane amount of money to a couple of bankers, job done. I've been told off the record by estate agents that certain people have "more luck" with these applications than others, but what can you do?
Re: Cory Doctorow: How startups of Silicon Roundabout are gradually being flattened
#20Nice little bit of criticism of the Hackney council and I like the summary of the startup scene in general: A common pattern in startups is to go to work for one, watch it implode and team up with a colleague or two to move on to another startup; repeat several times until you have agglomerated a bunch of people you know, like and trust; then do your own startup with them. The statement that foreign students paying v…
International students pay full fees here, whereas UK/EU students are subsidised somewhat. I don't know if international student fees are "central" to university budgets, in comparison with domestic fees and funding, but they're obviously very important. Increasingly so, in recent years, as domestic fees have gone up considerably, which has seen a decrease in home student numbers.
Anyway, the bubble would burst when the decreasing value of a UK (or any) degree is overtaken by the increasing cost of it. Bear in mind that the cost of a degree isn't just the tuition; the cost of living is substantial in the UK (particularly in London) and that's making the option of studying here less and less attractive.