June 1st, 2009

Internet Week NY: Celebrating NYC's Tech Scene, One Social Media Seminar at a Time

I have been intensely exploring the New York tech scene for a scant five days now (school’s out for summer!), so you can ONLY IMAGINE how intrigued I am by this week’s second-annual “Internet Week New York“.

In a genius move by the Mayor’s office, the city has crowdsourced the actual planning of the week’s events to the local technology scene. This is great for the city (less manpower required to pull off a week-long geekfest) and beneficial to curious folks trying to get a feel for the technology community in New York – analyzing the list of events gives a pretty thorough landscape of what New York can offer to digital dilettantes looking to enhance their knowledge of the internets.

Although there will be a solid group of out-of-towners around, I see this week as a by-NYC for-NYC event. That said, the paradox here is as follows: event organizers will likely put together an event that exhibits their strengths, meaning the events this week will serve to highlight and reinforce the strengths – which I see as content creation, advertising and investment – of the NYC tech community.

THE GOOD – Content Content Content.

If you believe “content is king” – and who doesn’t these days? – there will be ample opportunity to juice up your knowledge on content development and execution from the content capital of the universe. New Yorkers, old-media and new-media alike, respect the good stuff like nowhere else.

Check out content-related events here, here and here.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD – Where are the Developers?

There are few events that involve actually learning how to code and/or build stuff (exceptions here and here). From what I can tell, the best way to lock down job security if you work in print media/traditional advertising is to beef up your knowledge of the digital side. If you’re a content ninja, wouldn’t having a working knowledge of rails, php, python or even wordpress provide a huge advantage?

What I think Internet Week lacks are these “gateway” classes for the throngs of old-media types who are ready to embrace the future of digital media.  If New York really wants to establish itself as a technology hub, there needs to be a REALLY low barrier to entry for people interested in actually learning to build new media.

So where are the coding parties? Please let me know – business students don’t usually get invited.