Bury The Name Silicon Alley
Fred Wilson gave a phenomenal speech at Web 2.0 Expo NY titled New York’s Web Industry From 1995 to 2008: From Nascent to Ascendent. It’s about 25 minutes long – worth watching from beginning to end. It’s a fantastic history lesson that details the rise, fall, and re-emergence of the Web industry in New York.
As part of this, Fred makes a plea to "bury the name Silicon Alley." He hates it in the same way I’ve always hated the names "Silicon Flatirons" and "Silicon (whatever)" to describe the tech communities in other geographies than Silicon Valley. Fred appropriately suggests that we should call "New York" simply "New York" – which I completely agree with.
I watched this 26 min presentation this morning and enjoyed it very much, the first time I've watched Fred speak at length. The line "there are something like 40 or 50 Internet startups in Brooklyn" was great. I bet that's a fun scene to be a part of….
Consider yourselves lucky; the best London can do is 'Silicon Roundabout' (you call them traffic circles, I think.)