Australia, and Sydney in particular, has long been considered a contender as the “next Silicon Valley.” It even has a popular online community known as Silicon Beach. There’s been a good deal of debate that a place like Silicon Valley cannot be replicated. It is a once-in-modern-times occurrence where education, economics and lifestyle mixed in just the right amounts created an innovation super-power society. But that theory doesn’t stop other regions from trying.
The latest place staking claims as the “next Silicon Valley” is New Zealand. As this story from ZDNet explains, four major cities in New Zealand – Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch – all have the “fine universities, which will supply the workers for any tech-based venture. All four score highly on culture and lifestyle/quality of life issues.”
And, New Zealand, like Australia has a deeply rooted culture of innovation brought on by necessity of being located almost a day away from leading Western business hubs in the US and Europe. (Read more from the ZDNet piece)
Kathy Drasky regularly writes about online culture. Her marketing and communications work with the ANZA Technology Network, Advance Global Australians and with various Australians and Australian enterprises has led to at least a dozen trips Down Under.
An accomplished digital photographer, her photos have appeared in 7×7 Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and Google Schmap.
