2008.04.26 4 B

From Missoula Bar Camp

Missoula as a Tech Mecca: Synergy with Non-profits & the Arts

This was another combined session initiated by John Masterson and Harold Shinsato.

Missoula does not have the most active technology industry. Bozeman has larger publicly traded technology companies. There is Printing For Less in Livingston.

Logisys is our largest software employer. A lot of people will work for them for a period of time. How can we promote Missoula as a Technology hub?

Harold related that to make Missoula a hub, the genius of our town needs to be understood and emphasized. He reported that Missoula has a very large number of people who want to make a difference and who have chose to live here for the quality of life. In fact, Missoula has been reported to have the highest number of non-profits per capita in the country (which probably also means the world). Missoula is also well known for the number of writers and has a substantial artist community. So perhaps the way to highlight Missoula is in a synergy for these three areas - the arts and technology for making a difference.

Jeanette Russell mentioned the 501 clubs (the name being based on 501(c)(3) status). Jeannette will start a 501 club in town. The technology experience level in Missoula in the non-profit community is really low. She is looking for speakers and techie professionals.

Technology people do things... The Non-profit arena has something that we're looking for (places to gain training, experience, and exposure) The Non-profit arena can learn from technology people (tools to reach out, connect, and engage people)

Two of the BarCamp participants came from Helena and said we might not want to focus on Missoula as a Tech Mecca, but Montana as a whole.

Tangents - non-profits - don't receive as much funding as they aught to. They can use free and open source software.

We need to bring technophiles here and get them to start companies.

[Russ Fletcher] would say the [UM] could play a bigger role. How about develop a robust licensing scheme based on the technologies they develop in the laboratory.

The State Income Tax is a big downside to starting a company in Montana. There is the problem of airline travel - always two hops away. And that is going to be a growing issue.

Cost wise we can out compete - D.C., NYC, 99% of the business happens there. We'd be happy to make 50-60$ here. Most Montanan's would be happy making a living wage. Those are the same freaking skills. Outsource Montana. Rural Insourcing. Big engineering firms could find people in small town montana who are retired or whatever and put in a branch office, the land is rent is cheap. A lot of Montanans will graduate going to a big city to make money, not realizing it costs more in big cities. There are Montana ambassadors reaching out to Montanan's in big cities to help them get back to Montana.

There are lots of people from the state who went to Seattle.

Missoula has come out amazingly well with the video on the internet. Maybe contacting them - streaming highdef video - huge change. Just in time learning.

Missoula is an excellent place.

 - Documentary festival
 - Wildlife festival
 - Testing just time learning in crisis learning
 - Phenomenal access to wilderness
 - Highest per capita non-profits

Jeanette has mentioned she never interacts with Missoula techies. It's hard to innovate when doing things alone.

We are selling a vibrant dynamic ongoing process. We need a community commitment - maybe involving the mayors office. The problems we face, the meaning we need in our work. That's the conceptual idea.

Pie in the sky idea - wouldn't it be cool if there was a building downtown that could house 30 nonprofit groups. Nice building. We have enough non-profits to do it. Something like that was developed for Independent lawyers - come on in here, you get an office, and access to shared services. Voice mail, etc.

Towards the close of the meeting, there seemed to be a consensus in having the next BarCamp in 3 to 6 months. Harold had planned the next one for 2009, but consented to aim at October. The consensus was also that it seemed clear that the non-profit/technology synergy was valuable and that drawing in some artists, writers, desigers, etc. would be valuable.