The Washington Post Rails D.C. Yet Again

Over the past few months I’ve been in countless discussions about the future of D.C. technology and ways that we can contribute to making this area a thriving technology scene. One of the conclusions at SocialDevCamp this past weekend was that we need more media coverage from blogs because nobody is doing it in the mainstream media. The Washington Post furthers its disconnect from the bubbling D.C. technology community with a post entitled, “A Tech Stable, But Hardly a Staple“.

I’ve ranted about the trouble facing the Post in the past but this article highlighted my complaints. Steven Pearlstein, a 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner, suggests that “now may be a good time to redefine our [Washington's] aspirations and reconsider our strategies.” Honestly, he provides a great contrarian perspective to counter the arguments held by a number of local residents that voiced their opinions at this weekend’s event in Baltimore, Maryland.

As Pearlstein emphasizes in his article, in the technology market in D.C. “the premium is on reliability, not cutting-edge innovation.” This is one of the reasons why you will meet a lot of conservative investors. If you want to find high-risk investors you might want to head out to Silicon Valley. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t local investment, it’s just not in fresh new web startups.

So where do we go from here? Well it’s obvious that the Washington Post is not a supporter of the 500 or so people that are trying to make this area a center for innovative internet technology. All we can do is continue to blog about the events we participate in and the companies that surround us and perhaps one day this will become a center of thriving internet startups. Until then, all we can do is talk about it and execute on our own business plans.