"What about a WWW/Mosaic electronic version of L'Unione Sarda?" suggerivo in un fax 16 anni fa…
E siccome, semplificando, il "risultato" non è stato per niente male, mi diverte l'idea di usare lo stesso incipit nel titolo di questo post: what about a Sardinia Silicon Valley?
Cosa impedisce alla Sardegna di diventare una Silicon Valley del Mediterraneo? La domanda mi è sorta anche leggendo le riflessioni dell'egoblogger Robert Scoble nel suo post "The new worldwide startup", dove prova a sfatare alcune credenze comuni sulla "unicità" della Silicon Valley. E in rosso io ci ho aggiunto molto sinteticamente la situazione della Sardegna, per quanto a mia conoscenza.
There are some common trends about Silicon Valley.
1. Most everyone outside of the valley complains that they can’t get access to enough capital.
2. Most everyone outside of the valley complains that they can’t get access to enough PR.
3. Most everyone outside of the valley complains that their best startups get dragged to Silicon Valley once they get big and need more talent.
4. Most everyone outside of the valley complains that they don’t have the business infrastructure that they need to succeed.
5. Most everyone outside of the valley complains about lack of entrepreneurial culture. In Europe, for instance, failure is stigmatized.
But you already know these problems, among others. So, what’s changing? A lot.
1. The infrastructure needed to start up a tech company is now decentralized. You can use cloud servers from Rackspace, where I work, or Amazon or other companies. That infrastructure didn’t exist five years ago and before then if you wanted to start a web company you would need to build your own data center. Not every community has datacenters, but today everyone has access to the same cloud hosting services.
Un nuovo cavo sottomarino è già operativo e fornisce tutta la banda di rete che può servire. CRS4, Università e altri Istituti di Ricerca sono già collegati tra loro in una grid di calcolo molto avanzata e potente.
2. PR is being decentralized. Thanks to blogs, Skype, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook you can get onto TechCrunch no matter where in the world you are.
E in più le PR possono citare le varie "bellezze" della Sardegna.
3. Costs are coming way down. Associated with first point. No longer do you need hundreds of thousands of dollars in servers to start up, you just need a few hundred bucks on a credit card to buy cloud servers.
Sempre più vero.
4. A ton of startup accelerators/incubators have formed in past few years. I’ve listed a few on this post. They provide money, offices, mentoring, and other services you need like legal help.
Qui invece siamo ancora indietro (in Sardegna come nel resto d'Italia), ma basterebbe poco per cambiare.
5. Tech talent is growing around the world. Silicon Valley used to have a lock on geeks. That no longer is true as many universities around the world have educated tons of computer scientists and engineers.
Vero anche questo.
6. Tax advantages. In Vancouver government officials told me this week that they are seeing a widening corporate tax rate gap. They expect that in 2012 their rate will be 25% while USA’s rate will be 40%. Other countries, like Ireland, have even lower rates. Plus, tons of countries want to help form tech zones. In Vancouver Bootup Labs officials told me they are working on getting some R&D subsidies from the Canadian government, (I’ve heard similar things from other countries, which can help even more businesses startup around the world).
Questo è un punto molto dibattuto: c'è chi sostiene che non si può far niente perchè l'imposizione fiscale è regolata a livello centrale, e chi invece sostiene che l'autonomia statutaria della Regione Sardegna le permetterebbe di introdurre una "zona franca" o comunque a tassazione ridotta.
7. Lower costs of living. In San Francisco it’s expensive to buy housing and health care needs to be purchased at sometimes great costs to families. Not so in many other communities around the world.
Qui i costi della vita sono più bassi, a cui però si devono sommare quelli di viaggio, anche se ultimamente sono molto aumentate le possibilità di voli low-cost. E poi, come dicevamo per il punto 2, possiamo aggiungere la… "higher quality of living".
(Immagine di testa: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zipckr/3548310607)