Tech Town, NC

Where are the jobs? That’s the refrain heard all around the country these days. So far no one has had the answer, but to hear Vivek Wadhwa tell it, all you need to do to solve the jobs problem is answer another question: Where are the startups?
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I’ve been testing Argyle Social this past week as a social media (read: twitter) dashboard and thought I’d share my impressions. Right off the bat I’ll say this – as a professional results-driven tool, it’s among the most promising I’ve used. Think Google Analytics meets bit.ly.

Argyle Social is being developed by Eric Boggs and Adam Covati, both formerly of Bronto in Durham. Their hope is that Argyle will justify in dollars and cents why you should (or shouldn’t) invest in social media. The app bills itself as a “social media marketing platform that helps marketers measure and optimize the social channel” and in my testing, it delivers.
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Between the two recent announcements of Downtown Durham Startups & American Underground, Durham is making serious waves in the world of startups, entrepreneurs and small business.

Downtown Durham Startups launched on July 2nd and is meant to be an information hub offering startup news, background info, and resources for budding entrepreneurs. The site is looking to grow its database quickly by allowing local businesses to submit info, but the Startup Directory is already pretty comprehensive. One somewhat confusing quirk to the site – the blog is actually on its own domain at Bull City Startups. The Bull City site (now added to the blogroll) was founded by Jason Murtha this May, and he has now officially teamed up with the Downtown Durham effort. Another local name behind the initiative is Taylor Mingos of Shoeboxed, a (relatively) longtime stalwart of the Triangle startup scene.

As if that weren’t enough, today the American Tobacco Campus announced a great new space (26,000 sq. feet) they hope to fill with, you guessed it, startups. The space, dubbed the “American Underground,” is slated to open this October and a few significant tenants have already committed, notably the Council for Entrepreneurial Development as well as incubators LaunchBox Digital (previous coverage) and Joystick Labs. The announcement means the CED will be leaving its current location at the Alexandria Technology Center.

For full coverage and a nice video on the American Underground announcement, WRAL has the scoop here. More coverage is over at TechJournal South as well.

While these announcements are great cause to get excited about the future of the region, it’s also a good time to appreciate that these things have not happened overnight. Durham and the Triangle have been building the foundations and networks necessary for this kind of activity for a long time. The area has drawn new minds and cultivated its own through universities and organizations like the CED. The exciting events to come will be a testament to the efforts and foresight of those in this community.

I am tired of novelty. Objects of mild amusement are off-putting. Anything lauded as “must see” is suspect. Twitter Trends are to be avoided at all costs. I have no time for these baubles of the brain. I am ready for a post-novelty world.

Lately I have the feeling that much of the internet exists for the sole purpose that someone will convince me to “check it out” once and and then add it to the pile of discarded lolcats. The act of “trying” something is now the whole experience of that thing. And perhaps the final, perfect, manifestation of this arrived in the form of Chatroulette.

Chatroulette was nothing more than a one-off experiment to answer the question “What if we mashed up webcams and roulette?” The answer is, well, that (and, of course, naked lonely men). In a sense, the whole of the internet is becoming a game of thought-roulette. Now that Chatroulette is over we can “next” the service itself and fix ourselves on Lebron James. And then something else, and then…

Or is there a way out?
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I like Technology. I’m a tech news junkie. I work and live in North Carolina’s “Triangle” region. Mix that together, and the fact is I consume a LOT of information about what’s going on in the local tech scene. And as any good Social Media Club member knows, if you get it, share it. So here is my list of the best sources of local tech news:

• Local Tech Wire – Rapid fire tech updates
• TechJournal South – Well rounded coverage of technology & business
• Southeast VC – Insightful blog by Jason Caplain of Southern Capitol Ventures
• Social Wayne – The Triangle’s always hustling social media guru, Wayne Sutton
• CED – A great source of news, networking, & training
• Social Fresh – Marketing & social media news & commentary (actually out of Charlotte)
• News & Observer Tech Section – “Old Media” covers the new stuff
• Ryan Allis’ Blog – News & thoughts from the founder of iContact
• Triangle Tweetup – News on the latest geeked-out get-together
• Carrboro Creative Coworking – Events, news, & community
• New Media Campaigns – This excellent design & marketing group puts out several great blogs
• Fred Stutzman – Top shelf social media research, news, & a couple apps
• Intersouth Partners – News & events on this venture capital group
• Social Media B2B – Social media tips for B2B marketing
• Social Media Club – Facebook Page + @SMCTriangle
• TechTown, NC – Tech news junkie, trying to keep up

I’m sure I’ve missed several great sources here, but that’s why I’ve also posted it as a Google Doc here: NC Tech News Sources – Please feel free to add yourself or your favorites. Included in the spreadsheet are handy RSS feeds for most of the sources. Enjoy!