Sorry, but I think we have some issues that STILL need to be addressed – and I could say that green shoots are still growing in the concrete sidewalks that makeup NYC.

Last year in December, when we were having the New York Tech Meetup Organizer election, I spent a couple of weekends drafting my thoughts on the success of various epicenters and how NYC fared on them. Borrowing from a friend (Mike Lewis) and an old EE software program, I came up with a SPICES metric:

• Space
  Appropriately priced, appropriately equipped, easy access to transport for talented tech workers
• Platform
  Where people can congregate, get noticed, increase awareness beyond their small community
• Infrastructure
  The actual stuff that is used for performing technology acts – power, telecoms, hardware (or virtual hardware in software’s case), facilities for manufacturing and research
• Capital
  Money, money, money that is not based solely on a definite rate of return – but has a likelihood of return
• Experience
  Mentorship of the aspiring by the people who have succeeded (or failed) in the past – forwarding understanding and wisdom to others
• Skills/People
  The raw skills that people have within themselves and in clusters – where ongoing interaction increases skill level and value – often though of as a “educational” requirement, but I liken more to an apprenticeship

Last year, when I was contemplating my run for NYTM Organizer, I ran this analysis over my read of the City and what we needed to do.

Here is my quick assessment of the State of NYC Tech for 2009 (with my own scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is weak, 5 is strong):

Space (2008 – 1, 2009 – 3.5)
Advent of other workspaces like New Work City, 160 Varick, RTV SmartSpace, Hive@55 and the existing spaces that are already serving various players (e.g. Sunshine Suites, eMerge, TechSpace, etc) are serving the need better (especially with the advent of the COSP). Couple that with the glut in grey spaces (sublets in existing office space) – entrepreneurs are finding locations to work easier and easier.

Platform (2008 – 3, 2009 – 3.5)
Along with the NYTM, Graham’s UltraLight Startups event, Murat’s Entrepreneurship event, the Techaviv event have been offering more visibility for companies to the community at large, but the events are not driving the real need for entrepreneurs – money and partnerships. A platform should be providing a filtering mechanism with guidance and leadership – kind of in the way Walt Mossberg and Peter Kafka do in their discussions of companies. With a trusted gatekeeper evaluating companies (like they do at various showcase events in the West Coast), there is a great probability of the entrepreneurs getting funding and business.Personally, whichever platform event figures out how to tie what they are doing to the media establishment here in the City, they will be the future of the NYC platform.

Infrastructure (2008 – 3, 2009 – 3)
My disappointment is that metro wifi and really high speed bandwidth is not a priority in the city. I sit next to one of the founders of NYCWireless and often see/hear the frustration that we have in getting the kinds of speeds we would need to really exceed – not just succeed.To win in mobile, we need more infrastructure for learning how to build mobile devices and apps – iPhone is a decent play because of the Apps Store – but where is the infrastructure to work on Palm Pre, google Android, the new Symbian? Couple the tech with the media content that is generated here – and then add the incredible finance industry and the understanding of payments/banking – we could be providing an insane infrastructure.

Capital (2008 – 3.5, 2009 – 2.5)
With the economic tsunami and the financial companies that were part of the detritus, there is still a great deal of cash/capital that is accessible. But, the people with the cash want a short-term return, not interested in true, long-term investment. And if they are interested in a long-term investment, they do not know how to evaluate technology plays without validators. And without experienced players (beyond Kevin and Dwight and Scott and so on), the validators are few and far in between. Risk capital is about taking a risk – and working with someone on a level that they can perform. Value investing for the betterment of infrastructure and community – that is something I believe we are still lacking.

Experience (2008 – 2.5, 2009 – 2)
Show me the mentors. As in, I go to every NYTech Meetup every month – and I see loads of entrepreneurs and people looking to connect to mentors. Who are the mentors? Who has been training the next crop of winners? In the music industry, this happens almost magically (though the economic rationale is there). In the Valley, kabals/keiretsus work together to create bigger and better plays (see the Paypal Mafia and their prodigeny of YouTube, Facebook, Slide, Zivity, Yelp – juts to name a few).

Skills/People (2008 – 2.5, 2009 – 3)
I think due to the economic downturn and the need to retool and relearn, I think people are learning new skills with new technologies (if they can) since the value is going up the chain, not treading water at the base of the pyramid. The difficulty I see is the the educational system is not teaching people how to be skilled in continual learning. Not the idea of the “one answer”, but the fact that every problem has multiple answers and every solution can be right.Apprenticeship teaches people how to work with others – and learn from others – gaining skills and becoming even more powerful than before – since the resulting skills and abilities are the apprentices – a melange of many experiences combined with the flavor of their own talents.

I think if the NY Tech Meetup and other efforts from the Mayor are more than simple press events (e.g. MediaNY2020, NYCSeed, etc) or political plays – and the Mayor takes leadership in this, I believe we could see a true powerhouse in the City.

Mayor Bloomberg needs to support the concept of “risk capital” and provide the right incentives for this to occur. The Mayor need to support the growth of these programs to build more entreprenuership from the inventors and apprentices of this City.

But, it requires commitment, and patience. No more calls at the end of the day – investments take time to mature.

As Nicole told me, Tribal Societe is “a online global bazaar whose concept is as fashion forward and green as the company is socially responsible and its products are a la mode”. What I took from the “pitch” was that TS is a portal for creating another channel for entrepreneurs in other lands (in this case Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, South Africa to name a few) deliver natural accessory products to the US and international market.

Nicole, who was born in Manhattan, but raised in Ecuador and Miami, got an early start at entrepreneurship – starting and successfully growing her first trading company at age of 20. After spending 8 years on her business, she took someones “advice” and decided to get an MBA at NYU Stern, thinking that the financial sector was where it was at.

At Stern, Nicole met Alma, a former banker who was looking to become an entrepreneur. As the two of them spoke, Alma convinced Nicole to return to her entrepreneurial roots and launch TS.

What makes TS different from something like Etsy?

Nicole talked about her passion for the local cultures in Ecuador. With her affection and strengths in fashion and marketing, she realized that while there was an amazing source of beautiful artisan work in Ecuador, there was an appalling lack of access and distribution channels for Ecuadorians to the US and international markets. One of the stories she told me was about tagua, a wood-like material that feels more like ivory than wood, and used to be what buttons were made out of until plastic substitutes made them “expensive”. Now, with logistics and telecoms, the price of tagua has come down – and the products made from it are absolutely gorgeous.

Additionally, Nicole and Alma feature various artisans and artists on their site and promote/showcase these products through the web and through retail merchandising as they move forward. In addition, Tribal Societé also donates a portion of its proceeds to the Global Fund for Women, keeping with their mission of giving back to the communities of the developing world.

The site, launched about 60 days ago, has already turned a profit and demand is beginning to grow.

Why are you telling us about them?

Yes, there is no major technology underlying their business model (heck, all the products are handmade by artisans in developing countries!) and the e-commerce model is nothing new. But, the energy I saw from the two women and the drive they have made me decide that an article on them was worth time to point them out and allow for others to discover.

Disclaimer: I met with TS to see how I could help them, and have taken no remuneration – aside from their gift bag at their launch event.

Editor’s note: Below is a recap of the "The Power of Information to Transform Government" session at the Personal Democracy Forum in NYC

Jonathan Adelstein, (FCC Commissioner)

Affordable high-speed broadband – importance is that all other issues are impacted by the availability of broadband. We can reduce costs of healthcare, e-learning/education.

We STILL do not have an inter-operable broadband public safety network. Smart electrical grids to overcome our vulnerabilities.

A cry for real broadband access.

Steven Clift (E-democracy.org)
Points out the many different governments efforts on eDeomcracy – Korea has an eDemocracy portal. We need an Democracy.gov – the State Government says there is one, but we can not promote it in the states.

In Estonia, todayIdecide.com website – proposals are sent forward to the Ministers and now it is being shared amoungst other countries. They are so transparent that they now publish their salaries, allow for personal access to your own information.

Everything will be online – which is where we need to be. Why doesn’t government allow for the transparency? Why doesn’t GOVERNMENT allow us to convene within their democracy?

No investment in eDemocracy at present – those in power will not open themselves up by enlightened ????. Need an executive order, to make this happen.

We are #1 in making noise and making money – most of democracy is local geographically, but the discourse in the cyber world is national. Need candidates need to make their commitments BEFORE they get elected. And, after they get elected – they should have six months to accomplish their executive orders.

Need to update Open Meeting Laws – need to make it mandatory – with agenda, minutes, etcetera. Should be the moment it is done. All meetings should be digitally recorded – need to have this publicly available.

Need to invest in eDemocracy tools in government. eNotification – (google Alerts) timely access to information when released. Public meetings ONLINE – allow people to submit testimony online. Should be within the official meetings.

Paperwork Reduction Act – why not let Federal organizations connect/survey online?

Need to do more with open democracy online – need to put data out there online. Sunlight Foundation.

Connect interventionists – dowire.org/us or dowire.org/uk – eDemocracy projects.

Gotta quit pushing that Delete button on Democracy.

Sheila Campbell (USA.gov)
USA.gov – portal for US government – mobile portal as well
Launched in 2000 – allows for people to get their questions answered.
Looking to personalize government information for individual citizens. Allows information to be channeled to them.

Has close to 24K government websites (not sure) – legacy that the government has to offer.
For example: http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/cats
But most are like PR sites…boring.

Most people want:

• Get a passport
• Apply for a business loan
• Find affordable housing
• Reduce energy costs
• Get a government job

Desire to look/work like Southwest Airlines – like IRS.gov

www.tsa.gov/blog – they opened the feedback, listened, described what the feedback was – and now checkpoint/airport security has been discussed and presented to the conversation. Very successful. And the TSA Blog Team is on twitter – http://twitter.com/tsablogteam

Other efforts: Doing widgets (population clock on Yahoo!), Webcontent.gov – sharing best practices amoungst the various organizations. Have a training academy – good SEO and good metrics.

Their vision:

• Help people complete common tasks efficiently
• Engage citizens in a dialogue to improve customer service
• Get rid of ROT – redundant, outdated and trivial information
• Deliver the same answer via multiple channels
• Ensure access to underserved populations

Can the next Administration deliver on:

• Web needs to be viewed as a strategic asset
• Leaders will engage and trust the public
• Focus on communications — not just technology project – it is the channel, not the tech.
• Funding tied to performance
• Reduce, reuse, recycle