Stories for Feb. 19, 2008

Seattle has a distinct and remarkable tech ecosystem

By Ed Lazowska

In response to Margaret O'Mara's article about Silicon Valley and Seattle, let's agree that everybody understands that we must build upon our advantages and preserve our distinctiveness, as she proposes. Including John Markoff of The New York Times, who spends a lot of time both in Seattle and in Silicon Valley, and knows each region well. Let's be sure not to caricature what he said. He simply observed that Seattle is exhibiting some of the entrepreneurial success of Silicon Valley; he described some of the evidence and explored some of the reasons. (By the way, it's worth noting that he wrote a much longer piece – it got whacked severely at the last minute due to a layout change, relegating much of his work and many of his insights to the bit bucket.) We have managed to develop a tech ecosystem here – a feat that has eluded many other regions of the nation. It's distinctly our own, and it's pretty remarkable.

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