tracking innovation Entrepreneurs network growth

1. Entrepreneurs must lead the startup community.
2. The leaders must have a long-term commitment.
3. The startup community must be inclusive of anyone who wants to participate in it.
4. The startup community must have continual activities that engage the entire entrepreneurial stack.

We love the work that BlueChilli do in creating next generation businesses and their role in the Australian Startup incubation scene across Sydney and their visible leadership in Australia. Their StartRail map is based on a legendary piece of Information Visualisation, the London Undergound rail network map. Since moving my companies from Canberra to the Coast, I've been talking with a range of people+ businesses over the last 18mths about Entrepreneur driven networks, building on the findings by Brad Feld in his Boulder Thesis, where Brad states:

In related work, Kauffman noted a related + relevant set of findings in their study of the 1 Million Cups program, where their Think Locally, Act Locally: Building a Robust Entrepreneurial Ecosystem study found:

• Entrepreneurship is a local phenomenon.
• Entrepreneurs follow local entrepreneurs.
• Local networks thicken over time.
• Entrepreneurial demand is high for peer-based learning and networking.
• Different programs reach different entrepreneurs.

With some of the work that we've done in the past using Social Network Analysis techniques and visualisations, we know that each sampling is only ever going to be a point in time snapshot, showing a networks state. Where it gets interesting, is watching how local networks thicken over time. Let's use BlueChillis StartRail map as a good living example, contrasting Version1 with their latest Version3 iteration - whilst it's not a true dynamic SNA view, its use of the UnderGround map visualisation technique still speaks volumes in providing some local examples of the Kauffman study.

In our #centralcoast #digitalmakers session, we'll be chatting about localising @BlueChilliGroup Startrailv1 map pic.twitter.com/Z48tyDKlKw

— laughingmind (@laughingmind) March 5, 2015

@BlueChilliGroup StartRail map is a good living example of @bfeld Boulder Thesis. V3 of http://t.co/HBd4biDZlD pic.twitter.com/NFKSgIFg77

— laughingmind (@laughingmind) March 7, 2015

In our 2015 DigitalMaker Meetup series (being run at Nexus Smart Hub) we're looking to grow the digital skills capability and network for 'Silicon Coasters' (digital savvy firms + freelancers based out of Sydney in attractive regional settings). The group recognised the value of maps like this one from SiliconValleyMap to help showcase an areas capability:

There's plenty of recognition that digital talent does not need to reside in city based superclusters like Silicon Valley, with the downside risks that come with cultural homogeneity, wealth concentration and disparity.  Diversity is a good thing for Technologists, just as it is for regional and national economies (take a look at the RDAHunter Regional Economic Strategy to see how many assumptions in their core case have changed since 2013 with plummeting resource prices and pro-renewables signals from large capital markets e.g. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/australia-rates-a-zero-as-big-solar-booms-around-the-world-61174) . 

On that endnote, its time to go see what we can do about localising the StartRail map to cover DigitalMakers and Silicon Coasters on the Hunter + Central Coast regions of NSW, building on some of our earlier focus on CoWorking spaces. Come help us grow the pipeline of diverse digital destinations to create new futures from. Let us know who you think ought to be on a Hunter+Central Coast map in the comments block below, or tweet us.