Is A London 'Tech City' Viable?

British Prime Minister David Cameron wants to build a Silicon Valley-like "tech city" at the site of the 2012 Summer Olympics. But some question whether his plan can work.

1 minute read

January 18, 2011, 6:00 AM PST

By Nate Berg


Cameron is hoping the massive urban regeneration project fueled by the Olympics will allow for the creation of a new technology business hub in London's East End.

"His government pledged £200 million to build technology and innovation centres, one of them in the Olympic Park. More than a dozen tech giants -- including Intel, Google, Cisco and BT -- would invest in the area, along with a clutch of universities. The zone would stretch from Shoreditch to Stratford, where the Olympic Park media centre would become an "accelerator space" offering cheap, flexible offices for startups and tech firms that would be, in Silva's words, "fibred to the nines".

Yet within hours The Guardian's digital content blog dismissed the plans with the headline "Tech City: the Tories' corporate, top-down vision for UK tech". And the editor of Computer Weekly, Bryan Glick, blogged that the challenge in growing the next Google had nothing to do with geography.

Did the doubters just not get it? Or was there a flaw in the plan?"

Monday, January 17, 2011 in Wired UK

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