I’ve discussed before that Utah (the state I live in) has a PR problem when it comes to Technology. We have some amazing businesses that have come out of Utah, but they all get snatched up, bought, and Utah continues to be a state not seen for its tech contributions. The truth is there are a ton out here, but no one knows about it. Today I’m not sure if you were aware, but Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google visited Utah and spoke at an annual Utah Technology Council event. I came across a video on local station Fox 13 KSTU’s website today where a press event happened with pressing questions towards Eric Schmidt.
What struck me is that the meeting consisted of Schmidt, 2 very conservative Senators from Utah (Hatch and Bennett – we know who he voted for last election – he ended the meeting calling them his “two favorite Senators”), and nothing but very fancily dressed top-notch media organizations. No tech bloggers. No one specifically from the tech world to report the event and ask the questions that really matter. What’s funny is that a lot of the room probably didn’t even understand a word Schmidt said – they were simply there to ask questions. If this were Silicon Valley that room would have been full of tech bloggers. They would have been the first to report on the event.
I want to know why I didn’t get an invite, or Matt Asay, or Phil Windley, or other tech bloggers from Utah weren’t invited to this event. At the same time I’m wondering who the other Tech Bloggers are in Utah. Utah has a lot of marketing bloggers, a lot of Mommy-bloggers (like Dooce), yet from what I can see there are very few tech bloggers trying to write original, regular, and interesting content for their readers. I visited Facebook a few weeks ago, and one of the first questions I was asked by those there was, “aren’t you like the only tech blogger in Utah?” I was a bit embarrassed by this question on behalf of Utah – there should be more people think of. Immediately I shared the people I knew, but frankly there just aren’t that many here. I want to change that perception.
I want to issue a challenge to my fellow geeks and technology enthusiasts in Utah. You don’t have to be a programmer or a developer or know the bits and pieces of architecture surrounding technology. You simply have to have a love and a passion for technology and learning about technology and learning what is new in the technology world. If this is you, I want you to start writing about it. Get out there and write something – spend half an hour a day, or if that’s too much, start by once a week, and build up as you are able to, but most importantly I want you to start writing and keep writing.
Any one of you can build an audience. This goes for those in and out of Utah. Specifically for Utah I need you to start writing and sharing with the world things like this. For Utah technology to be seen by the world we need more tech bloggers. Are you a Utah-based tech blogger? I want to know who you are. I want to help share your content and get other people reading your content. Of course, the same goes for anyone in any other state that reads this – I believe in those that are passionate about technology, and every one of you deserve to be heard. I’m really sad that no bloggers (that I’m aware of) were invited to this event.
Hopefully if you are in Utah or know someone in Utah that writes a Tech blog or wants to you can share this with your friends. I want to see more people blogging and less people Tweeting out there, especially if you’re in Utah.
