The dream of Silicon Alley, New York's first attempt at crafting a tech hub competitor toSilicon Valley before the "Web 1.0" dot com crash of 2000 to 2001, has been resurrected in the form of a new website called Digital.NYC.
Officially launched on Wednesday by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the website is hoping to become an online hub for everything tech in New York, including venture capital, technology jobs and incubators.
Built in partnership with IBM and Gust, a local firm focused on supporting new startups that will maintain its web presence, the website aims to aggregate technology news and blog opinions from the around the web.
The website will be a "resource that will seamlessly connect members of the city’s tech hub to training, jobs, and funding and make our city’s digital economy accessible to all New Yorkers," said de Blasio in a statement accompanying the launch.
New York City Mayor de Blasio announces the launch of Digital.NYC on Oct. 1, 2014.
The location of the announcement, Dumbo Heights in Brooklyn, a once dilapidated area near the Brooklyn Bridge that has been revitalized in the past decade, is notable in that it has become a hub of startup activity in recent years.
Silicon Alley of old, which was located primarily in lower Manhattan's Flat Iron district, still boasts a healthy number of tech-focused companies. But as the city's cultural pulse has largely moved to Brooklyn, the city has made a concerted effort to use the Brooklyn's newfound cultural cache to attract tech startups.
Nevertheless, a quick survey of New York's leading tech names, including the likes of Etsy, Tumblr, MakerBot, Squarespace, TechStars, Fab, Union Square Ventures and Foursquare, reveals that they're spread all over the city, with no particular locational focus.
Providing links to more than 6,000 startups, the website is only the latest in the city's ongoing effort to brand itself as the East Coast answer to Northern California and its long list of billion-dollar tech startup success stories.
In 2011, the city announced the launch of a tech-focused, school, funded with $100 million, called Cornell NYC Tech, supported by Cornell University and based on Roosevelt Island. Envisioned as a breeding ground for local tech innovation, the school is scheduled to open in 2017.