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Trampoline in Wired Magazine feature on UK technology policy

By Trampoline Systems | Monday, January 31st, 2011

Wired Magazine’s February 2011 issue includes a feature dissecting the UK government’s plans to create a technology cluster of international significance in east London. The initiative, announced by the Prime Minister in November 2010, seeks to build on Shoreditch’s existing cluster of technology start-ups by bringing in large US technology firms, attracting venture capital businesses to the area and converting parts of the £6 billion Olympic site in Stratford into an “Accelerator Space” for more developed businesses.

The policy is essentially a good one, recognising a phenomenon that’s already creating value and looking for ways to augment it. Unfortunately this sensible idea got mixed up with the Government’s political need for a convincing story about what happens to the (hugely expensive) Olympic site after the games are finished.

I was interviewed for the article and Wired used several of my more colourful quotes in the article, including this:

“Old Street is one thing: you’ve got this clear historical process,” Armstrong says. “In the 80s it became a cluster for the printing industry. Graphic-design businesses grew out of that and as a result Curtain Road, Shoreditch, became the epicentre of our dotcom boom. To take that natural phenomenon and then say there’s going to be a Tech City stretching from Shoreditch to Stratford — that’s just not a logical step.”

and this:

“In the case of Silicon Valley, and Israel too, it’s absolutely clear that the starting point was a massive defence industry investing in that area, which created a university system of a particular kind and a certain technical base. Unless the Government is planning on creating a huge weapons programme in Stratford and then waiting for 40 years, then it’s mad to be fixated on that model.”

You can read the whole article online. Meanwhile I’m meeting the Prime Minister’s policy team on Wednesday so I’ll have an opportunity to discuss my thoughts directly.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.