Jared McFarland

Capitalizing on the Tucson Tech Community

I was in Austin for South by Southwest (SxSW) this year. It was a mind-blowing experience, and one of the most inspirational of my life. Austin is an amazing town, full of personality and great experiences. But I was surprised when I realized how much I wanted to come home to Tucson. I’ve started to notice, that no matter how engaging a spot I’m in, I always want to get back to Tucson. I love Tucson, and want it to be my home for the foreseeable future. I want to take advantage of Tucson’s spirit and community.

I propose, with some hard work and dedication, we can make Tucson a great tech center.  We have some great resources and incredibly smart people.  

We, as a community, can work together to educate and inspire one another.  We can enjoy the same benefits as the people in major tech centers simply by knowing each other and inventing ways to work together.  It isn't about vast numbers of people, but small passionate groups.  The web brings like minds together globally, but we can now use the web to find each other and act locally.  We can turn Tucson into something intentional, and beautiful, for ourselves and the city.

We’ve all made a decision to live here because we love this town.  Let’s capitalize on that!  Let’s take that love and turn it into bigger ideas.  Maybe a Bachelor’s in Web Development, renewable energies, public spaces, local tech education; we can continue to grow Tucson into the tech community we want.

There are a lot of smart developers in Tucson.  Let’s meet!  Let’s inform one another.  We could take a lesson from the Tucson Digital Arts Community (TDAC) and meet regularly to exchange ideas and promote ourselves.  

I think Tucson can be a major tech center in the world.  We have the resources, the people, and the culture.  All we have to do is bring them together.