I had a great time on the latest edition of the GeekWire podcast and radio show, the regular program produced by KIRO-FM featuring longtime Seattle technology journalists Todd Bishop and John Cook. We talked about the local tech beat, and what I’ve noticed as a reporter making the transition from my previous gig covering politics and government for the Associated Press.
Listen to the whole thing here, or check out the embedded player below, for this week’s edition of the “Name That Tech Tune” contest—the prize is a free ticket to Mobile Madness Northwest, our fantastic half-day forum on the future of mobile being held at F5 Networks in Seattle Dec. 6. Todd will be there too, as moderator of the session-ending panel created by our event partners at the WTIA.
In the podcast, we covered the eternal debate over whether Seattle’s innovation scene can climb the ladder and make a real play to be in the national consciousness for technology entrepreneurs. My take on this is that it’s happening, albeit kind of slowly, as big and small Silicon Valley companies open more Seattle offices and diversify the gene pool. But it seems like the region might also need to rely on the Valley as a supplementary source of investment dollars—just look at how much more VC money is raised in Boston to see what we’re missing out on.
And there was a bit of media-insider gossip too, as the three of us tackled an interesting recent incident where the AP was lightly smacking employees for tweeting the news before calling it in to the desk—in this case, for some reporters who were being arrested while covering Occupy Wall Street protests. I’m a little old-school on this one: I don’t think you should “scoop the wire” in that situation, since so many more people get information from that utility. But I get why people think that’s lame. And it’s a bad PR move to criticize your people who got arrested, of course.
Check it out, or head to the podcast page at KIRO-FM for downloads and more episodes.
