Posted 4 March 2007

I moved to the hills near Sebastopol, in Sonoma County about an hour north of San Francisco, almost 17 years ago. We came for the rural lifestyle and the natural beauty. The one thing I’ve missed is the technical and entrepreneurial community that thrives in our old town, Palo Alto, and in all of Silicon Valley.

For most of the time I’ve lived in Sonoma County, I’ve remained intimately involved with businesses based in the valley. Although I’ve always had an office up here, I’ve also spent a few days a month in the valley, and most of my contacts remained there.

When I decided to leave Adobe last fall, I also decided to seek out the local technical and entrepreneurial communities and get to know them better, in the hope of making new friends and forming a new venture that would be truly centered here in the redwood country. Along the way, I’ve joined a few groups and created one, and met a lot of great people.

There are many, many talented folks in Sonoma County, but they tend to be isolated, and often connected to businesses in San Francisco or Silicon Valley. I believe we can create a much stronger environment for entrepreneurs and technical people here by providing more opportunities for us to all meet each other and share ideas and dreams.

Announcing the North Bay Internet Society

After looking around for a group of like-minded folks to join, I couldn’t find one—so I decided to create one. The North Bay Internet Society (NBIS) is about to have its third meeting, and our membership has grown to a little more than 20 people. It’s a remarkable group, including several technologists, a few marketing folks, a couple people helping run established web businesses, and a few people building new web startups.