Great post, Rob!
I think Maine easily attracts techies - what isn't there to love about all you mention above? Maine is great. The concern of techie types, me included, is can one make as good a wage/freelance rate there as outside the state? And I think that's where Maine falls short. The salaries I've seen are well below the national average for 5-10+ years experience in the Web. Perhaps freelance is the way to go, and finding some of that work outside Maine. So then I guess the question might be not whether Maine can't attract techies but do Maine employers and businesses hiring for web work really understand the value of web standards, great design and all that comes with it?
This is where a connected community of Web Professionals could gain some ground, establishing the value of great web work. We have that where I live now (NH) and it's really worked out well.

Good take. I count myself lucky to be one of the 1/2 of 1% who received an education completely through the public school system in Maine (OTHS and USM) and ultimately made the decision, which I've yet to regret, to stay in Maine and carve a life here... and have found a great career in an industry closely related to what I studied for. Weird, huh?

The beauty of the 'net is that, yes, we can network with people across the globe and do our work from the comfort of a place that's actually nice to live in, rather than the frenzy of a big city.

As a happy member of the Portland area web community, I'll be enthused to see it grow!

Fred

I can think of a lot of reasons a technology person wouldn't want to live in Maine. Here in my soon-to-be-ex-home the true techie community is quite tiny. Sure, there are tons of freshly churned-out Java "developers" who are shipped from the local colleges and universities to toil away in cube farms for the rest of their natural lives.

Then there are the ones like me, who saw Maine as a potential "Wild West", a under served land of opportunity, where there were multitudes of terrible websites, poorly maintained networks, and companies relying on aging software to function in a modern environment.

That was 5 years ago.

Today, I see a multitude of terrible websites, poorly maintained networks, and poorly functioning software. I've had the displeasure of having to attempt to do business with a Maine company to earn a fair wage, but (unlike many, it seems) I stuck to my principals and turned the jobs down. I looked elsewhere for work, and found it - and they were even willing to pay me more than $12/hr.

The people here are generally xenophobic (and 99% of them don't even know what that means), which makes creating real, lasting relationships very difficult. Sure, you can have good relationships with people on the surface, but no loyalties or real trust are created. Which is too bad because I've met a lot of people with gobs of serious potential!

Don't get me wrong, this is an amazingly beautiful place. The natives here have a right and every reason to be suspicious of outsiders who may try to spoil the atmosphere. That's why this is "Vacationland", not "move here and make a living land". I've met a number of extremely nice people here, but all of them are from "away". Heck, the fact that people are said to be "from away" is a huge. That's a clear message that gets sent to any new person upon arrival, and is not a good one.

I know, people will get angry, and try to tell me about they "wonderful experiences" with the locals. But, if you can, take a moment and think about your experiences objectively. Are any of those people going to be your friend, say, if you moved to Connecticut? Think about it.

The weather here stinks. Summers are hot, sticky, and horrible, winters are cold, blustery, and horrible, it rains all the time in the spring and autumn, the good seasons are short, and there just isn't enough to do for a long stretch to justify picking up and moving here. Especially when the opportunities are unavailable for advancement. Again, if your goal is to work in a cube farm, you should be fine. You can easily find a go-nowhere job and never advance your career. That is not a techie, that is a trained monkey, BTW.

True technologists tend to live in clusters, as we've seen. Boston, which also has terrible weather, is home to numerous high-end schools, and a disproportionate population of extremely intelligent people - who want to stay near each other because they thrive off each other. San Fran is in a very similar situation, though not nearly as pronounced when it comes to the number of institutions, but they have the fantastic weather, pristine scenery, and hundreds of thousands of acres that are not marked 'private' to roam on. Austin is another one of these recent hotbeds, mostly because of its extraordinarily diverse culture, local educational institutions, and sheer affordability for someone who is just getting started.

Portland (which is NOT P'town, that's another New England locale) doesn't have the same mix of the essentials to attract a highly skilled tech workforce. Its proximity to other, more attractive locales (Boston, NY City, DC) makes it a "nice place to visit". Sure, MCOA is cranking out graphic artists, sure USM is cranking out programmers, but those are not the people who make a difference... they're the people who work for the people who make a difference. What Portland actually needs are the people you NEVER see at the bar, at the club, or at the house parties. The people who are going to make the biggest difference are the ones who are truly passionate about what they do and are willing to put 150% of themselves (and their time) into making that difference.

If Maine wants to try and attract the types of technology workers that it can build an industry around, then perhaps it should start by giving some of us tax breaks, improved infrastructure, and be more proactive in fostering a real computer science program at its UMaine campuses. A real CS program does not mean they churn out bulk VB and Java programmers, which appears to be the current trend (if the nearly 50 resumes I received from USM grads is any indication) and therefore is not creating a globally viable workforce, which is essential when you have to compete against far more developed and desirable places to acquire talent.

I ended up giving up my search for employees locally. And I'm glad I did, after 8 months of attempting to find someone here, I placed one ad in MA and had dozens of qualified applicants within a week. That is where me, my business, and my hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue are going. And working via email and IM is ok for a lot of things, but a truly viable collaboration happens when the members can be together, know each others quirks, and play off each other in an

I may sound cantankerous, bitter, or angry - but I'm really not! I've just come to know this place for what it is, and what it isn't, which has actually fostered a far deeper sense of appreciation for the wonderful things that ARE here. Portland can't be everything to everyone, it's just not big enough to support more than a few major industries. Boston's population of college students alone is more than all of the residents in southern Maine combined. That's a vast amount of people to build industries around.

Frankly, I feel that Portland has found and developed a couple of wonderful niches for itself. It's a gorgeous small town with a city feel to it. It has some excellent restaurants, a vibrant arts scene, a working waterfront (come on! that's just incredible!!), satellite offices of some large national companies, and has some wonderful sights to be seen in the vicinity.

Love Portland for what it is. And though I will be moving away and taking my business with me, I will most certainly be back to visit.