The Post 9/11 Tech Boom

Day by day, it's becoming clear that one region's tragedy -- the 9/11 terrorist attacks -- is another region's opportunity. Despite much hype to the contrary, Silicon Valley is quite alive and well, as is our increasingy data-driven, tech-based economy. As Newsweek and other publications have recently pointed out, the tech crash weeded out a lot of junk and spawned some real innovation. Keep those resumes up to date. Wall Street analysts have been buzzing for months now about the new spending about to be unleashed as government, business and private citizens turn to technology to fight terrorism, improve security, shore up our business and communications infrastructure, and protect the country from a wide-ranging series of horrors from "dirty bombs" to bio-terrorism. The battlezone is going digital.

"The battlefield will not be physical so much as it will be digital," Rob Owens, a tech industry analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Ore., told the San Francisco Chronicle recently. "There will definitely be people who prosper in this new environment."

Owens and other analysts point to these factors:

• A need for more secure technologies for Net traffic, business communications, computer networks, travel and building architecture, along with the predictably more sophisticated components for new weaponry.

• A huge increase in "homeland security" spending not only by governments, but among biotech firms as the country expects and prepares for attacks potentially more lethal than those on New York and Washington.

• A boon for telecom and video conferencing companies and systems. Not only will many corporations choose to do business without sending executives on the road, but such systems are seen as increasingly vital communications backups in the event of widespread attacks on an existing communications infrastructure. By the same token, it would make sense that in stressful times people will spend more time shopping, talking, amusing themselves and doing business on the Net, as they did in the days after 9/11.

• Continuing increases in sales across the tech spectrum as individuals, businesses and governments make sure their hardware and software systems can deal with the challenges and problems of a post 9/11 world.

The media are feeding these trends. Not only are the images of 9/11 horrific and continual, but the war in Afghanistan has -- correctly or not -- enhanced the idea that technologies are our only feasible response to the profoundly changed geopolitical reality that Osama Bin-Laden created last fall. The fact that we have undermined a terrorist network and overturned a repressive government in weeks, with only a handful of American casualties, has transformed the way even Americans think of technology. This isn't a time for a tech slump, but another boom, perhaps of even greater proportions than the last one.

Comments

Backups

[PinkStainlessTail]

A boon for telecom and video conferencing companies and systems. Not only will many corporations choose to do business without sending executives on the road, but such systems are seen as increasingly vital communications backups in the event of widespread attacks on an existing communications infrastructure.

Hopefully, this will also lead to the decentralization of business. There's a danger of increased "sprawl", but the dispersal of urban centers means less large critical targets, a good thing in my view.

The best example of REAL tech boom - SGI

[Anonymous Coward]

SGI stock, post 9/11 Enuff said.

Re:Other businesses aided:

[Profane Motherfucker]

American flag manufacturers

Funny you should mention this. There was a story on NPR shorty after 9/11 talking about the fucking proliferation in flag display. Stores the US over were sold out.

So they turn to China. Apparently, China makes about 9.25 shitload of US flags and ships them over here. The Chinese even quit production of their OWN flag to make US flags, because there's higher margin on US flags.

Pretty fucking patriotic, eh?

The irony is that the US refined capitalism, but the Chinese proved to be better at it when it comes to making flags.

Re:Hard facts please

[Profane Motherfucker]

Exaclty. You know why there's not one fucking rat dropping of fact here: because none exists. The data are not even fully fucking gathered and processed, and Katz is already claiming that we're on the cusp of a new fucking epoch. The DOL website would be *the* source, but none of these hack and slash journalists have the gumption to figure that out.

Re:I tend to disagree on one point..

[Afrosheen]

Do a little google searching and you'll find that in Reagan's time, he also declared an 'international war on terrorism'. That basically consisted of bombing Libya for awhile, packing the bags and going home. Same shit, different decade.

Earth to Mr. Owens

[GMontag]

A huge increase in "homeland security" spending not only by governments, but among biotech firms as the country expects and prepares for attacks potentially more lethal than those on New York and Washington.

Ahem... If you are referring to the anthrax attacks, then yes, New York and Washington belong in the sentance, especially when speaking of biotech. However, the anthrax attacks were not all that lethal, with just a handful of casualties. Besides, you left out Florida, another forgotten land in the attack discussions.

If, however, you are referring to the incredibly lethal aircraft attacks, those occurred in New York, NY and ARLINGTON VIRGINIA!!! Yes, folks, the Pentagon is in Arlington Virginia.

The DC 2600 meetings are in Arlington, VA also (right across the highway from the Pentagon), but we do that just to trick "the man" ;-)

Re:undermined?

[Afrosheen]

Not sarcastic at all. Calling bin Laden an ex-cia operative is more a matter of semantics than anything. The CIA considered him and some others 'friendly partners'. Partner, operative, a rose is a rose. Check out this article for some details. More education here.

Re:I tend to disagree on one point..

[curunir]

You can rest assured that the US won't leave Afganistan until it is absolutely positive that the country won't fall back into turmoil.

See, Unocal has been planning an oil pipeline through Afganistan for some time now. One of the breadbasket republics (I think Turkmenistan) has huge, unexploited oil supplies that Mr. Bush feels are in dire jeopardy of not being exploited to their fullest. The problem with an oil pipeline is that it makes a wonderful terrorist target since it is so hard to guard.

So...there's really no danger of the U.S. abandoning Afganistan the way they have so many other countries so long as there is a financial interest in keeping the country stable.