Dave Winer is choosing between winter in the Rockies (Dave, do you mean Whistler, or maybe Jasper?) or New York City. He's also got the concept for sort of an idea farm -- get people together, plant some seeds, water it a little, see if something grows.
In NY, I have actually been recruited by investors. Imho, that's the way it should be. Anyway, I have a dream, of a media technology research center located in the media headquarters of the western world. One where tech people meet to try out new ideas, with the support of the investment community, on a pooled basis. The entrepreneur shares ownership in the idea with a group of investors, who then get to bid on starting businesses around the ideas. So you put down micro-bets, $100K to $250K, get a server up and running, and see if the users like it. If they do, fund it up, maybe $2 million, and go to the next level. Why do it in NY? Well, we wouldn't just do it in NY, but it has a great airport, and theater, opera, museums, baseball, and the kind of people who are drawn to a vibrant intellectual life. People come to NY to do more than work, they come to create. And that's what draws me there too. Scripting News: Morning coffee notes
Isn't this a little like investing in exploration for oil and gas deposits? This is not my idea, but rather Lance's. Just like mining etc., you form a company and do some exploration (get smart entrepreneurs). You get some investment and spend money up front. Then you "fail faster" (credit to Lance for that one, too) and hopefully come up with some really great ideas (find the oil/gas/diamonds).
We're still looking for the Texas oil fields (or should that be Alberta oil sands?), but I think we're prospecting in the right area.