IT/digital media sector gains clout

Rhode Island’s information technology and digital media sector grew into a visible community with political clout in 2007.

The sector employs more than 15,000 people and accounts for more than $1 billion in annual wages in Rhode Island, according to the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. And yet, IT and digital media was not widely seen as a cohesive sector of the state’s economy in 2006, when a small handful of local industry insiders started Providence Geeks, a social networking group that brings together IT workers from a range of industries for monthly dinners at AS220 in downtown Providence.

But that small group of “geeks” became a growing force in 2007, bolstered by economic-development officials who saw in the meetings an opportunity to grow the highest paid sector in the state. Work to organize and grow the community was covered prominently by the news media throughout the year – as when a handful of technology companies were among the first to receive the state’s new innovation tax credit, designed to help startups in high-wage industries secure private venture capital. And this fall, Geeks co-founders Brian Jepson and Jack Templin were honored as Innovation Champion in the PBN-EDC R.I. Economic Development Corporation Rhode Island Innovation Awards (READ MORE)

Providence Geeks now attracts more than 100 people apiece to its monthly gatherings, and hundreds more have signed on to RI Nexus, an Internet portal launched by the R.I. Economic Development Corporation in September to support the IT and digital media sector.

Last month, the EDC held a well-attended meeting to discuss bringing next-generation workspaces to Providence to accommodate startup IT businesses and independent entrepreneurs. •