New Online Aggregator of Regional Information Includes
Roanoke Region as One of Only Twelve Locations in the U.S.

Former Facebook Employee Sees Region as an “emerging technology community”

The Roanoke and New River Valleys have been featured as one of 12 regions in the U.S. on a new website www.Fwix.com. Fwix shows users the best of everything in a region by aggregating online content from millions of articles and thousands of sources providing the user with an easy way to access photos, videos, events, articles, reviews and music. The other cities featured on Fwix are San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Seattle, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington D.C.

“The Roanoke and the New River Valleys have been intentional in using cutting-edge technologies to position their business, educational, and government sectors,” said Fwix founder Darian Shirazi, who was one of the first employees at Facebook. “Establishing Fwix in this region gives us an opportunity to test our site in an emerging technology community.”

Fwix was founded in August of 2008 by Darian Shirazi in his garage. The original version of the site was launched in September of 2008 and gained traction as a new media service designed to help people keep in touch with their local area. Since August, Fwix’s team has grown from one person to six people and has completely re-engineered its product to provide the best possible local information. Shirazi said the Roanoke community has been very supportive since the beginning and added “It’s one thing to build a product you love, but it’s important to have a connection with the people who use your product, to listen to your customers, and engage in two-way dialogue.”

Cory Donovan, Executive Director of the NewVa Corridor Technology Council, believes that a presence on sites like Fwix.com uniquely exposes our region. “If you’re travelling on Interstate 81, you don’t see the budding technology community here, it’s ‘beyond the trees,’ but now we’re a destination along the information superhighway.”

Fwix.com will release an upgrade to its service with new features on Monday, April 6^th.

For more information visit www.Fwix.com and www.TheTechnologyCouncil.com.

The following article sent to us by Christine Kennedy in Lynchburg highlights the economic struggles of Gen X and Y with having the American Dream and rasing kids in a urban environment. Will the trend continue of people moving to the urban core or will smaller cities like Roanoke or big towns like Blacksburg gain in popularity?

http://www.newgeography.com/content/00806-the-luxury-city-vs-middle-class

Please buy my friend Keith’s new book on relationships. His first book Never Eat Alone was one of the best networking books ever written and this one promises similar results.

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Yesterday in Roanoke, the City of Roanoke, Virginia Tech Roanoke Center and the College of Architecture and Urban Studies held a Symposium of student projects at the Claude Moore Complex. The event was attended by over 50 individuals representing many sectors of the community. The Roanoke Times’ Duncan Adams attended and offered this account of the day.

Below is the introduction of the Symposium by John Browder at CAUS and Susan Short of the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center.

This is a project presentation by Ahmed Ali and Mike Lochiavo on “Collaborative Neighborhoods – Railroad Crossing Project”. A total of 9 presentations were made.