Blacksburg, Virginia native and Google CEO,  Eric Schmidt , recently visited Southwest Virginia in Blacksburg at the Lyric Theatre. He offers great advice as to how communities like Roanoke, Virginia can tap into technology to position itself in the information age. Our investment and usage of this technology is essential to the long-term prosperity of the region. Let’s take the advice of someone who knows what they are talking about. Thanks to Your Hometown Station - WDBJ 7 for providing the uncut video.  Also, kudos to the NewVa Corridor Technology Council.

Gary Cope just created this WordPress aggregator of bloggers in Southwest Virginia called SWVABloggers.com.

Many thanks to Gary for including Connecting People.

It’s extremely important in building our region’s online identity that we have as many people as possible blogging and using new web-based applications. These aggregators like Fwix.com are going to showcase our region to folks around the world. The Internet levels the playing field for rural communities. We cannot change the physical location, but we can shape and influence our digital locations. Sites like SWVABloggers.com helps us position our online image.

We were recently asked to talk to a group about regionalism between the Roanoke and Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford MSAs. What would it take for the two to operate more like one region?

The simplest answer is to have more people working in one sub-region and living in the other.Attached is the formal process to combine MSAs… combine-msas. Other ways of making it happen include, but are not limited to:

• Participate in the NewVa Corridor Technology Council - Probably the most regionally focused organization in the two valleys.
• Complete the Smart Road- This will eliminate about 7 minutes from the commute and essentially moves the Corporate Research Center to the Shelor Motor Mile.
• More funding for the Smart Way Bus - Some current routes are at capacity with people standing on the commutes. This alternative public transportation model is the future. Invest now.
• Development between Salem and Christiansburg- Terrain is an issue, but there are some opportunities around Dixie Caverns and Ironto. Plus, the new Intermodal facility should foster this growth.
• Expand Interstate 81 - Add more lanes for a more enjoyable and safe drive.

The earliest an official join MSA would occur would be 2020. There are at least four other ways in which regionalism can be achieved. We will look at these in the future.

The NY Times wrote this article about how parents are following their kids to their college towns. Instead of buying the condo (over living in dorms or renting apartments), they are buying the house and are staying when they come to visit. It’s the second home.

Is this activity really preparing the next generation to be independent and self-leaders or is it just smart personal finance?

Of course this activity has been going on for quite some time in Blacksburg and it is one of the reasons so many want to be in a college town - the connection to youth, fresh beginnings each fall, optimism, creativity, etc.

There is just something positive and energizing about living near a college campus. This is why Roanoke must form more relationships with its neighbor college campuses.

And if you are interested, in buying that property in Blacskburg, then contact Jeremy Hart.

I read on Tech Crunch about Fwix - a regional aggregator of data among many common website such as Twitter, Craigslist, Flickr, etc. In other words, the site let’s you get a snapshot of activity in your local region from users of these sites. The beta version has 5 large metro areas. If you visit the site it will look a lot like Facebook. Part of the reason is the guy who created Fwix was with Facebook in the early stages of the successful web company.

I emailed Fwix asking them to include Roanoke/Blacksburg and I got an email back quickly saying they are releasing 20 more cities next week. Again, we asked for them to consider adding our region to the mix cause we suggested we needed this technology more than the larger metros. As a result, they agreed to add Roanoke next week!

“I’ll add Roanoke to the cities we’re launching next week.  I can’t promise a very interesting feed for that area though because there isn’t much activity in your area quite yet on these sites.  Maybe yelp and a couple others but we’ll see.”

If you do not think this is important, then do you remember our region without Craigslist? People looked down on our region cause we did not have a listing. When they added it, didn’t it really feel good?

Therefore, Roanoke and Blacksburg community, here is an opportunity. Please register and sign up for Fwix. Once Roanoke is launched, then blog about it, invite your contacts to Fwix, and let’s get a first-mover advantage on this new site and showcase to the world our region. Next week, we are going to be one of only 25 cities in the U.S. featured on this site.

Mailtrust (a Blacksburg-based division of Rackspace) will be involved in an IPO on Friday. The ticker symbol will be RAX and will be on the NYSE. According to one media outlet, shares will be introduced between $12-$16 a share with the goal of raising $400 million.  This is significant for the region because Mailtrust (formerly Webmail.us) was pruchased by Rackspace within the last year. This demonstrates the quality of technology, people and firms that are being generated from the region

I met with a middle-age woman yesterday who wants to move to the region from another Southern state. I was impressed with her education, career background and commitment to other people. This is the type of person we need to drive the region forward.