Last weekend I attended TorCamp, an ‘unconference’ for geeks. It was a great experience, and I got to speak to lots of super interesting people. I had a short conversation with John Lam who mentioned a blog post on the metaphor of the intercontinental railroad for where software and web development is going now, it’s long but worth a read.

The gist of the idea is that as software development (and I think general web development too) gets easier and easier, as the tools improve, there will be a huge market for ‘long tail’ solutions. That is, there will be opportunities for people to make a living providing customised solutions to small niche problems for businesses that wouldn’t have had the money to pay what a solution would have cost in the old, expensive development world.

I’m not sure I’m conveying this very clearly, read the article, it does a much better job and written in a very non-technical way. My point, I think, is that this is kind of the niche I’m trying to fill with the Hogtown Internet business. I see so many small businesses that could benefit hugely from the power that the Internet offers, but they assume that they can’t afford it. I believe that the potential of the Internet as a tool is now within the reach of all but the smallest businesses, and I hope to make a living proving that.