He bought a lavishly appointed brownstone on Beacon Street and a 150-acre farm in Maine, where he and his family live. The brownstone is for parties, meetings, and cybersalons-key events for the Techno Tribe. There's a process there with mentors and role models-a network of people that I was fortunate enough to get plugged into. Often, there's group Web surfing on a giant screen in the den. Always, there's an open bar in the library.
Invitations are highly prized.
More typically, the real action in the Techno Tribe takes place late at night when the code wonks hunker over their workstations, dreaming of becoming the next Viaweb, Firefly, Narrative Communications, or Learning Company. Some tribe members worry that these young entrepreneurs are positioning themselves as a farm team for Silicon Valley and Seattle. It is worth noting that Boston is still considered the second-largest market outside of Silicon Valley for many semiconductor manufacturers. Others, however, see an upside. We're becoming a center of innovation for cutting-edge technologies.