What Is The Difference?

If there is one question I have had for a while now it is why it seems like business communities in Gainesville seem to have such strong barriers between them. If you look at Boston or San Francisco (as well as a dozen other college-centric entrepreneurial communities) what you will notice above all else is the overwhelming sense of community amongst the different strata of entrepreneurs.

People talk about their trade.

There is a free flow information, talent and general sense that despite the fact that they might be competing in a micro-sense, at a macro level they are "all in it together."

What I have always been trying to figure out is what (other than access to capital and geographical location) separates communities like those from ours? On the surface, not much. There are no technical or logistical barriers preventing us all from operating under a free information exchange model. The big difference seems to be a cultural one.

My question to you then is what would it take for Gainesville to spawn the entrepreneurial culture of the Austin's, Boston's, and Boulders of the world? If there was one change we could make today to move in that direction, what would it be?