Top 10 IT locations

Top 10 IT locations

The information technology revolution may have spread around the globe, but there are still some areas that are more IT friendly than most.

A decade ago people were talking about the death of distance, and how the internet would make physical geography irrelevant. This has not come to pass; there are still places around the world that are hubs of technology, just as there are for air travel, product manufacturing or natural resource exploitation.

This was a tough list to compile. The number one choice was obvious, but the rest of it was a hard fought battle. Shaun's insistance on one area of the north eastern US was matched by my determination to see Bletchley recognised. We're a tight team here, but it nearly came to blows.

So if you think there are areas that we've missed, the comment section is there for you. Personally I'd have liked to see the Cambridge area of the UK make the list, but it was eclipsed by its namesake.

Honourable Mention: Bletchley Park
Iain Thomson: Bletchley Park, or Station X as it was known in the Second World War, gets a mention because it's where it all began.

It was the birthplace of computer encryption technologies, location of one of the earliest programmable computers, and home to the great Alan Turing, a pivotal figure in the development of computer software.

The irony is that, until the 1970s, virtually no-one knew it existed, since it was so secret during the war and the workers all kept their mouths shut. I was lucky enough to meet one of the people who worked there during the war and listened enthralled, not just by the tales of the code-breaking days but at the quiet heroism of the woman telling me about it.

Although it's been neglected of late, a visit to Bletchley is still a memorable experience for a computer enthusiast. It's got a real sense of history about it and one almost expects to turn a corner and bump into Tommy Flowers carrying a handful of electronics for Colossus, or see Turing sitting on a bench doing The Daily Telegraph crossword.

Shaun Nichols: It is great to see all the work and money that is finally being put into restoring Bletchley Park. Even to us folks over here in the colonies, the facility holds a special place due to the awesome amount of technological achievement that it generated in such a short amount of time.

Not only were many technologies we see today pioneered at the facility, but its work during World War II is credited with saving tens of thousands of lives.

The computing industry is by its nature very quick to move forward and discard the seemingly 'obsolete'. This is what makes Bletchley Park so special, and it is one of the few truly historic IT locations. Though there may not be any billion-dollar companies or commercially successful devices emerging from within its walls, Bletchley Park definitely deserves to be named as a computing hotspot.

Honourable mention: Seattle
Shaun Nichols: The emerald city gets relegated to an honourable mention because really only one name springs to mind when you think of technology in the Seattle area: Microsoft.

Granted, Microsoft is the biggest name in the technology business and its own campus in Redmond employs a city's worth of people, but the company's dominance of the city keeps Seattle out of the top 10.

That said, Microsoft's presence has also created a small ecosystem of analysts and partner developers in the Seattle area. And the contributions Starbucks has made to the lives of developers and IT workers around the world might just make it an honorary technology company.

Iain Thomson: OK, Microsoft is the top dog in Seattle, but only because Seattle Computer Products put them there.

Back when Microsoft was just a small company it got the contract to produce the operating system for IBM's new PC by snapping up an operating system called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from a small firm in the city. The rest, as they say, is history.

Maybe it's the constant rain that keeps people indoors and coding, or the coffee fetish in the city (want to feel like a freak in Seattle? Ask for tea) but the city deserves its spot on the list.