Thinking Out Loud

You don’t have to be oober tech savvy or subscribe to Wire magazine to know what’s going on with Fresno’s Bitwise Industries, the newest technology home for people interested in learning everything from coding to executing tech projects.

This premiere tech hub – established in 2012 – is already getting a second location and face lift, moving into the Phelan building in Fresno’s historic mural district, built in 1914, and is still keeping the vintage look and feel of Fresno’s Historic District.

Self-proclaimed as Fresno’s new “mothership of technological education, collaboration and innovation,” Bitwise Industries was developed to nurture Fresno’s tech ecosystem and focuses on three main areas: education with their Geekwise Academy, execution with Shift3 Technologies and placement with Hashtag. Bitwise looks to empower the Central Valley’s up-and-coming tech leaders of tomorrow.

With a growing number of local and national partnerships, Bitwise is providing new opportunities in Fresno and it’s about time we started competing with Bay Area tech giants like San Francisco and Silicon Valley. We can handle it.

After listening to Irma Olguin Jr., Bitwise co-founder and CTO Tech, a couple of weeks ago at a panel discussion, it became clear that Bitwise has had a positive and measurable impact in Fresno. They offer several beginning courses in code writing (or websites for beginners, que Keryn), JavaScript and several other things I don’t quite understand but would love to learn.

The sheer thought of learning how to write code blows my mind. I remember Googling how to “move the header of my blog to the left;” I copied and pasted the code, hit save and BOOM. Header moved to the left.

I couldn’t help but wonder at the discussion: how long will it take for Google and Microsoft to take notice? Fresno’s downtown real estate has enormous potential and the fact that Bitwise Industries is a real grassroots organization, well, the Bay Area big wigs may just decide to set up shop in Fresno. What would happen if a giant industry decided to move in? Could Fresno become the new Silicon Valley?

Bitwise’s letter to the community:

…“Basically, we’re a bunch of geeks leading a revolution. Want in?”

Get yo tech on at: http://bitwiseindustries.com/