The controversy over Brendan Eich and Mozilla Corp. highlights the political conflicts that are brewing in Silicon Valley. The present tech boom is attracting more of the law of the jungle libertarian crowd. Now they have decided to get organized.
Moving tech to right of political spectrum
There's long been a disconnect between Silicon Valley and the conservative political world.
Right-leaning political campaigns have struggled to embrace new technologies, and many right-leaning tech workers are hesitant to express themselves politically in the liberal Bay Area.
But this summer, two Bay Area "conservatarian" technologists are hoping to bridge that gap with a right-leaning national gathering in the heart of left-of-center San Francisco, The Chronicle has learned.
One of their goals is to create a right-leaning community similar to Netroots Nation - the influential gathering of liberal bloggers and online activists that was born in the Bay Area eight years ago.
I suppose that imitation is the best form of flattery. However, this doesn't feel like something to celebrate.
The focus of the conference will be teaching up to date tech skills to the political neanderthals. They are waking up to the fact that one of the things that the left has been beating them at is online campaign organization.
Scheduled for July 18-20, the goal of "Lincoln Labs Conference 2014: Reboot" is to link the tech savvy of Silicon Valley with the political needs of conservative and libertarian - or "conservatarian" - America. Organizers hope to assemble 300 A-listers in politics, tech and the nonprofit world. There will be a hackathon designed to solve the wonky problems of campaign life, like how to sync databases.
The organizers of the conference are Garret Johnson and Aaron Ginn, two techie twenty somethings. This is not their first such endeavor, but it is the first one in the heart of enemy territory. They have already been hobnobbing with Rand Paul and the Koch Brothers.
For anybody who has been following the impacts of the rising tide of gentrification in the Bay Area this really shouldn't come as a surprise. There are daily battles between long time residents and newly arrived techies for space and facilities. The conflicts are clearly being translated into organized political campaigns.