Greyfield sites required

People have been commenting on the predictions, trends, pointers towards the future whatever you want to call it article by Karlin Lillington in the IT last Friday. Some of comment seems to me at least a tad overly sensitive but that could be more for other reasons than the mere content of this particular piece.

My own few cents is that I reckon two of the likely trends in the probable upcoming consolidations and the need for better support for new enterprises are very much related. Consolidation typically leads to lay-offs and hence people with redundancy cheques. It's not a fun time for anyone yet for those who are still young enough and willing to live on ramen for a while (perhaps less encumbered with dependents might be a better way of saying it) this might represent a chance to make a break for it.

The fixed costs associated with going out on your own should (and I admit that is a 'should' not a 'will') be lower now than 4/5 years ago in terms of office space and some other costs. We've loads of empty buildings lying around which the banks should be forcing developers to open up to start ups for short term leases at least. And it would give the banks some cash from those currently dead developments, and provide us with a local version of the brownfield sites in other countries. Let's call them greyfield sites (just think of all that bare concrete!), we have loads of them but there is no pressure on the developers to put them to use. There again maybe only some people in the blogosphere are allowed to call for the risk takers to sieze the opportunities that are still out there.