Boston tech scene could be more inviting to students

Scott Kirsner of the Innovation Economy blog, as well of the Boston Globe says that:

"To me, the biggest way to make Boston more competitive and innovative right now is to do a better job connecting students with our innovation economy. Which is why it pains me that our trade associations and networking groups make it so hard for students to get involved." (from Innovation Economy)

He goes on to grade a variety of formal and informal groups who put on meetings regularly in the greater Boston area. It's a really good post , I recommend that you check out "Boston's Biggest Trade Associations Flunk the Student Test"

A few of my own observations:

• Notice that the meetings that are graded lower tend to be the old-school trade associations, who probably have a standing staff and buraucracy of some kind. Not generally the more interesting meetings to go to.

• In addition to associations, colleges and universities can also do more. Not to generalize, because I don't have the data, but I have an impression that undergraduates in Computer Science and related fields focus on academically sexy topics (programming in Scheme) and don't do more in preparing students for the actual tech scene (entrepreneurship, intellectual property, open source, agile methodologies.)