A new Hotspot. Amsterdam wants to become Appsterdam.
April 23rd, 2011 • Mobile, Underway, Work
“If you want to make movies, go to Hollywood. If you want to make musicals, go to Broadway. If you want to make apps, go to Appsterdam.” – Mike Lee, mur.mu.rs
About a month ago I praised the qualities of Amsterdam in an article I wrote for the German ad magazine Page. One thing that struck me in this city is the level of innovation here as well as the city’s clear objective to support new industries and get them to Amsterdam. I have never met anyone from Amsterdam’s city council but in contradiction to many other cities there seems to be a clear vision here on how to shape Holland’s capitol from both, a cultural AND economical perspective. That’s why Amsterdam is also hometown to some of the most creative agencies in the world – the city father simply subsidize taxation here to relocate the right blend of industries on the rivers of the Amstel.
I wasn’t really suprised when I read Mike Lee’s open letter on mur.mu.rs. It’s a call for conquest. And appeal for app developers to settle over to Amsterdam and to rebrand it as Appsterdam. Funny to read because it really reads like a letter from the colonies but at the same time strong and intelligent.
I have traveled the world looking for the most livable city on earth, a place with the ideal balance of quality and price, history and vibrance, culture and innovation. That place is Amsterdam. (…)
The success of Apple’s platforms has been in no small part due to its unique developer community. Our community is unique not just in technology, but in business. (…) We cooperate, because we are friends. If one of us does something to piss the other off, we don’t call out the lawyers, we call up our friend, and talk it over like people. We don’t just attend conferences, we get together at conferences, go out together, and have a good enough time together to generate blackmail material sufficient to nip litigation in the bud.
Mike’s point – a new industry needs a friendly hospitable place that invites them to work together and to exchange ideas. And his call to app developers all over the world to relocate to Amsterdam isn’t just an abstract one…
Appsterdam is envisioned as a tripartite effort between Sofa, Amsterdam’s own Apple Design Award-winning software company, together with the government of Amsterdam, who want nothing more than to make the city the center of technology in Europe, and the University of Amsterdam, wherein we’ll build a developer-led software engineering program like they have at Stanford.
Mike who works for Sofa envisions the settlement of Appsterdam in three phases. Phase 1 is the pioneering phase where the infrastructure gets prepared. Phases 2 and 3 focus on the creation of an app developer community here at the Amstel.
Whoa!
Yes, you can easily make jokes about Mike’s passion and you can of course pretend that it doesn’t matter where to develop an app. But I think this is not true. If the passion and commitment of Amsterdam, Sofa, and the University of Amsterdam continue to grow, this crazy idea really has the potential to become something special – for both, the community and Amsterdam.
And for a city of a little bit more than just 700,000 inhabitants Amsterdam does already have a unique blend of new, communication-driven industries.
Advertising was among the first. And many small and medium-sized web agencies and software enterpreneurs followed who profited from the Netherland’s extremely early fast internet adoption. In fact already it seems to me that my hometown hosts an awful lot of talented people with a unique skillset that bridges business, creativity and tech. Plus by 2015 Holland will be in Europe’s pole position when it comes to fast web access.
Secondly this skill cocktail is unique as it is happening not in London or New York but in the rather small and slow paced Amsterdam. Amending the already settled creative industries with a highly skilled international crowd of app developers makes sense – and I hope for Amsterdam that this plan succeeds. As a city that has a tradition in innovating it would just be the perfect next step in its evolution.
But where to start? Mike’s recommendation for the international app developer community is simple:
Visit Appsterdam. Make it a working vacation. Americans can visit for three months without a visa. Pack up the family for a summer vacation in Europe. Absorb yourself in the thriving community. Take in a lunchtime lecture. Take advantage of Sofa’s office space during the day, then take a romantic stroll along the canals at night. Delight in the melting pot of local cuisine, or ride your bikes to the central library and satisfy your hunger on a patio affording the city’s best view.
Good idea. And if you wish to come over for less than 3 months, I am happy to offer a place to crash 
. Even though I am far from being a developer I would really like to see this plan come alive. As a digital strategist I love the idea of enriching Amsterdam’s already buzzing scene with skilled app developers from all over the world.
I hope it draws enough attention to add fuel to the high level of innovation that the tripple-X-city stands for. Appsterdam may sound crazy. But I guess there are no big ideas which haven’t sounded crazy in the beginning. And this article may just be a small sign of support. But I’d love to help spread the word and to discuss it.
What do you think of Appsterdam? Is the conquest of a new app developer paradise an unrealistic, weird idea? Or is there something in it which makes you become interested in checking out Holland’s Visa formalities? Do you know of similar new industry settlements in comparable cities? Does anyone know what the next steps are? I am interested. And I guess others are too…
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