There’s life outside of California – and I’m not talking about New York! CNN recently ran an article entitled “Techies reject coasts for ‘Silicon Prairie‘, which I read with great interest – Creatuity is based in Dallas, Texas, which is one of about three regions that all seem to claim the “Silicon Prairie” title.

The article discusses how more technology professionals (and especially web professionals) are moving from the traditional epicenters of the technology ‘world’ within the US – California and, to a lesser extent, New York – to places like Wichita, Kansas and Omaha, Nebraska. The article mentions that, as one might expect, the salary of the average software engineer in Kansas is about 22% lower than that of the same engineer in California. However, while the article briefly mentions a lower cost of living, it never delves into real numbers.

A quick bit of research turned up some federal cost of living data on San Francisco, California and Wichita, Kansas – the cost of living in Kansas is 39% lower. So, that 22% ‘pay cut’ from moving from California to Kansas actually ends up being around a 15% raise when you factor in the cost of living. Combine that with the fact that sites like oDesk.com allow web professionals to work for clients all over the world from any location with an Internet connection, and I think we’re seeing the start of a much larger shift, where the next big thing is just as likely to come out of a small, nondescript office in a Midwestern state as it is to come out of a well-funded, VC-backed startup in a trendy neighborhood in San Francisco.

Tech firms located in the traditional ‘hot zones’ for our industry still have a large advantage, no doubt – having so much talent, so many ideas and so many venture capital firms all located in a small, concentrated area makes it much easier to launch the next big thing in an area like Silicon Valley. However, I think those exact same factors may give entrepreneurs in the Midwest and other “non-traditional” areas an edge – when you have to fight for funding or even throw the idea of VC funding out and bootstrap your company yourself, when talent is harder to come by, etc., you evaluate opportunities differently, and your entire work philosophy changes.

Areas like the Silicon Prairie require firms to be leaner, more agile and more willing to fight for each and every dollar, and I think that’s creating an environment that will produce some of the most exciting new web technologies and concepts in the coming months.

Of course, one could argue that the particular city or state (or even country) a web firm’s headquarters is located in is quickly becoming meaningless as remote working, distributed teams and the like become the norm, not the exception, in our industry – which is a topic I hope to discuss soon! Until then, what’s your take on tech firms and especially web entrepreneurs moving out of California and into the Midwest?