POCO Tech Resilience

Reclaiming the "Brain Drain" & Building Portage County’s Digital Future.

For decades, we’ve heard about the "brain drain"—the idea that if you wanted to do advanced technical work, you had to leave Portage County.

But the world has changed, and the torch has passed. As Gen X and Millennials living, working, and raising families here right now, we are the new leaders of this community. It is now our responsibility to ensure our town isn't left behind by the rapid technological shifts happening across the rest of the country.

POCO Tech Node is a new collective focused on local technological resilience and digital sovereignty. We believe that a strong community needs its own independent knowledge base and infrastructure.

We are moving beyond just using big tech; we are learning to build and maintain our own systems—just in case.

What We Explore:

Local-First AI & Knowledge: How to run powerful artificial intelligence models on our own cheap hardware (like Raspberry Pis) without needing the cloud or an internet connection.

Bridging the Gap: Brainstorming how to bring advanced tech literacy to our local services, workforce, and neighbors so POCO stays competitive.

Infrastructure Sovereignty: Learning the basics of electronics, off-grid computing, and mesh networking to ensure our community stays connected, no matter what happens to the external grid.

The POCO Tech Audit: We are interested in investigating and mapping the current technological landscape of our community. What systems do our city services, local businesses, and neighbors rely on every day? By understanding our current foundations, we can identify where we are most vulnerable and where we can step in to provide local, resilient alternatives.

Who Should Join:

This is not just for coders or engineers. If you are a tinkerer, a concerned citizen, a local business owner, or just someone who realizes we need to own our future, you belong here. We need diverse perspectives to solve local problems.

Let’s stop talking about the talent that left and start organizing the talent that stayed. Join the Node and let's build a smarter, more resilient Portage County together.