Outsourced Within

Rachel Evans never dreamed she’d find a high-tech job when she moved to the Methow Valley to waitress and be with her horses. Two years later, she’s an executive with http://www.HomeMovie.com, one of the many pioneering high-tech companies setting roots in rural Washington.

AT NIGHT, Rachel Evans nestles under a canvas teepee in the Methow Valley, a spot so pastoral she can hear her Norwegian fjord horse gently breathing.

By day, she directs research and development at a thriving dot-com.

That a 25-year-old sleeps in a teepee and works for a high-tech company is not surprising. What’s groundbreaking, literally, is the location of her employer, HomeMovie.com, just up the road in the Western-theme town of Winthrop, population 351.

Though well-known for its human-powered recreation (hiking, mountain biking, cross-country skiing), the glacial valley around this town is cut off from the rest of the state by the jagged geography of mountains and hardscrabble steppe. When winter closes the North Cascades Highway, this is beyond the end of the road.

…

The Methow Valley, along with the rest of rural Washington, is now wired. The same technology that makes it possible to outsource to India and the Philippines is changing the labor landscape closer to home. Thanks to broadband, specks on the map now have the potential to be cyber kingdoms and server farms, data portals and telecommuting perches.

The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide at Washington State University http://www.cbdd.wsu.edu/

By Paula Bock

Full Story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003192457_pacificplibby13.html