Just what makes up technology in Los Angeles?

For various reasons, L.A.'s tech industry has always gotten short shrift - the area is too huge, the businesses too diverse, the Bay Area too close, the absence of a Google or Apple too glaring. Whatever. But the lukewarm reputation could be shifting, especially in the start-up arena. Tara Tiger Brown, who moved from SF to LA several years back, has been surprised at all the activity. She posted her observations on the Forbes website:

Once I moved my pod of stuff to the beach in Los Angeles, my world opened up like a fairytale pop-up book. My view on what was technically possible through the eyes of graffiti artists, photographers, entertainers, musicians, talented technologists and even surfers while having a 10 mile radius of personal space looked a lot more interesting. I began to realize that only hanging out with technologists allowed for a very narrow view on the world and that living within 46.9 square miles versus 100 times that was akin to living in an Amish community and trying to comment on the new Tesla Model X. Or a fish bowl, take your pick. In 2010 I co-founded a tech startup and began to meet other people in the LA startup community and was pleasantly surprised to discover how many there were-and I was pleased to see how many are run by women.

Tiger Brown got together with a few other tech folks and they came up with an Represent LA, an interactive map of startups, accelerators, incubators, and VC and Angel investors. There's a submission form where business owners can add themselves to the map.