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29 Tablets Bringing Electronic Manufacturing to Homewood

In Homewood Friday, a symposium called 29 Tablets was dedicated to the possibility of manufacturing tablet computers in Homewood. It's the first in a series of community-oriented symposiums.

The leaders of this project, Andrew Thornhill, founder of Thornhill & Studio and Elwin Green, of the hyperlocal news site Homewood Nation, say the concept would benefit of entrepreneurs and bring diverse job creation to the struggling neighborhood.

“Right now on the consumer side, tablets are the hottest thing going," says Thornhill "So the initiative was considered on the basis of- can we find something or some way to create jobs for people in Homewood for those people who would need training, but once having it, still be valuable throughout the industry?”

Green believes that this business could help other Homewood businesses including his own.

“Well, specifically as the publisher of Homewood Nation, which is a community news website focusing on Homewood, the biggest and most obvious opportunity is the opportunity of a HomewoodNation branded tablet. Which could be a very nice thing to have on the market.”

Green also says in the long run this project can do much more than create jobs.

"Creating hope and helping people to perceive Homewood differently, not just people who live there but people throughout Pittsburgh, that Homewood is not just this place where crime happens, Homewood is this place where we make stuff, where we make really great stuff.  So I think that would be a huge, gigantic change."