Rusty Justice: Appalachia and especially Central Appalachia,
where we live, is one of the most misunderstood places.
Some people here are very innovative,
and that's counterintuitive to the Appalachia stereotype.
Coal miners are really special people.
They have a grit and a work ethic that's second to none.
So when the industry collapsed
and we just saw this huge wave of despair,
it really instilled in me the desire to try to do something.
Now here are these guys that I've been around my whole life
but all of a sudden I saw them differently.
A coal miner truly is a tech worker that gets dirty.
Yeah, we're hillbillies that code, that's what we do.
(soothing electronic music)
(upbeat music)
Rusty: I'm one of the co-founders of Bit Source,
along with my partner Lynn Parrish.
It was just started in response
to the collapse of the coal industry in 2012.
And we were told something that resonated
with us as two guys from the coal industry,
that coding was like welding,
it was a trade and you could learn it.
We were just trying to create jobs,
but what we really were doing was starting what's known
as an innovation-driven enterprise.
If it's digital, we'll do it.
We've done projects from virtual reality
to data management, apps, websites,
just about anything that requires the moving around
of code to solve a problem.
Jamie Adams: My name is Jamie Adams.
I live here in Pikeville, Kentucky.
I'm a third-generation coal miner.
I worked underground for five or six years
and ended up getting laid off.
My boss gathered everybody up
and one at a time went into an office
and handed us an envelope
and said he didn't need us anymore.
I just didn't want to have to leave this area.
But I mean, I was willing to make sure
that I was able to provide for my family.
I'd say it was a little over a year after I got laid off,
whenever I heard the commercial.
Radio Announcer: Have you been laid off from a job
in the mining industry?
If you are a logic-based thinker, willing to work
and learn new things, we have a career opportunity for you.
Rusty: So we started looking for workers,
We ran a radio ad.
We got 950 applications for 10 jobs.
Jamie: To me, it felt like pure luck to be selected,
especially with so many applicants.
Being chosen to be one of the 10 that they did select,
it was definitely surreal.
It started small.
It started out with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
and then we started going on to more of the server
side languages: PHP and SQL and stuff like that.
Rusty: Well, these mountains are some
of the oldest mountains in the world,
and some of the richest energy deposits in the world.
And so, as a result of that, all this capital
and some of the best minds in the country came here.
It's really created that cultural legacy of innovation
and creativity that still resides here today
amongst people all nestled up and down these little hollers
that really are hidden from the world.
(relaxed music)
The challenge is not can you teach them to code,
it's can you convince them that they can code?
'Cause they don't recognize a lot of times
the high level of expertise that they have.
But these are as complex as any system out there
in any factory or other type of industry.
Chad Damron: And we're not just a bunch of dumb miners.
I'm college educated, Rusty's college educated,
I mean, my brother is.
It takes, you know, educated people to actually run
these mines nowadays, you know.
'Cause there's so many computer systems involved,
so many regulations and everything involved
that you gotta stay up on.
Rusty: People have a hard time.
I said, no, if you see what all coal miners do,
making software's no big deal.
(men laugh)
They work in technology all day.
(soothing music)
Traci Tackett: Bit Source started out as a way to retrain coal miners
into a new career,
and show them that there are other opportunities
that they can pursue here in Eastern Kentucky.
But it is blossomed into so much more than that.
Our vision has always been for this space to be used
as kind of a community education space.
We wanted this to be what we called a maker space.
There are a lot of businesses that still do not see
the need for a website.
They don't know how it's gonna benefit them
because they've never used it.
And we realize in order to improve this,
we have to start with our youth.
And so I just want you to be aware of all
of all of the different opportunities
that are available to you,
the ways that you could connect
with Bit Source in the future,
whether it's through an internship,
coming here in the summer for a summer camp.
And so we hope to partner with you
in the future to do lots of these really cool things.
Jamie: I think the biggest thing to be able to keep the tech here
is to be able to get kids into it younger.
Giving them access to the stuff that they need
to be able to learn how to, whether it be code
or even hardware for computers or anything like that.
Traci: I think the Bit Source vision is changing the narrative
of Appalachia, Eastern Kentucky specifically,
that we are not just a coal community,
but that we can become a high-tech community.
Rusty: We're not the oyster and we're not the pearl.
We like to think we're the grain of sand
that will irritate the oyster to make the pearl.
I feel like I'm working on something
and I'm part of something, you know outlasts me.
Kind of as the pioneers for tech in our region.
If we're successful, people from here that want to,
they'll have the option to stay if they want.
Or the option to come home.
(gentle music)