When you think of Youngstown, Ohio, Jim Cossler wants you to think software, not steel. As Chief Evangelist for the Youngstown Business Incubator, Cossler has faith this manufacturing town can compete with Bangalore and Silicon Valley and, in the process, build a high tech economy here.

Want proof? Consider the case of Turning Technologies. The company is growing its audience response software business by 300% a year and will soon move out of the incubator into downtown office space.

I talked with Cossler while I was reporting on working women and the Ohio Primary. Political reporters from as far away as Finland are heading for Youngstown hoping to do the traditional "Laid Off Blue Collar Workers" election story. Cossler is trying to change that story line. He says Youngstown can compete with India by offering low cost and access to a talented labor pool.

In Silicon Valley, engineers make almost $100,000 to start. Office space in the Bay Area is some of the most expensive in the world. You can rent prime real estate in Youngstown for $10 a square foot and hire a programmer for $35,000. And that programmer will be living well in Youngstown. Even at $100,000, in Silicon Valley, a programmer is living in an apartment.

I don't think that Google and Microsoft will be shifting work to Youngstown any time soon. But I have heard that Indian IT companies are considering expanding in Ohio to take advantage of the many universities and the low-cost talent they produce. Maybe Cossler is on to something? If you start to get some outsourced software jobs coming back to Ohio, I wonder how trade will play in the Buckeye State in the next election