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Connecting Canadian IT Professionals
Working Abroad Building a virtual community is a challenge! Canada's HiTech Career Journal |
| Building communities takes a great deal of time and effort, even if they
happen to be virtual ones. Just ask Peter Standeven, co-creator of TechnicallyHip.ca (www.technicallyhip.ca). Standeven launched the non-profit Web site eight months ago - along with partners Brent Holliday and Geoff Hansen - as a "virtual community" for Canadian Hi Tech professionals working abroad. Since then, they’ve been running the site in their spare time. It’s a lot of work but they believe what they’re doing is worth it - especially if it makes Canadian IT workers in foreign countries feel less isolated. "We found that Canadians working around the world like to keep in touch with one another," notes Standeven. "They’re interested in networking for career and business development." Appropriately, TechnicallyHip.ca’s slogan is "the tech north strong and free." Its members can communicate with each other via e-mail, and keep up to date on what’s happening in the HiTech industry back home. There are also links to other uniquely Canadian HiTech Web sites. Although Standeven believes the Web site’s global focus makes it unique, TechnicallyHip.ca isn’t the only online community for Canadian IT professionals working outside the country. There are other Web sites more specific to certain countries or regions, like the Digital Moose Lounge (www.digitalmooselounge.com) in California. Founded in 1999, the Digital Moose Lounge is geared toward Canadian IT workers in the San Francisco Bay area; the majority of its 1,500 members work in San Jose’s Silicon Valley. The Web site offers tips and pointers for newcomers (like how to go about getting a U.S. driver’s licence), but that’s really just the starting point. "We have social, cultural and business get-togethers to help create a sense of community. The Web site is a place to find useful information, and to discover what [physical] events are coming up," says Paula Fairweather, a member of the Moose Lounge’s board of directors and herself a transplanted Canadian from Vancouver. "Canadian IT workers living here need to have ties to their culture, their country. We’re supporting them by helping to fulfill that need." Events have ranged from business seminars to social occasions, like attending local San Jose Sharks hockey games. Word of the Digital Moose Lounge is gradually getting out to the estimated 250,000 Canadian IT workers in the area; the majority of them employed in the software and networking sectors. Still, building a community is a slow process for a non-profit venture. It’s the same story at TechnicallyHip.ca. Standeven hopes to get more sponsors to support the site, which is also being used as a gateway for connecting entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Both Standeven (who resides in Surrey, B.C.) and Holliday (a denizen of Vancouver) are themselves venture capitalists, so it’s no surprise that they want to promote business opportunities here in Canada. "One of the key reasons many people left the country is that they wanted to explore possibilities for starting and growing companies," says Standeven. "We want those people to know they can now do that here, due to the substantial number of world-class startups that are emerging." If you think that sounds like an attempt to reverse the so-called brain drain, you’re right. Standeven and his partners believe that providing up-to-date information and news about Canada’s HiTech industry is important in convincing Canucks to come home, even more so than economic issues like higher wages and lower taxes. The Digital Moose Lounge also keeps its members informed about potential careers back home. It organizes Canadian job seminars, attended by Canadian employers looking to hire people with experience working in Silicon Valley. Homesickness can affect anyone working in a culture different from their own, and Fairweather herself reminisces about certain aspects of living in Vancouver. Although she enjoys the California lifestyle, she misses "real winter" and being close to Whistler ski resort. And she says that commuting in California can be a real chore. "You can spend a tremendous amount of time commuting to work, it’s the number 1 difference most people notice when they come down here," she says. "The cost of living is so high, many individuals can’t afford to rent or buy a home close to work. In many cases, they end up commuting up to an hour - even an hour and a half " one way." Still, the lure of Silicon Valley is a powerful draw for many Canadians who want to work in the world’s HiTech capital. And when new arrivals come to the region from places like Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, the Digital Moose Lounge is there to offer them support and camaraderie. Meanwhile, Canadian IT professionals abroad are turning to TechnicallyHip.ca for news of the "great white north." Whether in Asia, Europe, or Latin America, a growing number are logging on in order to make contact with fellow Canadians. Just the names of the two Web sites can create immediate mental associations for the average Canadian - conjuring up images of indigenous animals, home-grown rock and roll icons, and world-class technology. All excellent reminders of back home, eh? |