How do we as Canadian tech community members spread far and wide across this great country connect and become part of a cohesive community that is there to help foster the innovation happening any where in Canada? I feel that I can speak with some sense of expertise on this as we has been digital commuters for the last 3 years or so.  We are prime examples of why we need to build a community that is going to span beyond the borders of 416/514/604 area codes.  I would much rather make Canada a Silicon Valley vs one specific area holding that title.  There have been a few interesting pieces written lately about a Canadian Tech Community Jevon’s post from startup north and David Crow had a great post … even Rick from JLA had an interesting prespective from a VC standpoint.  I wanted to take the notion a step further. How do we do it? Actually bring about some sort of ecosystem into existence? What needs to be done so that a company from Sudbury, Ottawa, Halifax, Moncton, Lethbridge or any points between can be active within a national community. I think the initial frameworks has been established through all the *camps that have been conducted across Canada and has gotten us to this point. How do we continue this on and span the country in an always on kind of way.   Here are things that I think if brought together in the right way could lead to something cool.   

Who is who - I think that a collective raise your hands in the air “Hi my name is Scott I am an ….” is really needed. We need to have a social network that can will allow for the base of communication. There needs to be a place where we can find Canadians who:

• might  be interested in what we are doing 
• might be doing something interesting, 
• have a rad technology
• want to beta test 
• can give UI feedback 
• might be able to introduce us to someone who can help 
• have been there before  

Video - This seems like a Herculean task but I think as a group we can figure out some way to make it happen. There are lots of great things going on all over this country every single day. We are holding different camps for RoR, Drupal meetups, ajax and flash camps …. all great to the people who happen to be in the room but of no value to the people that are not able to be there. I can only imagine the great bits of knowledge that is being shared and could really be useful to people whom aren’t able to muster the support for a barcamp or tech meet-up in their own community.  How can we as a group compile a digital reference library of these talks, presentations , barcamps etc. Make them available to the members of the community?   

Showcase -  Where is the listing of tech companies in Canada? I think there should be a place where we can showcase what we are doing, a quick reference for all cool tech’s that are Canadian. This would help companies make connections with others located north of the border. 

Collaborative Spaces - We are a part of the Toronto Tech Skype Group which is a place where all the people that are part of the Toronto Startup Tech community can drop into to ask questions, give advice and generally be part of the community. We are also part of a skype startup chat with 8 or so company leaders that give us a place to share ideas, ask questions and get feed back. This has been a valuable resource for us. Being located off the beaten path this has allowed us to be a part of discussions that we would have never been privy to.    

Physical Events - Physical events are required and are going to happen regardless example: Barcamps, Democamps, casecamps. Being part of the community prior only makes the importance grow. I am also more likely to hop a plane to Vancouver if I am familiar with some of the people that are going to be there, have interacted with them and listened and watched talks they have given, read stuff they have written… etc.  

This is certainly a 50000 ft view of what I think. Is it the answer? Who knows. All I hope is that someone out there will agree with me and tell someone else and it will spread.  I have a few people in mind that I think could certainly help. Need some feedback from across the country.  Am I out to lunch or is this a viable thing? It will require you to your civic egos aside and think from a nation wide perspective.  

Cheers Scott

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