With the large number of techies/bloggers/web workers/geeks/wired folk/internet businesses/pick your preferred word in the Vancouver area, why isn’t there a comprehensive directory of such people and organizations/nonprofits/businesses?
When I recently did a search for Google map mashups in Vancouver I expected to find a central blog or website listing them all. I didn’t and created a list of 10 Vancouver based google maps mashups but thought there’s a need for a centralized listing of all or most things internet/tech related in Vancouver.
Yes there’s the Tyee’s BC blog list, and some Vancouver based blogs or blogging sites i.e. Metro Blogging Vancouver, and the local blogging/tech evangelist types like Kris Krug, Darren, Roland, and Boris, etc, but there’s no one central place where they’re all listed. Techvibes did a kind of “Creaky Web 1.0 Social Network” as Darren said,but they’re being sold off.
I think there’s a real need for something like this and I pitched Tod Maffin he thought it was a good idea but didn’t want to do it, and I’m not the one to create and maintain something like that but am throwing this idea out to the local blogosphere in hopes that someone will take it/adapt it and run with it. Maybe someone at Northern Voice.
Things I’d like to see in such a Vancouver tech internet/wired geek community directory.
Categorized, tagged, geotagged searchable lists of:
- local bloggers, podcasters, photobloggers vloggers
- webforums
- wikis
- websites
- industry groups
- meetups
- specialized tech oriented software/hardware special interest groups
- non-profit type social/health/environmental blog/websites/groups
- Vancouver area related mashups
- Internet related businesses like web designers, blog medics, web programmers whitehat SEOs, internet consultants, web startups, audio-video 3d types etc. Not just any Vancouver area business with a website/blog but an internet related one.
Structure
Maybe have some RSS feeds, structured tagging, searchable local events section by categories, geotagging, good search tools, great layout etc.
Last night at the library square restaurant Tod suggested something like the old yahoo directory, and I think that’s a good idea. Thanks for the CBC tour Tod, very cool.
Why would someone/group want to create this?
1. Someone/group of people/organization/non profit/ smart internet business could run this as a section off their blog/website/forum or separate site and monetize it just to cover the hosting costs and the time to create or maintain it.
2. Or as a revenue stream.
3. Or someone could do it just because they wanted to build a community, do something karmically good, or hang around with other geeks drink beer and brainstorm, code, design and evangelize.
4. For the fun and challenge of it. Test their geek-fu skills
5. Ego expansion exercise. You’re at the center of the Vancouver Tech universe.
6. They want publicity for themselves, their business, organization or worthwhile cause
7. You’re an ADHD adult with a fast processing mind that loves to exercise your creative, hyperfocusing, multitasking mind with challenging tasks in order to self medicate positively by boosting your dopamine levels.
8. Or do it for the SEO value of a self-generating ongoing worthwhile link baiting campaign and have links to their blog/website as a way of driving traffic through the creation and maintenance of such a useful ongoing resource, either to promote their business or their ideas/group.
Or all of the above.
Any creative techie types want to take this challenge on? Pass me on a bit of link love for it if you do eh?
Excellent idea Pete! I’d definitely love to chat more about and be apart of putting something like that together.
thank Theo, I think you might do it well and it would tie in well with your business. Nice seeing you again at Northern Voice
Thanks Pete – this is very much in line with one of the key initiatives we have for Social Media Club, to help people find each other. We are looking for volunteers to help with this sort of effort to get the ball rolling. While I don’t have this set up in the wiki yet, it would not take much to do. Further, I hope we are able to support efforts of organizations like New Media BC around the globe, to connect with each other, to learn from each other and to support each other in our indiivdual and collective interests. Am backed up at the moment with about 3 blog posts from Northern Voice and some other commitments, but anyone could start doing this from the Social Media Club Wiki, building an open, wiki based directory until we have a directory/netwokring platform in place… looks like it is down right now, but can be found at http://socialmediaclub.pbwiki.org/ – we did our first meeting in Decemeber at Bryght’s offices (thank you Borris, Kris, Roland, Darren, Megan et al) and are working on organizing the next gathering now.
This would be really great. Hope the wiki will be up soon!
Would it basically be an advanced blogroll, or something more functional?
Hi Chris thanks for the ideas, nice talking with you at the conference. I was impressed with the forward thinking attitudes of Lynda Brown of New Media BC and the others in the panel and the audience. Quite a good conversation. Good concept you have with the social media club, I’ll try to check out next meeting.
I guess depends who builds it Robert, nice meeting you at the conference looking forward to seeing your startup in action.
I have started a blog in which I hope to profile tech movers and shakers in Vancouver. So far it has gone nowhere because I haven’t had time for it (I have another blog and write for BeyondRobson). But the idea of this blog being used as a directory of tech in Vancouver is very interesting to me. If anyone would like to work on it with me please let me know. scott.robarts(at)blinkdesigns.ca
You mention Urban Vancouver, but I just wanted to point out that Urban Vancouver has aggregator ‘categories’ for technology bloggers at http://www.urbanvancouver.com/news/topics/vancouver-technology-blogs and podcasters at http://www.urbanvancouver.com/topics/vancouver-podcasts The sidebar has more cateories, including foodie blogs. All the categories don’t have everybody, but that’s only because I haven’t come across them all yet. User-submitted feeds would come close to solving that.
Later versions of the software we use at Urban Vancouver (Drupal) can do much more interesting things, like user-submitted feeds, tagging and filtering, so I wanted to say that I like the ideas presented here. Directories, in my mind, are nothing to sneer at, because with them you get someone (or multiple someones) who can garden the list. To make it more dynamic than just a straight directory, though, I’d be more interested in a syndication component, maybe linking to the latest x posts from blogs. That way you can tell how recently the blog was updated, and with what. http://www.placeblogger.com/ comes to mind here.
I think this is a great idea and the first step is a discussion like this. I’m not entirely sure that you’re idea was met with an “I don’t want to do it” reaction as much as the whole grasping your mind around the reality of the whole project.
When you told Tod and Rebecca about this, I instantly thought of this:
http://vancouver.wikia.com/
As soon as that site was setup, it was abandoned. There are many avenues to approach this idea, and it just becomes a matter of putting it together. Obviously there are people here already trying to do something like this. And hey, I’d love to help out as well. Just not sure how because even I have a little bit of a time wrapping my head around it all. 🙂
something more functional Robert. Beyond the blogroll.
Hi John, yes you’re probably right. Not exactly sure what the platform would be and look like. I just see there’s a lot of local geek talent in Vancouver and it would be cool to put some of those brains together for a connective content site. Designing the right user and back end interface would be a challenge.
One purpose of it would be sort of a way to find each other between northern voices. Yes there’s google but it’s not browseable. I’d like it to be useful, functional expandable, non static but at the same time limited. Ie not just an internet yellow pages of everyone selling soap online in vancouver would be challenging.
yes possibly a wiki but I think it’s got to be something scaleable and expandable. I think a wiki is kind of limited in terms of slicing and dicing content but I could be wrong on that I missed the wiki session at northern voice.
Thanks for pointing it out Richard, never noticed the category part of urban vancouver. I definitely want rss feeds see
“Maybe have some RSS feeds, structured tagging, searchable local events section by categories, geotagging, good search tools, great layout etc.”
But not sure about the latest blogposts etc then there’s more content and troubleshooting etc unless if the whole site was completed and then there was time and energy left over.
Maybe you could have a roll your own rss section. perhaps create your own custom opml file to upload to your feedreader.
I’d like to see multiple ways to display content esp blogs ie by type, maybe neighbourhood multiple tags etc
I’m thinking more directory than a lot of user submitted content because then you can get easily lost in the data smog of the later
Place blogger has some pretty cool stuff but I’m thinking blogs + other local internet related content, maybe that can be tagged and structured so thats its mashable by other people or even within the site itself.
@hummingbird604 Great idea for a Vancouver Blogger directory. I did a post on creating one in 2007 http://bit.ly/c4Nrfp you might like