Canada has a vibrant high-tech economy so it seems strange that there are so few Canadian bloggers actively writing what’s going on. By active, I mean people writing blog posts a couple to a several times a week about Canadian and non-Canadian tech news.
There’s StartupNorth, TechVibes, Telecom Trends, Steve Hodson and myself. But where’s everyone else?
I know they’re out there because once in awhile you run across a blog with great content. The problem is they’re difficult to find because Canada lacks a good blog directory. This makes it challenging to find any Canadian blogger, let alone high-tech bloggers.
My interest in putting the spotlight on Canadian high-tech bloggers is two-fold.
From a personal standpoint, I’m a high-tech enthusiast, and always looking for new places to read about Canadian companies and entrepreneurs. Professionally, I work with a lot of really interesting start-ups, and it’s disappointing to not have a wide variety of blogs where they can tell their stories.
At a time when Canadian newspaper coverage of high-tech is far from ideal, blogs are becoming more important as places to discuss, discover and celebrate the country’s high-tech industry. We need to have more people engaged in putting Canadian technology in the spotlight to support all the good things happening.
About a week ago, I started to post updates on Twitter for Canadian high-tech bloggers to come out of the woodwork. So far, about 10 bloggers who have been brave enough to raise their hands.
If you write a high-tech blog that includes Canadian content, let me know by leaving a comment or sending an e-mail to markevans@mail.org. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll follow up with another post with details with the blogs that I’ve compiled.
Eik! what’s with the new sign-in process? Painful…
What about our friend Alec Saunders? That’s on my reading list. Yes, a little personal, and yes, a little non-Canada focus, but he’s around and puts out some good, relevant content.
http://saunderslog.com
More policy than technology, but also worth tracking is, of course, Michael Geist, too.
Um, I write a Canadian high-tech blog.
I agree that it’s not always easy to find Canadian voices online, though. At the risk of making a shameless plug, I should mention that we’ve just opened up registration for this year’s ComputerWorld Canada Blogging Idol competition. Last year, thanks to your help, Mark (yes, we used him as a social media consultant), we managed to bring about 15 new high-tech professionals into the blogosphere for the first time. We offer prizes and stuff but it’s really about discovering and promoting blogging talent: http://blogidol.ca
Otherwise, I’d also go with Brian’s choice of Alec Saunders, as well as Kevin Restivo.
Um .. Mark, Mark, Mark .. how could you forget the cranky old fart
Between Shooting at Bubbles and WinExtra I think I classify as a tech blogger 
Steve,
My bad! You’re now “IN”.
Good call! Thanks!
Here’s my take: there aren’t that many Canadian hi-tech bloggers because there really isn’t that much to talk about. I’d say you and Startup North are the most Canadian tech blogs I can think of, but going over your last 30 or so posts I only pick up 5 or 6 decidedly Canadian topics.
That’s not an attack, I just think there’s not that much to write about. Confounding this is the more or less regionalized nature of Canadian tech. Stuff is going on, but I’ll be damned if I know what the scoop is in Vancouver or Calgary or Montreal –– so how could I blog about it? Does someone in Calgary know RapidMind well enough to talk about their acquisition?
Compare that to the US: There’s NYC and Boston, but most news, vanguard ideas and blogger reaction/editorial comes from the valley. It’s easier to cover.
It also doesn’t help that our largest hi-tech companies (RIM, OpenText, ect) are enterprise facing and thus boring to blog about.
I’d love more Canadian content, and I’ll do my part in Waterloo (watch for Communitechblog.ca to take a giant leap in the near future). Happy to help in any way I can.
PS: You switched to JS-Kit eh? Why?
And if you’re going to mention Startup North, which is a group effort, then you might as well add MaRS, Red Canary, and Tech Capital Partners to your list, and I hope you have April Dunford and Suzanne Dingwall there as well. VERY Canadian.
Trevor,
Thanks for all the great suggestions. Much appreciated. I switched to JK-Kit after not being impressed by IntenseDebate, particularly its administrative options.
Mark
Here’s another idea, drop in a user-editable spreadsheet from EditGrid (http://www.editgrid.com) and let people add their own blog urls. I did something like that with Mobile Dev companies in Waterloo recently, you can find it at http://www.communitechblog.ca/?p=659
I started a Telecom blog (TheTelecomBlog.com) last summer 2009. We report on mostly Canadian and some US Telecom news usually posting 3 to 4 posts per day. I agree, there aren’t that many Canadian centric tech blogs, although probably a reflection of the demand and size of population. I’m curious to see your follow-up post with your findings.
Hopefully after investigation you will find we make your list as well.
http://www.thetelecomblog.com/
Jeff
You might want to check out the IT Nerd. He’s apparently a Toronto based computer consultant who blogs about tech issues and he does have a Canadian slant.
http://itnerd.wordpress.com/
Surprised you aren’t aware of my blog called CTB
.