Category: Community

Getting Out Of My Comfort Zone

I have often lived in my own little bubble as most technology-geek-type people do.  I hardly stepped out, stretched myself and joined the world outside.  In the last little while I have had the opportunity to expand my world and I took it.  I was asked to attend a networking function with a friend.  I had probably met a half dozen professionals from various disciplines.  Again this week an opportunity arose where by offering to help pay for a website renewal, I had the opportunity to hide in my bubble and pay with PayPal or go hand deliver the money and meet someone new;  I chose to meet someone new. Continue reading →

Giving Back

It is important to give back to the community in some way. Your community may vary from other people’s, but it is a great way to create awareness of charities you believe in, your company’s good deeds and create balance and fun for your employees. Giving back also shows your employees the importance of supporting local charities and groups. Continue reading →

Be Kind to Those You Meet

You never know when you meet someone what they will be to you in your life. You may meet them in a service club, be a customer of yours, be a friend or an in-law. You just never know when that argument with the sales associate be something that bites you down the road. Continue reading →

What is Trending – Are you listening

Do you know what is trending today?   Do you know what is new?  Do you care?

As developers we live in a crazy world where technologies and ideas fly at the speed of light.  If you are not paying attention you will miss out on the new ideas.

Hash-tags, Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook; these are some tools of the modern world and they can help define our chosen professions.  If you have not embraced these fore mentioned tools, you will miss out.  How are you keeping up?  Are you relying on your everyday work or are you digging into the realms of social media to see what is trending?  The printed press like magazines, journals and newspapers are not cutting any more because of the pace of change.  By the time you read it, it is history.

Social media is trending the new ideas, tools and techniques at a pace that is baffling.  If you are a developer and you have not embraced social media, you are probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.  Managers are now asking you in interviews; How you are learning new things and keeping in the know?  If you are not saying social media as a tool, you would be foolish.  It is great to ramble of magazine names and school courses, but most of what is learned there I consider as historical background knowledge; you need social media to enhance your knowledge.

Are you looking for the next great idea?

Here are some interesting trends to watch:

There are a million of trends happening every second of every day.  Pick one or two a day and watch.  If you find something interesting dig for it and dig deep.  LinkedIn also has groups that could help you define who you are, what you want to do and how to do it.    There is a lot happening and you will never know what will trigger your next big idea.   Once you have watched, participate and that is the ultimate way of learning what is new.

Creativity and Love Flows in London

London Ontario boasts creativity and cutting edge ideas with companies like rTraction, Voices.com, Echidna and many others.   These companies are bleeding edge when it comes to employee management, project management and their technologies and methodologies.   I have seen many good things come from these companies and believe London Ontario should be applauded for its support in the technology sector.

Between foosball, MeetUps, OpenData and the UnLab activities, these companies share a bond, that only the technology world can understand.   These companies together will put London Ontario on the same playing field with other technology centres of Ontario, Canada and the rest of the world.  Socially London tech companies are more advanced.  They see the trends and move with and ahead of them at a rapid pace.

I have also noticed a new trend of technology companies in London also getting actively involved social causes, like reforesting, helping homeless, helping students, garbage clean-up and much more.  These people and organizations love London, they love Ontario and they love Canada.  Even politics tend to be a centre point of beliefs and passions for employees and leaders of the tech community.

Now, I have mentioned the tech companies, but it is not without the employees, will these companies advance on to the world stage.  The employees are the heart and soul of the companies that support the leaders of these companies.  These employees are independently trying new ideas and concepts through the support of their employers. These people are truly amazing with their talents.  London has some of the best technology employees around.

Aaron McGowan, is another person to be watching who makes up our community.  Aaron is a champion for OpenData which is a moving trend with our local governments to share data with the development world.  He is full of passion to have more data open to everyone to use and develop software freely.

Applaud the tech community, join in the social movements and hug a geek today.   It is not without each other can we move forward to do even greater things.