Beauty idea, eh?

Kudos to Sean Wise and Reg Cheramy for their recent launch of the Canadian Tech Mob, a web-ring program aimed at showcasing the achievements of Canadians on the domestic and world stage in the areas of technology and innovation.

The web-ring works almost like a virtual lapel pin, where Canadian entrepreneurs, bloggers, venture capitalists and overall champions of innovation show their Canadian pride by posting the Tech Mob icon on their site. The icon then serves two purposes: highlighting Canadian pride, and linking interested visitors back to the web-ring to see other examples of Canadian leadership and innovation.

Beyond being a neat idea, the Canadian Tech Mob hits on an issue that’s very close to my heart; showcasing how Canadians, contrary to conventional wisdom, have been behind some of the most important innovations and discoveries in high tech, wireless, the Internet, biotechnology, medicine, and more. Whether it’s because we’re too humble about our accomplishments or that we’re simply not good at marketing ourselves (two typical criticisms of Canadians from an international business perspective), Canadians are one the world’s largest invisible minorities when it comes to achievement and recognition. Even on our own soil, few recognize how Canadians like Jeff Skoll (ebay), Jeff Mallet (Yahoo), Rob Burgess (Macromedia) and more have created some of the new economy’s most important companies and technologies. With Bernie Ebbers, we’ve even got our own celebrity white crime criminal to boast!

Another factor contributing to Canada’s invisible minority status is that, at least during the dot-com era, many entrepreneurs felt they wouldn’t be taken seriously if they held onto their Canadian identities. When I was doing marketing and PR for (then) dot-com darling DocSpace, CEO Evan Chrapko was religious about maintaining an American face for this very reason; even based in Toronto, my business cards had a Menlo Park address and phone number, I never gave out my Canadian coordinates, and Evan even led workshops on talking more American…to this day I still say project, process, out and about like I was from California.

I’m also a huge fan of the Tech Mob concept because it’s not the first; it builds on previous initiatives (some of which I’ve been involved with) to help put Canada on the domestic and global innovation map. In 2000 entrepreneur Michael Lewkowitz and e-bay co-founder Jeff Skoll founded The Leaf Initiative, a grass-roots, non-profit initiative that ran awards programs and published success stories about Canadian new economy icons before it merged with SMART Toronto in 2003. Out west, Vancouver VC Brent Halliday and the late founder of CanadaIT.com Peter Standeven formed TechnicallyHip.ca, a sort of clearing house for all things Canadian in the context of high tech ventures and successes. And Leonard Brody, former Onvia Canada co-founder and overall huge fan of Canadians, has authored two best-selling books on the subject, Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Java to Jurassic Park, and Everything I Needed to Know About Business...I Learned from a Canadian.

For Sean and Reg, these past experiences should provide both momentum and support from those who were involved, and some important lessons in how to make the program work. Ultimately the crux of any program like this is…what’s the incentive for people to join? Someone like me is an easy sell, but motivating the masses, the silent majority of Canadians out there, is a different story. From my experience, three factors stand out:

Target the Influencers – A motivating factor for a good number of people in networking programs like this is gaining access to recognized leaders. With the Leaf Initiative, we had people like Jeff Skoll, Andrea Reisman, Roger Martin, Jonathan Ehrlich and Dean Hopkins involved as early supporters and champions.

Promote the Hell out of It – Leonard Brody didn’t just let his books fly off the shelves of Amazon or Indigo; he pounded the pavement promoting his book through a non-stop tour of speaking engagements and networking events across the country.

Merge Virtual with Physical – One of the most successful global, nation-based networking groups I’m aware of is The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). With over 10,000 members in 44 countries, TiE has succeeded in part by combining a simple brand with valuable, compelling networking events, special interest groups and programs specifically to nurture the next generation of Indian entrepreneurs.

Either way, I’ve signed up and you should be seeing a Tech Mob icon on this site shortly. If you’re Canadian and you’re doing something valuable, opinion-influencing, innovative or groundbreaking in high tech, take two minutes out of your day to sign up too. It’s a quick and easy process to sign up, it’s a worthwhile cause and, ultimately, propping up Canada’s position on the global technology stage will benefit all of us involved in it.