dmehus
06-10-2007, 03:28 PM
hi Folks,
I made this account to participate in discussions on WebHostingTalk, but mainly to learn more about iNET Interactive and other holding companies that operate vertically-targeted consumer Web properties. If you know any besides the obvious CNET Networks, Demand Media, Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Jupitermedia, SourceForge, and Yahoo!, feel free to reply to this thread. Perhaps it is one company I haven't heard of before and I'm always keenly interested in learning new things in this space.
As well, see another thread in the Web Hosting Lounge by me that refers to this topic.
Anyway, now to the formal (or informal, as the case may be!) introduction. I live in what's generally referred to as "Westbank", though that's not an official town or city name because the area is an unincorporated, rural area of the Province of B.C. and its legally referred to as the Westside Electoral Area governed by the Regional District of Central Okanagan. Although, this may change next weekend when we'll be asked, in a referendum, to vote to become our own municipality of over 30,000 people or vote to join the City of Kelowna in an extension of Kelowna's boundaries. I'm definitely leaning in favour of the more pro-active, forward-thinking approach of joining Kelowna to create what essentially would form the groundwork towards the ultimate goal of a regional municipality.
Does Kelowna have a technology industry? The short answer is yes. But despite what economic development types will tell you when they refer to the area as "Silicon Vineyard", it's not a very big one. I like to think of our high-tech sector as one that's in its infancy, in an incubator, and on respiratory and life support systems. We have one main Internet data centre operator and dedicated hosting provider in RackForce Inc. and also maintain the head office of Canada Web Hosting Inc. (both of which are in the same building in Kelowna), except CWH's data centres are located elsewhere, in Toronto and Vancouver, I believe. We also have several small software development companies, mostly targeted to the municipal government, biotech and retail sectors. We're also excited about being home to a company in the news recently for its reported acquisition talks with Sony whereby Sony would acquire its Club Penguin kid-oriented, paid membership-driven social networking site. That company is now called Club Penguin Entertainment, formerly New Horizon Interactive. Beyond that, there's not much, other than two call centres (Teleperformance and Sitel) that answer incoming customer service, billing and support calls for Sprint Corporation's U.S. wireless phone customers and Rogers' wireless subscribers in Canada, respectively. I am definitely considering employment in the latter.
More broadly in the Okanagan Valley though, there are actually five call centres. Two more in Penticton, one operated by Excell Services in Penticton answering directory assistance calls for small, regional telecom companies in the U.S. and Vonage and the other answering consumer inquiries for Nestle that's operated by Telerx. In Vernon, there's Sutherland Global Services that actually answers technical support calls for Microsoft's Windows Vista and Symantec's Norton suite of security software.
So, there you have it. That's Kelowna in a nutshell. :)
Cheers,
Doug
I made this account to participate in discussions on WebHostingTalk, but mainly to learn more about iNET Interactive and other holding companies that operate vertically-targeted consumer Web properties. If you know any besides the obvious CNET Networks, Demand Media, Google, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Jupitermedia, SourceForge, and Yahoo!, feel free to reply to this thread. Perhaps it is one company I haven't heard of before and I'm always keenly interested in learning new things in this space.
As well, see another thread in the Web Hosting Lounge by me that refers to this topic.
Anyway, now to the formal (or informal, as the case may be!) introduction. I live in what's generally referred to as "Westbank", though that's not an official town or city name because the area is an unincorporated, rural area of the Province of B.C. and its legally referred to as the Westside Electoral Area governed by the Regional District of Central Okanagan. Although, this may change next weekend when we'll be asked, in a referendum, to vote to become our own municipality of over 30,000 people or vote to join the City of Kelowna in an extension of Kelowna's boundaries. I'm definitely leaning in favour of the more pro-active, forward-thinking approach of joining Kelowna to create what essentially would form the groundwork towards the ultimate goal of a regional municipality.
Does Kelowna have a technology industry? The short answer is yes. But despite what economic development types will tell you when they refer to the area as "Silicon Vineyard", it's not a very big one. I like to think of our high-tech sector as one that's in its infancy, in an incubator, and on respiratory and life support systems. We have one main Internet data centre operator and dedicated hosting provider in RackForce Inc. and also maintain the head office of Canada Web Hosting Inc. (both of which are in the same building in Kelowna), except CWH's data centres are located elsewhere, in Toronto and Vancouver, I believe. We also have several small software development companies, mostly targeted to the municipal government, biotech and retail sectors. We're also excited about being home to a company in the news recently for its reported acquisition talks with Sony whereby Sony would acquire its Club Penguin kid-oriented, paid membership-driven social networking site. That company is now called Club Penguin Entertainment, formerly New Horizon Interactive. Beyond that, there's not much, other than two call centres (Teleperformance and Sitel) that answer incoming customer service, billing and support calls for Sprint Corporation's U.S. wireless phone customers and Rogers' wireless subscribers in Canada, respectively. I am definitely considering employment in the latter.
More broadly in the Okanagan Valley though, there are actually five call centres. Two more in Penticton, one operated by Excell Services in Penticton answering directory assistance calls for small, regional telecom companies in the U.S. and Vonage and the other answering consumer inquiries for Nestle that's operated by Telerx. In Vernon, there's Sutherland Global Services that actually answers technical support calls for Microsoft's Windows Vista and Symantec's Norton suite of security software.
So, there you have it. That's Kelowna in a nutshell. :)
Cheers,
Doug