Scotland Needs YOU!

Posted by Callum in About Us, General, Scotland

Scotland, the land of haggis, neeps and Lattes!  Our country, of which we are fiercely proud.  A country which feels like too often it receives the almost ran.  Silicon Glen boomed its way through our hearts and minds in the late 90′s with visions of a real Silicon Valley technology powerhouse home grown in the North.  We had the big guns from the USA (Motorola, Chunghwa, National Semiconductor) who brought great investment, recognised and nurtured the talent but since the 2000 collapse, technology has never really recovered.  Sure Biotech is big, but is that the only thing we’ve got going on?  There is WAY more stuff going on, but we don’t know about it.  Why?  We don’t talk and there is no stage!

We know more about what’s going on in Silicon Valley – California thanks to PandoDaily, Techcrunch etc than we do about our own doorstep.  That’s a ridiculous state of affairs and something which scotsi.com (Scots-Ahy) is looking to change.  We want to become the No1. independent news source for Scottish Technology, start ups and business.  We need to offer Scotland a global stage to parade its wares, excite the world and build our brand as a country!

How can I help?  

Simple, we need a little bit of your time!  We can’t do this on our own, and we need Scotland to get involved in building our global online tech presence.  We can provide the platform but in this game, content is king and we need your ideas, hints, tips and stories to create the daily content. This drives interest in the site, the companies we report on and the country as a whole!  Gradually we’ll start seeing more investment into our country offering more jobs and better longer term prospects.  We want to show you off to the world and demonstrate that we can compete on a global scale against the big and small of Silicon Valley and the rest of the world!  So if you’re a one man start-up from Dunfermline or a multi-national from Glasgow, we want to hear your news.  The only rules are there must be a strong Scottish link and a slant towards technology, OK?  Take a minute and send us something, we really want to hear it – tips@scotsi.com.

Wait I want to write!

Great, get in touch!  The hints, tips and ideas are the funnel but the articles won’t write themselves and we need a talented, driven team of journalists who want to write about technology in Scotland.  We know you’re out there!  Think of this as a global stage to play for your country while building the network you’ve always dreamed of!  OK so at the moment we can’t pay you but that will come, in time, as we drive the world to look again at Scotland and you’ll be in a prime place to capitalise!  We want a style so if you’ve read Techcrunch/PandoDaily/The Register, you’ll know what we’re looking for and you’ll know how it can work.  If you haven’t, get reading!  Bland doesn’t cut it, we want opinions and wit but there has to be a balance.  This isn’t easy, but if you think you cut it get involved.  To apply write us an article about technology in Scotland (anything you like but please try to make it a real event), a biography and a short piece on why you think Scotland can compete on a global stage and send it through along with links to any of your existing work to - apply@scotsi.com.  This might be used on the site, and will give us an idea of your style so give it your best!

I need to tell people!

Do it now!  Tweet, Retweet, Facebook share, E-Mail and Pigeon carrier this (links top and bottom) to people who will care and do something about it.  Let’s get the world talking about Scotland again, let’s nurture those startups and drive the technology investment we so desperately want.  Lets move from being an almost ran to one of the innovative, driven, go-to countries which world leaders look towards for new ideas to lead the way.  We’re never going to be California – the weather will never compare, but lets embrace an essence of their business spirit and make a difference to our country!

Callum was educated in Computer Science at Heriot Watt – Edinburgh and has been on the Scottish tech scene for a number of years.  He has worked with some of the fastest growing technology companies based here;  most recently Bloxx LTD (Deloitte Fast 50) and is currently bootstrapping an agile SaaS based startup StoreHR.