Being a stranger far away, especially if it is meant to be "forever", three things quickly become important at once: information, contacts and a piece of the "old homeland".

Information to better and faster find your way around in your new life and to avoid making mistakes with government agencies or when job hunting, which can cost time and money.

Contacts to better and faster integrate into the new life and quickly find connections in the new society.

A piece of the "Old Homeland"...?

However serious the reasons for deciding to begin a new life were, there are still things from your old life that you will not want to live without or that you will eventually begin to miss.

All of these points can be addressed by an Internet-Portal as a central communication and meeting point.

In 2004 the idea came up that the German-speaking community at large, especially in Vancouver, but also British Columbia, would need a central communication platform, which would be best represented through a specialized Internet-Portal. So a web presence, with the help of the German Consulate, was set into operation in the summer of 2004, which not only did a good job meeting the needs, but also soon became the main reference point for Germans outside of Canada who are interested in British Columbia and Vancouver.

Since the operator of this Internet-presence is not living in Canada anymore and working on other projects, on the one hand the website was gradually misused by spammers and Spam links and on the other hand answers to questions from advertisers or just the general support of the community dissapeared.

Certainly, the situation hasn‗t changed and the demand for exactly such a portal is still there.

When in the summer of 2009, the main initiators Elke and carpet made contact, the discussion initially was about a new web presence for the newsletter published by Elke, Westcoast German News. Throughout numerous online conversations, it was discovered that, most importantly, there was a demand for a new portal for the German-speaking community in Vancouver and British Columbia that was thorough and complete and would offer an opportunity to advertise products and services from German-speaking businesses.

So Elke and carpet changed the plan and developed idea and concept to implement a new portal for the German-speaking community, which will use Westcoast German News as its offline medium.

This new portal with the name "GermanBC", which can stand for "German British Columbia" or also as "German Business Community", is not just meant for Germans, but also German-speakers; therefore members from Austria and Switzerland are just as welcome. For those who have lived in Canada for so long that they understand English better than German, the portal is available almost entirely in both languages. When you use the address www.germanbc.ca, the language of your choice will show up automatically.

At the moment, the portal already offers the following functions and sections

• Personal photo and video albums
• Specialized user groups
• A Forum
• An Event Calendar
• Knowledge Base
• Business Directory

In contrast to the earlier portal, there are certain types of business listings that are free; our goal, among others, is to make our directory as complete as possible.

Certainly a portal has an active community life only through and by the members of the community. This means, you are not just heartedly invited to register as members, but also to actively contribute. This means, outside of the forum, to increase the knowledge base on hand, the content and the answers to regular questions. Regional facts of interest, or actual legal or financial updates, that could help new members to integrate and to find their way.

At this point, I would like to answer a direct question: Yes, this portal should and must earn money. Just the infrastructure and work time alone could and should not be seen as a hobby. An important point is also that members and advertisers should expect a proper members and customers care service. Some have already made use of this.

Admittedly, another thing that we should and want to promise at this point: There will never be membership fees or other regular charges for anything but a business listing or other advertising opportunities. Also we will attempt to offer the members as many free services and features, as possible. An exception will be, for example, the service by which you can choose one of your own photos to send as a postcard.

The last sentence also shows, that the portal and its functions will be in constant advancement. We would like to be able to offer a phone book of business listings, for example, in .pdf-format, so that you can have it available at home. Also, for participating businesses, there might be an option to have a form that can be filled out by potential customers that can be passed on via fax, as an example.

But of course the ideas of members or participating businesses are welcome. Therefore there are already three possibilities for members to suggest new categories or features they would like to see.

The most important thing is the community, in other words, the members.