DailyXY.com is an online lifestyle magazine targeting urban guys. In 2009, the publishers decided to build a new site, with a more robust content management system.

Our story starts with WordPress, the software on which the site is built. This free, open-source content management system was developed by a global community of users. But to get a site customized to DailyXY’s particular needs, a group of experts in seven different time zones was mobilized. Strategic thinking was led by a Canadian team, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland  and Toronto. This team of three also oversaw the entire project from those locations.  Working through a crowdsourcing marketplace, an art director in a village on the Romanian/Hungarian border was engaged to conceive the new DailyXY logo. (To this day, we can’t find it on GoogleMaps.)

The site was designed by a group in Los Angeles, who started with a template developed by a South African designer (who lives in London). The lion’s share of the coding was done in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Interesting fact: no one works on April 2 as it’s Falkland Islands Day.) Another free, open-source piece of software, OpenX, was selected to serve ads on the site (this is how DailyXY earns its keep). An OpenX expert in Holland was called upon to optimize its installation on DailyXY’s servers and continues to consult with us today. And today engineers in Savannah, Georgia handle ongoing site maintenance.

Why did it make sense to build DailyXY’s site in this Tower of Babel? It’s simple: expertise and cost savings. While there were occasional language and cultural challenges, working with a transnational team meant DailyXY was able to engage interesting people who know their stuff, while cutting development costs by about 40% (compared to a site developed exclusively in Canada).

And thanks to Skype, not a cent was spent on long distance charges.