Comments on: Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for December 14 http://siliconflorist.com/2008/12/15/silicon-florists-links-arrangement-for-december-14/ Covering the blossoming startup industry in Portland, Oregon, and the Silicon Forest Thu, 24 May 2012 03:16:09 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Steve Gehlen http://siliconflorist.com/2008/12/15/silicon-florists-links-arrangement-for-december-14/comment-page-1/#comment-6049 Steve Gehlen Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:52:22 +0000 http://siliconflorist.com/2008/12/15/silicon-florists-links-arrangement-for-december-14/#comment-6049 Rick, thanks for linking to the article in the Oregonian about Oregon Creative Industries (OCI). One thing that the article didn't make clear is that per the Wikipedia definition, software is PART of <a href="http://blog.oregoncreative.org/overview/defining-creative-industries/" rel="nofollow">creative industries</a> (aka the creative economy), not something separate. Under this definition (the one OCI is going by), there is no distinction for example between the level of creativity it takes to be a good painter vs. a good coder. As a former software developer myself (wrote thousands of lines of C code in the 80's) I know from direct experience that writing good code is an art form. For these reasons we have invited the chairs/presidents of Legion of Tech, Software Association of Oregon and DevGroup NW to our first association leadership round-table discussion this week. The most recent OCI <a href="http://blog.oregoncreative.org/2008/12/12/stronger-together/" rel="nofollow">blog post called "Stronger Together"</a> explains some of the thinking behind this. As the Executive Director of a nonprofit software-related association myself (<a href="http://www.internetstrategyforum.org" rel="nofollow">Internet Strategy Forum</a>), I hope other leaders in the larger Portland software community (such as yourself) continue to recognize the value of "stronger together" and to help build bridges between all of the various participants in Oregon's overall creative economy. Your sponsorship of the first <a href="http://www.cre8camp.org/Cre8CampPortland/" rel="nofollow">Cre8Camp Portland</a> in July was a great step in that direction, so I wanted to thank you again for that. Rick, thanks for linking to the article in the Oregonian about Oregon Creative Industries (OCI). One thing that the article didn’t make clear is that per the Wikipedia definition, software is PART of creative industries (aka the creative economy), not something separate. Under this definition (the one OCI is going by), there is no distinction for example between the level of creativity it takes to be a good painter vs. a good coder.

As a former software developer myself (wrote thousands of lines of C code in the 80′s) I know from direct experience that writing good code is an art form.

For these reasons we have invited the chairs/presidents of Legion of Tech, Software Association of Oregon and DevGroup NW to our first association leadership round-table discussion this week.

The most recent OCI blog post called “Stronger Together” explains some of the thinking behind this.

As the Executive Director of a nonprofit software-related association myself (Internet Strategy Forum), I hope other leaders in the larger Portland software community (such as yourself) continue to recognize the value of “stronger together” and to help build bridges between all of the various participants in Oregon’s overall creative economy.

Your sponsorship of the first Cre8Camp Portland in July was a great step in that direction, so I wanted to thank you again for that.

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