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Month: September 2007

Portland at TechCrunch40: Not according to the leaked list

Rick Turoczy on September 16, 2007

With high hopes, I had posted earlier this weekend, asking if anyone had a line on any Portland companies that might be participating in the much-anticipated TechCrunch40.

Well, a blog post surfaced this evening, claiming to be the actual list of TechCrunch40 presenters. And after a bit of due diligence, I am completely saddened and a bit dismayed to report that I can’t find a single Portland company on that list.

(And no, I’m not going to post or link to the rumored list, as I can neither confirm nor deny that it is truly the list. In fact, this is the only company on the list I can even remotely confirm. Maybe the leaked list is a fake and in reality there are only Portland companies on the real list. Then how would I feel?)

Why am I telling you this? Because I know you have better things to do than sitting around, hitting refresh on the Silicon Florist site, waiting to see the Portland companies that made the list.

I mean, you were planning on doing that, right?

That’s what I thought.

There still may be Portland companies exhibiting down there. And, who knows? A Portland company may wind up being the crowd favorite that gets the slot. And if that’s the case, when I know, you’ll know.

But I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Oregon Startups sees 37, raises 13

Rick Turoczy on September 16, 2007

Oregon Startups, an information site for Oregon-based entrepreneurs, has been working to capture a list of all the Web 2.0 startups that call Oregon home.

And that list continues to grow.

What started as an original list of 37 companies at the beginning of September is now sitting at 50 Oregon-based Web 2.0 companies.

Don’t think you’re a “Web 2.0” startup? Don’t think you’re a “startup”? If I were you, I’d submit your company to the list, anyway.

I did err on the side of being inclusive rather than exclusive, so you might debate how good a Web 2.0 fit some members of the list are — and certainly not all are startups. But nonetheless, the list is a good indication that there is quite a lot of web activity in Oregon.

Whatever your professional disposition, I’d encourage you to spend some time reviewing—and improving—the list. Let’s get a little wisdom of the crowd going to help Oregon Startups develop a comprehensive list.

For more information, see the Oregon Startups list of Oregon Web 2.0 companies.

TechCrunch40: Portland presentations?

Rick Turoczy on September 15, 2007

TechCrunch40, the much sought after cotillion for 40 Web 2.0 startups devised by Mike Arrington of TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, begins on Monday.

Given that the startups are shrouded in a veil of secrecy, we’ve no idea who will be launching their products at the event. But hopefully, we’ll see a few Portland-area shops at the coming-out party.

Are you in the know? Drop me a line and I’ll make sure you get coverage here. (Embargoed until after you’re on stage, of course.) Have some guesses? I’d love to hear them. In fact, I’m sure everyone would. Post a comment below.

All I can tell you, for sure, is that Kumquat isn’t launching there.

Ignite Portland getting downright toasty

Rick Turoczy on September 14, 2007

I am happy to report that Ignite Portland is starting to become a roaring blaze. Good activity this week.

Today, Josh Bancroft, the founding force behind the event, released the Ignite Portland constitution, advising:

These are meant to be the criteria, values, and guidelines that Ignite Portland will follow. Without them, the “core things we care about”, it could and will likely become just another tech conference/event. Let’s make it something unique, or we may as well not do it. Of course, these are subject to debate and change – what you’re about to read right now is my take on this, as of today.

In other news, Raven Zachary, one of the organizers of BarCamp Portland and a founding member of Ignite Portland, announced that Ignite Portland will subsume DemoCamp Portland, the BarCamp Portland sister event.

For a number of reasons, we’re going to retire DemoCamp Portland and fold it into the Ignite Portland effort. There are similarities between the two events, and the no slides approach for DemoCamp limited some presentation ideas. Ignite Portland appeals to a larger audience. BarCamp is going to be an annual event in Portland – stay tuned for more details in early 2008. We may do a series of demos at the 2008 BarCamp, but not likely as ‘DemoCamp.’ Ignite Portland will probably be a quarterly event, but this may change, based on popularity.

For more details, visit the Ignite Portland site.

StepChange announces CLIQ, a dynamic, blogroll widget

Rick Turoczy on September 14, 2007

Portland-based StepChange has revealed the fruits of their latest widget-development efforts: CLIQ, a “super blogroll” widget that allows bloggers to dynamically manage complementary blog content, based on relevance.

It’s constantly changing content from your blogging clique. Get it?

In order to help bloggers actively promote and share their content, CLIQ combines three distinct things to create a Social Platform for Blog Merchandising.

1. The CLIQ Widget – which features content across a CLIQ’s member blogs

2. The CLIQin Social Network – which lets bloggers join forces with their friends

3. Offermatica‘s Content Targeting Engine – which drives content features and relevance

As for that question on the tip of your tongue, “What makes it different that the thousands of other blogroll widgets out there?” the team offers:

CLIQ allows Bloggers to create their own groups of related and friendly blogs (“CLIQs”) – and to explicitly promote their posts across each other’s blogs according to popularity and relevance. It’s a merchandising tool for blog content, with a ‘social’ twist.

The widget is currently in limited release. Interested parties can register on the CLIQ site to see if they’re chosen to be allowed beyond the velvet rope.

If you get in, drop me a note and I’ll link it up. I’ll be the one standing outside in the rain, trying to bribe the bouncer with some mad Hamiltons.

Marshall Kirkpatrick moving back to the other side of the desk

Rick Turoczy on September 13, 2007

Marshall Kirkpatrick, up until a few short hours ago the Director of Content for SplashCast, has announced that he is he is leaving SplashCast to join Web 2.0 blog Read/Write Web.

According to Read/Write Web, Marshall will be a lead writer, a role with which he is intimately familiar. (Many of you may remember that he held a similar position at another little Web 2.0 blog called TechCrunch.)

Richard MacManus, RWW’s founder, writes:

Marshall will focus on breaking news for Read/WriteWeb, something he is very skilled at and which will complement Josh and I well.

While I’m sad for SplashCast, I couldn’t be happier for Marshall and Read/Write Web.

For all of you startups looking for coverage, I’m the first to admit that Read/Write Web pulls in a bit more traffic than Silicon Florist. A bit. And Richard and team have really come back into their own after re-dedicating themselves to the space and refocusing the blog.

So heed Richard’s advice:

A note to startups and companies wishing to be covered by Read/WriteWeb: it is even more important now that you use the tips@readwriteweb.com email address to contact us with news. Josh and Marshall will be monitoring that address daily.

Finally, you should all know that Marshall has been a great supporter and promoter of Silicon Florist in its infancy. (I have no reason to expect that will change.) In fact, I’m quite sure that a good many of you are reading this post because of Marshall’s efforts to promote Silicon Florist. And for that I cannot thank him enough.

At the same time, Marshall has also been an exemplary contact for SplashCast. But I know that both Alex Williams and Kim Ramage will be equally sterling representatives for SplashCast. Which, by the way, is the first media player to include Twitter functionality. In case you were wondering.

I’m very much looking forward to poaching Marshall’s Portland-oriented RWW articles working with Marshall in this new role, and I hope all of you will extend your congratulations to him, as well.

For additional details on Marshall’s move to Read/Write Web, see Marshall’s blog post, the RWW announcement, the SplashCast blog post, and the growing list of coverage on Techmeme.

Tweet! SplashCast announces Twitter integration, Columbia Records deal

SplashCast, the Portland-based media company that enables anyone to create a media channel out of practically anything they have lying around the house—video, music, photos, narration, text, as well as RSS feeds, PowerPoint presentations and PDF documents—has announced a groundbreaking new feature for their SplashCast player: integration of Twitter.

Rick Turoczy on September 13, 2007

SplashCast, the Portland-based media company that enables anyone to create a media channel out of practically anything they have lying around the house—video, music, photos, narration, text, as well as RSS feeds, PowerPoint presentations and PDF documents—has announced a groundbreaking new feature for their SplashCast player: integration of Twitter.

SplashCast now offers the only media player online that allows quick, inline messaging to Twitter. Your viewers will be able to click the Twitter icon in your players, provide their username and login and then enter a message to be sent with a link to your channel to their entire network of friends on Twitter. Think Twitter’s just for the early adopter tech crowd? Readers of Sally Forth in the Sunday comics and viewers of the MTV Video Music Awards might disagree.

They also apparently signed a deal with some little record company called Columbia Records.

http://web.splashcast.net/Skins/candc_wide.swf

That deal carries with it two additional technology features that benefit all SplashCast users, but Columbia-act Coheed and Cambria will be the first to use the new features:

FanCast, our new mobile publishing feature, will allow the band’s fans to upload photos, audio files and video from their mobile phones to the Coheed and Cambria channel.

The second feature that will be deployed first on Columbia Records artist channels is live chat. Fans will be able to discuss whatever is on their minds in real time with our new in-player chat functionality.

I know, I know. I led with the technology.

I realize that the SplashCast deal with Columbia Records is huge. For both the company and the awareness of the SplashCast player. Not to mention Beyonce. And Bruce.

And, this is huge for Portland, as well. More and more the music mecca, this deal meshes incredibly well with the local culture.

All good points. And all worth congratulations. But I stick to my lead for three reasons:

  1. SplashCast is the first media delivery application to embrace the power of Twitter as part of its core feature set.
  2. This marks a decided move beyond simply “publishing” media to facilitating media distribution and promotion.
  3. I guessed this Twitter integration was coming.

Additional coverage of the SplashCast announcement can be found on the SplashCast blog, Center Networks, TechBizMedia, and Mashable.

Attensa releases new RSS readers, cleans up blog lint

Rick Turoczy on September 13, 2007

Attensa, the Portland-based You Software spin off that focuses on tools surrounding RSS technology, has released new versions of their RSS readers.

You can download the new enterprise-quality RSS feed readers for Windows, Mac and Microsoft Outlook at no charge immediately from the Attensa Web site. The three new Attensa feed readers are built using consistent AttentionStream™ technologies, architecture and user experience to provide business users with a complete set of tools for receiving, managing and reading critical business information delivered through RSS, Atom and XML web feeds.

Attensa also appears to have recently refreshed its blog design to focus on its main content, clearing off links to areas that have been relatively stagnant. (I didn’t want them to think that had gone unnoticed. It’s a welcome change.)

For more information on Attensa technologies and its AttentionStream concept, visit Attensa.

JanRain releases Pibb for Facebook

Rick Turoczy on September 12, 2007

You may know Portland-based JanRain as one of the leading local proponents of OpenID. But you may not know that they also have a few applications under their collective belt.

One of those applications—their IRC-like Pibb application—has recently been ported to Facebook.

This communications conduit has the potential to be incredibly useful for those folks looking to tie Facebook communications to the rest of their online communications. (Like say for instance, keeping your Facebook comments and your blog comments all in one place.)

By adding the Pibb Facebook application to your account you can easily tie together two end points of your social graph, Facebook and Pibb. Once you add the application to your Facebook account, you will easily be able check for new messages and connect with your Facebook friends on Pibb and vice versa.

Sounds like a useful Facebook addition. (For a useless Facebook addition, feel free to join the Silicon Florist group on Facebook.)

For more information, see the blog post announcing the launch of Pibb on Facebook.

(As an aside, with both JanRain and SplashCast supporting Facebook applications, I’ve got to assume there are others of you out there building Facebook apps. Yes? No? Well, if you’ve got a Portland-built Facebook app, link it up, below, or drop me a note. If enough folks respond, I’ll post a roundup.)

Meet: BarCamp Portland Meetup, September 27

Rick Turoczy on September 12, 2007

The BarCamp Portland Meetups are the more informal, more frequently held siblings of the annual BarCamp Portland gathering. The next meetup is scheduled for Thursday, September 27 at Jive Software.

The intent [of the BarCamp Portland Meetups] is to get a group of cool people interested in technology together to chat over drinks on the fourth Thursday of every month. Anyone working in high-tech is welcome to attend.

For more information or to RSVP, see the Upcoming page.

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