We’re quite excited about the new look. As we discussed the other day, the leaf logo and the NewSkin are intended to reflect the alive and growing AboutUs community, and make us feel wholesome and rooted in the whole world. We’re happy with this direction for the community and are glad you’ve joined us.
To see the new skin in action (it is out of BETA and has replaced the default skin), visit AboutUs.
Have a hard time visualizing the Silicon Forest? Maybe the Silicon Forest Universe can help.
The Silicon Forest Universe tracks the massive celestial bodies in the Portland-area—like Tektronix and Intel—and the startups that have launched because of them—which slide into an orbit around the originating company.
Brings “spin off” to a whole new level, doesn’t it?
Well, now that you know what it is, what’s in it for you?
Heike Mayer was a PSU student in 2002 when she helped create the original. Now a Virginia Tech professor, Mayer is working with PSU’s Sheila Martin (from the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies) and a host of regional technology associations to update it.
Excuse me, if you will, as I step out of character. I wanted to take a second to chat with you.
Don’t look over your shoulder. You. Yes, you. Please, read on.
Right around a month ago, I decided to try a little experiment.
I felt the local coverage of small technology startups was somewhat lacking. I mean, I could thumb through international coverage on sites like TechCrunch and Mashable for once-in-a-blue-moon postings on Portland-area companies. And, I could read about larger startups in The Oregonian.
But none of those was really hitting the mark. So I decided to quit being part of the problem. And I tried to do my little part to help solve it.
That solution, from concept to first post, took an earth-shattering 35 minutes. And the Silicon Florist—a blog covering the small startups in and around Portland, Oregon—was born.
And so here we are, one month hence. And I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
No, that’s not true.
I’ve been shocked. Shocked with the reception. Shocked with the kind notes. Shocked with the participation.
I think I’ve struck a nerve. And I hope that I’m providing a valuable service for you readers out there.
I also thought it might be valuable to provide a little recap of what has happened in the past 30 days or so. I’m not setting any records, but I am seeing some interesting stuff.
Stats
70+ posts
Flirting with 100 RSS subscribers at times. The current count is:
Nearly 2,000 visitors
37% returning visitors
70% of traffic comes from referring sites (Thank you to all of you who showed Silicon Florist the link love!)
It looks like there’s been some activity over on the Ignite Portland site. It’s no longer reporting a 403 error, and the blog is at the very early stages of taking shape.
Portland’s own (well, okay, technically Sherwood’s own) Justin.tv correspondent, Alpha Geek, has provided a stream for the InVerge 2007 event, currently running down in the Pearl.
Continuing to lead in the “quirkiest Portland group name” contest, Portland Internet Astronauts has announced the date for their monthly gathering. The event will be held the evening of September 20.
Talking about current internet hot topics, looking at the latest web start-ups and sharing our ideas for projects and what we’re working on.
Portland has a pretty great creative scene and I know lots of sites owners are out there… Why don’t we get together and chat about what we’re doing and share experiences?
[Editor’s Note: As an aside, Loud Is Relative admits to “wanting to be blogged by TechCrunch.” Well, they’re now in a blog entry with TechCrunch. One step closer to the dream. Baby steps, but steps nonetheless.]
Portland-based Panic is well-known for developing beautiful and intuitive Apple Macintosh applications. So, it comes as no surprise that their latest product, Coda, follows suit.
What has been a nice surprise is the rave reviews the product has been receiving around the industry.
Coda is an all in one application that makes designers want to take notes and is a lot of web developer’s only tool. A text and css editor, a built in file browser (let’s not forget, these guys built Transmit) and an Apple Design Award to its honor. It also comes packed with a an actual web reference book reformatted and built into the actual application.
