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Month: February 2008

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Fast Company features I Want Sandy

“Send a message to Sandy, and she’ll remind you in a daily digest, in a text message, or as an event on your calendar. Using e-mail, SMS, Twitter, or Jott, you can set up and receive reminders for appointments, contacts, lists, and random information. And, true to her human-like presence on the site, ‘Sandy’ speaks and understands plain English — just like a real personal assistant.”

Corporate Blogging Tips at Fast Wonder Blog

Dawn Foster writes, “I think we are finally moving past the era where people thought of blogs as a consumer phenomenon, where discussions focused on kids, pets, weekend excursions, and other personal topics rather than serious corporate content. Now most companies are past the question of should we blog and on to the discussion of how to write more effective corporate blogs.”

Jive Software attracts design talent

Oh my. Chris Kalani, David Carroll, and Josh Pyles are all doing work for the Jive Software design department? Stand back.

SplashCast redesigns, repositions to focus on big media

Alex Williams writes, “The new look for SplashCast, and the language / positioning behind it, has finally caught up to our business focus on media companies, agencies, and brands. The site now supports our strong value propositions for online marketers. In addition, the SplashCast blog will be tended to more diligently moving forward (we miss you Marshall), but with a focus specifically on social marketing.”

Bend Blogger Meetup Followup

Jake Ortman writes, “Amazingly enough, the local blogger meetup was a huge success. I honestly didn’t know what to expect, and when I got there (late, like I said), I was floored by the sheer amount of people there. I was expecting a few, not the 30 or so that were there.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Tim Sears joins WaggEd

Tim Sears is leaving ISITE Design for a new gig at Waggener Edstrom. Can’t place that name? Well, you might know WaggEd by its other name, “Microsoft’s PR firm.”

Cool Oregon Events This Week at Fast Wonder Blog

Dawn Foster posts a reminder of upcoming events, saying “We have several really cool events coming up this week, and I wanted to remind everyone to attend (I’ll be there)!”

Central Oregon Web Professionals Usergroup: PU.Camp Sessions

COWPU, easily my favorite acronym for a professional organization, has announced PU.camp in Bend. Check out the sessions or submit your idea for one.

Tweetup! Portland Twitter users at Noodles & Company (Monday, February 25, 2008) – Upcoming

@MarinaMartin is down from Seattle and has proposed a Portland Tweetup to meet some of the Portland Twitter types.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Janet Lee Johnson: Attensa Enhances My Productivity

Janet Lee Johnson has some nice things to say about her Attensa feed reader. I mean, sure, Attensa is a client of hers. But I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt when she states examples like, “Gives me the capability to tag my persistent search results (and have them appear in my del.icio.us account) and comment on blog posts that reference my persistent searches right from within the RSS reader itself,” and “Attensa searches 18 different sites for the most up-to-date mentions of any keyword combinations you want to track.”

Beer and Blog – Work Session at Lucky Labrador Brew Pub (Friday, February 22, 2008) – Upcoming

Come join fellow Portland bloggers for a work session this Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Lucky Lab. We help each other work on our blogs.

Kryptiq signs up new customer for Allscripts interface

Portland-based Kryptiq, the leading provider of next generation healthcare connectivity solutions, today announced that Frederick Primary Care Associates (FPCA) has partnered with Kryptiq to provide secure patient access to vital information stored in their Allscripts™ clinical and business systems.

TechCrunch, Peaking, Etc.

Two interesting perspectives on the future of tech blogs. Worth the read whether you’re a fan of TechCrunch or not.

Vidoop Video Contest – What is your Identity?

While Vidoop hasn’t made the leap to Portland completely official. They were brave enough to use a Vanilla Ice lyric to start a blog post. So I’m going to let them in early. Not that I know it was a Vanilla Ice lyric.

Because I don’t.

Let’s move on to what Vidoop has going, “With everyone talking about what makes up your online identity (your OpenID, social network profiles, etc.) we wanted to give you a chance to tell us at Vidoop how you identify yourself. So make a video that tells everyone ‘How do you Identify’ and win cash!”

SplashCast political project

Portland-based SplashCast has provided the technology for the “Hillary speaks for me” advertising campaign. Word around the campfire is that they’re seeing a huge uptick as a result.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Open Source Software meeting of the minds

Today, I had the privilege of sitting in on an Open Source meeting of the minds at OTBC, where a sizable contingent of folks from the Open Source community in Japan—programmers, entrepreneurs, professors, reporters—shared their vision for establishing a Mecca for Ruby enthusiasts—and a hub for Open Source—in Japan.

The bulk of the Japan team heralds from Matsue, a town on the north end of the main island in Japan. They are in the midst of developing the “Ruby City MATSUE Project,” a concentrated effort to make Matsue the “Mecca of Ruby.” The OSS Society Shimane also works in conjunction with the project to promote Open Source and Ruby.

Much like the efforts around the Portland-area Open Source scene, the MATSUE project is working to foster community building around codefests and the sharing of ideas on how to apply Open Source technologies.

The community is also lucky enough to have a university that provides a full semester load of undergraduate course work on Ruby, Rails, JRuby, and applying the technologies.

Besides their dedication to and focus on this effort, the group also commands some substantial geek-cred from the participation of Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, one of the original developers of the Ruby language, who is a resident of the town.

After spending today with the OTBC and dinner with the Portland Ruby Brigade, tonight, the Matsue contingent will head down to Corvallis to visit with the Oregon State Open Source Lab.

So what’s the Silicon Forest angle here?

An hour into the meeting, the two sides of the table were already pitching ideas back and forth. Sharing concepts and benefits of pursuing Open Source development.

And that’s a thing—I’d like to think—that we’d be very happy to keep going.

This is the first—of hopefully many—meetings of the minds between the Portland Open Source community and the Matsue Open Source community that, with any luck, will develop into a “sister city” arrangement to foster both of our communities’ continued learning and development.

The next time these folks are back in town, I’d highly encourage trying to meet up with them.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Jive Finalist for Intranet Journal Product of the Year (but need 3 clicks from you)

On the heals of being nominated for a Codie, Jive has also been nominated for the Intranet Journal product of the year award. But that award is determined by votes, American Idol style. So, your help is needed.

Portland Web Innovators: Mobile Tsunami Presentation

You can now view the slides from Jason Grigsby’s presentation on the upcoming Mobile Tsunami at Portland Web Innovators last week. Includes an audio recording or presenter notes.

Alex Malinovich joins Planet Argon

Planet Argon hires Alex Malinovich as a Systems Administrator. Malinovich will focus on helping Planet Argon expand their service offerings, in particular the Rails Boxcar hosting service.

Team WhiteBoarding with Twiddla

Word around the campfire is that Portland’s Neven Mrgan designed the site for this online whiteboard tool.

Rick Hangartner to demo MyStrands at Startupalooza

Rick Hangartner is an Engineering and Computer Scientist specializing in AI, signal processing, and stochastic processes. He has nearly 30 years experience developing computing hardware and software in the aerospace, data communications, transportation, and supercomputing industries and possesses a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Oregon State University.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Angel Oregon: Three diverse Web-tech companies vie for funding

Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) has announced the seven finalists gunning for funding in its annual Angel Oregon competition. Among the seven are three particular companies who have decidedly focused some angle of their offering on a Web play.

And since we all know the Web is near and dear to my heart, I’m going to focus on them.

I’m not guaranteeing a win. But were I a betting man, I’d be putting my money on one of these:

OsoEco – OsoEco is positioned to exploit a significant gap in the E-commerce market for green products & services by launching the first Web-based “Sustainable Social Shopping” community w/a unique focus on local solutions. Members can connect, discover, research, and recommend green products & services to peers, interest groups and gurus.

Powermand, Inc. – Web service and solution to aggregate many small electric loads into a large virtual load for monetizing as “negawatts.” Low cost service fee per site per month paid by the negawatts customer.

Revelation – Revelation creates web software that optimizes qualitative market research, enabling companies to develop and harness rich understanding of customer experiences, behaviors and needs at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional research techniques.

For more, see the complete list of Angel Oregon participants. Visit Upcoming to RSVP for the event or register to attend at Angel Oregon.

FreeRange WebReader garners Chicago Tribune ink, affection

Portland-based FreeRange happened to mention that their mobile tool, WebReader, was recently featured in a Chicago Tribune article.

Maybe “featured” isn’t the right word. Perhaps “loved” is more appropriate, considering:

And one of the better tools I’ve seen for doing so — for taking even a mediocre Internet service like my BlackBerry using T-Mobile’s Edge network and making it pop — is the FreeRange WebReader.

And that’s not all the reporter has to say. To read more nice things about the FreeRange product, see “Getting the most out of your hand-held.”

FreeRange Communications was created to develop innovative products that tap into the continued convergence of computers, the internet and mobile phones. Founded in 2004, our first products are business-focused applications that bring fast and affordable information access to your mobile device.

For more on FreeRange and its mobile products, visit FreeRange.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

MyStrands named Mobile Rules! Finalist

Corvallis-based MyStrands has announced that MyStrands Social Player has been chosen as a finalist for the Mobile Rules! 2008 Award. Mobile Rules! is the leading annual competition in the mobile world.

Clearspace is a 2008 Codie Award finalist for Best Collaboration Software Solution

Clearspace has been selected as a finalist for Best Collaboration Software Solution. Other finalists include Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, Citrix GoToMeeting, and Central Desktop SightSpeed 6.0.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Minutes from “Dashboards” at Beer and Blog

From Beer and Blog organizer, Justin Kistner: “Yesterday’s session on dashboards was by far the best beer and blog meet up yet! We had our largest turnout and half of them were fresh faces. I’ve had people tell me that the Friday time doesn’t work for them, so I think we’re going to continue to have Sunday meet ups once a month. I think it will be an every 3 weeks deal, but keep an eye on our calendar to the right or Upcoming for exact dates.”

Jive gets a new logo

According to Sam Lawrence, Jive’s CMO, “Jive’s corporate logo. The ‘Bullhorn’ didn’t represent collaboration as much as it did an individual voice. And it certainly didn’t match the new product logos and corporate identity…. So, today we begin the long, arduous process of switching out the “old bully” with our new mark. We’ve started with our website and will be fully transitioned over the next couple of months. We’re super happy with Jive’s new logo and hope you like it, too. Even though it’s brand new, we already feel like it perfectly reflects who we are as a company.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Reminder: Marshall Kirkpatrick on RSS, February 19

Just a reminder that Marshall Kirkpatrick, lead blogger for Read/Write Web and RSS guru, will be presenting a “Lunch and Learn” session on RSS at the OTBC on Tuesday, February 19.

I like to think of myself as fairly RSS savvy. And I can say, without a doubt, that no one has taught me more about how to make RSS jump through hoops than Marshall.

To RSVP, visit the OTBC Meetup page on the event. The cost is $15 at the door. But you were going to spend that money on lunch, anway. And this way, you actually get to learn something.