.

Month: March 2008

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 20, 2008

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2008

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

SplashCast performs 75 times better than banner ads

Mike Berkley writes “We recently completed an analysis on the average click-through rate (CTR) of a typical splashcast. It’s about 3%. That means that every 33 times a splashcast is loaded on a web page, a user interacts with it.”

Metaphor for ExpressionEngine 2.0

Michael Boyink on the new version of Expression Engine, “So my working metaphor is that EE 2.0 is like taking your current CD/ DVD collection, buying a much nicer/sturdier/more expandable rack to store them in, and then re-organizing them while moving them into the new rack. Same music that you love – just better organized in a better environment. And maybe a few new CD’s to boot.”

Startups: Looking for Investors?

Not really a “Silicon Forest” based property, but I’m all for helping you guys attract funding to the area. No word on whether Angels and VCs are actually looking at this list.

stevenf.com: The First, The Free, and the Good

Sage advice for any startup, or any established company for that matter. Steven Frank writes “Where you can really dominate is by combining two or more of these properties. If you are first AND best, you’ll be doing quite well for a very long time, as long as you stay the best. If you’re the best and free, it’s going to be very hard to compete with you — although those two lines don’t intersect just every day.”

EllisLab Hiring, Two Positions Available

Bend-based EllisLab is looking to hire a full-time Code Mechanic and a Senior Technical Support Specialist. Be advised, that these are both “work from home” giges, just in case you’re looking for yet another excuse to move to Bend.

Mobile Portland Meeting on Monday

Jason Grigsby writes “The first Mobile Portland meeting is scheduled for this coming Monday. eROI has graciously offered to host us. Our topic this month: the iPhone SDK. RSVP here.”

FriendFeed Comment Finder at Fast Wonder Blog

Dawn Foster writes “A bunch of people have been talking about how FriendFeed allows people to comment on content within FriendFeed. This means that we have to log into friend feed every day and scour for comments, which remain fragmented from the source of the content. I can’t fix the fragmentation, but I think I have part of a solution (implemented as a Yahoo Pipe, of course).”

DorkbotPDX 0x01

DorkbotPDX 0x01 will be taking place on March 30th at the PNCA Graduate Studios building (1432 NW Johnson St.). We are planning to start things around 6, though there will probably be time to socialize a bit before the talks start.

Twitter: The Uselessfulness of Micro-blogging

Portland’s Scott Hanselman makes a great case for you to be using Twitter.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Portland’s top 30 tech Twitter-ers (#1 may surprise you)

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2008

Before you scroll down. Before you read any further. Just guess.

Who do you think it is? Who is Portland’s top tech Twitter type?

I’ll tell you what I thought. I thought it was probably Marshall Kirkpatrick. Or Josh Bancroft. Or maybe even Scott Kveton.

But I was wrong…

Let’s start from the beginning

You see, I get a great deal of Silicon Florist fodder from Twitter. Interesting tidbits. Snippets of conversations. Clues about what’s happening where. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.

And while I don’t think there is ever one single good way to rank things, I do have to admit that I find the Portland Start-up Index to be an interesting way of looking at things.

And then there was Aaron Hockley crossing the 5000 tweet mark last night.

And that got me thinking. I began to wonder: Who is at the top of the Twitter heap when it comes to Portland startup and tech types? Who has the most “influence”? Who is the holder of the mythical “Twitter juice”?

I had a fitful sleep of metric-ridden dreams, last night.

So, this morning, I—very unscientifically—started combing through the Portland metropolitan area Twitter types. Trying to figure it out.

After some fits and starts, I had gathered a number of folks from the area. I had their number of followers, the number of people they were following, and the number of updates they had.

Some of the more prolific people weren’t exactly “tech” or “startup” types, so they were the first ones I cut them from the list.

Then, I looked at the number of updates that these folks had. And I cut some of the people with lower numbers of updates.

Then, I looked at the number of followers each of these people had. And the number of people they were following.

To me, it seemed that influence has something to do with the number of people who listened each time a person updated. But, logically, not all of these people were listening from day one, and because of that, a direct multiplication would be inaccurate and misleading.

So, I massaged those numbers a little. And mucked with some of the weighting. Then I took all of that unscientific research and ran it through the Silicon Florist 5000.

And guess what it spit out? I was surprised. And I was wrong with my guess. I’m willing to bet you were, too.

And the isn’t the only surprise.

So here’s what I came up with:

Portland’s top tech Twitter-ers

  1. Hajime Kobayashi
  2. Marshall Kirkpatrick
  3. Josh Bancroft
  4. Rick Turoczy
  1. Aaron Hockley
  2. Scott Hanselman
  3. Alex Williams
  4. Scott Kveton
  5. Tim Lauer (Okay, maybe not exactly a “tech” Twitter type, but given his use I’m throwing him in here.)
  6. Verso
  7. Matt Haughey
  8. Raven Zachary
  9. Paul Colligan
  10. Sarah Gilbert
  11. Audrey Eschright
  12. Jason Grigsby
  13. Steven Frank
  14. Dawn Foster
  15. Josh Pyles
  16. Betsy Richter
  17. Sam Lawrence
  18. Jason Harris
  19. Simeon Bateman
  20. Jake Kuramoto
  21. Michael Buffington
  22. Holly Ross
  23. Jessica Beck
  24. James Keller
  25. Rael Dornfest
  26. Chris Brentano
  27. Justin Palmer
  28. Greg
  29. Peat Bakke*

* Within a hair of the 30th 31st 32nd 33rd spot were Eddie Awad, Justin Kistner, and Chris Griffin.

Now, again, fairly unscientific. But interesting nonetheless. (I had a number of other models for ranking, but this one seemed to do the most justice for the larger group.)

No matter what the case, there is one thing for sure: this is a great group of people to follow if you’re interested in keep track of Portland tech.

Did I miss you? Think I’m off? I’d love to have your input. And I’ll be happy to adjust the list, as needed.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 19, 2008

Rick Turoczy on March 18, 2008

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

6 Tips for Hiring Top Talent at Startups

Good advice for startups from CenterNetworks, “Hiring at startups is hard. You’re swamped, running in a ton of different directions and don’t necessarily have a big budget set aside for recruiting. But hiring top talent at startups is essential. You can’t afford to hire anything but A-players.”

PDX Web Designers

Just stumbled upon this collection of Portland area Web designers.

Pacific Northwest Sees Increase In Web 2.0 Investments

Dow Jones VentureSource said today that Pacific Northwest, Web 2.0 venture investments grew to $140M and 13 deals in 2007, up from 6 deals and $35M in investments, as overall Web 2.0 investments in the U.S. grew to $1.34B.

Startup Weekend 2.0: New Format

Andrew Hyde writes “So now we launch the marketing term Startup Weekend 2.0 for our weekend. Startup Weekend is an amazing event for building community, finding cofounders and finding a challenge for yourself. Looking back over the past weekends there is a huge opportunity to build on our strengths by changing around the format.” Portland Startup Weekend is May 23-25, 2008.

OEN Swapmeet on March 27, 2008

Drop by the OEN SwapMeet on March 27th at the Someday Lounge. This is a program was created specifically for people looking to connect with entrepreneurs, early-stage companies, and the people who help them both grow. As the Oregon economy continues to develop, there will be more and more opportunity to work with, work for, or start new companies in growing industries. SwapMeet is a great way to get connected to the people making it all happen.

stevenf.com: Tweaking Coda Books

Steven Frank writes “It’s not even 4 months since the last update, but I know the wait is killing some of you regardless. Please try to resist asking me for a release date. We have always tried to ship by quality, not by calendar. A buggy release sooner doesn’t help anyone.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Confidence in Web 2.0 isn’t waning, but confidence in the Valley may be

Rick Turoczy on March 18, 2008

There’s a great deal of Chicken Little reporting occurring today about how the Web 2.0 sky is falling. Why? Because apparently, according the Dow Jones, the investments in Web 2.0 technology in the Silicon Valley are down, year over year.

Silicon Valley remains the hotbed of Web 2.0 activity, but the hipness of start-ups with goofy names is starting to cool in the face of economic reality.

Not shocking news, I realize. But I think they buried the lead.

Even the venerable Wall Street Journal puts the news in the very last sentence of their piece:

“It’s clear that the real growth in the Web 2.0 sector is happening outside of the (San Francisco) Bay Area,” says Jessica Canning, director of global research for Dow Jones VentureSource.

And there’s the real story. That’s the real news. Not that the investments in the Valley are down, but rather, that the investments elsewhere are up. In some cases, way up.

In our own Pacific Northwest, for example, the number of Web 2.0 oriented deals more than doubled. And the amount of the investment? It’s up 400% from $35 million in 2006 to $140 million in 2007.

That’s about as opposite of “waning” as I can come up with.

And we’re not alone.

Investment amounts in New England doubled, Southern California nearly tripled, New York metro nearly tripled, Southeast doubled, Mountain more than quadrupled, and North Carolina, alone, tripled.

In fact, the only area besides the Valley that went down was Texas.

So has Web 2.0 peaked? I honestly don’t know.

From what I’ve seen, it’s going pretty strong here in the Silicon Forest. And it’s clearly picking up speed in other sectors.

Maybe the better question is: Has Silicon Valley peaked?

Platial goes mobile

Rick Turoczy on March 18, 2008

Portland-based Platial, the de facto leader in “social mapping,” has just announced a move that is sure to increase both their user base and their overall utitlity: Platial is going mobile.

Using services from mobile partner, Lightpole, Platial users will now be able to:

… take their maps to go with Lightpole’s new local aggregator for mobile. All Platial maps will now have a Lightpole icon which allows people to send their data to any java enabled phone. Most of Platial’s location-based content will be available with the download of Lightpole’s application meaning that even non-Platial members can access Platial content.

For more information on this new feature, see Platial’s post. To try out Platial and Lightpole for yourself, visit Platial maps using a mobile phone.

Russell Shaw: A tribute to a Portland Blogger

Rick Turoczy on March 18, 2008

Alex Williams has offered that the Portland Metblog meetup, this Wednesday at the Green Dragon, would be the perfect place to toast former Metblogger Russell Shaw, whom we lost, last weekend:

Bloggers, everyone – come on out Wed. night to the Metblog party at the Green Dragon and raise a pint with me to good ol’ Russell Shaw. I’ll be there to remember my good friend and Metblog colleague who passed away last weekend. Let’s share a laugh and a story about the hardest working blogger in the business. Russ and I both blogged for Metblog so it will be good to see some friends and familiar faces. Hope to see you there.

To RSVP, please visit the Portland Metblog meetup on Upcoming.

Twitter: 7 Silicon Forest creations that will improve your experience

Rick Turoczy on March 17, 2008

Something dawned on me this weekend as I was watching the streams of Portland-based tweets stream across my screen. I think Portland may have more another “per capita” stat we can start quoting. I think it’s highly likely that Portland has more tweets per capita than any city in the US.

With all of these Twitter users and tweets flying by, it comes as no surprise that Portland and the Silicon Forest have created a number of cool side-project Twitter-related tools and views. I use a number of these tools every single day. And they’ve greatly improved the utility of Twitter—and the information it holds—for me. (Of course, as always, I also remain hopeful that some of these side projects have the potential to form—or at the very least inspire—full-fledged Silicon Forest startups.)

While I’ve covered most of these individually, I thought it might be wise to round them up for future reference. Both to highlight the work that is going on, and to hopefully, stimulate some more ideas for development.

In no particular order:

  • Pulse of PDX provides a view of Portland Twitter users and what they’re posting to Twitter. The best thing about Pulse of PDX? You don’t even have to be a Twitter user to use it, so it’s a great way to dip your toe in the proverbial Twitter water. Of course, once you use it, you may want to become a Twitter user.
  • Twitterwhere let’s you find all the Twitter users in a particular geographic region. Want to find all of the Twitter folks in Corvallis? What about Vancouver? Portland? And since the service provides a feed, it’s another “try before you buy” Twitter tool. Add the feed to your feed reader if you’re still debating whether to sign up for Twitter or not.
  • Tweetpeek allows you to create quick widgets and pages using the followers of a particular entity. Think Pulse of PDX for whatever you want. Create a Twitter entity, follow the folks you would like to include, and run it through Tweetpeek. Easy.
  • Ever wish you could see Twitter conversations in a threaded, rather than linear, format? Well, then Twitterthreads may be for you, my friend. Simply log into Twitterthreads with your Twitter credentials, and you’ll be able to see your
  • Heavy Twitter users will find times when they simply don’t see all the replies that were meant for them. And that’s where Portland’s Twitter Reply Sniffer comes into play. Use the tool to search for your Twitter name and you’ll see all the replies from all the folks who are interested in conversing with you.
  • I don’t use public transit as much as I would like, but when I do, NextTrimet has been a welcomed addition to my Twitter toolset. Simply follow NextTrimet (and wait for it to follow you back), then send your stop number in a direct message to NextTrimet and it will let you know when the next ride will be arriving.
  • Sandy isn’t a Twitter tool per se. But I have to tell you, since I discovered Sandy’s Twitter account, I’ve been working with her more and more. Like anyone else on Twitter, she’s cordial, intelligent, and helpful. And she’s helping me keep track of more and more things.

Wow. Portland and the Silicon Forest are definitely a Twitter.

Those are just a few of the cool tools built on and around Twitter that I’ve been lucky enough to find. I, for one, can’t wait to find more hometown-built tools that make Twitter even more valuable.

Have you built a cool Twitter app or found one that I haven’t listed? Please, by all means, let me know.

Portland Start-up Index for March 2008: AboutUs retains top spot

Rick Turoczy on March 15, 2008

It’s the 15th of the month again. And that means its time to update the Techvibes Portland Start-up Index. While there was neither much movement this month—the top 4 remain in the same positions as last month, with AboutUs retaining the spot—nor, apparently, any new sites added to the index, I do find it interesting that two of the most newsworthy companies in the area, Jive and SplashCast, have actually dropped down the list one and two spots, respectively.

Given that the list changes month to month, here’s the ranking, for historical reference. To see the metrics and movement, please visit Techvibes. And, as always, I offer this with the “fruit salad” caveat: This is a very apples and oranges comparison, in terms of companies and products. The other caveat that bears mentioning is that widget- and mobile-based tools often report far lower Alexa and Compete numbers than Web-based services.

So, here’s the list:

  1. AboutUs
  2. Discogs
  3. Kongregate
  4. MyOpenID
  5. Earth Class Mail
  6. Sandy
  7. Splashcast
  8. Jive Software
  9. eROI
  10. Gone Raw
  11. Stikkit
  12. NetworthIQ
  13. Walker Tracker
  14. Attensa
  15. Grabbit
  16. Pibb
  17. GadgetTrak
  18. Active Reload
  19. Iterasi
  20. Art Face Off
  21. Iovation
  22. Rocketbook
  23. Lunarr
  24. ChoiceA
  25. UrbanDrinks
  26. WeoGeo
  27. FreeRange
  28. GoLife Mobile
  29. KnitMap
  30. Goboz
  31. VocalNation.net
  32. MomHub
  33. Lightfleet
  34. Cendix
  35. Pheedo
  36. fmyi
  37. Picktastic
  38. Imindi
  39. Workplace2go
  40. Kryptiq
  41. Techchex
  42. Jama Software
  43. Avnera
  44. GoSeeTell
  45. Lumeno.us
  46. Box Populi
  47. Worldwide Nest
  48. Kumquat
  49. IDP Solutions
  50. YourList

The Portland Start-up Index is compiled by Techvibes using an average of Alexa and Compete rankings. It is updated on a monthly basis.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 15, 2008

Rick Turoczy on March 14, 2008

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

ExpressionEngine 2.0: Fully CodeIgnited!

Derek Allard writes “This is great news if you’re an ExpressionEngine user, a CodeIgniter user, or both. As an ExpressionEngine developer you will have a greatly expanded community of talented developers working with you, and for you. I said during my talk, ‘The nerds are excited, and you should be excited that the nerds are excited.’ As a dyed in the wool nerd, I stand by this!”

Yahoo Pipes: Track Twitter Replies with RSS Part Deux at Fast Wonder Blog

Dawn Foster writes “My issue with the original reply sniffer is that it was based on TerraMinds.com, which was down all day yesterday, so I decided to modify it to use a similar service, TweetScan. Here is the link to the new and improved Twitter Reply Sniffer pipe.”

May 10th Drupal Camp Location locked in

The official date and location for PDXDrupalCamp has been announced: May 10 at the Portland State Business Accelerator (PSBA).

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

1 2 3 4 5 6 … 8