---
title: 'How would you describe the Portland open source, Web, and mobile startup scene? [Updated]'
date: '2009-05-18T15:05:07-07:00'
type: post
word_count: 567
char_count: 3270
tokens: 738
categories:
  - '#featured'
  - Community
  - Crowdsourcing
  - Description
  - Insight
  - Oregon
  - Portland
  - Startup
tags:
  - Community
  - Description
  - Mobile
  - 'open source'
  - Portland
  - Startups
  - Web
---

# How would you describe the Portland open source, Web, and mobile startup scene? [Updated]

A number of us have recently had the opportunity to sit down with Amanda Hess. Amanda is working on a chapter for a larger piece on the Portland entrepreneurial scene, ranging from bikes to beer to restaurants to tech.

During the interviews, she’s been asking folks to describe the Portland tech scene in their own words. When she posed the question to me, I started to stutter through a fumbling response, when I suddenly realized I could do something better.

“Why don’t we ask the community?” I said.

So that’s what I’m doing. I’m asking you.

Now, I’m not asking for a tome. Well, unless of course you want to write a tome. I mean, that’s your prerogative. But you don’t have to do that. It can be short. Really short.

Think free association. Or a tweet.

Now, it’s nice out and things are kind of quiet, so this may totally fall flat. But it seemed like the right thing to do. And let’s be honest, you’re smarter then me. And I’ve already dodged the question. So please don’t make me go back and have to answer it all by my lonesome. Please?

All I’m asking is “**How would you describe the Portland Web and mobile community in a few choice words?**”

How can you submit it? Comment here, send a tweet to [@siliconflorist](http://twitter.com/siliconflorist "Silicon Florist on Twitter") or [@turoczy](http://twitter.com/turoczy "Turoczy on Twitter"), drop an email to siliconflorist \[at\] gmail \[dot\] com, IM me… basically whatever is easiest for you.

And no, you don’t have to be from Portland, Oregon. You can be from Portland, Maine. Or somewhere else for that matter. And you don’t have to be part of a startup. I’m just looking for anyone and everyone to provide some snippets describing the open source, Web, and mobile startup environment here in town.

If you’re looking for inspiration, that [recent Wall Street Journal article on Portland](http://siliconflorist.com/2009/05/17/wsj-portland-continues-attract-talent-stumbling-economy/ "Portland continues to attract talent") might be a good start.

It would be great to have this wrapped up on Tuesday. So maybe you should just bang something out right now while you’re thinking about it. And then feel free to comment again and again if need be.

Once I’ve compiled all of the responses, I’ll be more than happy to give you a glimpse of the results.

I think we’re going to get a really interesting picture of the community. And I think it will be telling to compare this to a similar experiment [Scott Kveton](http://twitter.com/kveton "Scott Kveton") ran a while ago called “[Portland in a word](http://kveton.com/blog/2008/01/16/portland-in-a-word/ "Portland in a word").”

As always, thanks in advance for taking a few moments to participate. I really appreciate it, I’m sure Amanda will appreciate it, and I know the whole Portland tech community will too.

([Image courtesy Misserion](http://www.flickr.com/photos/misserion/2320765086/). Used under Creative Commons.)

**\[UPDATE\]**

And here’s what you said.

[![](https://i0.wp.com/farm4.static.flickr.com/3333/3546508413_17f2b3686a.jpg?resize=500%2C369 "Portland tech scene word cloud")](http://www.flickr.com/photos/turoczy/3546508413/sizes/o/)