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Month: September 2009

Portland, Oregon, joins the ranks of the open cities, officially embracing open data and open source

Rick Turoczy on September 30, 2009

[HTML3][HTML2]Portland, Oregon, is now an open city.

Following in the footsteps of open cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and Vancouver, BC, Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams and the City Council today unanimously approved a resolution that directs the City of Portland to open data to outside developers and encourages adoption of open source solutions in technology procurement.

With the ratification of the Portland Economic Development strategy, the City officially recognized the value of the open source in Portland. Now, with the adoption of the open data and open source resolution, the City has prescribed specific objectives for the municipal government that will help Portland begin the transformation into a government that more willingly embraces open standards, transparency, and more collegial interaction with its open source community. Read More

WhereCamp PDX 2009: Where the where things are

Rick Turoczy on September 29, 2009

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Portland likes the geogeeking. And whether it’s mobile, Geode, or good-old mapping, there’s no better place for getting your fill of geolocation and geography goodness than WhereCamp PDX.

So if you’re interested in hanging out with some of the best and brightest geolocation types in town, you’re going to want to find your way to WhereCamp this weekend, October 2-4. Read More

Zipcar iPhone app shifts into gear

Rick Turoczy on September 29, 2009

A few months back during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, the folks at Apple got up on stage to demonstrate a very cool little iPhone app for Zipcar.

The app—designed by Portland-based iPhone agency Small Society—allowed you to find and reserve Zipcars, unlock your car, even honk the horn. But for all the bells and whistles, the app had one major problem: it wasn’t available to the general public. Until now. Read More

Ignite Portland 7: It’s a slow burn

Rick Turoczy on September 28, 2009

Sometimes, even the most well-organized events get thrown for a little loop.

And that’s exactly what happened to our friends over at Legion of Tech when the Bagdad—which has become the de facto home of Ignite Portland—was accidentally double booked. Which means they had to move the date. As Ignite Portland 7 will be taking place on November 19—one week later than expected.

But their loss is your gain. Or whatever. Not only do you get another week of breathless anticipation awaiting the next Ignite, you also get a one week extension on your ignite presentation proposals. Read More

Mayor Sam Adams and the City of Portland to open source, open data, and transparency communities: Let’s make this official

Rick Turoczy on September 28, 2009

[HTML2]You may remember a couple of months back—during the Open Source Bridge conference—that Portland Mayor Sam Adams made a commitment to turn Portland into a “hub for open source.”

But conversing about a topic, as they say, is relatively easy. Or to put it more bluntly: talk is cheap.

That’s why it’s incredibly heartening to see the City moving to get something on the books with a resolution that is designed to officially make Portland a more open city. And if you care about open source—even remotely—it would be great to see you at the City Council meeting this Wednesday during the testimony and voting on the resolution. Read More

REMINDER: Mobile Portland talks SMS, MMS, and short codes tonight

Rick Turoczy on September 28, 2009

Last week, iPhone users were all atwitter about upgrading to use MMS, the next generation of SMS messaging that allows messages to carry a bigger payload. That means the iPhone users can finally send attachments like images and audio along with the traditional text messages.

And while the rest of the mobile handset world may be scratching their heads as to why this is big news, it’s relatively certain that this new wave of iPhone users will be jumping on the MMS format—and likely taxing the already overburdened mobile infrastructure.

What’s a mobile developer to do? Attend Mobile Portland tonight of course. Read More

Juice Pitcher: Help GadgetTrak join TheFunded and maybe even the funded

Rick Turoczy on September 25, 2009

If you’re in an early stage startup, you’ve likely no problem coming up with ideas. You’re probably confident that you can bend technology to your will. And you’re still likely fueled by the passion of bringing your project to life. In fact, if there’s one area that causes problems, it’s one that has very little to do with your startup, at all. The problem? Finding the time to make the right connections—and making sure you’re getting in front of the right people.

That’s what make things like Juice Pitcher—an opportunity to pitch friends of TheFunded—such a great opportunity. And that’s why Portland-based GadgetTrak is trying to get there. Read More

OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards get downright webby for 2009

Rick Turoczy on September 24, 2009

Usually when it comes to entrepreneurial awards in the Silicon Forest, I do my best to cheer for the Web, open source, and mobile startups who receive nominations. And then I usually wind up crying in my beer when the awards are handed to apparel and biotech startups.

But not this year, my friend. Oh no. This time around the OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards recognized three Web types with awards: Ray King of AboutUs, Jama Software, and Monsoon. All Portland-based, respectively. Read More

Portland’s Small Society builds an iPhone app for a little coffee shop called Starbucks

Rick Turoczy on September 24, 2009

[HTML2]Turns out even coffee shops need iPhone apps. Well, they do if they’re Starbucks. Two even. And now the official Starbucks iPhone drink app—myStarbucks—is available from the App Store.

Yes, yes. Starbucks is headquartered in Seattle, I know. And even though a number of sites were covering the app launch—including Portland-based iPhoneSlutz—I didn’t really have any Silicon Forest angle on it.

So why am I writing about it now? Well, because as it turns out, the Starbucks app was created by none other than Small Society here in Portland. Read More

memePDX 005: WordCamp Portland, Second Porch, LinuxCon, Linux Plumbers, Google reCAPTCHA, and I made $384 on Twitter

Rick Turoczy on September 24, 2009

[HTML2]It’s Thursday and that means it’s time to unveil a new version of memePDX, Portland tech news for those short on time and attention. And you’ll be happy to hear that we took your feedback to heart. We tried to keep it shorter and we tried to keep it more local.

Now there’s still some national stuff going on this week. But for the most part Cami Kaos and I are talking about Portland stuff like WordCamp Portland, Second Porch, LinuxCon, Linux Plumbers Conference, Google teaching computers to read, and I made $384 or $484 yesterday thanks to Twitter.

So without further ado, let’s get to it. Read More

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