Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
While it’s not exactly clear what’s happening, CubeSpace—the local co-working space that has served as the communal campfire for the Portland tech community—is hinting at a potential last minute rescue. “Not dead yet,” said the CubeSpace folks via their Twitter account. “Having serious conversations re:@CubeSpacePDX return!” Read More
Today, Portland-based StepChange Group took the stage at MIX08 to demonstrate a groundbreaking new application: the world’s first gesture-driven, Microsoft-Silverlight powered user interface on a mobile device.
The data-driven touchscreen interface, dubbed MIXr, runs in the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 environment, and was a proof-of-concept to showcase the functionality of these cutting edge development environments for the MIX audience.
“It was lots of fun—though nerve-wracking—to have our team sharing the stage with Ray Ozzie and Scott Guthrie,” said StepChange’s Kevin Tate.
Aside from the Portland angle, why is this newsworthy?
In my opinion, the release of the MIXr application is important for two specific reasons.
First, it proves the viability of Silverlight as an environment for delivering rich mobile applications. And, on a day when the use of these types of technologies in the mobile environment is being rejected by a major player, that’s a pretty big win.
Second, it gives us a glimpse into the future of social networking.
Unlike many of today’s “social networks on mobile devices,” the MIXr application, developed by StepChange in partnership with San Francisco’s Stimulant, demonstrates how the future of social networking may transition to your mobile device.
In other words, this isn’t a “m.” mobile view into an existing social network application; it is the social network application:
[MIXr] uses real-time user updates to track the mood and status of clubs and venues—and helps friends to connect and coordinate with one another during a night out.
It aggregates user ratings, such as a venue’s mood, line length, and music, and uses interactive data visualization to make it easy to figure out what’s hot and what’s not.
“Rich mobile applications are going to quickly change the way we use the Web everyday,” said Tate. “We’re focused on creating applications that leverage the powerful advantages of location, personalization and communication that the mobile environment provides – and have chosen Silverlight as our platform because of its portability and performance.”
For more information on MIXr and developing rich mobile applications using Silverlight, see Stimulant’s post on the MIXr release and StepChange’s announcement on the MIX08 Keynote.
Word around the (Twitter) campfire is that Jive has walked away with the top honors at the Oregon Entrepreneur Network’s (OEN) 14th Annual Entrepreneurship awards. [Update] Jason Grigsby has published the complete OEN-award-winners list on User First Web. [Update 2] And the OEN has dropped a release, announcing the winners.
The statewide entrepreneurial community’s biggest gathering of the year will be the 2007 OEN Entrepreneurship Awards — the 14th annual celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit in action throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the climate for emerging, growth-oriented companies across Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. OEN helps improve the flow of ideas, services, and capital to entrepreneurs and helps connect companies to expertise and other resources they need to grow their business. Together, the nearly 2,500 members strive to aid the growth and development of a healthy, diversified Oregon economy with a new generation of entrepreneurial leaders.
This is hot off the… well, it’s not even on the presses yet, so I’ll update this post with additional links as news becomes available.
(Hat tip Jason Grigsby)
We all know that Portland-based SplashCast has been hinting at some interesting stuff in the works. It appears that one of the features in the offing is a fullscreen version of the SplashCast player.
Well, It’s big. I’m not seeing any content Now, I’m seeing content.
I’ve no idea how long this link will be live. But give the SplashCast fullscreen player a shot.
[Update] In other news, it appears that SplashCast has revamped their landing page, giving visitors direct access to SplashCast channels. Another welcome change.