When I talk about the Portland software development and open source scenes, one of the first questions I always get—always—is “Sounds interesting. About how many people in Portland are involved in the software community there?”
And inevitably, as that question hangs in the air, I stare blankly. Smile feebly. And say, “A lot. There are a lot.” Because fact of the matter is: we have no idea. Maybe there are 50,000. Maybe there are 200. There’s no telling. Because there has been no measurement of that group. Until now. The Portland software community census is designed to take a stab at coming up with that magic number. Read More