Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
In case you’ve been hiding under a tech news resistant rock, I wanted to let you know that TechCrunch — the 800 lbs. gorilla of tech blogs — has been acquired by AOL. Yes, that AOL. And the news, strangely enough, is topping Techmeme. Much like TechCrunch posts have for years.
Say all you want about Michael Arrington, the guy who started TechCrunch. It’s an important event to note. Because it’s a five year old blog being sold to a major corporation for a rumored $25 million or so. Read More
Remember that one scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? You know the one. Near the end? Where they finally find the Holy Grail but it’s mixed up with all the chalices and cups and whatnot? Well, there will be no “He [or she] chose… poorly” tonight, my friend. Pick either the Open Source Bridge Volunteer Orientation or Portland Web Innovators featuring Marshall Kirkpatrick on APIs. No matter what, you’ll come off as wise as Indiana.
Need more than that to go on? Okay okay. Here’s what you’ve got. Read More
To blog or not to blog? It’s a question with which any number of corporations wrestle. And today at the InnoTech eMarketing Summit, Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb and Josh Bancroft of Intel will answer that question—and likely many more about corporate communications, blogging, and microblogging sites like Twitter. (I’ll be on the panel as well, doing a lot of smiling and nodding.)
Here’s the basis of the discussion:
Whether out of curiosity or under pressure, you’ve likely started a company blog. Maybe you’re even letting employees blog. But making blogging a successful component of your organization’s communications and support programs? That’s another thing, entirely. Join this panel of panel of elite bloggers and microbloggers to learn how you can use blogs to increase transparency with your target market, create deeper and lasting relationships with your existing customers, and improve your company’s visibility on the Web. Attendees are sure to leave with both a renewed motivation to blog and specific steps for improving their organizations’ use of traditional blogs and new microblogging platforms.
The three of us will be providing our insight at 2 PM, today, in Portland Ballroom 256 at the Oregon Convention Center. So if you’re at InnoTech, we’d love to see you. For you Twitter types, the hashtag for the event is #emspdx.
Can’t come see us today? Well we can’t save you any… oh wait. That’s okay, but we’ll miss you. And I’d highly encourage to register to attend InnoTech on Thursday so that you can see Rahaf Harfoush talk about the Obama social media campaign.
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It’s Friday. It’s kind of chilly outside. You’re looking for something to do. Why not spend some time by the warm glow of your monitor learning some interesting stuff from some interesting people?
That’s why there’s Strange Love Live, the weekly podcast hosted by Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal. Dare I say, “the best podcast in Portland”? Indeed, I dare.
What’s that? You haven’t seen Strange Love Live? Are you kidding me?
They’ve got a guest list that boasts a veritable who’s who of the Portland tech scene—Nate Angell, Josh Bancroft, Bram Pitoyo & Amber Case, Aaron Hockley, Scott Kveton, Don Park, Chris O’Rourke, Craig Schwartz, the Shizzow team, and many, many more. And while the podcast is always well worth the listen, there’s nothing quite like watching the show live.
And tonight would be a great night to tune in, because the special guest is none other than Marshall Kirkpatrick, the Emperor of RSS, VP of Content Development at ReadWriteWeb, and just all around nice guy.
The show starts at 10-ish on Friday nights.
And I’ll look forward to seeing you in the chat room, tonight.
And 200 of his closest friends.
According to Eva, that was the count for yesterday’s sixth installment of Portland Lunch 2.0 hosted at CubeSpace by our good friend Rick Turoczy, a.k.a. the Silicon Florist.
Rick had reason to celebrate because this blog is now one year old, which is like 10 human years or something. Anyway, Rick’s hospitality brought out the largest crowd yet for a Portland Lunch 2.0. The event was really inspiring for me, as the Lunch 2.0 guy, and for Rick, as the guy everyone came out to see.
At most points during the lunch, there was a line three to six people deep to talk to Rick. Bram and I joked that he needed a “Now Serving” sign to keep track of who was next in line. Rick was so busy chatting up his guests, he forgot to eat. That’s why we all like him so much though. Because he doesn’t eat much.
Anyway, enough about Rick. Other highlights.
All-in-all, it was a highly successful and entertaining lunch. Thanks to all who made it. Thanks to Rick for picking up the lunch tab. Thanks to Eva and CubeSpace for providing the space. Thanks to you for reading all the way to here. Keep going, there’s more.
In typical Portland fashion, the party didn’t stop at 2 when Lunch 2.0 ended. Shizzow hosted their first Shizzup at the Green Dragon (on the brand new patio and place for Beer and Blog this Friday). After that you had to choose between the monthly game of Werewolf and Back Fence PDX. Someone should have hired a party bus. This is one (of many) things I love about Portland. Always so much to do.
Anyway, if you love Lunch 2.0, there are more on the schedule. We’ll be at SplashCast on September 17; please only RSVP if you’ll be there for sure because the space is a bit small. And then, on October 15, the Art Institute of Portland opens its doors to Lunch 2.0. RSVP on Upcoming.
I have a definite date for November and several solids for the next few months. So, it looks like we’ll keep this thing going for a while; maybe I’ll pencil Rick in for another Silicon Florist birthday party/Lunch 2.0 next August.
Can’t believe it was that much fun? Or maybe you want balanced coverage? Check out a few other accounts of the Lunch 2.0 and Silicon Florist birthday that was.
Photo courtesy of Aaron Hockley used under Creative Commons.
Portland-based Jive Software has been all over the blog world as of late with their release of Clearspace 2.0. But that’s not the only place they’re turning heads.
Jive’s Chief Marketing Officer, Sam Lawrence, has rapidly become a social-media phenom on Twitter and on his blog, Go Big Always (which coincidentally uses the same Justin-Kistner designed WordPress theme that adorns Silicon Florist).
Now, Portland’s Marshall Kirkpatrick is hinting that Lawrence may be the next Robert Scoble, given how readily his social media presence jumps to mind:
When we asked for examples of people doing this kind of work well on Twitter, the first name that flooded our replies inbox was Jive Software’s Sam Lawrence.
For those of you unfamiliar with Scoble, Kirkpatrick provides a short and sweet primer:
Robert Scoble blazed a big trail by blogging and producing video as a technical evangelist for Microsoft from 2003 through 2006. No longer at Microsoft, Scoble now produces media for media’s sake at FastCompany.tv. Others have followed his lead, knowingly or not, and job titles like “social media evangelist” are no longer nearly as rare as they used to be.
As for me, I’ve seen the power of Sam’s influence in a variety of media. And it continues to grow on a daily—if not hourly—basis. His bursting on to the social-media scene has been nothing short of explosive. And I continue to be impressed with his growing influence and impact.
That’s good for Jive. But it’s also good for us here in the Silicon Forest.
We could be witnessing the emergence of another true A-Lister, right here in our own backyard. And that, gentle reader, could be huge for the Portland startup scene.
Just a reminder that Marshall Kirkpatrick, lead blogger for Read/Write Web and RSS guru, will be presenting a “Lunch and Learn” session on RSS at the OTBC on Tuesday, February 19.
I like to think of myself as fairly RSS savvy. And I can say, without a doubt, that no one has taught me more about how to make RSS jump through hoops than Marshall.
To RSVP, visit the OTBC Meetup page on the event. The cost is $15 at the door. But you were going to spend that money on lunch, anway. And this way, you actually get to learn something.
Now, granted, I try to keep my focus right here at home in the Silicon Forest. But I had the feeling that news about these two little Web companies—Google and Facebook—might, just might, have some repercussions for the local tech scene.
I’ll also defend this post by reminding you that The Goog’ has an installation in The Dalles.
Portland’s own Marshall Kirkpatrick broke the news this morning that Google and Facebook are joining the Data Portability group. And as indicated by Marshall’s own admission, this is huge news. A bombshell, as it were.
Okay, that may be gobbledy gook techie speak to some of you. So, why is this so important?
The non-participation of Google and Facebook, two companies that hold more user data and do more with it than almost any other consumer service on the market, was the biggest stumbling block to the viability of the project. These are two of the most important companies in recent history. What’s being decided now is whether they will be walled-garden, data-horders or truly open platforms tied into a larger ecosystem of innovation with respect for user rights and sensible policies about data.
For more information, read Marshall’s post on Read/Write Web. For additional coverage, follow the story on Techmeme.