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Category: Roundup

Twitter: 7 Silicon Forest creations that will improve your experience

Rick Turoczy on March 17, 2008

Something dawned on me this weekend as I was watching the streams of Portland-based tweets stream across my screen. I think Portland may have more another “per capita” stat we can start quoting. I think it’s highly likely that Portland has more tweets per capita than any city in the US.

With all of these Twitter users and tweets flying by, it comes as no surprise that Portland and the Silicon Forest have created a number of cool side-project Twitter-related tools and views. I use a number of these tools every single day. And they’ve greatly improved the utility of Twitter—and the information it holds—for me. (Of course, as always, I also remain hopeful that some of these side projects have the potential to form—or at the very least inspire—full-fledged Silicon Forest startups.)

While I’ve covered most of these individually, I thought it might be wise to round them up for future reference. Both to highlight the work that is going on, and to hopefully, stimulate some more ideas for development.

In no particular order:

  • Pulse of PDX provides a view of Portland Twitter users and what they’re posting to Twitter. The best thing about Pulse of PDX? You don’t even have to be a Twitter user to use it, so it’s a great way to dip your toe in the proverbial Twitter water. Of course, once you use it, you may want to become a Twitter user.
  • Twitterwhere let’s you find all the Twitter users in a particular geographic region. Want to find all of the Twitter folks in Corvallis? What about Vancouver? Portland? And since the service provides a feed, it’s another “try before you buy” Twitter tool. Add the feed to your feed reader if you’re still debating whether to sign up for Twitter or not.
  • Tweetpeek allows you to create quick widgets and pages using the followers of a particular entity. Think Pulse of PDX for whatever you want. Create a Twitter entity, follow the folks you would like to include, and run it through Tweetpeek. Easy.
  • Ever wish you could see Twitter conversations in a threaded, rather than linear, format? Well, then Twitterthreads may be for you, my friend. Simply log into Twitterthreads with your Twitter credentials, and you’ll be able to see your
  • Heavy Twitter users will find times when they simply don’t see all the replies that were meant for them. And that’s where Portland’s Twitter Reply Sniffer comes into play. Use the tool to search for your Twitter name and you’ll see all the replies from all the folks who are interested in conversing with you.
  • I don’t use public transit as much as I would like, but when I do, NextTrimet has been a welcomed addition to my Twitter toolset. Simply follow NextTrimet (and wait for it to follow you back), then send your stop number in a direct message to NextTrimet and it will let you know when the next ride will be arriving.
  • Sandy isn’t a Twitter tool per se. But I have to tell you, since I discovered Sandy’s Twitter account, I’ve been working with her more and more. Like anyone else on Twitter, she’s cordial, intelligent, and helpful. And she’s helping me keep track of more and more things.

Wow. Portland and the Silicon Forest are definitely a Twitter.

Those are just a few of the cool tools built on and around Twitter that I’ve been lucky enough to find. I, for one, can’t wait to find more hometown-built tools that make Twitter even more valuable.

Have you built a cool Twitter app or found one that I haven’t listed? Please, by all means, let me know.

Ignite Portland 2: Let the rounding up begin

Rick Turoczy on February 6, 2008

I just returned from the second Ignite Portland.

Wow.

In terms of attendance, this one eclipsed the previous one by leaps and bounds. In fact, folks had to be turned away. More than 750 people crowded into the Bagdad, and folks still had to be turned away.

Wow.

Tons of good energy. And presentations that rivaled the brilliance of the first Ignite.

Great event.

A now, even though we’re still a bit early with the returns, I’m going to take a cue from my fellow newsies who are reporting Super Tuesday results with 6% of the precincts reporting.

Here’s what folks are saying:

  • Ignite Portland 2 was one of the best nights of my life!
    “The best moment of the night came when I was sitting in my seat, down in front, surrounded by people who had worked so hard to make this happen, and who had become good friends in the process. And we, in turn, were surrounded by all the amazing volunteers, speakers, and sponsors that made it even possible. And we were all in turn surrounded by a crowd of exited people, enjoying themselves in a very cool theater. It all just sank down on me right then, a warm, fuzzy, happy feeling. I realized that this was the coolest thing I have accomplished so far in my life.”
  • Attention Deficit Theater
    “How hot was Ignite Portland on Tuesday night? So hot that 750 people filled the Bagdad Theater in Southeast Portland, and many more got turned away. So hot that the wacky, idea-sharing event rose to the second spot on the national Upcoming Web site, trailing only the wildly popular South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. So hot that the Bagdad ran out of pizza.”
  • Ignite Portland Mercury video
    “I’ve no !dea whether Ign!te Portland actually has an exclamation mark in its brand!ng, instead of an ‘i’. But it should do. Because it’s young, and hip, and edgy, and the Mercury’s video chap, V!ncent Caldon!, was there last night, with a video camera, along with 750 other people” (I’ll add this to the SplashCast player in the Ignite Portland video post, as well.)
  • Ignite Portland recap
    “One of my favorite parts of the evening was meeting people. Some of the people I met I’ve been following on Twitter. Twitter has contributed to a sense of community in Portland’s tech and creative circles that I haven’t seen before. It’s a wonderful thing.”
  • Ignite Portland 2 rocked the Bagdad
    “There were so many great volunteers who helped make Ignite Portland 2 a success; we could never have pulled it off without their help. The sponsors also made this possible by providing the funds required to buy food, the use of the Bagdad Theater, insurance, etc. A huge thank you to everyone who helped, sponsored, took pictures / video, and more to make this event so much fun to attend.”
  • Why Deutschland loves David Hasselhoff
    “This was all his idea, and I applaud him for pulling it off. I’d be nervous as hell, as I’m sure he was, but after seeing him kill it, I’m considering being a presenter in the future.”
  • Ignite Portland
    “We were proud to sponsor last night’s networking and speaking event, Ignite Portland. We were proud not only because it’s a really cool event, but also because our very own Technical Support Lead, Kelly Guimont spoke at the event.”
  • Ignite Portland: The Talk!
    “I had SUCH a good time. Here’s an odd sentence to everyone but me: I got to meet a lot of my friends for the first time. I got to talk about pepper for five minutes. It was a lot of fun after the fact, before and while I talked I was SO nervous, it was hard to stand in front of seven hundred and something people and talk about anything.”
  • Make Connections
    “One of the reasons I had gone to Ignite Portland was to network. I wanted to talk to people about Treasurelicious. Frankly, after making swag bags, smiling, answering questions and such I was just too tired to network.”
  • About Last (ig)nite
    “So… I will just observe that I realized how many more people I ‘know’ now than I did at the first event, three short months ago, many of them mostly virtually, and that seems amazing to me, and makes me feel all in love with the place we have chosen to live.”
  • Our Super Tuesday fun
    “It was the second Ignite Portland event and John’s employer was a sponsor, we are so glad we went and look forward to many other events like this…. What a cool city we live in.”
  • Ignite Portland in one word: WOW!
    “I didn’t think that the first Ignite could be out done. I mean the first Ignite had just under 300 highly enthusiastic people who heard about it via word of mouth, twitter, and the blog scene. But this time the organizers, Legion of Tech, promoted the event through the Oregonian and on local radio.”
  • Ignite Portland
    “I presented, claiming that it is time for Portland to start some great companies. I felt a bit like a mime at a comedy night with my business focused presentation wedged in between Why Deutschland Loves David Hasselhoff and How to be an Undercover Hooker. If you are in Portland you need to go to the next Ignite.”
  • Ignite Portland
    “It was very entertaining. I’ll definitely try to attend again. I’m also going to try to present there as well. I find the restrictive format (20 slides, 15 seconds each, auto-timed) to be an interesting constraint to work in…. The only complaint I have is that the intros and housekeeping…. They should have been done in the same 15-slide Ignite format.”
  • Ignite Portland was a great event!
    “Of course, nothing it truly free, and the one downside to the event was that you had to listen to the long list of sponsors [like Silicon Florist] at the start of the event. It’s kinda like Google search: it’s free, but there are some ads in your results.”
  • Ignite Portland was a huge success
    “I drove past the theatre at 4:45pm and there was already a line. The 500 person seating limit was filled while there were still people waiting in line. I slipped in with the 250 people that were allowed to stand around the edges before they had to start turning people away.”
  • Ignite Portland 2
    “I don’t know what it is, but there is something pushing my buttons about the creativity I’m rediscovering in PDX. The arts, the crafts, the web, the social fabric that is such a part of Montavilla, Mt. Tabor, Hawthorne, Sellwood, Garden Home, NoPo, St. Johns, Macadam, Multnomah, and on and on and on…”
  • Ignite Wrapup, Things to Come
    “Wow, this Ignite Portland was fantastic — 750 enthusiastic people, a sold out crowd at the Bagdad Theater. I had a great time, and thanks to the organizers for putting together a great show.”
  • Ignite Portland 2 was a blast!
    “I met some cool people at Ignite Portland. I saw some women I had previously met at a pdx geekchix lunch. One of them told me to check out Code ‘n Splode, a group of (mostly women) programmers who get together to talk about whatever they’re working on. I met a guy (Justin maybe?) who told me about beer and blog, a newly formed group that meets every Friday at the Lucky Lab to talk about blogging.”
  • That’s Entertainment: Politics as theater in Campaign ’08
    “Ignite Portland takes place as presidential primary voters go to the polls in 24 states in what is being billed as “Tsunami Tuesday.” But what could be the decisive day for both the Democratic and Republican 2008 White House hopefuls arrives even as the transformation of American politics into theater is almost complete.”
  • What would Dr. Seuss say about online communities?
    “It was a lot of fun to prepare; I got to sit in the children’s section of the library reading Dr. Seuss books for a few hours, which is always a good time! I also had a great time giving the talk – complete with a Cat in the Hat, hat!”
  • Ignite Portland… a recap?
    “I had meant to liveblog the event last night, but I felt I was too far away to take good photos and typing on my new cameraphone just isn’t that fun. Then, with all good intentions, I had planned a post for last night, but the transit ride home took a lot out of me. Woe is me, I know. IgnitePortland was a blast.”
  • Lessons from Ignite Portland
    “There’s a good lesson here for Eclipse projects: we all want our projects to expand our projects to new communities and new users. But before we do the outreach to bring in those new people, we have to make sure that the basics of our projects are top-notch.”
  • Flickr photos tagged “igniteportland”
  • Live tweeting of the event using #ip2
  • More tweets on Ignite Portland
  • Ignite Portland on the Bagdad marquee
  • BONUS: For you history buffs, here’s the tweet from Josh Bancroft that started it all, and my URL-purchasing-addict addled response

(I’ll continue to build out this list as write-ups become available. Am I missing yours? Add it to the comments below, and I’ll make sure to link it up.)