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Category: SXSW

SXSW 2009: 60+ Twitter accounts for Portland and Silicon Forest Twitter types

Rick Turoczy on March 9, 2009

SXSW Twitter accountsThere are a number of folks from Portland and the Silicon Forest headed down to Austin, Texas, this week for SXSW. And while I’ve heard about a number of those folks anecdotally, I thought it might be helpful for all of us if we compiled a definitive list of Twitter accounts, so you can keep tabs on who’s doing what.

(Of course, to keep tabs on who’s doing what where you’ll want to sign up for Shizzow, too.)

So here’s who I have so far. Please comment if I missed you, if I missed someone you know is going, if you just signed up for a Twitter account, or if I added you thinking you were going but you’re not. I’ll make sure to update the post as comments dictate.

The current list of Twitter accounts for Portland or Silicon Forest attendees at SXSW includes:

Tentative: Nate DiNiro, Alex H Williams (see comment below)

BONUS: SXSW, SXSW Guide, SXSW is easy, and Sched.

Again, if you need to be added or removed, please comment below.

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you down at SXSW.

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Fly away! Be free! Shizzow launches from Portland nest in preparation for SXSW Interactive

Rick Turoczy on March 5, 2009

We’ve all been watching Shizzow come into its own, from its early beginnings as a Portland-only tool to its expanding private beta to its API.

It’s been a true Portland success story. And very much embraced as a Portland tool by the Web community around here.

But there comes a time when every little startup needs to leave the nest. When it needs to spread its wings and explore the broader market.

Today, Shizzow goes national with a public launch of their social location service.

Shizzow’s new home

According to the announcement:

Today we are announcing the public launch of Shizzow, a location-based friend finder where you can declare your location, and it will notify all of your friends so that they may come join you for a drink or a cup of coffee. Shizzow has been in private beta since August 2008 with invites open only to a limited number of people in Oregon, California, and Washington. Anyone in the United States can now sign up for Shizzow with no invite required.

Why now? Shizzow has big plans for SXSW—the annual geek get together in Austin, Texas—where people are constantly trying to figure out “Where the heck are you?”

You may remember that Twitter took off at SXSW in 2007 by helping people find one another. Since then, everyone has had aspirations of recreating that magic. Shizzow has a good chance to do so, given that it’s even better suited for that “Where the heck are you?” task. Plus, they’re promising some features specifically targeted at the SXSW crowd.

But wait. There’s more.

Not only is Shizzow opening up, they’re also unveiling some of the apps that have been developed using the Shizzow API. And opening the public beta of that API.

Here’s a look at some of the apps that have already taken advantage of the API:

IceCondor

IceCondor is an android application that allows you to follow people and events in real-time. IceCondor takes advantage of map coordinates embedded in RSS feeds (called GeoRSS feeds) and allows them to appear as red markers on googlemaps. IceCondor works with multiple services including Brightkite, Shizzow, and Upcoming.org. Built by @donpdonp.

Shizzeeps (Alpha)

Shizzeeps.com shows you which shizzow users (known as shizzeeps) are congregating where at the moment. It also allows you to see their shout messages, and even send your own ephemeral message to the group at a particular place. Shizzeeps also offers a Twitter service: follow @shizzeeps to get updates every 15 minutes. Built by @crunchysue.

Shizzup (Alpha)

An iPhone client with list and map views of people and places, detection of nearby places to shout from, ability to auto-shout, and more. You currently need to build the Shizzup client from the source code to use it. Built by @wajiii.

f’shizzow (Alpha)

A simple Shizzow application for Android to quickly find out where your friends are, or find out who’s nearby and listen to them. See their locations on a map, or their recent shout history. Browse nearby places, search for places by name and tag, add to your favorites, and shout from them. Automatically detect your location using GPS/wifi, or manually set it on a map for finer control. You currently need to build the f’shizzow client from the source code to use it. Built by @petercowan.

Baken (Alpha)

Baken is an Android (and iPhone, eventually) app that automatically finds nearby locations from Shizzow’s database. It also provides much of the functionality found on m.shizzow.com. Matt also has plans to take the app in new directions in the near future. Built by @mattg.

Exciting times for the bootstrapped Portland startup. Here’s hoping they continue to soar. And I’ll be sure to report on how they’re received by the crowd down at SXSW.

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Mugasha selected for SXSW Accelerator

Rick Turoczy on February 16, 2009

MugashaMugasha—the DJ-set splitting startup founded during Portland Startup Weekend—has been selected to participate in the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW. They are the only Northwest company to make the cut.

SXSW is a big stage for the young company. With the event’s mix of music and technology, it’s sure to give Mugasha access to some noted movers and shakers who will no doubt appreciate the service and its capabilities.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Mugasha has stepped into the limelight. (Akshay Dodeja of Mugasha took the chance to speak with Robert Scoble, last year, and I got the chance to profile them on ReadWriteWeb.) But SXSW marks Mugasha’s first chance to demo their private beta to a large group of people outside the immediate Portland tech scene:

Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator is the newest addition to the SXSW Interactive schedule of activities. Scheduled Monday, March 16 at the Downtown Austin Hilton, the event spotlights some of the web’s most exciting new innovations, enabling the entrepreneurial visionaries behind these new products to demo their creations in front of a live audience of industry professionals and technology trend-setters.

It’s great to see Mugasha—and by association, Portland—getting this sort of recognition.

Even if you’re not going to SXSW, you should give Mugasha a spin—especially if you like electronica. What’s Mugasha do? Basically, it parses DJ set podcasts—usually one long multi-hour track with no song info—into separate song tracks, allowing user to play the songs they want to play and actually know which tunes they’re playing.

For more information or to get an invite to the private beta, visit Mugasha.

REMINDER: Portland SXSW Interactive meetup tonight

Rick Turoczy on January 19, 2009

SXSW InteractiveJust a quick reminder that if you’re from the Portland area and you’re going to SXSW Interactive 2009, thinking about going to SXSW, or should be going to SXSW (you know who you are), then tonight would be a great opportunity to meet up with some folks of a similar ilk.

That’s right. I said “ilk.”

Surely, we can eclipse San Francisco’s paltry attendance of 250 people, can’t we?

What’s that? Oh. I see.

Well, in any case, come on out tonight! The get-together will be held at the Fez Ballroom, starting at 6. For more information, see Calagator. To RSVP, send an email to interpress@sxsw.com with “Portland” in the subject. As in “Portland is awesome,” “Portland r0xx0rs,” or “RSVP Portland meetup.”

Still on the fence? Maybe this will help:

Also, one lucky attendee at the Portland party will win a FREE registration to the 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival. Bring your business card so you can enter the drawing!

It will be great to see what kind of Portland contingent is headed down to the event. And it’s never too early for us to strategize about who’s going to save seats at Iron Works and Las Manitas.

Looking forward to seeing you tonight.

SXSW Interactive 2009: Portland Meetup, January 19

Rick Turoczy on January 7, 2009

SXSW InteractiveIn a little over two months, a good chunk of the Portland tech scene will begin its annual pilgrimage down to Austin, Texas, for SXSW Interactive.

Maybe you’re going. Or maybe you’ve been toying with the idea of going. Either way, Dawn Foster highlights an upcoming meetup that you should seriously consider: SXSW Interactive Portland Meetup.

This will give you an opportunity to learn more about SXSW from the people who organize it. If you’ve never attended or were on the fence about attending, it’s a great opportunity to learn more. For those of us who already love SXSW, it gives us an opportunity to get to know some other Portland people who plan to attend.

The event will be held Monday, January 19, beginning at 6 PM at the Fez Ballroom.

And now here’s where it gets a bit weird. If you would like to attend, you should RSVP by emailing interpress@sxsw.com with “Portland” in the subject line. Because nothing says “cutting-edge interactive conference” quite like email.

Ahem.

Okay, here. I created a Calagator entry for the event. While you can’t RSVP there, that definitely makes it a little more cutting-edge—and Portland-y to boot.

All kidding aside, SXSW is an amazing conference. A place where you’ll find yourself talking to the best and the brightest in the industry and feeling like you’re definitely among people who “get it.” What’s more, the Portland contingent promises to be even bigger this year, so we’ll be able to take that shared experience back here—and we’ll continue to benefit from it all year long.

You should go. It’s well worth the time. And I’d love to see you in Austin in March.

SXSW: Josh Bancroft featured by Forrester’s Charlene Li

Rick Turoczy on March 10, 2008

Now, okay. I’ll give you that Josh Bancroft doesn’t exactly work for a “startup.” (He works for a little company called “Intel.”) But no one can deny his impact on the Portland startup scene. Be that his efforts on Ignite Portland, his participation in the Legion of Tech, (both of which are “startups” in their own rights) or even his conversations and guidance via Twitter—he’s a startup guy at heart.

And he’s Portland through and through.

So, it was a proud moment for all of us when he was recognized as a thought leader—or more accurately, a “Revolutionary”—by Charlene Li of Forrester during her SXSW presentation on Sunday.

Dawn Foster of Fast Wonder and Jive Software summed it up best, observing:

[Li] also used Josh Bancroft as an example of someone who made something happen inside a big company using social software (wiki) to create Intelpedia under the radar of the executives (bonus points for a little Portland geek cred).

Other coverage included:

ExpressionEngine 2.0 sneak peek

Rick Turoczy on March 8, 2008

Bend-based EllisLab took SXSW as an opportunity to give attendees a sneak preview of the upcoming version of ExpressionEngine. [Update: EllisLab has released a video of the ExpressionEngine 2.0 sneak peek.]

From a user standpoint, the big news is the new ExpressionEngine control panel, which the team has designed to greatly simplify the usability of the product with a wealth of AJAX-y goodness.

From a coding standpoint, the big news is that ExpressionEngine 2.0 is now built on top of CodeIgniter, EllisLab’s open-source PHP framework. This means a huge leap forward in the options for customizing and extending the functionality of the tool.

Don’t like how that feature works? Build a new one yourself.

The most interesting thing about this move is that both the ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter community become one single community, which should push ExpressionEngine development farther and faster than ever before. Best of all, this marks a decided step forward in the EllisLab philosophy as it continues to embrace open-source collaboration.

Oh and one more thing? JQuery. Boom.

For those of you not familiar with ExpressionEngine, it’s designed for the power user or company who has grown beyond the capabilities of current blogging tools, but isn’t interested in wrestling more unwieldy content-management systems. Or, in EllisLab’s words:

ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system that empowers thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies around the world to easily manage their website.

If you’re interested in seeing ExpressionEngine 2.0 for yourself, I’d recommend checking out Startupalooza where Kurt Deutscher, Chief Technology Evangelist for EllisLab, will be providing a similar preview of the product.

SXSW 2008: Silicon Forest contingent making the sojourn to Austin

Rick Turoczy on March 6, 2008

It’s hard to believe that the annual geek pilgrimage to Austin, Texas, is almost upon us. That’s right, it’s time for SXSW 2008. The geeky portion of the event, SXSW interactive, begins on Friday, March 7 and runs until Tuesday, March 11.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the number of Portland and Silicon Forest folks who make the journey down to the event on a regular basis. This year is no different. There’s even a breakfast get-together for Oregon folks organized by Portland Web Innovators.

With all of the folks in attendance, I thought it might be valuable to have a list of what companies and what folks will be down in Austin. (If you don’t appear and would like to be listed, please comment, and I’ll work on updating the list.)

Silicon Forest companies down at SXSW include:

As far as individuals headed down that way, I know of:

This list is by no means complete. Just what I know.

I mean, there are also a ton of Portland people from the creative industry headed down to SXSW. I lost count of the number of Wieden + Kennedy folks making the trip.

So, again, if you’re going down to Austin and you’d like people to know, post to the comments and I’ll continue to update this post.

And for all of you back home in Oregon, please stay tuned to SIlicon Florist for updates on the Silicon Forest contingent and their participation in SXSW. Or feel free to follow me on Twitter. There are sure to be some cool things happening.

SXSW field trip for Portland Web Innovators

Rick Turoczy on January 4, 2008

Planning to travel down south to Austin, Texas, for South-by-Southwest (SXSW)? Join the club. For breakfast. No, I mean literally.

Adam DuVander of Portland Web Innovators has set up a breakfast meeting for Portland folks who will be in town. If you’re at SXSW, this will be a great opportunity to see some familiar faces and compare notes before heading to the second set of panels.

Interested? RSVP on Upcoming.

SXSW 2008: Portland presenters?

Rick Turoczy on August 20, 2007

Sure, sure. SXSW takes place in Austin. But that doesn’t stop a bunch of us Portland types from making the trek down to Texas.

Now, the (apparently completely buggy) voting system for SXSW 2008 panels is open, which means it’s time to choose the panels you want to see while you’re down there.

That’s all well and good. But there are nearly 700 panels on which to vote. If you’re like me, you could use some help culling the herd.

Well, I’ve heart rumors of a few Portland folks who were proposing presentations, but I only know of one for sure. That’s Dawn Foster who has proposed two panels:

If you’re a Portland presenter hoping to make the SXSW bill, drop a link in the comments so we know what’s what. If we get enough comments about different panels, I’ll post a round-up with all of the proposed Portland presenters and their topics.

And, who knows? Maybe, just maybe, we’ll have a little Silicon Florist get together down there, with all of the Silicon Forest attendees.

Stranger things have happened.

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