Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Portland Oregon resident, Linux creator, and open source proponents Linus Torvalds is now a US citizen.
Here’s a little experiment. Start a conversation about why open source and Portland go so well together. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Done? Okay.
Now, I’m not usually much of a betting guy. But in this case, I’m willing to bet that at some point in that conversation—for many of you—the inevitable “Well, you know, Linus Torvalds lives here” came up as some sort of qualifier. It did, right? Read More
But all that changes on November 19 and 20, when Portland, OSU Open Source Labs, and PSU play host to the CONNECT Code-a-thon, a open source hacking session for health care tech types.
With OHSU, Portland has a great deal of prominence in the world of health care. And with open source, Portland has some street cred with the techie types. But events that get the health care and open source tech types intermingling? Not so much.
But all that changes on November 19 and 20, when Portland, OSU Open Source Labs, and PSU play host to the CONNECT Code-a-thon, a open source hacking session for health care tech types. Read More
[HTML3][HTML2]Portland, Oregon, is now an open city.
Following in the footsteps of open cities like San Francisco, Chicago, and Vancouver, BC, Portland’s Mayor Sam Adams and the City Council today unanimously approved a resolution that directs the City of Portland to open data to outside developers and encourages adoption of open source solutions in technology procurement.
With the ratification of the Portland Economic Development strategy, the City officially recognized the value of the open source in Portland. Now, with the adoption of the open data and open source resolution, the City has prescribed specific objectives for the municipal government that will help Portland begin the transformation into a government that more willingly embraces open standards, transparency, and more collegial interaction with its open source community. Read More
[HTML2]There are usually three things for which I like to claim that Portland serves as the “de facto hub“: open source, OpenID, and mobile.
And tonight, two of those worlds collide—open source and mobile—thanks to Mobile Portland and Moblin, an open source project for mobile development hosted by the Linux Foundation. And it’s not just for phones. It’s for netbooks, as well.
Sound interesting? Well, you’re going to want to mosey on over to AboutUs for Mobile Portland, tonight at 6 PM. Read More
How much of a hub is it? Well so much so that Deb Bryant Public Sector Communities Manager at the OSU OSL has just been named to the Open Source for America steering committee.
While I like to wax on about Portland being the de facto hub of open source, truth of the matter is that—just to the south of us—there’s a literal hub for open source: the Oregon State University Open Source Lab.
How much of a hub is it? Well so much so that Deb Bryant, Public Sector Communities Manager at the OSU OSL, has just been named to the Open Source for America steering committee. Read More
[Full disclosure: I am on the volunteer committee helping to organize Open Source Bridge.]
As many of you know, OSCON will be held in San Jose, this year. And RailsConf will be in Las Vegas. That left Portland—arguably the de facto hub of all things open source-y—strangely devoid of a major open source conference until Linux Plumbers Conference in September.
And that just didn’t seem right. So Audrey Eschright and Selena Deckelmann decided to do something about it. And they got a bunch of other volunteers together who wanted to help. That became Open Source Bridge.
You see, if there’s one thing I love about Portland, it’s our entrepreneurial spirit. We weren’t just going to sit around and cry in our microbrewed beers about it. We Portlanders are going to figure out how to do something else. We’ll show them.
And true to form, here’s Open Source Bridge, a new grassroots-organized open-source-developer-oriented conference that’s slated to be held in Portland, next summer.
Fast forward to today and that dream has officially become a reality. Registration is now open for Open Source Bridge.
Costs? You can attend the three-day conference—June 17-19—for $175. But you have to act quickly. That early bird rate expires on April 1. And if you’re coming from out of town—heck if you’re coming from Beaverton—you can get a room at the Hilton for $139/night.
Why would you stay at the Hilton? Four words my friend. Well, actually one number and three words: 24-hour hacker lounge.
Personally, it’s been an incredible experience, thus far, working with the amazing people volunteering to pull this off. Open Source Bridge is a different kind of conference. And it’s yet another incredible event that’s going to put Portland on the map.
Different how? It’s about open source culture for developers. It’s about being open source citizens:
We’re planning a conference that will connect developers across projects, across languages, across backgrounds to learn from each other. We want people to experience something beyond “how to use tool X” or “why databases keel over when you do Y” (even though those topics are important, making up our tools and trade, and will be a central part of the conference content). We’d like to share what open source means to us, what it offers, where we struggle, and why we do this day in and day out, even when we’re not paid for it.
Hopefully, you’ll put up with me continuing to blather on about it. Because I think it’s yet another example of the Portland community doing things in a very Portland-y way and—as usual—wildly succeeding.
I’m hoping to see you there.
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If you know me, you know that I’m a firm believer that the accelerator model is far from played out. I see it as an educational platform that you can point at companies, people, institutions… practically anything can be “accelerated” through a combination of peer and expert mentorship. That’s why I was super excited to see that a venture studio — which has a lot in common with the accelerator model — that I’ve been eagerly awaiting is now open for business and taking startup applications. Meet the Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio (OEBVS).
While Portland is always an open source focused town, OSCON is the annual reminder that we’re the de facto hub of open source. So what better time, thought local startup GraphAlchemist, to contribute something awesome to the world of open source. Introducing Alchemy.js. Read More
We always like to brag about Portland being the de facto hub of open source. Or maybe that’s just me. I do like to use “de facto hub.” Read More
Portland based Urban Airship has been leading the market in push notifications for the iOS platform on iPhones and iPads and now the Android platform.
You know me. I like to claim that Portland is the de facto hub of any number of scenes. Open source. Branch offices. Microbreweries. Strip… ahem. But when it comes to claiming we’re the de facto hub of the mobile development scene, that’s about as defensible as can be. And today, it got even more, um, defensibler.
You see, today, Portland-based Urban Airship—a company that has been leading the market in push notifications for the iOS platform on iPhones and iPads—happened to announce the availability of embedded push notifications on the Android platform. And that, my friends, is kind of a big deal. Read More