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REMINDER: Portland Lunch 2.0 hosted by WebVisions today at the Oregon Convention Center

Rick Turoczy on May 20, 2009

If you’ve never been to a Portland Lunch 2.0, now would be a good time to start. If you’ve been to a bunch of Portland Lunch 2.0 gatherings, this one will be completely different.

I mean, sure, a lot of the same gang will be there. Which will be great. And you’ll have some interesting conversations and some “Hey! I haven’t seen you forever!” encounters. And of course, you’ll also get free grub while you chat.

But this time around, thanks to the cool folks at WebVisions, we’ll be gathering in the middle of a conference in the Oregon Convention Center. That’s a first. Read More

Portland Mayor Sam Adams talks open source, mobile, coworking, and the startup environment

Rick Turoczy on May 19, 2009

Last Sunday, a group of folks representing the Portland open source, mobile, and coworking community got the chance to sit down and chat with Portland Mayor Sam Adams. Among those in attendance were Rubyist and Calagator lead Audrey Eschright, CubeSpace’s David Komisky, Software Association of Oregon Interim President Scott Kveton, the Mayor’s Economic Development Policy Advisor Skip Newberry, CubeSpace’s Eva Schweber, General Counsel at Extreme Arts & Sciences J-P Voilleque, and Small Society’s Raven Zachary.

Eva has a great recap of how the meeting played out, including insight on the topics we covered from telecommuting to open source to mobile. [UPDATE] And Skip Newberry from the Mayor’s Office has posted his recap, as well. So I wanted to take a different tact. I wanted to find out how the attendees perceived the meeting and the Mayor’s willingness to engage this group in conversation.

Here’s what they had to say. Read More

Jive executive team solidifies: Ben Kiker steps into Sam Lawrence’s old role

Rick Turoczy on May 19, 2009

Even as Portland-based Jive has continued to set performance records quarter after quarter, one component of their executive team was missing: the Chief Marketing Officer role formerly held by Sam Lawrence. Today, Jive announced that that piece has now fallen into place with the hiring of Ben Kiker as the new CMO.

Kiker has an impressive past with a number of enterprise software firms—just the type of experience that Jive needs to continue taking their Social Business Software to that level. Read More

How would you describe the Portland open source, Web, and mobile startup scene? [Updated]

Rick Turoczy on May 18, 2009

A number of us have recently had the opportunity to sit down with Amanda Hess. Amanda is working on a chapter for a larger piece on the Portland entrepreneurial scene, ranging from bikes to beer to restaurants to tech.

During the interviews, she’s been asking folks to describe the Portland tech scene in their own words. When she posed the question to me, I started to stutter through a fumbling response, when I suddenly realized I could do something better.

“Why don’t we ask the community?” I said. Read More

REMINDER: Ignite Portland’s burning ideas need your flaming comments

Rick Turoczy on May 18, 2009

It’s that time of year again. Time to pick Ignite Portland presentations for Ignite Portland 6! And this time around, you’ve got the opportunity to provide your feedback on the proposals in a couple of different ways.

So get ready to flame those burning ideas! Oh wait. Or I guess you could be nice, instead.

Either way, your input is needed on the latest Ignite Portland presentation proposals. And there are now two ways you can provide it. Read More

WSJ: Portland continues to attract talent, despite stumbling economy

Rick Turoczy on May 17, 2009

As if we needed another sign of the opportunity and potential we have within our grasp here in the Silicon Forest, the Wall Street Journal has just published a piece on Portland and its ability to attract young educated people—even though they might not have jobs waiting for them.

What will come as little shock to any of us—but seems to be confounding the WSJ—is that any number of people are attracted to Portland for way of life, first and foremost. Even though joining the ranks of those in Portland may also mean joining the ranks of the under-employed or completely unemployed. Read More

Open Source Bridge announces final schedule

Rick Turoczy on May 15, 2009

[Full disclosure: I’m volunteering to help the Open Source Bridge team with marketing efforts.]

Open Source Bridge—a gathering of open source citizens and open source curious taking place in Portland, June 17-19—has been a labor of love for a number of members of our community. And for that reason, it’s really great to see the final pieces of the event begin to fall into place.

Today, the Open Source Bridge team released the final schedule for the structured portion of the event. (The final day will be in an unconference format.) Read More

REMINDER: Your side project or startup effing rocks

Rick Turoczy on May 14, 2009

So, there are you are. Sitting there banging away on some code. Or working out your strategy for how you’re going to move that side project along just a little bit more. Or just trying to tweak that one blog post a little more.

And everyone’s bitching about the economy. Or how this is a bad time to do anything “risky.” Or about the time you’re wasting. Or how you should be doing something else.

But you know this is the right thing to do. And you know what? You’re right. And you will get there. Read More

Tell the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) where to go. Please.

Rick Turoczy on May 14, 2009

[HTML2]Usually when you get the infamous “customer satisfaction” survey asking for your input, it’s abundantly clear that what the survey is really designed to do is cover someone’s ass. They don’t want your feedback. They want you to give them five stars across the board and tell them you wouldn’t change a thing.

But this latest survey from the Software Association of Oregon is different. I think—nay I believe—they truly want to hear your feedback. Not just the feedback of existing members. They want feedback from everyone in the Silicon Forest tech scene. Long story short, they want your feedback.

And I believe they want you to be blunt.

Why do I believe this? Any number of reasons. Read More

Portland’s JanRain instrumental in latest Google OpenID API rollout

Rick Turoczy on May 14, 2009

I’m quite fond of saying that Portland is the de facto hub of OpenID development. And it’s days like today that make me sound like I actually know what I’m talking about.

Google (maybe you’ve heard of them?) has just announced two new enhancements to the Google OpenID API. And it just so happens that Portland-based JanRain and their RPX solution have come to play a critical role in the announcement: they’re one of the first examples of the new features in use. Read More

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