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9 Portland tech events for your spring and summer geeking pleasure

Rick Turoczy on March 26, 2009

Summer geekingConcerned you’re going to get bored this spring and summer? Worried you’re not going to have enough geektastic events to keep yourself entertained? Worry no longer, my friend. There are a ton of good tech events just around the corner.

Like what, you ask? Like these, silly goose:

InnoTech (April 22-23)

“We have secured Keynote Presenter Rahaf Harfoush, New Media Strategist, Member of Obama’s Social Media Team, & Associate Director of the Global Cooperation Initiative at the World Economic Forum, to present on Thursday, April 23, 2009. We have Scott S. Ballantyne, former VP General Manager, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett Packard kicking off this year’s eMarketing Summit @ InnoTech and we have a Windows 7.0 Sneak Peek session at InnoTech as well.”

For more information, visit InnoTech.

BarCamp Portland (May 1-2)

“BarCampPortland is an unconference for the Portland tech community, produced BY the Portland tech community. Interesting topics, cool people, great networking opportunities, wifi, and more! Building an active tech community in Portland, Oregon.”

For more information, visit BarCamp Portland.

WebVisions (May 22-23)

“Explore the future of Web design, user experience and business strategy for three days of mind-melding on what’s new in the digital world. Get a glimpse into the future, along with practical information that you can apply to your Web site, company and career.”

For more information, visit WebVisions.

Open Source Bridge (June 17-19)

“Connecting developers across projects, languages, and backgrounds. Open Source Bridge is a new conference for developers working with open source technologies and for people interested in learning the open source way.”

For more information, visit Open Source Bridge.

Ignite Portland (July 16)

Take 6 on Ignite Portland. “If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.”

For more information, visit Ignite Portland.

Internet Strategy Forum Summit West (July 23-24)

“The 6th annual Internet Strategy Forum Summit conference is set for July 23 & 24, 2009. Confirmed presenters so far include Forrester Senior Analyst and Web Strategist blogger Jeremiah Owyang and Web Operations Management guru Lisa Welchman.”

For more information, visit Internet Strategy Forum.

Inverge (September 10-11)

“Inverge brings presenters and attendees together from a variety of professions and disciplines to explore changes and opportunities presented by the increasing digitization of media, the democratization of distribution and the proliferation of connectivity into new areas. The big picture is revealed via the unique integration of disciplines at the event. The presentations are high-level, informative and conceptual, pointing the way toward the future and facilitating advanced professional development.”

For more information, visit Inverge.

LinuxCon (September 21-23)

“LinuxCon is a new annual technical conference that will provide an unmatched collaboration and education space for all matters Linux. LinuxCon will bring together the best and brightest that the Linux community has to offer, including core developers, administrators, end users, community managers and industry experts. In being the conference for “all matters Linux”, LinuxCon will be informative and educational for a wide range of attendees. We will not only bring together all of the best technical talent but the decision makers and industry experts who are involved in the Linux community.”

For more information, visit LinuxCon.

Linux Plumbers Conference (September 23-25)

“The Linux Plumbers Conference was created to bring together the key developers involved in Linux plumbing – the “Linux plumbers” – and give them an opportunity to discuss problems face-to-face, both within subsystems and across subsystems. Participants include invited attendees, speakers selected through an open, competitive review process, and students. Registration is open to the general public as well.”

For more information, visit Linux Plumbers.

Phew

And that’s not even counting all the awesome non-techie stuff and all the cool weekly events we have going around here. Not to mention the fact that I probably missed some other interesting tech events. Because I have a tendency to do that.

So don’t worry about getting bored, sugar. There will be plenty for you to do.

(Photo courtesy Aaron Hockley. Used under Creative Commons.)

Startup Now Oregon form is still up? What gives?

Rick Turoczy on March 26, 2009

Oregon loveOkay okay. I’ll admit, it may look like I’m crying wolf.

But I got a call late last night that we had some more breathing room to fill out the Startup Now Oregon form.

You know the one. The one that will convince the Treasurer for the State of Oregon that we have a ton of viable startups in the area—startups that deserve access to state managed funds.

While we’ve had a bunch of people take a moment to fill out the form—more than 60 at last count—we’d still like to see some more.

What’s more important is that I still don’t see your idea on there. Yes, you. Procrastinator. You know who you are. Don’t make me call you out.

Even if you don’t want, need, or like the idea of the money, it’s still important to make your voice heard. Why? So that the powers that be in Oregon understand what we’ve got going here. Because it’s something special. And it deserves their support.

Remember, geeky or not. Codified or not. Oregon-based or willing to become Oregon-based. Come one, come all.

I’m not putting any deadlines on this, but I’ll likely be pulling the form down within the next few days.

Don’t make me beg—or continue to whine. It’s not pretty. Fill out the form.

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Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 26

Rick Turoczy on March 26, 2009

Open source conference prerequisite #1: Space for hacking

Via Open Source Bridge “When we had the opportunity to build Open Source Bridge, one of our primary concerns was that we had plenty of space for hacking. But we weren’t thinking a couch in the hall or a bunch of people crammed around the table. And we wanted our attendees to have something better than a desperate search for places with outlets, wifi, and space to code at 3:45 AM. We were thinking about dedicated space for hacking, 24-hours a day.”

(tags: opensource oregon portland events conferences osbridge community hacking opensourcebridge bridge)

WikiBirthday 2009: 14 years of collaboration

Via AboutUs “March 25th marks a very special day in the history of the Internet. 14 years ago today, Ward Cunningham publicly launched the revolutionary technology that is the wiki.”

(tags: aboutus wiki portland oregon birthday wardcunningham anniversary)

End Awkwardness and Get Social at Beer and Blog

Via Beer and Blog “Last time I wrote, I said that March would focus on social skillz. Well it’s still March, so get out your party hat and floss your teeth. Yes, now that we’ve walloped bloglessness and joblessness, this Friday we’ll be putting an End to Awkwardness!*”

(tags: portland oregon beerandblog beer blog events awkwardness)

Mega Spy now in public beta

Via Clicky “Go to your Spy page, then click the “test the mega spy beta” link to check it out. It still has some issues and is not yet feature complete, but we’ve drastically increased the performance since the original beta was released on Friday. It now runs very fast on all browsers, including MSIE. This will also really help you out if you have a slow computer.”

(tags: portland oregon clicky tracking analytics features)

Startup CEO Sebastian Rapport of Ontier – OTBC (Beaverton, OR) – Meetup.com

Via OTBC “In spite of the difficult economy, Ontier CEO Sebastian Rapport recently closed an investment round, launched a product, and added tech heavy-weights Paul Gulick and Les Fahey to the Ontier Board. At this lunch program, Sebastian will talk about Ontier, share some lessons learned, and give attendees a peek at Ontier’s Pixetell™ product, which provides ‘The Power of In-Person Interaction and the Convenience of Email.’ Join us to hear about this local success story in the making!”

(tags: beaverton oregon events ontier otbc pixetell demo)

Ontier donates options to entrepreneurship group – Silicon Forest – The Oregonian – OregonLive.com

Mike Rogoway writes “Portland-based Ontier, which makes online communications tools, is donating 250,000 stock options to the Entrepreneurs Foundation of the Northwest. A fifth of the donation comes from investor and board member Les Fahey and Ontier CEO Sebastian Rapport.”

(tags: ontier portland oregon entrepreneurship entrepreneurs sebastianrapport efnw northwest lesfahey)

Thanks Ward, for Inventing the Wiki 14 Years Ago Today

Marshall Kirkpatrick writes “Every time a person learns that they can edit the content on a web page, view the history of edits by other people and become a part of that history as their edits become subject to further editing – that’s a life-changing experience. 14 years and a whirlwind of innovation later, wiki is still probably the best example of collaboration on this social technology we call the web. So thanks, Ward, for inventing the wiki. The world is a much better place for it.”

(tags: wiki birthday history wardcunningham portland oregon)

REMINDER: Oregon startup? Want to be? Interested in $250k funding? Chime in

Rick Turoczy on March 25, 2009

Welcome to the “How many questions can I ask in one headline?” edition of Silicon Florist.

Just a reminder that the submission form for “Startup Now” will close today at 11:59 PM.

How about you take a few seconds to provide some details about one, two, or 12 of your current side projects? Take a moment to reflect on what you could do with $250,000 in the next year, to help bring your product or idea to fruition.

Don’t think you’re worthy? Not interested in getting funding? I’d still encourage you to take a few moments to respond. Really, what could it hurt?

The point is this: rising water floats all boats. And our state treasurer needs convincing that we have a viable entrepreneurial environment filled with viable startups just waiting to take form. What’s more, if these folks can pull off putting together a $100 million fund for Oregon startups, it’s going to help all of us.

Come to think of it, I don’t even care if you live in Oregon right now. If you’d be willing to relocate to Oregon to start your business, you’re more than welcome to fill out the form, as well.

I’m looking forward to seeing you get some money to bring that idea to fruition. And if we can all work together to help the state understand the, um, state of our startup scene, it just might happen.

More than 50 startups—in addition to those who presented at the event—have provided details on how they would reinvest $250,000 in funding in Oregon over the next year. Why haven’t you?

How would you use that money? Complete the Startup Now form.

Ada Lovelace Day: Celebrating Portland women in technology

Rick Turoczy on March 24, 2009

Ada LovelaceToday is Ada Lovelace Day, a day to celebrate women who are excelling in the world of technology.

Who was Ada Lovelace, you ask?

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was born on 10th December 1815, the only child of Lord Byron and his wife, Annabella. Born Augusta Ada Byron, but now known simply as Ada Lovelace, she wrote the world’s first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine that Charles Babbage had invented.

That got me to thinking. I’m incredibly lucky to get the chance to work with a number of extremely talented and technically adept women. And I get the chance to work with many of them on a weekly basis, which is awesome. Many of you are just as lucky as me.

So I thought I’d list some of the cool female geeks in Portland whom I am proud to know:

Selena Deckelmann

She’s the co-founder of Open Source Bridge, has had code committed to PostgreSQL, attends and speaks at any number of conferences, served as one of the original board members for Legion of Tech, and provides some exemplary guidance on killing chickens.

Audrey Eschright

She’s the other co-founder of Open Source Bridge, a founding member of Legion of Tech, a celebrated Rubyist, the driving force behind Calagator, and one of the most creative thinkers in the Northwest.

Dawn Foster

She’s a wizard with Yahoo! Pipes, a sage with community development, a hardworking startup type with Shizzow, one of the founders of Legion of Tech, and from what I understand, one mean werewolf player.

All of these women have been an absolute inspiration for me. And I’m truly honored that I get the chance to work with them on a regular basis.

And just as I’m in the midst of writing this post, I see a tweet come across from Steven Walling, validating my choices—and adding Amber Case, who is amazing in her own right.

Steven Walling Ada Lovelace Day recommendations

But for as much as I love the local scene, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention two other incredibly inspiring women in the tech scene who have gained—and will continue to have—my utmost admiration.

Kathy Sierra

She’s an incredible speaker and thought-provoking writer whose Creating Passionate Users completely changed the way I thought about marketing and writing—and was a direct inspiration for Silicon Florist.

Beth Kanter

She’s taught me how to think about the power and the promise technology holds for doing good. And her Gnomedex performance, last year, remains one of the coolest technological experiments I’ve ever seen—even though it had very little to do with technology and everything to do with people.

Which women are excelling in technology in your world?

If there are women in technology who inspire you, I’d love to hear about—and I’m sure they would, too. Who are the other women in Portland technology or Silicon Forest technology who deserve some recognition? Why not take a few minutes to write something up? There’s still time.

(Image courtesy Anyaka. Used under Creative Commons)

Sweet Sixteen Lunch 2.0 at ISITE Design

Rick Turoczy on March 23, 2009

Update: The date has changed to June 24 to avoid a conflict with Open Source Bridge, which begins June 17. You’d think I could have foreseen this problem before setting the date. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please plan accordingly.

That’s right, Portland Lunch 2.0 will be having a Sweet Sixteen when ISITE Design hosts the 16th lunch on June 17 24.

ISITE is in Old Town, at least I think that’s considered Old Town, where we’ve had four other lunches. We haven’t been down (or up, depending) that way since September, and it’ll be good to return to the old neighborhood.

Andy Van Oostrum of ISITE is spreading the Lunch 2.0 vibe to another company. He also organized the 2nd Lunch 2.0 at eROI about a year ago.

He and the folks at ISITE are excited to give you free lunch and good conversation.

What does ISITE do? Glad you asked. In their words:

We are an interactive agency serving global clients from offices in Boston, Dallas and Portland. Our goal is to create and protect your competitive advantage online.

Check out their about for more. It also looks like they might be hiring here in Portland.

Here’s the skinny:

isite.pngHost: ISITE Design

Where: 115 NW 1st Avenue, Portland, OR 97209

When: June 17 24, 2009 from 12 PM to 2 PM

Please RSVP on Upcoming so the hosts can get an idea of how much grub to get. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, drop a comment on the event page for planning, unless you don’t want to eat.

Quick reminder, the Techshop Portland Lunch 2.0, originally scheduled for this week, has been moved to April 22.

Don’t forget these Lunch 2.0s, coming soon:

As always, big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

Geek Bat signal: Oregon entrepreneurs need to act now! No, really. I mean right now.

Rick Turoczy on March 20, 2009

Last night, an endless volley of entrepreneurs and would-be startups stepped up to a mic at Nedspace and provided a 2-3 minute pitch on what they would do with $250,000 over the next year.

And man, were there some incredible ideas—some incredibly cool, some incredibly wacky—but all incredible nonetheless.

There was only one problem: I didn’t see you up there.

I can watch the video again, just to be sure. But I’m fairly certain you won’t appear.

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I mean, sure. I got to see Ron Barrett, Carolynn Duncan, Dave Howell, Scott Kveton, Sasha Mace, John Metta, Chris Logan, Bob Uva, Ken Westin, and Steve Woodward. I love all of those folks. And I’ll applaud anyone who gets up in front of a crowd to speak, because I certainly don’t relish it.

Heck, somebody from the Office of the State Treasurer for Oregon even showed up.

But I didn’t see you. And that made me kind of sad.

But, then again, I’m all about second chances. So how about this? How about you take a few seconds to provide some details about one, two, or 12 of your current side projects? Take a moment to reflect on what you could do with $250,000 in the next year, to help bring your product or idea to fruition.

Don’t think you’re worthy? Not interested in getting funding? I’d still encourage you to take a few moments to respond. Really, what could it hurt?

The point is this: rising water floats all boats. And our state treasurer needs convincing that we have a viable entrepreneurial environment filled with viable startups just waiting to take form. What’s more, if these folks can pull off putting together a $100 million fund for Oregon startups, it’s going to help all of us.

But don’t just take my word for it. David Abramowski has some great insights about what funding Oregon startups could do for the local economy.

Come to think of it, I don’t even care if you live in Oregon right now. If you’d be willing to relocate to Oregon to start your business, you’re more than welcome to fill out the form, as well.

So maybe you’re trying to build a music service or a calendar aggregator or a niche social network or a new form of CRM or an iPhone agency or a mobile development shop focused on usability or a better support tool or charting where you’ve been or figuring out where your friends are or providing space for your peers to work and socialize or archiving the Web or finding happy hours or producing a weekly podcast or providing information about every Web site ever.

Maybe what you’re really interested in doing isn’t even geeky. Maybe you’re more interested in building out a photography business or covering the Portland scene or building some tangible product or creating a new kind of agency.

I don’t really care. We just need smart people like you to share their ideas about what could be done, if the money was there.

And I know you’ve got some ideas.

But here’s the catch: you need to respond, now. And I mean right now. The team pursuing the fund wants to get this information assembled by Wednesday, March 25.

So take a deep breath and dive in. I’ll keep this form open until Wednesday at midnight. Then, I’ll gather up all of the responses and ship them off to the folks working on this. They, in turn, will crate them up and dump them on the Oregon Treasurer’s, the Governor’s, and the various Mayors’ desks.

Remember, there were some cool ideas pitched, last night. But none of them were as cool as yours.

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Thank you

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2009

I just wanted to take a second to say “Thank you.”

I wanted to thank you for caring about what’s happening in the Silicon Forest. To thank you for keeping your eye on the Web and mobile startup scene. To thank you for giving all of the amazing developers in the area the attention they so richly deserve. To thank you for giving the entrepreneurs of Portland, Corvallis, Eugene, Bend, Ashland, Hood River, Vancouver, and all of the Oregon and Washington towns in between the opportunity to wow you with the products they’re building and the problems they’re solving.

I’m constantly reminded of how incredibly lucky I am that I get the opportunity to write about this stuff. And even luckier that you swing by to read about it. So thanks for letting me into your browser or feed reader or mobile device every once in awhile to share what people are sharing with me.

SXSW Interactive always reaffirms my belief in how lucky we are to have the community we do.

Thank you for being part of it.

Shizzow shouts at Twitter

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2009

ShizzowI know you’re busy. Updating Twitter, blogging, running around from coffee shop to coffee shop, updating Shizzow. The list goes on and on.

If only there were some way to combine a few of those things to save you a little time.

Well, we can’t move the coffee shops any closer together, but the folks at Shizzow have come up with a way to keep your location—and your Twitter friends—up-to-date on your latest whereabouts.

Thanks to the magic of OAuth, Shizzow now shouts to Twitter.

Simply enable the feature in your External Preferences and you’ll be able to post your location update and shout to Twitter from within Shizzow.

Just want to update your location and not bug your Twitter followers? Don’t add a message. No message, no tweet.

As you may have seen, I got to test the feature down at SXSW while it was still top secret, and it performed flawlessly.

Shouting from Shizzow to Twitter

If only AT&T had performed as flawlessly, Shizzow would have been invaluable at SXSW. Unfortunately, with the Edge network cratering under the sheer girth of iPhone traffic in Austin, neither Shizzow nor Twitter managed to live up to their potential.

But now that we’re back in the land of the speedy connections, Shizzow will no doubt shine. And since many of us monitor Twitter far more than we monitor Shizzow, maybe just maybe we’ll have some more of those chance meetings that Shizzow was designed to facilitate.

For more information on the new feature, see the Shizzow post. To enable the feature for yourself, go to your Shizzow profile.

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What I learned at summer camp SXSW, Portland edition

Rick Turoczy on March 19, 2009

SXSW InteractiveI’ve spent the last few days in Austin, TX, at SXSW Interactive, the annual gathering of some of the best and brightest Web types sharing their experience and ideas.

But it’s not all about the presentations. Truly, it’s all about proximity. Because every presenter, every leading thinker, and every attendee have plenty of time to talk with one another over meals or over a beer.

Suffice it to say, if you’re looking to get the chance to chat with the folks who are influencing the Web, this is a target rich environment.

This year, I went to SXSW with the intention of learning more about other entrepreneurial communities. To uncover ways that other metropolitan areas were trying to make their communities stronger in order to capitalize on the talent of creative developers.

I managed to make some great connections and learn a thing or two. Here’s what I took away from the conversations.

Portland is not a special snowflake

It’s no secret that I think we’ve got a phenomenal Web, mobile, and open source community. I think the mix we’ve got is special. And there’s little doubt that I think we have the single most amazing technology community anywhere.

But I also admit that I may be a little biased.

Still, for all the love I have for Portland, we’re not unique in our struggles to foster an entrepreneurial community that helps the brilliant people of the Silicon Forest earn a living doing something that they love.

There are communities all over the US trying to make this work. Some of them are taking steps similar to Portland. Some of them are coming up with new ways to deal with the solution. Folks from Asheville, NC, are finding ways to fund projects with government dollars. Boulder is running a series of Ignites that are continuing to draw the community together time and time again. People in Houston and Kansas City are using coworking spaces to get members of the community working together and sharing ideas. DC is using things like Tech Cocktail to help facilitate connections—and the tech scene is getting the opportunity to advise the local government on issues. And the guys at Silicon Prairie News are pulling in some amazing speakers for Big Omaha, an event that will help solidify their entrepreneurial community.

I’m hoping to spend more time with these folks over the coming months, visiting their communities, learning more about what they’re doing, and sharing more about what Portland is doing.

It looks like the trip to Seattle Lunch 2.0 was just the first of many diplomatic missions.

Funding for Portland projects must come from investors in Portland

Another conversation that repeated itself throughout the conference was the discussion about how to fund an entrepreneurial environment. And time and time again it came back to one simple point: for funding to work, it has to be local.

Now this works one of two ways. You either make your locality where the money is—by moving to the Valley for example—or you find local money to fund your project, local angels to invest in startups, and local funds to support larger investments.

Obviously, I’m leaning toward the latter. (And that’s what makes tonight’s Nedspace event especially well timed.)

Portland has a great deal in common with China

You heard me right. Yes, yes. It surprised me, too.

I didn’t intentionally go to the conference to learn about the entrepreneurial environment in China. But as I began to learn more and more about it, I realized that the Portland startup scene had a great deal in common with the Chinese startup environment.

They’re building phenomenal products in China that none of us know about. They’re pushing technology in ways that rival or eclipse our ability to deploy it. China is perceived to have a wealth of development talent that outside companies want to tap. They’re attracting more and more entrepreneurs who see China as a land of opportunity. And the Chinese want to do business—but they want to do it on their terms.

Sounds pretty familiar to me.

Portland can succeed in Portland’s own way

Finally, the overarching theme of the conference sounded eerily similar to something I’ve tried to champion in Portland: Work hard at doing what you love and you will succeed.

No matter if it’s Zappos shipping happiness or Gary Vaynerchuk hustling wine or a bunch of volunteers putting together an open source conference or the Bac’n guys selling premium pig parts. It doesn’t matter. Doing what you love—and working your ass off to do it—will lead to success.

And I don’t know anyone who works harder at doing what they love than the folks in the Portland startup scene.

Thanks, again, SXSW for making me think even more about Portland

So that’s what I got out of SXSW, this year. No doubt the 60+ Portland types who were there each got something completely different out of it.

But that’s the magic of SXSW. And that’s the primary reason I’ll keep going back to SXSW as many times as I can.

So I go all the way down to Texas to think about Portland some more. But that’s just how I am. Did I make some incorrect intuitive leaps? Do you disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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