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Road Trip to Seattle Lunch 2.0

Rick Turoczy on March 8, 2009

Friday, Kelly, Rick, Selena, and I headed up to visit the Emerald City’s version of Lunch 2.0 for a diplomatic mission.

Rick was kind enough to handle the driving duties, which left the rest of us free to chatter and OH all the pearls of wisdom on Twitter. After about 20 minutes, Rick went into shock from being surrounded by people tweeting, but unable to do so himself.

This spawned a discussion about a steering wheel keypad with a heads-up display that would finally allow Rick to see all his TweetDeck columns without scrolling.

Our meandering discussion went on like this for about three hours, producing conversations about giant robot arms shredding cars, Teamsters, not stopping for bio-breaks,  brachydactyly type D (a.k.a. murderer’s thumbs), kittens for lunch, food touching, and much, much more.

But you already knew that because you were following our road trip on Twitter.

What? Oh.

Even though we started off a bit slow, we arrived with plenty of time to spare and then quickly wasted it looking for a coffee shop with a restroom.

Josh Maher, the organizer of the Seattle Lunch 2.0 chapter, holds happy hours as well as lunches, and Friday’s was a happy hour. Since we were on a diplomatic mission, and it was a happy hour, Rick brought a gift, Portland beer. He’s such a thoughtful guy, and that’s such a Portland thing to do.

Axios Law Group hosted the happy hour at their offices in downtown Seattle, and TalentSpring, whose office is in the same building, co-sponsored the event. Dawn wasn’t there to get a count, but I think there were about 30 to 40 people spread throughout the office. Then again, I’m not very good at counting, so it could have been more.

In classic Portland style, we included our Twitter handles on our name tags, which drew attention from several Seattleites, many of whom were just making the jump into Twitter. There were also funny references to how happy were were to get out of depressing Portland, alluding to that recent Business Week article.

We mixed and mingled, and as always, Kelly’s LED name badge garnered a lot of attention. I’m pretty sure John DeRosa wants one of his own. I chatted with John, Matt Woodward and several other people. My pea brain doesn’t do well with names, so apologies for not calling out all the good people who chatted with me.

After about an hour of mixing, Josh introduced the gracious hosts, Adam from Axios and Bryan from TalentSpring. Then I stumbled through a “hello from Portland” and threw Rick under the bus to talk about Open Source Bridge, the other reason we headed up there. As usual, he did a great job despite the tire tracks.

Brian Westbrook and Danielle Morrill streamed the event live to Seattle 2.0, and I’m hoping to get the recordings of the interviews he did with Selena and Rick. If/when I get those, they’ll be added to this post.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get many pictures of the event. All we had were our iPhone cameras, and Rick’s nice camera took a header into the CubeSpace parking lot before we even got on the road. In hindsight, I guess we should have brought Aaron or Mark along to snap photos.

After the happy hour ended, it was back on the road; six hours in the car for a two-hour event. That’s dedication.

Thanks to Josh, Adam and Bryan for having us. If you’re up in Seattle, check out the Seattle Lunch 2.0 schedule and the Seattle 2.0 events calendar if you need something to do.

Maybe Josh and company will take a trip down for one of our lunches. Speaking of which . . .

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

  • March 11 at OpenSourcery
  • April 8 hosted by MioWorks at the Green Dragon
  • April 22 at TechShop Portland in Beaverton
  • May 20 hosted by WebVisions at the Oregon Convention Center

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.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 7

Rick Turoczy on March 7, 2009

Come to the Open Source Bridge conference

Via def euler(x); cos(x) + i*sin(x); end “If you live in or would like to visit beautiful Portland, OR, consider signing up for the Open Source Bridge conference. I will (probably) be giving a talk on RubySpec and Rubinius 1.0. There’s lots of interesting folks giving great talks. This is an opportunity to hear how people are developing the open-source community.”

(tags: opensourcebridge opensource events portland oregon)

Oregon Creative Industries: Your input needed

Rick Turoczy on March 6, 2009

Creatives understandIt’s no secret that I have a broad definition of the term “creatives.”

Today, the traditional lines dividing “creatives” and “developers” is becoming exceedingly blurry. And I, for one, welcome that blurriness.

I mean, all of those folks are creative (and always have been). Because some of these folks whom you would traditionally throw in the realm of non-creatives—aside from being brilliant and creative developers—are also amazing photographers, knitters, designers, and writers.

Likewise, there are any number of drool-worthy graphic designers who have stepped into the realm of development. To finely craft their own CSS. Or churn out application code that would make traditional “developers” swoon.

Long story short, “creatives,” in my opinion, is a nonsensical moniker. The concept of creative is completely outdated. An unnecessary silo.

We’re all creative, people. All of us. (Well, except for me. I largely just regurgitate stuff I hear.)

Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t even see that soapbox. I just happened to step up there.

Long relegated to the world of graphic design, I believe that the term “creatives” covers a much broader spectrum of creative professionals, like Web app and mobile app developers, for example. Like bloggers. Like Web designers. Like wiki developers. Like so many other technology pursuits that require a great deal of creativity.

So, when I see documents designed to speak for the “creatives” in the Oregon, I think it’s really important that you’re involved. Because you’re doing amazing work. And you’re—in many ways—leading Portland and the Silicon Forest.

One of these efforts in which I would hope you get involved is the Oregon Creative Industries Cluster Description and Initiatives. Why? Because it’s calling for the formation of a trade association to represent the creative industries in Oregon.

Oregon Creative Industries (OCI) is a trade association being created to provide a voice for Oregon’s Creative Economy participants, working to champion sustainable economic growth for the sector.

Why do I think you should review this effort?

Well, for one thing it’s going to affect you. For another, it’s an effort in which a number of people we know and love have been involved, including Legion of Tech, DevGroup NW, and Social Media Club of Portland. And finally, because I know there are a big chunk of readers out there—incredibly talented creative developers—who live in the part of the Silicon Forest that isn’t Portland proper. So when people around Portland start talking about things for “Oregon,” I start getting a bit edgy. Then I start thinking that more of Oregon needs to be involved. To, you know, speak for Oregon.

So what are you commenting on?

I’m glad you asked.

After several months and hundreds of volunteer hours reaching out and listening to the community, OCI recently published a draft document for public comment that defines the Creative Industries economic cluster in Oregon and proposes several objectives and initiatives for sustaining and growing Oregon’s creative economy.

The document outlines a number of benefits of the creative industry, including:

Creative Industries provide Innovation strength. In an ever-increasing global economy, one comparative advantage we have is our ability to innovate. Successful innovation comes about by commercial use of new ideas as a result of market and technology know-how, coupled with design and creative talent. This ultimately delivers new or enhanced products, processes or services that increase individual business profits, which contribute to the overall health of our region’s economy. Knowledge generation and sharing is the key to fueling Cluster growth and competitiveness and this can be achieved by the uptake of innovation through the Creative Industries Cluster.

Now, it’s in your hands. The document is a rough draft. And it could use your input. It could use input from all of us. Because while it’s a good start, it could use fine tuning. Hence the call for public comment.

If you choose to comment on this document, I’d encourage you to focus on the following areas:

  • Cluster Description
  • Cluster Strengths
  • Recent Accomplishments for the Cluster Organization

Please download the document, review it, edit it, and submit your feedback to info@oregoncreative.org. Even if you don’t agree with the basis of the document—arguing for the formation of a trade organization—I’d still encourage you to read it and comment.

In fact, I’d especially encourage you to participate in the public comment if you disagree.

Whatever your opinion, comment. And please feel free to cc: siliconflorist@gmail.com. I’d love to see your thoughts.

Once I’ve formulated my response, I’ll be publishing my comments here. And with your permission, I’d be happy to include yours so that we can publish a joint response to the public comment.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 6

Rick Turoczy on March 6, 2009

Open Source Bridge could use your help

Via Open Source Bridge “One of the unique things about Open Source Bridge is that it is entirely volunteer run. That’s right. 100% volunteers. All proceeds—sponsorships, registration fees, and in-kind donations—go to ensuring that Portland, Oregon, has a one-of-a-kind conference for open source citizens this summer—and hopefully for many years to come. Why do we do it? Because we love the idea of having an open source conference by developers for developers where they can focus on the topics that are important to them. But more importantly, it just seems like the right thing to do. But we can’t do it alone. So if you like the idea of Open Source Bridge as much as we do, we’d love to have your help.”

(tags: portland oregon events conferences opensourcebridge bridge opensource)

Impressions from Business Leader NW

Via the Sustainable Marketing Blog “My first event as a blogger is over. Despite my best intentions, too many good or at least educational offline distractions kept me from almost any online activity at Business Leader NW. Here are a few impressions from the Blog Pavilion and beyond.”

(tags: portland oregon sustainable marketing blog blnw business leader nw bloggers)

Women At Intel In Their Own Words

Via .51 “In celebration of Women’s History Month, The Inside Scoop (Intel’s Consumer Blog) has posted two brief pieces in their “Innovative Women” series.”

(tags: portland oregon women intel tech)

Twitter and PostgreSQL!

Selena Deckelmann writes “I’d written during last PgCon about Postgres and Twitter, and I figured it was time for a new list of Postgres-related people who I follow! Especially since a few people commented that Twitter was a waste of time last year ;)”

(tags: twitter postgresql selenadeckelmann selenmarie)

Shizzow’s Social Location Service Marries ‘Where’ With ‘What’ | Epicenter from Wired.com

Via Wired “This added layer of context makes any location-aware service useful as a real-life social networking tool. As the Shizzow team notes on its blog, the private beta community in its hometown of Portland, Oregon, has been using this “what” feature for ad hoc meetups with great success.”

(tags: portland oregon shizzow launch wired location)

ORBlogs Code Sprint at CubeSpace (Saturday March 7, 2009) – Upcoming

Via ORBlogs “We have our first official ORBlogs Code Sprint scheduled, March 7th, 11am, at CubeSpace! Thanks to CubeSpace for donating the space. If you can, please bring a little cash donation to cover the cost of snacks and drinks n stuff. We pretty much have space for the whole day, but I figure we can probably be heading out around 4ish. Then we can celebrate our first Code Sprint, and all the great progress we’ll have made!”

(tags: oregon blogs orblogs codesprint cubespace)

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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moneyStrands: Strands gets Mint-y and then some

Rick Turoczy on March 5, 2009

moneyStrandsCorvallis-based Strands has received a great deal of attention—well, from Silicon Florist and Louis Gray, at least—for its lifestreaming product, Strands.

Yet all the while, the moneyStrands team was busily slaving away. Building cool features. Running private betas. Working to build a tool for helping people better manage their finances.

Well now, all of that hard work has paid off: moneyStrands is now open for business.

moneyStrands

What does moneyStrands do?

After a very informative private beta phase we are happy to have finally taken the critical step of opening up our registration to new users. This officially kicks off a new and exciting phase of our journey to help people better manage their financial lives.

I’ve just started mucking with moneyStrands, but at the outset, it strikes me as very much like Mint, the popular personal finance tool. Still, it has something more: Strands recommender technology.

moneyStrands’ intelligent recommendation engine searches expert tips, relevant facts, and product offers from many sources to nd the best deals and advice that match your financial profile. As your life changes, your financial goals also change. moneyStrands learns, anticipates and adapts to your needs and priorities along the way.

Plus—thanks no doubt to their NetworthIQ acquistion—you can share and compare details with others:

Find and connect with like-minded members who share your goals and your traits. See how you compare, share your thoughts on best bargains or just exchange financial tips and money missteps. Your experience is as valuable as any others and there is no better insider track than following to the word of mouth.

For more details on all the ways moneyStrands can help you with your personal finances, download the moneyStrands poster. To take it for a spin, visit moneyStrands (if you’re a Strands user, you can use the same login.)

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Silicon Florist’s link arrangement for March 5

Rick Turoczy on March 5, 2009

Sustainability is next for SAO’s Mathews – Silicon Forest

Mike Rogoway writes “Talked to Harvey Mathews this afternoon for the first time since he quit the Software Association of Oregon a week ago. My first question to him was: What now? ‘I’ve just been really fascinated with this intersection between technology and sustainability, and I think that’s what I’ll pursue, on a contract basis, for a while,’ Mathews said.”

(tags: portland oregon harveymathews sao harvmarv rogoway siliconforest news technology tech sustainability)

Live [insert something here] at The Square | OurPDX

Via OurPDX “KGW is debuting its Studio on the Square this week with celebrations on Friday and an open house on Saturday. The Studio on the Square is KGW’s new HD studio in the former Powell’s Travel bookstore space in Pioneer Courthouse Square. The studio has been built with the reporters sitting with windows at their back, showcasing what is going on out on the square. From a viewer’s perspective, we get to watch both the news and something extra (if it happens.) It’s Portland’s own Today show.”

(tags: portland oregon dieselboi thesquare ourpdx news)

Amid Portland push, Voyager brings on new partner – Silicon Forest

Mike Rogoway writes “Voyager already has three Oregon companies in its portfolio, two of which — Elemental Technologies and AboutUs — won their funding in the second half of last year. Voyager remains focused on our state (its partners will be meeting with two, unnamed, companies here later this month), and has strongly hinted that it expects another Oregon investment during the first half of ’09.”

(tags: portland oregon voyager vc investments funding rogoway siliconforest oregonian)

Introducing ChangeTracker: Tracking Change in Washington – ProPublica

Via Versionista “ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism newsroom, now offers ChangeTracker, a service which lets visitors view the most recent changes to WhiteHouse.gov (and several other government sites). This service uses Versionista as a back-end. You can even ‘steal their code’ to create your own custom RSS for Versionista.”

(tags: portland oregon versionista changetracker propublica whitehouse rss obama tracking politics government)

Gnomedex 9.0 at Bell Harbor International Conference Center (Thursday August 20, 2009) – Upcoming

The Technology Conference of Inspiration and Influence! [Editor’s note: And well worth the trip up from the Silicon Forest.]

(tags: seattle washington gnomedex events)

Diplomatic mission: Portland Lunch 2.0 reps venture north for Seattle Lunch 2.0

Rick Turoczy on March 4, 2009

Seattle Lunch 2.0Here in Portland, we love the Lunch 2.0. But we can always stand to improve it. So Jake Kuramoto, the Portland Lunch 2.0 guy, has proposed that we take a trip up to Seattle to see how our neighbors to the north handle Seattle Lunch 2.0.

So this Friday, March 6, we’re doing just that.

It’s a diplomatic envoy or something. And it has two goals. The first is partaking in Seattle Lunch 2.0 but the second part? Talking to all the cool open source folks in the Emerald City in hopes of convincing them to come visit us in the Rose City for Open Source Bridge.

Jake, Selena Deckelmann, and I will be heading up for the event. I know that Brian M. Westbrook, who oscillates (wildly, I might add) between Portland and Seattle, will be in attendance, as well.

We’re all looking forward to getting the chance to hang out with our fellow Lunch 2.0 types, like Eric Berto, John DeRosa, Josh Maher, Danielle Morrill, and more. So if you’re from Seattle and debating whether you should be attending or not, hopefully this will be the little push you need to show up.

What’s that? Not enough inspiration to attend?

Okay. Fine. Ben Huh will also be there.

(yes, the CEO of the company that runs FAIL Blog, I Can Has Cheezburger?, GraphJam and other Interweb time sinks), will swing by and give a talk about his view on the world, building a lean business, and how to make a business out of being a blogger.

Oh. So now you’re interested. I see how you are.

For more information, see the Seattle Lunch 2.0 site or Seattle Lunch 2.0 on Upcoming.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there.

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Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy

Rick Turoczy on March 4, 2009

Dawn FosterWhen it comes to social media and community management, few folks in Portland—arguably few folks in the world—understand it as well as Dawn Foster, @geekygirldawn.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to meet her, Dawn is a community management powerhouse. She has more than 13 years of experience in technology and software with expertise in open source software, web 2.0, social media, blogging, and community building, working at companies like Intel and Jive Software. She’s also a co-founder and board member for Legion of Tech. Dawn currently consults on social media and community management and serves as the community manager for Shizzow.

So when I heard she was working on a book that was going to give me access to some of her insights, I got a wee bit giddy.

And now, it’s available.

Entitled Companies and Communities: Participating without being sleazy, the 80-page eBook touches on topics like blogging, Twitter, social networks, and customer-centric corporate communities.

Companies and Communities is focused on helping your company get real business value out of participating in online communities and social media. This 80 page eBook contains practical advice and suggestions for how companies can engage with online communities and social media sites.

How practical? Well, it’s full of things which we—as individual social media participants—may think are obvious, but are far from it. Especially for corporations. Things like:

Not all about you

Social media is a conversation, which is by definition two-way. In other words, it is not all about you, your company, your products or your agenda. It involves listening and participating in the broader community of people. Don’t just expect people to help you; jump in and help other people in areas where you have some expertise. If all you do is pimp your products without adding to the broader conversation, people will lose interest in you pretty quickly.

The eBook is delivered in PDF format. It’s available for $19.99. To purchase your copy, visit Dawn’s Fast Wonder Blog eBook section. Or, if you want to test drive it first, there’s an excerpt available.

I’m already thumbing through my own copy. Now, I just have to figure out how to get the author to autograph an eBook.

All hail Ontier, DEMOgod

Rick Turoczy on March 4, 2009

OntierAs I mentioned on Monday, local stealth startup Ontier was selected to unveil their product, Pixetell, at DEMO09, one of the premier venues for showcasing new—and previously unseen—technology.

As any number of applicants can tell you, it’s a coup to even be selected to appear on the DEMO stage. So Ontier was way ahead of the game by being one of the only Northwest companies selected.

And anyone who has stood on the DEMO stage can tell you that it can be one of the most nerve-wracking experiences—even for the most seasoned presenter. Making it through the five minutes is an accomplishment in and of itself.

So, they got selected. And they presented well. End of story, right? Not quite.

Ontier didn’t stop there. No, no. Just leave it to the Portland types to go and make us even more proud.

Not only did Ontier lead off the presentations, they led off by knocking it out of the park: Ontier has been named one of the DEMOgods for DEMO 09.

What’s a DEMOgod?

Each conference DEMO unveils a new class of the industry’s upcoming technologies, and it always proves difficult to pick and choose the most exceptional products. The desirable DEMOgod Awards are given to those that show outstanding potential to succeed in the market while motivating and exciting the DEMO audience.

Ontier was one of seven companies selected for the honor.

That makes this worth one more look.

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