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SplashCast pulls plug on free user-generated channels

Rick Turoczy on January 29, 2009

splashcast.jpgPortland-based SplashCast—which has gone through any number of interesting permutations as they worked to find a revenue model for their technology—has just announced that they will no longer be supporting free user-generated channels. The decision had to be a tough one, given that it was this community groundswell that brought the service to the attention of its current customer base: media companies and advertisers.

Over the past several months, we’ve been less and less focused on our “free” product, that is, the user generated channels. While we have well over 100,000 publishers, we simply haven’t been dedicating attention and resources to this part of the business.

All successful startup companies must focus. SplashCast is no different. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue our user generated content product as of February 11. We want to give our loyal (and brilliantly creative) users a chance to find other services that meet their needs.

While I’m sad to see this free service disappear—especially when it comes to rounding up Ignite Portland presentations—I can appreciate where SplashCast is trying to go. And while it would have been great to see them offer a pay version of the user-generated content service, there were likely some legal ramifications of SplashCast making money off of people repurposing other people’s intellectual property.

Suffice it to say, while this is a painful announcement for those early users and supporters of the service, this has been—obviously—a long time coming. Better to see SplashCast gnaw off a proverbial leg to escape the trap, then go down with the ship. To completely mix metaphors.

Things are tough all over. SplashCast isn’t alone in reducing its free offerings to the benefit of the business. A couple of little companies of which you may have heard, Google and Yahoo!, are among the thousands of companies that have been going through similar slimmings to deal with the current economy, as well.

Finding focus is terribly difficult for any company—especially when it comes at the expense of faithful users. But it would be nice to see SplashCast sticking around. And if they have to forego their free services to do it? So be it.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 28

Rick Turoczy on January 29, 2009

Startup funding ideas for tough times

Via TiE “Finding the money to invest in your startup is tough even in normal times. With the global economic climate being what it is today this task is even harder. How do you find the right funding in this environment? Join our experienced group of Venture Capitalists – Venky Ganesan – Managing Director of Globespan Capital, Carolynn Duncan – Micro-business expert and subject matter expert in VC /Angel funding & Bobby Kandaswamy – Director Strategic Investments at Intel Capital on Feb 5th to discuss the best ways of funding your company in a downturn. “

Thanks to everybody who attended Recked. Presentations are now available!

Via the Strands blog “Thanks to everybody who attended Recked, the informal event for engineers interested in recommender systems. It was awesome. And thanks to Robert Gaal for putting the event together. You can find the three presentations (Strands, Wakoopa and Reccoon) below.”

Master of 500 Hats: Great Entrepreneurs are PASSIONATE about Customers & Products, NOT about being Great Entrepreneurs.

Dave McClure writes “I DO hope some of you young-ass whippersnappers get your heads out of your collective asses and get a little more practical about what you’re likely to encounter should you decide to do your own startup. and a little more real about what you may face at the end of a rough hand of poker.”

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OpenID Foundation: Portland people remain in leadership roles

Rick Turoczy on January 28, 2009

Many of you know that in addition to serving as an OpenID proponent, a critical part of the Vidoop team, and a devout bacon—and bacn—geek, Scott Kveton has also served as the chair of the OpenID Foundation.

Today, the Foundation announced its new officers. And while Kveton has moved into the role of vice-chair, I’m happy to report that Brian Kissell of Portland-based JanRain has been elected chair of the organization.

It’s great to see Portland—the de facto hub of OpenID development—continuing to have a noted presence in the Foundation and its efforts.

In other news, a little company called PayPal—which is owned by another little company called eBay—became a sustaining member of the OpenID Foundation. But neither of them are from the Silicon Forest, so that’s secondary news.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 27

Rick Turoczy on January 28, 2009

Will digital history simply disappear?

Via Iterasi “Referring back to the article in the Guardian, the iterasi archive has 29 pages on Whitehouse.gov from the Bush administration and zero pages of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. On the former, hey that’s 29 pages that perhaps don’t exist anywhere else on the Web. I can’t feel too bad about not having web pages from the 2000 Olympics as we started iterasi in 2007. So if you use iterasi, realize that you are also a librarian and a historian. So go forth and save the Web! Someone in the future may benefit from your efforts.” (FULL DISCLOSURE: Iterasi is a client of mine.)

Test site fixed! | Oregon Blogs

Via the Oregon Blogs ORBlogs 2.0 blog “Please go ahead and create yourself an account, add plenty of (appropriate) feeds, file issues for anything that is broken or otherwise obviously wrong, and chat us up on the mailing list with ideas for improvement! Please don’t be shy, we need as many people beating on this thing and providing feedback as we can get!”

86 IP5 Talk Ideas Submitted. Those Chosen Notified Soon. at Ignite Portland

Via Ignite Portland “We received a record 86 talk idea submissions for Ignite Portland 5 (we usually get around 50). There was a definitely ‘bathtub curve’ to when they came in – lots were submitted right after Ignite Portland 4, when lots of people surely thought ‘I should do a talk about *subject*.’ Then there was a lull, and, as usual, a nice big rush of submissions right before the deadline. You Portlanders sure are a bunch of procrastinators. ;-)”

Portland Data Plumbing User Group 1/27/2009

Footage from the Portland Data Plumbing User Group on January 27, 2009, featuring Marshall Kirkpatrick and his RSS magic.

Group widgets & Facebook integration

Via the Walker Tracker blog “Facebook Connect is now implemented (at least barebones – likely more to come, here). If you post your steps, you’ll see a button that will allow you to post your daily step count/blog post/picture to your Facebook feed if you have a facebook account.”

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Portland OpenID looking healthy: Vidoop authentication for Microsoft HealthVault

Rick Turoczy on January 27, 2009

VidoopPortland-based Vidoop—the OpenID provider that allows users to login more securely without using a password—has just announced that their authentication will be used by Microsoft HealthVault, the online health information storage and Personal Health Record product from our neighbors to the north.

“Our objective is to give our customers choice and make their Web experience easier, while helping them safeguard their privacy,” said George Scriban, senior product manager, Health Solutions Group, Microsoft. “We’re happy to be working with Vidoop to give HealthVault users the option of using their log-in and authentication solutions with their HealthVault account.”

Not only is this good news for Vidoop, it’s good news for OpenID. What’s more (and near and dear to our hearts), it’s good for Portland, as Vidoop joins Portland’s other OpenID juggernaut, JanRain, as an option for HealthVault logins.

Microsoft HealthVault allows individuals to store health information from many sources in one location, so that it’s always organized and available. HealthVault is working with doctors, hospitals, employers, pharmacies, insurance providers and manufacturers of health devices—blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors and more—to make it easy for consumers to add information electronically to HealthVault records.

Vidoop’s ImageShield—which allows users to login based on information contained in a series of images—will ensure that individuals have secure access to these records without the issues generally associated with password-based security.

“The weakest point in Internet security is the front line – where users log-in – but with strong authentication the front line can become the strongest point,” said Scott Kveton, Vidoop’s vice president of Engineering.

For more on Microsoft’s consumer health solution, visit Microsoft HealthVault. For details on OpenID and ImageShield, visit Vidoop.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 26

Rick Turoczy on January 27, 2009

 

Online Community Manager: Yes, It’s Really A Job

Dawn Foster writes “I have also noticed that online community management positions tend to be weathering the current economic downturn better than some other jobs. Community managers are still being hired on a regular basis, and I’m still seeing openings on various job boards for companies looking to hire community managers. Here are just a couple of examples of companies who are currently looking for or have recently hired a community manager….”

Portland Twitter Storm Team #pdxtst – Explained

Aaron Hockley provides a quick history of the local Twitter meme.

SLL: beer & blog, oh and a podcast too | Our PDX Network

Cami Kaos writes “Friday night we had the distinct pleasure of chatting with Beer & Blog’s Justin Kistner for round about 4 hours. Now we didn’t record all of it but we went over time on both the tech edition and afterhours because we all had so much to say. Justin was an excellent guest and he’s welcome back anytime. We were also joined by his lovely wife Christine and Strange Love Live and Beer & Blog regular Verso.”

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Versionista exposes wiki-like views of edits for any site

Rick Turoczy on January 26, 2009

You may remember Portland-based Versionista from last year, when they stepped into the limelight as the McCain camp used the tool to highlight recent changes to the Obama campaign site.

Now, they’re allowing Web site owners to expose those changes, themselves, with a new service that provides the date of the last change and highlights the content that has been revised.

This feature is particularly useful for Webmasters who wish to offer full edit transparency to viewers. By inserting a simple JavaScript snippet, any tracked Web page will automatically include the date of the last edit, and a link to the revision history of that document.

Here’s an example using Silicon Florist’s recent changes.

It seems appropriate that the town known for its wikis—and home to the father of the wiki, Ward Cunningham—is home to a service inspired by the wiki view of recent changes. Even if you don’t let your readers edit your site, it’s always nice to let them know what you’ve changed.

To test drive this feature or to add it to your site, visit Versionista.

Beer and Blog says “Konnichiwa!” to Tokyo and “Hello!” to Houston and Phoenix

Rick Turoczy on January 24, 2009

Beer and BlogBeer and Blog, the weekly Portland get-together started by Justin Kistner, was been growing by leaps and bounds.

What kinds of leaps and bounds? I’m glad you asked.

Currently there is Beer and Blog Portland, Beer and Blog Corvallis, Beer and Blog Eugene, Beer and Blog St Louis, and Beer and Blog Las Vegas.

But does it stop there? Oh no, my friend. Not by a long shot.

Tonight on Strange Love Live, Justin announced the launch of Beer and Blog chapters in Houston, Phoenix, and—with its first international chapter—Tokyo.

Sniff sniff. Our little Beer and Blog is all growed up.

Congratulations to Justin, his Portland-based team, and all of the chapter leads! It’s great to see something that has so strengthened the Portland tech community getting the chance to work its magic in other towns.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 23

Rick Turoczy on January 24, 2009

Amid Economic Downturn, Tech Industry Struggles

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer featured a number of Portland, Oregon, companies in a segment on the tech industry’s trials and tribulations, including Ambric, Elemental, and TriQuint.

Getting Things Done | Oregon Blogs

From the ORBlogs 2.0 team “I feel like we have been stalling a bit, so I have done a few things recently to try to make the development process more transparent, as well as easier for anyone who wants to just jump in and do what they can, but may have been stymied by not knowing where to start.”

Looking forward: Keiretsu Forum, Tektronix, InnoTech – Silicon Forest – The Oregonian – OregonLive.com

Mike Rogoway digs for some positive news on a less than positive week.

Federal Reserve, designed by Pietro Belluschi, gets renovation

Via Daily Journal of Commerce “Also altering The Reserve is a new, 13,000-square-foot penthouse that was built on top of the original building. Taking advantage of the building’s view of the city, Hennebery Eddy designed the penthouse with floor-ceiling windows and a wrap-around porch with a continuous overhang to provide shade and block intense sunlight. Once it’s completed this week, the $5 million penthouse will belong to tenant Jive Software, which has occupied the building’s third and fourth floors since May 2008.”

Who Wants a Free Web Application?

Via the Symfony Project “Looking for something to do with all that brain power? We’re happy to announce an upcoming community event that will harness the power of the symfony community toward a variety of social causes. Help us get the word out! This event will take on the basic structure of other 48 hour web application development competitions, such as Rails Rumble, but with a special twist unique to symfony. The applications we create during the course of the competition will be gifted to different socially-minded organizations around the world. Once the fun is over, our work will live on and hopefully do a lot of good.”

Nerdabout Portland : Open Tech Space

Amber Case writes “There’s just one little problem. You live in a house. You work at an office or coffeeshop. There’s no really large space with tons of powertools, saws, and electronic equipment nearby. Your garage is lacking a 9′ wood lathe, and the basement has no more room for electronics. Enter Open Tech Space.”

OpenID Case Study: AFI Begin Transmission Project

Via the JanRain blog “We’ve been building a portfolio of OpenID case studies and just finished one that is pretty exciting, so wanted to share it with the community. AFI is a leading rock band with an exciting approach to fan engagement – a competition for six fans to perform on their next album.”

Elan3.com : Plenty of Layoffs But No Hiring Freeze

Tim Sears writes “Despite this dark news we keep seeing in companies across the tech industry, I keep asking myself if things are really as bad as they seem. Microsoft is actually still hiring a large number of Software Development Engineers – over 150, in fact – to help grow and support a variety of their different product platforms. Some positions were posted as recently as today. Intel, on the other hand, does not have anywhere near as many position openings, but there is no clear evidence of a hiring freeze.”

The iPhone App Store Gold Rush

Jason Grigsby writes “Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of good applications being built based on solid business plans. And after evangelizing mobile for so long, I’m pleased that people are excited about the possibilities. It’s just important to recognize that it is a gold rush. During a gold rush, there is a lot of money to be made. But the part that makes it a rush is the irrational exuberance of the chase.”

Nerdabout Portland : Top Ten Places to Find Tech Nerds

Amber Case writes “Need help with your software project? Looking for a logo or WordPress hack? Interested in some of the brightest minds in Portland Tech? Whether you’re looking for community, coffee, or Wifi, Portland Tech hangouts abound. I’ve compiled a list of the top ten Portland Tech hangouts and what they’re like. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop by, or follow me on Twitter @caseorganic and I’ll give you tips on where we’re going to be next. “

Tech Strategy 2009: More for Less at Lucky Lab beer hall (Tuesday January 27, 2009) – Upcoming

Via NTEN “This meeting will be talking overall tech strategy. Do you have a technology plan in place? What types of things should you be thinking of? We’re going to take a look at the big picture and help you see what ways you can be using technology to make your nonprofit’s work more efficient. This will be a joint meetup with the Nonprofit Technology Network’s, Portland 501 Tech Club. Speaker details are still being finalized but be sure it will be some great local tech talent!” (Don’t be so sure. It’s me.)

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Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for January 22

Rick Turoczy on January 23, 2009

Top 10 Tech Companies to Work For in Portland, Oregon

Amber Case writes “I’m putting together a list of Top 10 Tech Companies to Work for In Portland, Oregon and I need your advice. If I don’t get your advice, I’ll probably choose the wrong ones. After all, I’m not capable of knowing which ones are the best to work for — you are. And while I’ve consulted with many interesting Portland Tech Companies (this excludes design companies, which will be covered in a later roundup), I don’t have the inside perspective that you can provide.”

Las Vegas Weekly : – Suds and buds

Thanks to Justin Kistner, Portland’s Beer and Blog is all growed up. Via Las Vegas Weekly “As with most things that come to Vegas, Beer & Blog originated somewhere else, in this case Portland, Oregon. Last Thursday, Justin Kistner, the founder of Beer & Blog, was on hand (beer in hand) for the Vegas inaugural, held at the Freakin’ Frog. And, as is so often not the case, Vegas got into Beer & Blog early enough to be almost at the vanguard. “We started January 16, 2008,” Kistner says. ‘And now there are five cities.’ Three are in Oregon, and the fourth is St. Louis. Vegas is No. 5.”

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