.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 3

Rick Turoczy on March 3, 2009

Demolicious – Portland Web Innovators at Jive Software (Wednesday April 1, 2009)

Via PDXWI “Come see the great stuff your fellow Portlanders have been working on. Several ten minute demos of new products and side projects.”

(tags: portland web innovators oregon pdxwi demolicious events demos)

SLL: A Night With John Nastos

Cami Kaos writes “Friday night saw another big first in the history of SLL. During Afterhours we had a live musical performance right there in our little studio, but before that happened we had a very informative Tech Edition. Usually I like one episode from the night better than the other and it’s usually pretty clear cut for me which it was, but if you ask me to pick a favorite this week I’m likely to stare blankly at you for a while before asking if you listened to them both.”

(tags: strangelovelive johnnastos camikaos sll tagalus combotweet)

Portland Data Visualization Group | Monday, March 23, 2009 from 6–8pm

Amber Case and Bram Pitoyo write “It is because of all of these things, and what I feel is becoming an essential next step in the development of trend prediction and the very useful implementation of data and information, that we’ve decided to start having some meetings around this sort of thing. The first Portland Data Visualization Group will be held on Monday, March 23, 2009 from 6–8pm at Webtrends.”

(tags: events portland oregon data visualization ambercase caseorganic brampitoyo)

Five Tracks to Rule Them All

Via Open Source Bridge “The track names for Open Source Bridge are a little unusual. No Ruby, Perl, System Administration, Linux—instead we have Cooking, Chemistry, Culture, Hacks (and Business, but you’ve seen that one elsewhere). So what’s going on? How are these relevant to open source software?”

(tags: opensourcebridge opensource osbridge tracks events spinnerin portland oregon 2009)

Kelly “@verso” Guimont kicks off KGW Live @7 “Hire me”

Um. I kinda put it all in the headline. But check out this new feature from @thesquare starring @verso @beerandblog and @ other stuff.

(tags: kellyguimont verso kgw thesquare hireme hires employment video)

Win a SXSW Badge Upgrade at the PDX Pre-SXSW Party

Dawn Foster writes “I talked to Hugh Forrest at sxsw, and he has offered a free upgrade from an Interactive badge to a Gold badge for one lucky winner! Basically, this means that you get to attend the film tracks and screenings in addition to the interactive program.”

(tags: portland oregon sxsw events meetup beerandblog beer blog dawnfoster geekygirldawn)

DEMO 09: Ontier Pixetell offers asynchronous online meetings via email

Rick Turoczy on March 2, 2009

Ontier PixetellOffers whoosa whatsa?

Okay, okay. Maybe the headline is a bit too hyperbolic—and those are my words, not theirs, so blame me. But that’s the first thing that jumped to mind when I saw Portland-based Ontier demo their product Pixetell at DEMO 09.

[HTML1]

Here’s another way I’d describe it: it’s like having Seesmic and Jing wedged into your email. Better? No?

Okay, maybe it would be better to let them explain what their product does:

Pixetell on-demand software provides the power of in-person interaction and the convenience of email. You can verbally and visually explain spreadsheets, drawings, designs, proposals… anything on your screen. With Pixetell, you quickly combine screen recordings, voice, webcam, rich text and attachments into a secure, interactive message sent over existing channels including email, blogs, wikis, IM and Twitter. Recipients view Pixetells at their convenience in their Web browser and can reply with their own Pixetell message.

And their not the only ones talking about it. Spend 5 minutes on stage at DEMO and a whole bunch of people start chattering about your product.

Here’s what some other folks are saying:

DEMO: Ontier’s Pixetell packs more collaboration into email (VentureBeat)

Pixetell is one of those products that sounds a little fuzzy at first, but really grabs your attention (or mine, at least) once you see it in action. Basically, it allows you to use screen recordings, voice, web cam, rich text and other attachments to enrich emails and related documents — spreadsheets, designs, proposals and so on. And it allows you to add these things as part of your normal workflow, using a simple dashboard that appears at the bottom of your screen.

Move over e-mail, here come ‘Pixetells’ (Computerworld)

Regular e-mail, especially for complicated discussions, can be tedious, with many messages going back and forth before a problem gets solved, said CEO Sebastian Rapport, who will demonstrate Pixetell at the Demo conference in Palm Desert, Calif.

Web conferences have their own limitations as well, because they can be hard to schedule, especially for distributed teams, he said. “At awkward hours, you can’t get it done,” Rapport said.

Pixetell, meanwhile, “sits somewhere between e-mail and Web conferencing,” he said.

DEMO 09 companies that work for me (Cool Tools Happy Blog)

Ontier’s Pixetell is on-demand software that lets users verbally and visually explain spreadsheets, designs, proposals – basically anything that’s on your PC screen. Instead of using a Web-based collaboration or conferencing service like WebEx, you can create a similar demonstration or explanation of anything and then send it off in a Pixetell message. The user interface looks gorgeous, and the demo was very effective in showing what it could do.

Demo 09: Doing More With Less (Forward Thinking)

The major presenters started with Ontier, Inc., which showed a product called Pixetell, a competitor to products like WebEx allows you to send screen shots, video and audio in a special email message;; and to respond similarly. You can use a web cam for video or capture what is happening on your screen; and collect the responses via email. What I like about it is that it allows for a rich media conversation that doesn’t have to be in real time. It looked very easy to set up, and I can see how businesses could like this very much.

Nice to have you out of stealth, Ontier

It’s great to have another Silicon Forest company launching at DEMO (Iterasi launched at DEMO 08 and SplashCast launched at DEMO 07), especially one that appears to have been so well received by those watching the show.

Here’s hoping we see more of Ontier around Portland, now that they’re done being stealthy.

Ontier, Inc. was founded in early 2008 in Portland, Oregon by industry veteran Sebastian Rapport. The company is comprised of a global team of experienced managers and product developers brought together to enable a leap forward in the way we communicate.

For more information or to sign up for the beta, visit Ontier.

[HTML2]

Bac’n: It’s what’s for lunch, March 2

Rick Turoczy on March 1, 2009

Bacn your online source for premium baconBuilding a successful startup takes years, right? Well, months? Weeks and weeks? How about 21 days?

That’s about how long it took Scott Kveton and team to build and launch Bac’n, a site that sells high-end bacon and bacon-oriented paraphernalia.

How did they do it in such a short time period? Well, you can find out. On Monday March 2, Kveton will speak at the newly opened Nedspace—a startup coworking space in downtown Portland—about his experience creating Bacn.com:

Come hear Scott Kveton (Bac’n co-founder) talk about how he and his team launched this successful tasty bacon monster in under just three short weeks. You will oink yourself to happiness as Scott weaves true tales of bare-hooved bootstrapping and entrepreneurial maneuvers in the dark.

Tail curling stories designed to share with you what works, what does not, and having the bacon to move ahead like a greased, well you know. This little piggy went to market, and it owns the bacon market online.

And of course, true to form, bacon will be provided.

Pricing is listed as free to entrepreneurs, “$15 to numbskulls, $25 to vegetarians.”

For more information, visit Bac’n Meat Up on Upcoming or Calagator.

Y Combinator founder likes Portland’s potential for startups

Rick Turoczy on February 28, 2009

Can Portland become a startup hub? It’s a question that we discuss time and time again.

We have the hackers, but can we attract the right kind of investors? Can we create a startup environment that meshes with the Portland—and Silicon Forest—culture? Can we build a sustainable startup engine?

I believe we can and I know I’m not alone in that regard.

Now, Paul Graham, founder of the well-known early stage startup incubator Y Combinator, has provided another vote of confidence for the Rose City. In a post entitled “Can You Buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe.” he proposes a way to fund and retain startups “for a particular city.”

It’s an interesting argument. But what I found most interesting was this (emphasis is mine):

How well this scheme worked would depend on the city. There are some towns, like Portland, that would be easy to turn into startup hubs, and others, like Detroit, where it would really be an uphill battle. So be honest with yourself about the sort of town you have before you try this.

So now, it’s not just obvious to us, anymore. It’s obvious to the outside world, as well.

It seems like there’s an opportunity here. And we shouldn’t squander it.

(Hat tip Elia Freedman)

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for February 28

Rick Turoczy on February 28, 2009

Speed Dating at OTBC, February 28

The 21 ideas being pitched during the Speed Dating session at OTBC.

(tags: otbc beaverton oregon startups speeddating events)

Welcome home to a new…

Our PDX Network launches an advice column, featuring @endlessmonkeys with helpful advice.

(tags: portland oregon ourpdx advice endlessmonkeys)

Talking SXSW at Beer and Blog / Strange Love Live on March 6

Via Shizzow “First, we’re going to spend some time at Beer and Blog from 4pm – 7pm to talk about how Portlanders can keep in touch at SXSW and find the best parties. I’ll even share one of my secrets about parties at SXSW. Hint: the big parties suck. After Beer and Blog, we will be gracing the Strange Love Live couch again to talk about SXSW and Shizzow.”

(tags: portland oregon shizzow events sxsw beerandblog strangelovelive sll beer blog)

DEMO: How new technology makes us more productive

Via VentureBeat “Jive Software, meanwhile, helps big-name corporate like Nike and John Deere collaborate within a company, with partners, and with customers using Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, and forums. (The Sequoia-backed company has also been integrating with other applications and offering tools that make it easier to use its software even when you’re out of the office.)”

(tags: portland oregon jive demo venturebeat)

Tagalus Tag Sprint

Via Tagalus “Here’s the deal – I’m asking you guys to define as many as possible – yours, other peoples, tags you’ve seen, tags you’ve used, tags you’ve never used, tags you think should exist – it’s up to you! Also, if you like the service, perhaps consider tweeting about it and pointing your followers toward the site?”

(tags: portland oregon tagalus tagsprint tagging tags twitter hashtag)

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for February 27

Rick Turoczy on February 27, 2009

OAuth Issues

John Nastos writes “OAuth is meant to address these security concerns by allowing users to authenticate with Twitter and then give permissions to certain applications to access their account. I won’t go into an entire example here, because the point of this point is to address some concerns I have with the inner workings, rather than describe the whole process. This also means, that from here on out, this will get pretty techie/geeky/insider.”

(tags: oauth insight twitter portland oregon johnnastos combotweet)

Online Community Management Roundtable at the BLNW ‘09 Blog Pavilion, with Dawn Foster and Marshall Kirkpatrick

Luke Lefler writes “Fresh out of the digital tinder box and into your analog hearth, a warm and sparking round-table discussion at the Blog Pavilion at Business Leader NW 2009. Dawn Foster and Marshall Kirkpatrick elucidate, Alex H. Williams moderates, we aggregate.”

(tags: portland oregon dawnfoster marshallk marshallkirkpatrick geekygirldawn events alexhwilliams podcasts blnw)

Farewell February, Bring On March

Via Beer and Blog Portland “It’s been a whirlwind year, with the last Friday of February fast approaching. And honestly? After brainstorming with my Beer and Blog buddies to plan March’s fun, I can barely wait to tell you what we have in store. But I’ll only tell you a little, for now. You’ll have to wait for more details until Friday, when we meet once again at the Green Dragon for happy hour.”

(tags: portland oregon beerandblog beer blog bloggers meetup events)

Introducing FastFigures Mobile for iPhone and iPod Touch

Elia Freedman writes “I’m very proud to announce the release of FastFigures Mobile, our first iPhone/iPod Touch application and the first release of our companion to FastFigures Online. FastFigures Mobile runs on iPhone and iPod Touch devices without requiring an Internet connection. FastFigures modernizes the calculator.”

(tags: beaverton oregon iphone apps applications fastfigures)

Open Source Bridge: Calling all open source citizens

Rick Turoczy on February 26, 2009

[Full disclosure: I am on the volunteer committee helping to organize Open Source Bridge.]

Open Source BridgeAs 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.

[HTML1]

REMINDER: Communit.as launch party, tonight

Rick Turoczy on February 26, 2009

Communit.asIt’s always good to see new Silicon Forest based products being launched—especially when there’s a launch party involved. So, don’t forget that Communit.as will be unveiling their product, tonight.

What’s Communit.as? According to the founders, it’s an “open source web application that provides a foundation for building custom community and social network sites.”

That’s about all I’ve got, because I haven’t seen it yet, either.

Oh okay. Here are some other details:

There are certain core features any community or social network site needs: user accounts, access control, database abstraction, template rendering and a few other essentials. While you could certainly build these things from scratch every time you build a site, this seems like kind of a waste of effort to us. With that in mind we set out to create a reusable, upgradeable foundation that can shave the first few weeks of development off of any custom community site.

“Custom” is really the operative word there. Communit.as is generally intended for building sites with lots of custom functionality. Instead starting with the functionality we think you want and forcing you to hack the crap out of it, we take care of the tedious stuff and give you a great set of tools for adding your own features. If you want a generic blog or a social network that does everything out of the box, there are better solutions for those things.

This isn’t to say you don’t get a running application out of the box. You do. We provide a simple and robust installer that will have you up and running in minutes.

So if you’re intrigued, make sure to show up at CubeSpace, this evening from 6-8. There will be drinks, snacks, and demos galore.

For more information, visit the Communit.as launch party on Upcoming or Calagator.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for February 26

Rick Turoczy on February 26, 2009

Startups in 13 Sentences

Paul Graham writes “One of the things I always tell startups is a principle I learned from Paul Buchheit: it’s better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy. I was saying recently to a reporter that if I could only tell startups 10 things, this would be one of them. Then I thought: what would the other 9 be? When I made the list there turned out to be 13”

(tags: startups advice entrepreneurship paulgraham tips)

iterasiLite, updated browser support and Web-based Import Bookmarks

Via Iterasi “Today we are releasing a new product – iterasiLite for Firefox – as well as updates for our clients to the latest browser releases, and a Web-based Import Bookmarks tool.”

(tags: portland oregon iterasi firefox iterasilite)

Social Media Club PDX Event Recap

Via Social Media Club PDX “Wow. What an amazing turnout for our very first event. We had nearly 100 people crammed into a room that was certainly not meant to hold that many. It was great to see so many people interested in learning and sharing ideas about social media. Despite some technical difficulties we experienced, there was some interesting debate and great conversation.”

(tags: portland pdx socialmediaclub social media events)

Versionista offers public revision history of DrudgeReport.com

Via Versionista “To help document the role of online news stories in the election, and beyond, Versionista now lets users sift through edit histories of the Drudge Report for the past several months. Users can view side-by-side comparisons, visually transformed to show what has been added and deleted from one revision to the next.”

(tags: portland oregon versionista news)

Harvey Mathews leaves Software Association of Oregon (SAO) [UPDATED]

Rick Turoczy on February 25, 2009

[UPDATE 2]

Mike Rogoway at The Oregonian‘s Silicon Forest blog has posted on the news as well:

My understanding then was that Mathews was looking for a more involved, engaged board — and that he got it. He’s since recruited new board members, boosted membership and sponsorship, started a health care plan for SAO member companies, and helped create interest groups and social networks within the organization.

I haven’t heard back from Mathews himself, so for the moment at least the reasons for his sudden departure will remain a little mysterious.

[UPDATE]

Harvey’s departure has been confirmed. Here’s the press release:

SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION OF OREGON PRESIDENT STEPS DOWN

Portland, Ore. – February 25, 2009 – The Software Association of Oregon (SAO), the primary trade organization for Oregon industry driven by software, announced today that its president, Harvey Mathews, has resigned. The organization’s board and Mathews are working together to identify potential candidates to fill the role.

Over the past decade, the software industry has evolved dramatically. Once a minor tool for many businesses and consumers, software now drives both much of our economy and personal lives from financial services and environmental sustainability to online social networking and mobile communications. Differing views of the SAO’s role in the continuing evolution of the software industry between Mr. Mathews and the Board have resulted in Mathews’ decision to step down.

“The SAO’s board is tremendously thankful for Harvey’s vision and leadership,” said Michael Phillips, chairman of the SAO board and partner of David Wright Tremaine LLP. “He has increased significantly membership and sponsors in the past year alone, created new special interest groups such as the Clean Tech Alliance, and developed a new health care program for members. His contributions have been invaluable.”

“I’ve really enjoyed my experience working with the Oregon technology community, from large software companies to impassioned entrepreneur-developers,” said Mathews. “It is my belief that the next great period of innovation and economic development will be powered by software, and the SAO is the organization to lead the effort in the Northwest.”

[ORIGINAL POST]

I’m hearing a number of reports that Harvey Mathews has resigned his role as president at the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). As of this posting, he’s still listed on the SAO staff page. But given what has happened before, I’m inclined to believe it.

Harvey Mathews leaves SAO

I’ve been a big fan of what Harvey’s been trying to do at SAO, especially as it applies to the small and micro startups that I try to cover here on Silicon Florist.

If this rumor is true, I’m sad to see him go. But I remain hopeful that he’ll resurface in another role.

I have a call into Harvey about this. I’ll let you know when I find out more or when other information surfaces.

[HTML1]

1 … 533 534 535 536 537 … 626