Portland startup and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
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And thanks very much to Matthew Atkins for the bumper riff.
[Full disclosure: Iterasi is a client of mine. I was aware of this feature under development, but I was not involved in this release. Quite frankly, it took me by surprise. But it makes sense that they’re pushing it while they’re down at the TechCrunch 50.]
Back when I discovered social bookmarking, the way I used the Web changed.
Okay. That may be a little hyperbolic, but there’s a lot of truth to that.
With social bookmarking, I was able to save site locations, tag them in a meaningful way, and get to them from any browser with an Internet connection.
It may not seem like a big deal now. But back then? It was “You mean my bookmarks aren’t beholden to this one browser on this one machine? Oh my. Very cool.”
But my bookmarks always suffered from a problem that I couldn’t solve with just a link.
And that was? Well, sometimes the page just changed. The story or the thing I thought was important or—worst of all—the cool design that I wanted to rip-off save for inspiration.
Screenshots were a workaround. But they were never really what I wanted.
What I wanted was to save the page.
Fast forward to today.
I’m sitting on a ton of bookmarks. I use social bookmarking sites like ma.gnolia and del.icio.us every day, if not several times a day. They have become so much a part of the way that I use the Web—and the way that I share and glean information from others—that social bookmarking would be an incredibly hard habit to break.
But I still worry about losing the page I actually wanted.
Well, now, that problem is solved thanks to still just barely Vancouver-based and ever-so-close to being Portland-based Iterasi and their new “import bookmarks” feature:
This feature imports bookmarks from Firefox, Internet Explorer, del.icio.us and/or from any app that exports to the standard bookmark export format. So you tell it where your bookmarks are, we import them and make permanent copies of the pages the bookmarks point to. No more lost articles. No more link rot. No more Error 404s. But we don’t just import them. Import Bookmarks is built on top of the iterasi Scheduler – released last month – so one-by-one you can choose to archive each bookmark once, every day, week or month, or not a all.
Now, granted, that’s not going to do much for the links that have already aged. But from now on? I can be sure that I’ll have exactly the page I wanted to save.
As excited as I am about this feature to extend the use of Iterasi, there’s one thing I’m even more excited about: not having to use Iterasi.
Huh? Stick with me here.
I’ve developed a workflow for saving links and—as chagrin as I am to admit it—Iterasi isn’t part of that workflow.
It’s an afterthought. A habit I’m trying to force.
But with this feature? That problem is solved, too.
How?
Now that Iterasi can import bookmarks, I can work in my preferred social bookmarking tool and still have Iterasi saving the pages for me.
I can fly around willy nilly tagging things in del.icio.us or saving them to the Silicon Florist group on ma.gnolia. All the while, knowing that I can bring those over to Iterasi to make an archived copy.
And that’s pretty cool.
I can work where I’m comfortable working without losing the ability to save things I really want to save. And that makes this new import bookmarks feature very powerful indeed.
The feature, however, does come with a caveat:
If you have lots of bookmarks, it is best to schedule it to run when you are away from your computer. Think about it; we are feeding dozens and dozens of bookmarks down to the browser who is one-at-a-time loading, notarizing, and shipping each up to your account. In other words, we are torturing the poor browser. As you might expect, the browser can lock up under this kind of load. We find this situation to be unavoidable.
For more information and a short video on the new feature, see the Iterasi blog. Want to test drive it yourself? Download the latest version of Iterasi and then click on the “leaves” to access the feature.
Betsy Richter writes “Shizzow has roared out of the Batcave and taken on a life of its own – it’s now the creation of four local PDX tech gurus, and it’s billed as a ‘location-based social web service that we built with the goal of helping you build quality relationships through face-to-face interaction.'”
Tune in to this ReadWriteWeb-produced podcast to hear Portland’s Marshall Kirkpatrick, Vidoop’s Chris “Factoryjoe” Messina, and others discuss the new Web-browser darling Google Chrome.
Our favorite cyborg anthropologist, Amber Case, and a number of other locals are hard at work on Cyborgcamp, “an unconference dedicated to exploring cyborg technology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy.” (Please don’t tell Josh Bancroft. This will give him nightmares for weeks.)
Rick Ellis writes “I apologize to all who have been anxiously awaiting 2.0, but I can assure you that we are as anxious to get 2.0 released as you are to get it. This has been a huge project for us, so we need to get it right. Rushing it to market before it’s ready would be irresponsible, so we ask that you give us a bit more time. We promise the wait will be worth it.”
Dawn Foster writes “I cannot put enough emphasis on the importance of using monitoring dashboards to understand what people are saying about you, your industry, your competitors and more. The information obtained can be used as ideas for blog posts, marketing messages, competitive analysis, product feedback and much more.” Not only is she wicked smart, she’ll be on the OEN PubTalk panel this Wednesday.
Aaron Hockley writes “I use Firefox as my browser for Flickr, primarily because I can use several Greasemonkey scripts which add usability features to the Flickr pages. If you’re not familiar with Greasemonkey, it’s a Firefox add-on which allows scripts to be run which alter the display of a web page.”
JP Voilleque writes “InVerge is in the books, and there were a lot of amazing presentations and takeaways – and an equal amount of space for critique and comment. Everyone’s a critic, of course, but in this case I think that my (thoroughly informal) polling of audience and presenters, the Twitterstream, and Eric’s chats with people at the W + K reception, all combine to give me some standing to make some points about the conference as a whole.”
Via the Clicky blog “We released a sneak peak of our new iPhone interface on Friday to some of our users, but we are announcing it officially today. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can point it to m.getclicky.com and use an interface designed specifically for the iPhone.”
The outpouring of emotion, passion, and volunteerism that erupted last week—upon the news that ORBlogs was shutting down—has been nothing short of amazing. And I’m honored to have been part of it.
Thank you very, very much to everyone who read about the situation, commented, blogged, spoke, and wrote about the effort to save ORBlogs. The response was incredible. And please, to paraphrase Betsy Richter, don’t take the lack of communications as any sign that things aren’t happening.
Rest assured, things are moving.
And in an effort keep everyone in the loop and to keep the momentum going, I thought it would be wise to provide an update.
In short, John Metta of Hood River has taken up the gauntlet and is moving forward—at an accelerated clip—on figuring out how to bring an Oregon blog aggregator back online. He’s got a great plan, he’s working on creating a project site, and he’s established a mailing list to discuss ORBlogs 2.0. You can also follow John on Twitter as Mettadore.
John is in touch with Paul Bausch, ORBlogs creator. So hopefully, we’ll hear more soon.
And as I’ve mentioned before, while John has graciously offered to take the lead on this project—and has already been exceedingly active in that regard—it will still be important to figure out two things:
Getting involved and staying involved is the first step. I’m really looking forward to see where this goes.
I’m happy to see that our beautiful summer weather continues to hang around. But from an event standpoint? It looks like summer’s over.
If this week’s event schedule is any indication, people are clearly ready to get back to business in the Portland Web and startup scene.
There’s a lot going on, so I thought it might be helpful to provide a round-up of what I’m tracking. And if I missed your event (it happens), please take a moment to comment below so that we can get it on folks’ calendars:
Whoof. That’s a lot of activity. Even for our usually hyperactive tech scene.
I’m going to be trying to make as many of these as I can—especially the ones where I’m lucky enough to be “on the agenda,” as they say.
Hopefully, I’ll see you at a few of them, too.
Oh, and one last thing. If you’re interested in keeping track of what’s happening in the Portland Web and startup scene, feel free to join the Silicon Florist group on Upcoming. That way, you’ll always be up-to-date on the latest and greatest events.
[UPDATE September 5, 2008]: Paul Bausch, the creator of ORBlogs was kind enough to respond to my email. His feeling is that while we may love the work that ORBlogs does—and how it works on the front-end—that the back-end was more spaghetti code than anything else.
As such, he suggests:
I’d be happy to dump a list of the active blogs, my db schema, or answer questions about how this or that works to get someone else up and running. But I really believe the code would do more damage than help—someone should make a new Oregon blogging directory of their own.
Great news! And, now, some work for us to do.
Thanks to those who have commented below offering their support. I will definitely be in contact with you on this project.
And if you’re interested in discussing this in person? Why not swing by Beer and Blog this evening at the Green Dragon where we’ll be discussing ORBlogs 2.0.
And I just got a tweet from John Metta that expressed a concern that this might lead to it becoming “PDXBlogs.” A valid concern, to be sure. But not the intent. While the bulk of the blogs currently indexed by ORBlogs are from Portland, it is my charge to help keep this discussion focused on an Oregon blog resource, by Oregon, for Oregon.
In fact, John may be our ORBlogs knight in shining armor.
One of my primary inspirations for starting Silicon Florist was ORBlogs, a blog aggregator for Oregon-based blogs run by Paul Bausch.
It taught me that “thinking global and blogging local” could be a very viable way to communicate. And it taught me that—despite the ability to access information around the world—people are actually still quite interested in what their neighbors are doing in their own backyard. And saying. And writing.
And ORBlogs was the premiere source of that neighborly information. The stream of content that was “blogging in Oregon.”
But now that stream of information will be running dry. Sadly, it was revealed today that ORBlogs has decided to close its doors.
Paul writes:
I’m shutting ORblogs down now because the site continues to grow and the job of maintaining the site at the level I feel is necessary to keep it valuable has grown with it, putting it out of the bounds of a hobby. I wasn’t able to make ORblogs self-sustaining financially (let alone turn it into a job), and I can no longer devote the time to the site that it needs to grow. Blogging has changed significantly in five years, and blogging is no longer a hobby for many—it’s a job. Commercial blogging isn’t as interesting to me as the personal web and that factored into my decision as well.
After reading Paul’s news, I was kind of sitting dumbstruck. At a loss for words.
It really took the wind out of my sails. It was a complete punch in the stomach. For a number of us.
And no discredit to Paul. He bootstrapped this thing for 5 years. Five years! That’s like a millennium in internet time. I totally get it.
It’s sad news, to be sure.
But then I quit moping.
Does it have to be? I mean, I was always taught the whole “if you love something, let it go” thing. But, quite frankly, I’m not willing to let this one go.
Paul built a resource that rallied—and completely codified—the Oregon blogging community. And that, my friends, is far too valuable to let slide by the wayside.
Because it’s actually bigger than Paul now. Too large for him to manage single handedly, for sure, but something that needs to continue. For the community. And for Oregon.
And if Jeff Martens, Aaron Hockley, Steve Woodward, Ryan Williams, Betsy Richter, Jack”Bojack” Bogdanski, Josh Bancroft, Doug Coleman, Gary Walter, Greg Hughes, Jim Mock, Curt Hopkins, Lizzy Caston, Rich Claussen, and Banana Lee Fishbones are any indication, I have the feeling I’m not alone in this opinion.
I’m not willing to let ORBlogs go softly into that good night. And I’m hoping you’ll join me and the folks above in finding a way to prevent that from happening.
Let’s save ORBlogs!
Are you in? Please comment below. And let’s make this happen.
We need to take the burden off of Paul, and manage to save this resource at the same time. I’m hoping you’ll join in the good fight and lend a hand.
[Update] J-P Voilleque has established a FriendFeed room to support the “Save ORBlogs!” campaign. Please join in!
Via the Beer and Blog, um, blog “I know we’ve got Inverge going on this weekend, so if you’d like to grab a happy hour drink and share your conference experiences, you’ll find some friendly ears. Let people know you’ll be there by RSVPing on Upcoming.”
Via the Legion of Tech blog “If you were at Barcamp Portland, you may have stopped by for the My Other Thing session. (if you weren’t there you can listen to this recording of a great, freewheeling discussion) The session led by Rick Turoczy and Banana Lee Fishbones. After the group separated, people talked about wanting more – more discussions, more connections… maybe even – a conference! Inspired by that session, From Side Project to Startup was born.”
Betsy Richter writes “Why, that would be Yours Truly. What will I be talking about this Friday at 10 pm at the house of our own Cami Kaos & Doctor Normal? Why, OurPDX, of course!”
Jack Bogdanski writes “I can understand where Bausch is coming from, but perhaps there is some way to keep ORblogs (or something like it) alive. It will probably take a lot of time and money, but don’t we bloggers and blog readers think it would be worth it?”
Betsy Richter writes “So I caught and responded to the email from Bojack suggesting that we do something. Jumped in the Twitter stream to help egg on people like @turoczy and @ahockley and @oregoniansteve (who’s now taking this to TPTB at The O) and @jbancroft and others wanting to jump in here to help turn the ship around. Cheered on Rick Turoczy at Silicon Florist as he sounded the trumpets on this post: Can ORBlogs be saved? (please jump over there and add your two cents, will you?)”
Edwardjon writes “I listed my blog on ORblogs ever since I started this thing. I also used ORblogs to preview a synopsis of what other Corvallis bloggers were saying. ORblogs closing is a real loss to our area. I am sad to see it go away.”
B, Dorr writes “Although I don’t know Mr. Bausch personally, but I just want to say thank you, Mr. Bausch, for your dedicated service for all the bloggers. You will be missed.”
Mettadore writes “Oregon Blogs is a small, under-appreciated resource that many of us used more than we realized. We won’t know what we’re missing until it’s gone.”
WebVisions continues to serve as Portland’s premiere Web design and development conference. And, in 2009, it could be our only major tech conference of the summer.
I mean, we already lost RailsConf 2009, and if the rumors of OSCON relocation hold true…
There was even rumors that OSCON 2009 will take place in another city (The Bay Area?)– even the Burgerville staff told me about the scuttlebutt. They were understandably bummed about it as they get plenty of customers during OSCON week.
… then WebVisions—as great as it is—has the chance to be even greater, next year. The belle of the ball, as it were.
So, don’t you owe it to your geeky self to participate? That’s right. I think you do, too.
And here’s your chance.
WebVisions has just opened its submissions for the 2009 event, allowing you to pitch the WebVisions team on your session, workshop, or panel.
What’s the difference, you ask?
- Sessions are 1.25 hours long and address topics that reveal new directions, technologies, processes or approaches for the Web.
- Workshops will be held on May 20th only, and are set up in a classroom format and run for 3 hours for a half day or 6 hours for a full day and should provide more in depth coverage of a topic.
- Panels run for 1.25 hours and feature 3-4 speakers including a moderator. Panels should be fun, lively and informative, not a series of mini presentations from each speaker.
Don’t stress! You’ve still got plenty of time. Submissions don’t close until December 31, 2008. But I thought it would be a good idea to get you noodling on that about which you’re going to speak.
Because you are going to speak.
Now in its eleventh year, WebVisions will be held in May 20-22, 2009, in Portland, Oregon. For some feedback on previous WebVision events, see my roundup of posts from WebVisions 2008. For more information, visit WebVisions.
