.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for July 29

Rick Turoczy on July 29, 2008

Geospatial Networking on Ning

Via the BlinkGeo blog “Call it visionary if you will (or perhaps just a 5 minute online detour I took a while back), but I had forgotten that I had set up a Geospatial social network on Ning.”

Ma.gnolia: Welcome, New Linkers

Via the ma.gnolia blog “Every so often we take a look at some of the new people in the Ma.gnolia community in the past few months, and try to spot some good people for the Featured Linker space. We look for people with diverse interests, who we find interesting to follow and think you might as well. Some are geeky, some are the farthest thing from it, some are in-between, but they’re all interesting in their own right, and they’re all close by in our corner of the interwebs.”

OSCON in 37 minutes

Via the RailsEnvy blog “Last week at O’Reilly’s Open Source Convention (OSCON) I decided to put together a video attempting to capture the essence of the event (I did something similar with Railsconf in 36 minutes earlier this year). I ended up with is 37 minute video of great speakers including the keynoters Tim O’Reilly, Damien Conway, Tim Bray, Robert Lefkowitz, David Recordon, Nathan Torkington, and Danese Cooper. “

Get Excited, We’re Launching Things

Via the Intrigo blog “In case you’ve noticed that we’ve been a little light on the posts recently, it’s all because our great clients have been keeping us so busy. In fact, so busy we’ve got three big launches coming up in August! Here’s just enough to start whetting your appetite…”

Platial Nearby on the Front Page

From the Platial blog “Raven Zachary, man about town when it comes to all things iPhone, has his watchful eye on the iTunes App Store basically 24/7. He pinged us this morning with the delightful news that our app, Nearby, is making it’s debut right on the front page today.”

What Startups Can Learn From Haruki Murakami

Alex Iskold writes “The genius of Murakami is in his discipline, focus and determination. I see him as a virtual Zen master – an embodiment of wisdom, passion, skills and exceptional will. The elements of his work and life story are inspirational and (here’s where ReadWriteWeb comes in) particularly applicable when you’re running a startup. Therefore in this post, we take a look at what modern technology startups can learn from this Japanese literary master.”

OpenID gets the third degree at OSCON

Is OpenID a panacea, a placebo, or something in between? Opposing viewpoints took turns on center stage Wednesday afternoon at OSCON 2008. The session entitled “A Critical View of OpenID” started off as anything but critical, but once the audience got its turn to raise questions, things got more interesting.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

No such a thing as free lunch? There will be when Silicon Florist hosts Portland Lunch 2.0

Rick Turoczy on July 29, 2008

After all of this posting about Portland Lunch 2.0 and attending Portland Lunch 2.0 and acquiring Portland Lunch 2.0, it seemed only proper that I actually put my money where my mouth is. So I thought it might be nice if I actually took the dive and hosted a Portland Lunch 2.0.

And I would really, truly be honored if you had a few moments to attend.

I’m planning to hold it August 13. And CubeSpace has been kind of enough to offer up space for the event.

I’m really hoping you can make it.

Do I sound desperate? Good. Because I am.

Rest assured, I’ve got a couple of other things up my sleeve. So, hopefully, there will be a free lunch and a little bit more.

But in any case, it would be really nice to see you. I mean, we’ve been so busy this summer. And I want to make sure that you’re doing okay. Oh, and I want to have you meet some of the other folks who make Portland such a cool place for startups.

Silicon Florist turns one

One other thing? Holding this event in August is kind of special to me, because one year ago this August, I woke up at 2 AM, registered a surprisingly available URL, and started Silicon Florist.

So, this is a celebration of sorts. An anniversary. Or a birthday. Or whatever you want to call it.

It would be great to see you on August 13. Please take a moment to save the date by RSVPing on Upcoming for this get together. And soon, there will be more exciting news about what’s happening. Maybe.

Tell your friends. Everyone is welcome. Techie or not.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

P.S. If you’re a Web-based, Web-oriented, or Mobile-based startup in the Silicon Forest—whether I’ve had the opportunity to cover you or not—why not take a few moments to send a logo to siliconflorist at gmail? I’d like to see if we can’t work on getting your name out there at this event.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for July 28

Rick Turoczy on July 28, 2008

Drew is a Strander

Via the Strands blog “Drew [Olanoff] is joining Strands as Community Manager / Evangelist, his job is to increase the number of Strands enthusiasts and to spread Strands awesomeness. Easy.”

Open Community Wiki

Audrey Eschright writes “One of the things I realized during OSCON was that I had yet to see a central place to point people to for info on running user groups and tech events, that wasn’t specific to a particular place or technology. There are sites on how to start an Apple User Group, and for Portland we’ve gathered notes on our local tech scene, but we could use something a little broader. The Open Community wiki is a stab at addressing this.”

Cre8Camp Portland Beats iPhone’s Twitter Buzz

Amber Case writes “What’s creative and groundbreaking, and capable of topping iPhone buzz on Twitter? It’s Cre8Camp, the inaugural unconference that brought 50 creatives to SOUK, [last] Saturday. Within the first hour of introduction and networking, about 24 topics were developed for discussion, and groups of creatives went off to various conferences rooms and hallways to delve into some of the most intense dilemmas, new media techniques, and social prerogatives that currently exist.”

Venture Financing with Charitable Contributions

Steve Morris writes “Portland is no Cleveland — but it might need a little “goosing”, and the Jumpstart approach might be an interesting fit for the creative and sometimes vc-resistant tech culture in Portland. Your thoughts?”

What will it take to get OpenID adopters to be relying parties?

Greg Hughes writes “Over on the Internet Evolution site I recently wrote an article discussing the fact that MySpace is becoming an OpenID provider. Of note is the fact that they will be provider-only, and not a relying party, at least initially. This is a trend we’ve seen with other big companies like Yahoo!, and many of us are not-too-patiently waiting for these companies to start trusting and relying upon other organizations, so the utopia of user-controlled Internet single-sign-on can become a reality.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Reminder: Mobile Portland on the iPhone App Store

Rick Turoczy on July 28, 2008

iPhoneEveryone is still all gaga over the newest release of the Apple iPhone 3G. We can’t seem to stop talking about it.

And while 3G battery life seems to be the biggest complaint, the biggest win—without a doubt—has been the release of iPhone Apps and the Apple App Store.

And tonight at Mobile Portland, long-time Apple proponent and founding organizer of iPhoneDevCamp, Raven Zachary, will be discussing the “iPhone App Store Opportunity,” providing his insights into this new vehicle for interacting with the Apple platform and its users:

In his talk, Raven will provide a basic overview of the process of developing and distributing software for the iPhone and iPod touch, and share some key findings and metrics gathered in the two weeks since the launch of the App Store. What does the App Store mean for third party mobile developers?

The event will be held at the AboutUs offices in Portland’s Olympic Mills Commerce Center, 107 SE Washington St., Suite 520. Things get started around 6:00 PM.

For more information on the event or to RSVP, visit Mobile Portland on Upcoming. For more on the organization behind these events, visit Mobile Portland.

 

 

Versionista: Track changes for any Web page, wiki-highlight style

Rick Turoczy on July 28, 2008

Sometimes, I get scooped. I admit it. I’m not always on the “breaking news” ball. This is one of those occasions.

A few weeks back, I saw news on Versionista, a tool that allows you to track the changes that occur on publicly accessible Web pages. It seems that the McCain camp had used the product to track changes on the Obama site:

The McCain campaign web site recently published a link to a Versionista comparison that shows changes to Obama’s web page about the Iraq war. The link, which is captioned “Obama Refines His Iraq Page”, is posted alongside other links which point to off-site articles written by various political commentators who are critical of Obama. The aim is obviously to generate the perception that Obama’s position on the war is inconsistent.

While the technology was exceptionally cool—much like change trackers I used to use back in the dotcom days—there was one thing that piqued my interest even more than the technology. Versionista is from Portland, Oregon.

Versionista was inspired by the highlighting that occurs when wiki pages are edited:

A side-by-side comparison and multiple other views let you see “before and after” versions of every monitored page. We highlight what text has been added, deleted, or moved. Versionista will keep up to 25 versions per page. You can “rollback” in time to see older versions.

The Versionista service allows you to test drive the system with two URLs. Or you can subscribe to begin tracking multiple URLs.

The pricing is aggressive for hobbyists—the lowest-level subscription runs about $200 a year for 30 URLs—but for professionals who desperately need this type of “what changed when” functionality on a limited basis, the pricing shouldn’t be too terribly oppressive. Power users can track up to 2,500 URLs for $6,000 a year.

So what about exploiting the service? I knew you’d think about that, because you’re a smart cookie.

Versionista is pretty clear about what you can and can’t do in their EULA (which, incidentally, is the second URL I’m currently tracking, in addition to the Silicon Florist URL):

YOU MAY NOT USE SOFTWARE PRODUCT TO STEAL OTHERS’ COPYRIGHTS OR TRADEMARKS…. YOU MAY NOT USE SOFTWARE PRODUCT TO SPIDER OR CRAWL GOOGLE ADWORDS, OVERTURE LISTINGS, OR OTHER PAY-PER-CLICK OR SIMILAR SERVICES FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEFRAUDING THEIR SYSTEM.

I know a number of breaking-news bloggers who have been begging for a service like this. You may be in the same boat. Given that you’re allowed to track two URLs for free, I’d suggest you try it out. And when you do, I’d love to hear how it works for you.

A few Portland techie podcasts for your Sunday afternoon or your Monday morning commute

Rick Turoczy on July 27, 2008

Last Friday was podcast day for me. And for as nervous as I was, I think they turned out pretty well. No doubt thanks to the talented people actually managing the whole podcast thing and me just having to spout off every now and again.

So, I thought I’d share the links, in case you were interested in listening.

OPB Think Out Loud on open source

Jim Zemlin, Raven Zachary, Audrey Eschright, and I had the opportunity to chat about open source and the open source scene in Portland. Topics include OSCON, how we all use open source software and may not even know it, corporate adoption of open source, Portland’s culture as a complement to the open source community, open-source rockets, and NTEN.

Download the mp3 of OPB Think Out Loud: Open-source City

Strange Love Live Tech Edition with Rick Turoczy

Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal invited me over for a tech edition of Strange Love Live (if you’re not watching/listening, you should be). And we were lucky enough to command a live studio audience as well, featuring Michelle Anderson (mediachick), Amber Case (caseorganic), Bram Pitoyo, and Kelly Guimont (verso). Topics included the reasoning behind Silicon Florist, the Portland tech scene, Vidoop, Intrigo, OSCON, the Open Web Foundation, and more.

Download the mp3 of Strange Love Live Tech Edition with Rick Turoczy

[Update] If you’re interested in streaming the podcasts—instead of downloading them—Cami Kaos has posted the streaming audio files to her blog.

Strange Love Live #afterhours with Rick Turoczy

Once the serious Strange Love stuff is done, the cameras keep rolling for the #afterhours discussion. We continued talking about some of the tech topics, discussed my sleeping habits (or lack thereof), talked about and lightsaber-ed with the iPhone, made some tech predictions including hinting at Marshall Kirkpatrick‘s upcoming internet brain implant venture, thanked our luck stars for OurPDX, introduced folks to Planet PDX, talked about upcoming guest Melissa Lion, and got into a pretty serious bidding war for sponsoring Strange Love Live.

Download the mp3 of Strange Love Live #afterhours with Rick Turoczy

So… what do you think?

Suffice it to say, this was a trial by fire for me and audio. So I’d love to hear feedback as to a) whether I was intelligible at all and b) if I was intelligible, if you’d be interested in more podcasts from yours truly.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for July 26

Rick Turoczy on July 26, 2008

Scobleizer: The Silicon Valley VC Disease

Robert Scoble writes “What is the disease? That you must make bucketloads of money (or at least have a shot at doing that) in the first two years of business. If you have a plan to make just a reasonable amount of money, or if it will take decades to make a big amount of money, don’t come to Silicon Valley. Walmart would NEVER have gotten funded by Sand Hill Road. It took decades to make bucketloads of money. That kind of business plan would never fit in here.”

Attensa and Wikigate

Via the Attensa blog “Wikipedia is theoretically about respect for expertise, openness and integrity.Who knows more about the company, its technology, associated products and applications than the people who live and breathe it every day. The irony is that Attensa has its listings removed through the actions of one individual because we were transparent and telling the truth about the process.”

Google re-ups with OSU’s Open Source Lab

Mike Rogoway writes “Google is giving Oregon State’s Open Source Lab another $300,000, bringing Google’s total lab contribution to $750,000 over the past three years.”

The market for real journalism will continue to change; What’s coming will be better

Via the fifth+main blog “The Internet is in the process of giving rise to a new breed of journalist thanks to all these layoffs in mainstream media. This is an important shift, because it centers on the people who report the news, not the ego-bloggers and serial editorialists.”

Corporate-to-Startup Transition Checklist

Micah Elliott writes “So you’re finally ready to leave corporate life. Before you walk out the door, here are some things you should make sure to consider during your last couple months of employment.”

Jive Talks: Clearspace 2.5

Gia Lyons writes “Our software engineers have been diligently working on Jive Clearspace 2.5 (formerly known as 2.1) over the past several weeks, and we’ve been putting it through its paces inside Jive. Many have blogged and videoed (?) about it:”

Can Microblogs Just Talk To Each Other?

Via Louis Gray’s blog “Federation is the real answer. What does federation do and why is it different from Twitter creating a distributed architecture? A distributed architecture means you have various pieces of the application sitting on different servers…. Federation is different from distributed in one simple sense. Federation requires a full copy of the entire system. Federation is the cooperation between various systems to act as one.”

Seed Oregon Tournament, Round 1

Seed Oregon is a unique competition for Oregon and Southwest Washington seed-stage companies who are seeking capital within the range of $100,000 to $2,000,000. One winner from each preliminary round will move on to a championship round, where a finalist will earn a coveted presenting opportunity at OEN’s Angel Oregon 2009, the premier angel investing event in the Northwest. The 2009 conference will be held at the Governor Hotel in Portland on March 12th.

Venture Northwest 2008

It starts with a simple seed. But from that seed grows strong, vibrant and sustainable companies that are ripe for investment. Venture Northwest (formerly Venture Oregon) is the premier forum for new and emerging investment opportunities in exciting companies from Oregon, Washington, and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Couldn’t say it better myself

Jason Glaspey writes “I’ve always been pretty outspoken about the fact that I think DRM is from the devil, so when I saw a Prius with this license plate, I had to take a picture. It was outside of my favorite coffee joint Albina Press, and I was able to ask the owner of the car if this was a true vanity plate, or a chance coincidence… Turns out it was just the license the state gave him. He laughed as he watched me snap the photo though.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Did You Know Seattle Has Lunch 2.0 Too?

Rick Turoczy on July 26, 2008

seattle.gifAnd not Lunch 2.0.2, but rather Lunch 2.0 also.

Josh Maher started a chapter in Seattle a little over a year ago, and they’ve been very active at both large and small hosts. I contacted Josh early this year for any tips and advice he could share before starting a chapter.

If you travel up to Seattle a lot, or are headed there soon, check out their wiki and for details.

Josh and I spoke recently about our the Portland chapter, which apparently is one of the few that hosts regular events, along with the Silicon Valley/Bay Area orignial chapter and the Seattle one. He also invited any Portlanders/Vancouverites up to enjoy the Seattle flavor of Lunch 2.0. So, if you’re going to be up in the  Emerald City, check out their take on Lunch 2.0 and report back with your thoughts.

Otherwise, it’s a roadtrip. I guess if anyone’s up for that, you could carpool up there on a diplomatic mission. Of course, as Rick pointed out, the beauty of Lunch 2.0 is that it’s local and convenient, neither of which fits a trip up to Seattle.

Anyway, it’s an open invitation, and obviously, Josh is welcome to come down to do Portland Lunch 2.0, assuming I can convince someone to host one.

Lunch 2.0 Needs Hosts

Rick Turoczy on July 25, 2008

Lunch 2.0 just finished its fifth iteration last week at souk. Let’s take a minute to look back at the five lunches and thank the hosts:

February 28, 2008: AboutUs
April 9, 2008: eROI
May 28, 2008: Vidoop
June 30, 2008: Wieden+Kennedy
July 16, 2008: souk

Ah, good times. Thanks for the memories.

So, now that we’re done basking in the afterglow of tasty eats and good conversation, let’s get back to business.

I have a few leads, but nothing solid for the next Lunch 2.0. So, gentle reader, I need your help.

Does your place of work have what it takes to host a Lunch 2.0? Not that it takes much, as Rick previously documented.

Do you know a great place that would love to host a Lunch 2.0?  Ideally, you have a contact there, so I don’t have to walk in like Michael Corleone.

If so, I’d love to hear your ideas. Find the comments and let me know, or tweet at me.

Think Out Loud about open source

Rick Turoczy on July 24, 2008

OPBI got an interesting call this week from Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB). Specifically from the Think Out Loud team. They knew that OSCON was in town this week and they were interested in doing a show on open source.

“Oh! No problem,” I said. “I can recommend plenty of really, really smart people to whom you can speak.” (Because I always try to use proper grammar, no matter how antiquated it may sound.)

So I did just that, recommending they talk to folks like Raven Zachary, Scott Kveton, and Audrey Eschright.

And sure enough, they talked to those folks. And I know that most of them—if not all of them—will be appearing on Think Out Loud live, this morning at 9 AM.

Do you buy the argument that if you want to make a living as a programmer in Portland, open source software is both a blessing and a curse?

Are you a part of the movement more broadly? What’s your take on where it came from, where it is now, and where it’s going? What lessons does the open source philosophy have for life outside the digital world—for research, or business, or democracy?

Great! Should be a really interesting show, right?

Well, yes. But with one slight hitch.

“We want you on there, too,” they said.

Um. People get to read me thinking out loud practically everyday. Do they really need to hear me thinking out loud, too?

Well, apparently, according to OPB, they do.

So, I’d appreciate your tuning in, this morning at 9 AM. To hear what these truly interesting proponents of open source have to say.

And maybe, just maybe, you could ask those intelligent guests some really interesting and detailed questions? I mean, I’d be willing to give you some of my time. In fact, why not head over to Think Out Loud—right now—to post your open source questions?

(Oh, so you think it’s humorous that I got roped into this gig? Then you’ll love this. I’m honored to be the guest on Strange Love Live, tonight, too. Let’s just call this freaky Friday.)

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