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Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for June 28

Rick Turoczy on June 28, 2008

SplashCast Owns Top Music Apps on MySpace

Via the SplashCast blog “SplashCast currently owns the top 12 of 20 most recently popular music applications on MySpace. Other than the Coldplay and LilWayne apps, SplashCast apps have more installs than any other artist-specific apps in the entire MySpace platform.”

Wi-Fi and the blues

Mike Rogoway writes “The Personal Telco Project, perhaps reinvigorated by the collapse of Portland’s citywide Wi-Fi project, is more active than I’ve seen it in months at breaking out new wireless initiatives.”

Twitter Status (well, the fake one anyways)

Scott Kveton pointed out the fake Twitter status blog. If you’re a Twitter user, you’ll get the joke. Unfortunately.

Mugasha Blog

Mugasha, a product of the recent Portland Startup Weekend, continues to make strides. I just noticed that they have officially launched their blog.

MetroSEEQ: Requesting feedback on information architecture

Via the MetroSEEQ blog “After nearly 3 weeks of launching metroseeq, I’ve received significant input on site usability. Therefore, I’ve decided to redesign with the objective to help users to find nearby businesses that have promotions quickly. This came as a natural evolution of the site as it was first designed to show off the pageless progressive search algorithm, but more people seems to be more interested in finding deals so thats’ what I’ll deliver and improve upon.”

An Open Letter to Mr. Panic & Mr. MacroMates

Kyle Meyer writes “You have so much going for you; you upload my files after every compulsive save, automatically. You organize my mess of websites into a visual metaphor that works impeccably well. You even house all the documentation I could ever need—right in that one gorgeous app. You’re even from my hometown of Portland, Oregon! I live right down the street from you, in fact. And yet, there’s a fundamental flaw that keeps me from purchasing and using Coda. I need Ctrl+Shift+W, Mr Panic. I want to love you, but I need your help.”

Free to Migrate

Chris Messina of Vidoop shares his thoughts on BarCamp, coworking, DiSo and open source in this presentation from Reboot 10.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Portland Web 2.0 startups get some love from Oregon Business Magazine

Rick Turoczy on June 27, 2008

Oregon Business Magazine features Toonlet et alOne of the reasons I started Silicon Florist was to use my marketing powers for good, by casting the spotlight on “Portland Web 2.0 startups” and individuals who have been developing really, really cool things here in the Silicon Forest. But who, through sheer lack of time, may not have the opportunity or wherewithal to promote themselves as much as they would like.

I’m happy to report that a number of those companies just got a much brighter spotlight shone on them, thanks to Oregon Business Magazine‘s cover story this month “10 Coolest Tech Startups You’ve Never Heard Of.”

Among the Silicon Florist alumni featured are:

Gone Raw and Lumeno.us—two sites I haven’t yet had the chance to cover except via mentions in the Portland Startup Index—made it as well.

Congratulations to all of those featured for stepping on to a much larger stage! I’ll look forward to continuing to cover your progress and highlighting your wins.

Photo credit: Michael G. Halle

Portland Lunch 2.0 roadmap

Rick Turoczy on June 27, 2008

Portland Lunch 2.0, admittedly a continually evolving work-in-progress, has quickly taken a firm hold—and sparked some interesting conversations—in the Portland tech community.

And like developing any product, even though the Portland Lunch 2.0 team (read Jake Kuramoto) hasn’t launched the latest version of their product—that version will launch on Monday—the team is already hard at work on the next version.

So, I thought it might be helpful to step into a product manager role, ever so briefly. Just so you can get the milestones and release schedule on your calendar.

Let’s take a glance at the product roadmap:

  • Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4 will be released Monday, June 30, at Wieden + Kennedy
    “On Monday June 30th, the PDX Tech/Tweeple community is cordially invited to join 50-100 W+K employees for a “blind date meets grade school birthday party” ad/tech extravaganza. It’s going to be a fun, it’s going to be quirky, and it’s going to rock RockBand style (literally).”
  • Portland Lunch 2.0 SP5 will be released Wednesday, July 16, at souk
    “The Portland Lunch 2.0 saga continues at flex term office space provider souk, once again in Old Town on July 16, 2008. We won’t stop until we have Lunch 2.0 at every, single business in Old Town.”
  • Portland Lunch 2.0 SP6 will be released…?

For more information or to RSVP, visit Upcoming for the Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4 and Portland Lunch 2.0 SP5 RSVP lists. If you’re interested in hosting SP6 or a later release, please ping Jake Kuramoto.

Universal Edit Button: Ward Cunningham, Mark Dilley, and Peter Kaminski

Rick Turoczy on June 27, 2008

Like the little orange RSS chiclet, the Universal Edit Button—launched last week—is, in my opinion, one of the most promising promotional tools for raising the visibility of wikis and other editable sites.

But in order for it to work, people need to understand exactly what it is.

To help further that understanding, Justin Kistner sat down with Ward Cunningham and Mark Dilley of AboutUs and Peter Kaminski of SocialText to discuss the impact and potential of the UEB.

“I heard about the UEB when it came out, and I thought it was really cool,” said Kistner. “Then I started talking to some other folks about it, and managed to get Ward, who devised the wiki concept, Mark, who had been coordinating the UEB launch activities, and Pete, who had been integral to the project, all on the phone.”

Kistner’s Skype conversation is available below. (Audio quality is a little rough at times, but the content more than makes up for it. And don’t be fooled at the beginning… You didn’t just initiate a Skype call.)

Just click the little gray arrow to listen.

[display_podcast]

WordCamp Portland: WordPress geeking slated for Sept 27

Rick Turoczy on June 27, 2008

WordPressEver been to an unconference? We had one here in Portland at the beginning of May called BarCamp Portland. And during that BarCamp, a number of folks had the opportunity to lead and attend a few sessions on hacking WordPress, the popular open-source blogging and content-management system. Those sessions formed, by design, a mini-version of WordCamp, a series of grassroots, locally managed conferences for WordPress developers.

So how was the mini-WordCamp received?

Well. Very well, in fact. Interest was high. And the discussions were good. (One of the more packed sessions I attended was a WordPress session.) And that got Aaron Hockley to thinking: Maybe we should get rid of the “mini” and have a full-fledged WordCamp.

And guess what? That’s exactly what he’s done.

Announcing WordCamp Portland

Hockley has announced that we will, in fact, have the opportunity to attend a full-fledged WordCamp Portland.

Do you use WordPress? Want to get more out of WordPress? Need some WordPress tips? Well then, mark September 27 on your calendar with a big W. Simply WordPress curious? You’re welcome, as well.

I’m excited. And I know some other folks around town are already champing at the bit to attend WordCamp Portland, as well. Among them, Betsy Richter of the newly launched Our PDX—a WordPress blog, itself:

[I’ve] already blocked September 27th off on my calendar and am volunteering my time to help make this happen – I really loved the energy at BarCamp & am a total WordPress idiot savant (brilliant at some things, not so hot at others), so am thrilled to see this coming together.

As with every unconference, there’s a dire need for three things: sponsors, volunteers, and participants. So, if WordCamp Portland sounds even remotely interesting to you, why not take a second to RSVP on Upcoming to help give the organizers an way to better gauge interest?

Vidoop Troop #3: Portland by way of Tulsa

Rick Turoczy on June 26, 2008

Well, it’s happened quickly, but it’s been fun. As Vidoop has brought various groups of employees up for a tour of their new hometown, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting Vidoop Troops one, two, and—after this Friday’s Beer and Blog—three.

After that, all that’s left is actually getting them moved up here. And that, my friends, is going to a-whole-nother adventure.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got new Vidoopers to meet and welcome to the Rose City.

Who? I’m glad you asked.

Nick Davis, Founding Software Developer

What? I’m involved in several projects, but tend to focus on designing and developing authentication solutions. I also work on some information security related things when not writing code.

How? Raised in Southeast Oklahoma (Spiro), I moved to Tulsa for college and have been here ever since. I earned my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science at the University of Tulsa, and did research in secure operating systems (SE Linux) while at TU. I joined Vidoop as a founding member in March 2006. Outside of work, I enjoy hanging out with family and friends, reading, video games, biking, working out, and movies (especially sci-fi/cyberpunk). Recently, I got married to a wonderful girl named Adrienne, who manages to put up with my various technology obsessions (still trying to get her on Twitter 🙂 )

Links? Nick on Myvidoop, Nick on Twitter, Kernel trap, Bruce Schneier’s blog, FreeSCI

Questions about Portland?

  • Good neighborhoods to live for young married couples?
  • Good biking trails in and around the city?
  • What are the best “weird Portland” places that are unique to the city, and what things must I do/see to have the whole Portland experience?
  • What is the best seafood restaurant in the city?

Rachel Garrette, Marketing + Copy Writer

What? I write and edit copy, assist in the development/maintenance of our websites, create and maintain marketing videos as well as other marketing material, work with vendors, etc.

How? Born and bred in Oklahoma, I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.A. in Journalism / Broadcast and Electronic Media. After college, I worked for a couple of years as a video editor at the largest independent sports production company in the U.S., serving clients such as ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox Sports Net, Discovery, Major League Soccer, and many more. One fateful night in 2006, I met Luke Sontag at a concert. He pitched what then seemed like only an outlandish idea, and it soon came to fruition in the form of Vidoop. A year later, I finally joined the wild ride.

I enjoy music, art, traveling, history, puppies and fireworks (though not fireworks in, on, or under puppies). My favorite food is cereal. I love a good estate sale. I despise banana flavored taffy, and I’m the clumsiest person you’ll meet. I have an astute adolescent sense of humor eloquently coupled with a love for corny jokes. My Boston Terrier, Henry, can’t wait to explore Portland’s parks.

Links? FreeIndie.com, @rachelpalooza

Questions about Portland?

  • I’m having trouble finding a rental property in the NW district that accepts dogs. What gives?! Any suggestions?
  • Where is the best place to go for a run outdoors?
  • Where is the best place to hear live music outdoors?
  • What is the best place to get your hair cut?

Adam Kuert, Lead Web Developer

What? Attend a meeting, write some code, upgrade a server, accidentally delete a vital directory, restore from backup…you know, the usual life of a web dev.

How? Got a degree in Computer Science; realized programming was slightly more complicated than TI-83 BASIC. Ran my own company from 2 years, escaped to find job security, found… another startup. When I’m not coding, you can find me on the soccer field pretending I didn’t get cut from the team in High School. I Lived in Kenya for 18 years and I’m hoping Portland weather is just like Kenya’s: when it’s not raining…it’s perfect.

Links? http://adam.kuert.net

Questions about Portland?

  • Is the weather really as great as hear? Or does everyone trudges through the rest of the year just waiting for summer to return? [Editor: Truth be known, it’s really more of a “slog” than “trudge.”]
  • Do people actually ‘ski or go to the beach only 90 minutes away’ or is that just a sales pitch for getting people like me to move? [Editor: We have a beach 90 minutes away? Oh wait. I mean, yes.]

Steven Osborn, Founding Software Developer

What? I built the first prototype of our ImageShield technology and since then I’ve worked on nearly every project conceived at Vidoop. Currently working on alien browser plug-in technology to take over the world.

How? I’ve lived in the Tulsa area most of my life, excluding a short tour to Afghanistan. I previously worked for a healthcare software company developing web applications. I’m involved in just about every technology group in Tulsa including Tulsa PHP, Python, Ruby, and even .NET and Java which means I have access to more free pizza than any human can safely consume in their lifetime. Some technologies I’m currently excited about: Django, Python, Android and Mercurial.

Links? Steven’s Blog, Steven’s Twitter, Steven’s LinkedIn

Questions about Portland?

  • I have a 18mo son who was born 16 weeks premature. Does Oregon offer a program similar to SoonerStart? (They send out therapists on a regular basis to check up on his progress regularly free of charge.)
  • Are there any outstanding childcare facilities?
  • What are your favorite fun weekend family activities?

John Whitlock, Software Developer

What? Lead of the RecognitionAUTH team, making the backend service that runs myVidoop faster and smarter, then packaging it for licensees. I think in Python, write C++, and study software management.

How? I was raised in Arnold, just south of St. Louis. I begged for a computer, then a Borland C++ compiler, and spent my allowance on programming books. I got an electrical engineering degree from the University of Tulsa, because I wanted to dive one level deeper into computers. However, code mistakes are less painful than electrical mistakes, so I put away the soldering iron and stuck with programming. I worked for 8 years at a flight simulation company, helping to make pilot training simulators and learning
more Fortran than I ever wanted. When my company started to dissolve, I was surprised to find a web startup in our own backyard.

My wife Jennifer is a research librarian, advocating for new technologies to support the information needs of customers. She is also the Foundation Center Coordinator, helping local non-profits find funding. Our daughter Ainsley recently turned four, and confuses Austin and Portland.

Links? Ambient Librarian, John @ Twitter, CppUnit Wiki, ConfIdent Technologies Software Development Kit

Questions about Portland?

  • Where are the good, affordable, all-day child care centers / pre-schools?
  • Was is the difference between Austin and Portland? [Editor: We have better beer. Our parks feature green grass as opposed to dead yellow grass. And our birds know to quiet down at night.]
  • Are earthquakes a problem? Is there something we tornado-dodgers should do to prepare?
  • Can someone please babysit for Corin so that Sleater-Kinney can put out another album?

How can I meet Vidoop Troop #3?

Well, the place to meet and greet the past two troops seems as good of a place as any don’t you think? C’mon down to Beer and Blog on Friday afternoon. We’ll be back at one of our favorite haunts: the Green Dragon. That’s right. Not that other place. The Green Dragon. You know. The one where they have more than one bartender? Yeah, that one. Let me give you one more nemonic device to remember that: Green Dragon.

And no Justin Kistner, this week. And no substitute appointed.

Looking forward to seeing you and the last flight of the Vidoopers there.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for June 25

Rick Turoczy on June 25, 2008

Why Web 2.0 Is No Bubble: Corporations Are Willing to Pay for It – The Groundswell Effect

From Harvard Business “Everyone seems to want an answer to the question ‘When will Web 2.0 startups start making money?’ The implication is that unless we can answer the question, the ‘bubble’ of Web 2.0 will burst and all of us who believe in this stuff will be revealed as fantasists. The fact is, it’s incredibly hard to make money as a Web 2.0 startup aimed at consumers.”

Social Networking; Bubble or Bankable?

From Fast Company Buzz “And since Fast Company Buzz is all about finding out whose doing what and what’s working, I talked with the CEOs of two companies that are riding the bubble all the way to the bank. Michael Berkley CEO of SplashCast Media, a company that distributes branded content channels in social networks, explained how his company creates effective and profitable advertising on Web 2.0 platforms like Facebook. Mike said, ‘If you want to advertise to the social media crowd you need to make sure you do a couple of things…'”

Help Me Understand Techmeme and Their Selection Process

Jason Harris writes “Techmeme is, by and large, a fantastic way to stay up on the present buzz occurring in the tech blogosphere. However, I’m confused at how the system works so I’m hoping to shed some light on the subject with this post and the conversation that ensues. In talking to other blogging friends, I’m not the only one who is curious about this subject.”

Lighthouse member/invites system gets some love

Will writes “Last Wednesday, we took Lighthouse offline to deploy some bug fixes and give it some serious feature love. Our original intention was to blog about the new features the next morning so that users would wake up to something pretty cool, but we got a little sidetracked tweaking some last minute details. Now we owe our users a blog post, so without further ado…”

Clicky releases new weekly and monthly views for all data

Via the Clicky blog “When we introduced the new line graphs, one key feature of Clicky was removed because it was quite challenging to implement in this new flash software, and we didn’t want major differences between the two different views. Also, I was feeling lazy.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Internet Strategy Forum Summit: Gaining momentum

Rick Turoczy on June 25, 2008

Internet Strategy Forum Summit 2008The Internet Strategy Forum Summit, the homegrown Portland event that focuses on “a diverse array of important and complementary strategy areas including general digital strategy, social media strategy, personalized marketing, e-commerce, email marketing and customer metrics,” is drawing ever closer. Only a few weeks remain until the fifth incarnation of the event, July 17 and 18.

This year’s Summit promises to draw a wide-range folks from out-of-town. But more importantly, it’s drawing an all-star line up of speakers, including:

But it’s not just the Summit that’s gaining traction. The Internet Strategy Forum (ISF), the group of Internet professionals on the corporate side of the desk for which the Summit serves as an opportune annual meeting, has been growing by leaps and bounds. In fact the ISF is on track to double its membership—doubling since December 2007.

Considering that it took the organization three-and-a-half years to grow to 850 screened members, adding another 850 in six months is impressive, to say the least.

Interested in attending the Internet Strategy Forum Summit and getting a chance to see all the cool folks listed above, firsthand? You’re in luck. Silicon Florist readers are entitled to a 10% discount on their Internet Strategy Forum Summit registration. Simply enter the discount code FLORIST.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for June 24

Rick Turoczy on June 24, 2008

Future of this site: PortlandSmallBusiness.com

Kevin Spence writes “PortlandSmallBusiness will be a year old in August. I’m trying to figure out how to make the time working on this site worthwhile. There are aspects of this site that I enjoy but it has cut into my livelihood over the past year. I decided early on that this site would be distinct from my primary business (not a blog promoting that business) and should stand on its own. I’ve enjoyed some success growing the site but I’m not sure how to be make the site worthwhile to users and myself.”

OpenID, The Chicken or the Egg

Eric Nelson writes “Us Intrigees have hopped on the OpenID bandwagon. For me personally, becoming involved in the Portland community and companies like Vidoop and JanRain have really opened my eyes to the prospects and work going on with this piece of technology. Most of the conversations I hear about OpenID revolve around usability, including our own Nathan Bell’s thoughts on putting OpenID in the browser. However, I myself am not a tech guy, and see a bigger issue with adoption that needs to be addressed by those of us in the believer category, making it relevant to the majority of users.”

Announcing The Substance Summit

David Lowe-Rogstad writes “The first in a series of conversations with the Portland creative community to help each other understand how we can be more inclusive, collaborative and effective. We have been inspired by Portland’s creative technology community (Legion of Tech and Silicon Florist to name a few) to help facilitate an environment where we share ideas and create a place that draws the best talent and the best clients to Portland to get the best creative work possible.”

Web Worker Daily: Use Your OpenID via Email

From Web Worker Daily “We’ve looked with some skepticism on OpenID in the past. Nevertheless, as more sites accept OpenID for login, it’s worth knowing about advances in the field. One recent change is the introduction of Emailtoid (that’s email-to-id, not some sort of android), which allows you to use your email address anywhere that you could use an OpenID.”

OEN Blog: “Rogues and Renegades” (aka entrepreneurs) for the 15th Annual OEN Tom Holce Awards for Entrepreneurial Achievement

The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network has selected thirteen “Rogues and Renegades” (aka entrepreneurs) for the 15th Annual OEN Tom Holce Awards for Entrepreneurial Achievement. Finalists and award winners will be recognized during the event at the Oregon Convention Center on September 18, 2008. Congrats to all of the nominees!

Is Twitter Changing Real Life Social Interactions?

Corvida writes “Last week I had the pleasure of flying out to Portland for Ignite Portland 3. I had a fabulous time and met some really awesomesauce people including one of my biggest idols Marshall Kirkpatrick, fellow Grand Effect Network member and now team writer for ReadWriteWeb, Frederic of The Last Podcast, and a host of other people that I’ll mention in another post that’s all about the trip to Portland. What I’m going to talk about in this post is what occurred at the after party hosted by Strands at Imbibe. “

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Fast Wonder Dawn Foster launches consulting practice

Rick Turoczy on June 24, 2008

If you’ve had the opportunity to attend any Portland tech events over the past year or so, it’s highly likely that you’ve come in contact with some of the handiwork of Dawn Foster. Chair of the Legion of Tech and a staunch advocate of the Portland startup tech and unconference scene, Dawn’s influence has been a critical ingredient in BarCamp Portland, Ignite Portland, the Legion of Tech Happy Hours, Portland Lunch 2.0, any number of Jive Software events, Portland is Awesome… the list goes on and on.

And now that Dawn has announced that she’s leaving Jive, some of that magic touch is for hire:

Recently, I’ve seen a number of companies struggling with how to get more savvy about social media and interacting with online communities. My focus will be on providing consulting services to help guide companies in developing a comprehensive social media and community engagement strategy. I will help companies engage with their community both online and offline to help generate buzz around their products. I can also help companies find, monitor, and respond to what others are saying about them online.

No doubt, Dawn’s expertise will be highly sought. I’m looking forward to her continued success on the other side of the desk and would like to, again, congratulate her on this exciting new endeavor.

For more, see Fast Wonder Consulting or for a (now slightly dated) bio, see Dawn Foster on Portland on Fire.

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