.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for April 10, 2008

Rick Turoczy on April 9, 2008

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Packing Light for Travel with Power and Geek Style

Scott Hanselman writes “I’ve been traveling lately, and last week I posted 10 Guerilla Airline Travel Tips for the Geek-Minded Person. Next week I’m going to Seattle for the week and I really prefer to pack as light as possible. There’s lots of tips on the net on how to squish your clothes (I use SpaceBags) and what luggage to use (I like half-sized wheeled totes) but what’s really interesting to me is what gadgets and electronic equipment to pack that gives me the most functionality in the least space.”

New York Times: A Silicon Valley Slowdown

We haven’t seen this sort of East Side West Side himming and hawing since Tu Pac and Biggie Smalls. First it was tech bloggers. Now, the New York Times says Silicon Valley is sliding. “Less cash coming into the Valley means less cash to purchase homes, and go out to nice dinners, spend on consumer products and go on vacations,” said Hans Swildens, founder and principal of Industry Ventures, an investment firm that buys stakes in start-up companies that need infusions of cash.

Tech firms flock to Portland city’s core

Time to welcome The Oregonian to the party! This coverage is a really, really good sign that all of you under-the-RADAR types are starting to make the rest of Portland begin to take notice. Congratulations!

Free Coffee at Starbucks Every Wednesday Through May 28 (Portland area)

Please forgive the coffee heresy. But it’s free. And I know, as a startup, you’re watching every penny. So, please take advantage. And eat something. You look too thin.

You Know You Want It

StepChange’s Jenn Lynch writes “I Want is something relatively new for Facebook — a true application with a purpose, not just another communication device or game. For ThisNext, Facebook is about much more than games. Like many successful destination web sites, ThisNext hopes to expand its footprint on the web and its touchpoints with customers into places where those touchpoints can be more contextual, relevant and personalized.”

Oracle AppsLab: Year One

Jake Kuramoto writes “A year ago was my first day at AppsLab. Paul and I huddled (virtually) to talk about plans for the team. It was exciting stuff. We had a unique opportunity to operate like a startup within the bowels of a huge corporation.”

Treasurelicious stickers?

Scroll down. Or click the “sticky” tag. Treasurelicious stickers could be making an appearance on a laptop near you. Stay tuned.

Waxy.org Redesigns

Andy Baio writes “For the first time since I started blogging in 2002, I’ve redesigned Waxy.org. Over the last six years, I’ve grown pretty sick of the old design but never found the time to rework it. Mostly, the changes are cosmetic. Cleaner design, new logo, bigger type, headlines, better iPhone support, and more space devoted to Waxy Links.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Tweet for tweet: Top 30 cities on Twitter

Rick Turoczy on April 9, 2008

Portland-based TwitterLocal, the service built by Matt King that allows you to create an RSS feed of Twitter users for a particular location, has just moved added a feature that takes the site from a one-time visit to a regular destination—a leader board for the top 30 cities on Twitter.

The leader board currently ranks cities by the number of tweets by residents in a rolling 24-hour period.

Glancing at it a few minutes ago, Tokyo was in the lead with San Francisco running a close second. Paris leads the Europeans. And our hometown of Portland is sitting around #14 or so.

From 8:00PM, April 8, 2008 through 8:00PM, April 9, 2008, the list looked something like this:

  1. Tokyo
  2. San Francisco
  3. New York City
  4. 寅島市南区
  5. Paris
  6. (Japan)
  7. (Entre mi cuarto y mis zapatos)
  8. London
  9. São Paulo
  10. Los Angeles
  11. Chicago
  12. Seattle
  13. Toronto
  14. Portland, OR
  15. Boston
  16. Washington, DC
  17. (United States)
  18. Austin
  19. (Mexico Distrito Federal)
  20. (California)
  21. Atlanta
  22. Taipei
  23. Sydney
  24. London
  25. Osaka
  26. (Brazil)
  27. Madrid
  28. (Mexico)
  29. Melbourne
  30. Barcelona

As you can see, there is some weirdness can show up in the results. King notes these flaws in the system:

  • The seemingly high count of random places like “my pc”, “cybertron”, etc. are the geocoding service’s way of having fun. It seems some fake locations get assigned coordinates to somewhere in Kansas.
  • There is also a very high count of locations with asian characters, which again the geocoding services give only one location. Other than that the numbers are fairly accurate.

Despite these minor foibles, TwitterLocal’s leader board is the first location-specific Twitter analysis that I’ve encountered which actually begins to show which locations have caught the Twitter bug.

And as impressed as I was with TwitterLocal’s service, I’m sure to find this type of competitive ranking completely addictive, at the very least. I’m sure I’ll be checking TwitterLocal leader board, obsessively, over the coming months to see if we can get Portland to crack the top 10. At the very least.

Did your hometown make the list? There’s only one way to find out.

COLOURlovers chases Webby for the second year in a row

Rick Turoczy on April 9, 2008

How’s this for a little local color? Err… colour? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Portland-based COLOURlovers, the community site that allows those enamored with hues and saturation to share their palette creations and ideas with the artistic community worldwide, has been nominated for the Webby Awards “Best Community Website” for the second year in a row.

What are the Webby Awards? They’re awards that are so cool they actually survived the dotbomb implosion:

Hailed as the “Oscars of the Internet” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile Websites. The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-person judging academy whose members include Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, R/GA’s Chief Bob Greenberg, “Simpson’s” creator [and Oregonian, I might add] Matt Groening, Arianna Huffington, and Harvey Weinstein.

If you’re like me (and I know you are), I’d really like to see a Portland site walking away with one of these awards. Especially given that this is COLOURlovers’ second nomination.

But they’ve got some tough competition. Some would call it “insurmountable.” I mean, they’re up against the likes of del.icio.us, Flickr, and StumbleUpon. And I know “the nomination is an honor in and of itself.” But wouldn’t be nice to give COLOURlovers a fighting chance?

Well, you can. Through the “People’s Voice” voting.

That’s right friends. American-Idol-esque voting has permeated the Webbys, as well.

So, if you haven’t visited before, swing by COLOURlovers and take a look. They boast and extremely active community in an extremely niche space. And they’re just darn pretty, to boot.

So, if you like what you see, consider giving them your “People’s Voice” vote. And spreading a little of that Portland hometown spirit.

Power to the people. The Portland people. If you catch my drift.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for April 9, 2008

Rick Turoczy on April 8, 2008

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

Obopay Selects iovation For More Robust Fraud Protection

Obopay will use Portland-based iovation’s device-based fraud management service to reduce the risk of online payment fraud by enhancing its ability to proactively identify devices that have been associated with fraudulent activity.

Innotech Portland Website Reviews

Scott Hendison writes “Three members of SEMpdx, Benjamin Lloyd of Amplify Interactive, Kent Schnepp of Engine Works, and myself, Scott Hendison, will be on the panel critiquing participants websites, answering specific questions, and providing specific information to the site owner, as well as to conference attendees. The panel will be moderated by SEMpdx president Kent Lewis, of Anvil Media.”

Ego surfing: Tweet Clouds for turoczy

File this one under “interesting” and “self-serving.” This is my Tweet Cloud. Glad to see Portland ranking right up there. As it should be.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Six map apps that put Portland on the mapping map

Rick Turoczy on April 8, 2008

Maybe it’s the fact that we’re a major inland port. Maybe it’s the affection for the outdoors that permeates the Portland culture. Whatever it is, we’ve got something for maps around here. Portland is map happy. And nowhere is that more evident than our obsession with the mapping APIs that further the technology of cartography.

Don’t believe me? Take a look at the mapping and location apps that call Portland, Oregon, home. (Thanks in no small part to the reigning King of mapping, Matt King. An “*” below identifies each of his mapping projects.)

Platial

The most well-known Portland-based mapping application, Platial, is the largest independent social mapping application. According to the Platial site:

Platial enables anyone to find, create, and use meaningful maps of Places that matter to them. Our dream is to connect people, neighborhoods, cities, and countries through a citizen-driven common context that goes beyond geopolitical boundaries. We are building Platial because we adore Places.

Unthirsty*

The admittedly “we did it for the fun of it project” that helps the would-be lush-on-a-budget find the nearest happy hour. And fast.

In Unthirsty‘s own words:

Unthirsty is the work of a group of like-minded souls who were always struggling (for obvious reasons) to remember where and when they last enjoyed that good happy hour. A plan of action was drawn up on beer sodden napkins over bargain pints and some mighty fine nachos. Thus, Unthirsty was launched and dedicated to the good of all mankind’s legally drinking denizens.

KnitMap*

Yearning for yarn? Look no further than KnitMap, your way to finding all of your needling knitting needs or simply getting your Turkish Cast-on on.

KnitMap describes itself as:

[A] site that catalogues and maps the locations of retail shops that sell yarn, knitting supplies and knitting accessories. You can search to find these locations in the US, Canada, UK and most of Europe. Its anywhere that Google maps will work, and the list is growing everyday! Once you’ve found a shop, you can rate it’s attributes, leave comments, upload photos, and add it to your Favorites.

SocialMap*

Think Unthirsty and KnitMap are cool, but interested in putting your own spin on the “plot and find [whatever] via Google Maps”? Then look no further than SocialMap, the mapping technology that powers both of those properties.

Why release SocialMap?

SocialMap was created to help solve the problems we encountered on the web within the communities we are a part of. Through its humble beginnings as a national Happy Hour finder, then a Knitting store locator, we noticed regions and groups that had a passionate user base, but were very underrepresented online. Existing websites and search engines were not only dated in their technology but lacked the ability for users to interact with the information presented.

Mapdango

Winner of the “Best Mashup” at this year’s Mashup Camp, Mapdango takes other API-accessible content and plots it on the map.

Mashup Awards described Mapdango as:

An extensive Google Maps mashup that lets you explore locations with helpful information including weather (WeatherBug), photos (Flickr), facts (Wikipedia), events (Eventful), news (Google News) and more.

WeoGeo

New to the Portland mapping scene, WeoGeo takes a deep dive into online cartography, providing extremely detailed mapping options.

[WeoGeo] supplies surveyors, engineers, cartographers, and scientists with the ability to conveniently store, search, and exchange high-resolution CAD and GIS mapping products. Mappers easily list their data for sale. Researchers quickly find the data they need.

(Bonus) TwitterLocal* (formerly known as TwitterWhere)

It’s not a mapping application, per se, so I didn’t want to include it on the list. But TwitterLocal is another Matt King project that makes location information useful in the context of Twitter. Simply plug in a location and TwitterLocal will provide an RSS feed of the Twitter residents in that area, like Portland, for example. It’s a valuable tool for getting a feel for your neighborhood Twitter types.

That’s just a short list. But, admittedly, there’s so much mapping occurring in map-happy Portland, that I may have missed some obvious maps. If I did, please feel free to admonish me in the comments.

Oregon technology startups and education: Being part of the solution

Rick Turoczy on April 8, 2008

A few weeks back, I wrote a rant about the abysmal state of Oregon’s tech education in which I encouraged anyone in tech—but especially those folks at startups—to consider his/her potential role in helping to resolve the issues currently plaguing our educational system.

Talk, as they say, is cheap.

So how can we act?

Well, admittedly, this is an awfully big problem, but to wax—and perhaps unintentionally slaughter—more platitudes, the journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.

And, I’m proud to say that we, as a burgeoning collective, have already taken two:

  1. Oregon Tech & Education is an online discussion group designed to gather interested parties, encourage discussion, and facilitate action. If you are at all interested in helping, participating, or just watching what’s happening. I encourage you to join. Even if you just lurk. And I encourage you to invite the teachers and administrators in your life to join, as well.
  2. Silicon Florist internship/mentorship challenge is a call to all Silicon-Forest-based startups to consider offering a summer internship for high school or college students in your area. No one knows more about what you do than you. And teaching someone who knows nothing about what you do could be one of the most rewarding things you ever accomplish as an entrepreneur. If you’re interested—not even yet to the “willing to participate” phase, just interested—please throw your hat into the ring as one of the participating startups.

From time to time, I’ll keep you posted on these steps, and other steps that the resourceful folks of the Silicon Forest are taking to resolve this issue.

I’m looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for April 8, 2008

Rick Turoczy on April 7, 2008

Sometimes, a link says more than I could ever say. Here are some fragrant little buds I’ve found recently, courtesy of ma.gnolia.

DorkbotPDX 0x01

Thomas Lockney writes “Thanks to the wonderful efforts of Mark, Jason and Jared, we now have videos up of the proceedings from DorkbotPDX 0x01. Check them out here.”

Platial Board Member, Clay Shirky on The Colbert Report

I have a love/hate relationship with “the story is the headline is the story” posts. But I had to put something here. Watch the video on Platial’s blog.

iPhone Development – First Impressions

Peat Bakke writes “I spent the weekend building a native iPhone app. It’s unfinished, and a little rough around the edges … but I’m happy with the experience so far.”

Jive’s Clearspace Brings Collaboration and Social Tools To Enterprises

Portland’s Jason Harris covers the Jive Clearspace 2.0 announcement for Web Worker Daily concluding “Clearspace’s focus on giving its users the ability to set up a workspace and presenting the information that is of interest to them is a strategic advantage. FaceBook calls itself a social utility to keep you in touch with the people around you. Clearspace has taken strides to be the work utility to keep you in touch with the projects and co-workers who you depend on day-to-day to help you get your work done.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Will Openfire Enterprise going Open Source be good news for Jive Jabber/XMPP work?

Rick Turoczy on April 7, 2008

And the hits just keep on coming from Portland-based Jive Software. As if their “new Clearspace plus a new site plus acquiring Jotlet” announcement wasn’t enough, they’ve also decided to announce that Openfire Enterprise is now truly becoming an open-source product.

What’s Openfire Enterprise?

Openfire Enterprise addresses the Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM) market by adding rich reporting, archiving, and control features on top of Openfire.

Okay, so what’s the whole “open source” move mean?

Well, it means a couple of things.

First—and most importantly for open-source advocates—it means that some of Jive’s Jabber/XMPP work has been officially extricated from quasi-proprietary muck which may have prevented more widespread adoption and development. At least, that’s what Jive (and I) hope:

One of our hopes with this move is that the last possible objection to deploying XMPP-based instant messaging at every organization in the world is now removed. Now, everyone will have access to an open standards solution that satisfies all the needs of IT departments… for free. We think that’s great news for the community and getting our technology deployed even more widely is good for Jive Software as well.

Second—and most importantly for Jive as a company—it means that Jive is taking a decided step toward focusing on its Clearspace product by giving the open-source community control of Openfire Enterprise. While Jive will still be looking to drive revenue with Openfire Enterprise by integrating it into Clearspace, they won’t be juggling the two products in terms of managing the overall development.

Maybe it’s just me, but from an entrepreneurial, open-source, geeky frame of mind this announcement is by far the most exciting news coming out of Jive, today.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

(Hat tip Dawn Foster)

WebTrends searches for CEO, finds him at Google

Rick Turoczy on April 7, 2008

Now, I realize that Portland-based WebTrends isn’t exactly a “startup” around here anymore. (Although some would argues that the company continues to go through fits and starts as it navigates the ever-changing Web analytics landscape.)

But the news from Mike Rogoway at The Oregonian, this morning—that WebTrends has just hired a guy from Google to be their CEO—could have significant impact on the tech scene around here.

Meet Daniel Stickel, a Harvard-educated engineer—Magna Cum Laude, at that—who also boasts a rich 20-year history as an executive, with an impressive record of building businesses.

But I’m especially interested in his experience with preparing for—and living through—acquisitions. According to Stickel’s resume, he was an executive at K2 Technologies before and throughout acquisition, he helped establish the foundations that built Delfin Systems into an acquisition target, and he managed the Alta Vista engineering team that turned that property into a valuable commodity for purchase.

What’s more, it’s not often that you hear of companies in the Portland area hiring folks away from Google.

Let’s see… he worked at Google and he’s got experience in being acquired.

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Portland Lunch 2.0: Five reasons to attend

Rick Turoczy on April 7, 2008

Jake Kuramoto gives us five reasons (well, six, really) we should all consider attending Portland Lunch 2.0:

  • You enjoy meeting new people in Portland, some geeks, others not, all Portlanders, all the time.
  • You like learning about cool companies doing cool stuff in the Rose City.
  • You can’t make the evening and weekend activities like Barcamp, Startup Weekend and Startupalooza, but you really want to do 1. and 2.
  • You like good conversation with smart people over tasty eats.
  • You really need to break up your day by getting out of the office/house, seeing the sky, and checking out a new locale with some new people.
  • And bonus, you can’t pass up a free lunch.

Sound interesting? Well, you’re in luck, my friend. The next Portland Lunch 2.0 will be held Wednesday, April 9, at eROI.

More than 70 people have RSVP’d already. So it promises to be quite a crowd. And, unfortunately, it looks like Jake has had to close the RSVP list due to space constraints.

But, I’m still going to encourage you to show up, anyway. Because that’s just how I am. And because some people will not be able to make it. And the way I figure it—worse comes to worst—we can always peel off and overwhelm Backspace.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

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