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MyStrands wants to invest $100,000 in your startup

Rick Turoczy on March 12, 2008

Corvallis-based MyStrands has just announced a program designed to find the best early-stage startup focused on “recommendation” technologies. And, once found, to fund that startup to the tune of 6-figures of investment.

The $100,000 investment prize will be awarded to:

[T]he best early-stage project in the area of recommendation technologies, considering the technology, business opportunity and team behind the project (without limitations as to which field the technology is applied).

This is a worldwide competition, but I’m confident that some of you Portland and Silicon Forest types—side project or otherwise—have got some cool technology that has a chance of winning this thing.

Why not give it a shot?

All Proposals will be judged using the following judging criteria: (a) implementation and integration of recommendation technologies, (b) originality and creativity, (c) likelihood of long-term success and scalability, (d) effectiveness in addressing a need in the marketplace, and (e) team bios.

Get into the finals and you’re off to Switzerland to present.

Five Finalists will be invited to present their projects during the ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys08) next October 23rd to 25th, 2008 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Finalists will be announced on October 6th.

So what are you waiting for? I think you can win this. And I’m sure the investment would help make your dream a reality. And if you’re not going to do it, then maybe our idea for Portland Startup Weekend should be based on recommendation technology.

Entries will be accepted until September 15, 2008.

For more information on the contest and requirements, see MyStrands’ post on the contest.

[Update: I just noticed that ReadWrite Web has posted on the contest, as well, encouraging MyStrands to continue its work in implementing open data standards.]

Geek Lunch with David Recordon, OpenID evangelist

Rick Turoczy on March 12, 2008

OpenIDOpenID aficionados rejoice. I just got word that David Recordon, one of the leading forces behind OpenID development and vice-chair of the OpenID Foundation, will be making a trip to Portland in April.

That’s great news.

Even better news? He’s extending his trip to make time for a Great Portland Geek Lunch on Monday, April 21.

Details are still slim until we get an idea of the number of folks interested in attending. So, if you’d like the chance to meet Recordon and some of the other OpenID-oriented folks in Portland, please RSVP for the Geek Lunch on Upcoming.

I’ll make sure to keep everyone posted as things solidify.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 12, 2008

Rick Turoczy on March 11, 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.

Startup mines for riches in collaboration software

The Portland Tribune writes “Some employers are having no trouble finding new workers. One of them is AboutUs Inc., a startup company that has created a Web directory using what’s called wiki software, which creates text that can be edited by anyone.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

GoLife VADOWERX Framework: Introduced to selected developers

Rick Turoczy on March 11, 2008

Today, Hillsboro-based GoLife Mobile announced that they were introducing their GoLife Mobile VADOWERX Framework to a select group of mobile application developers. As part of the limited availability, those developers, along with other industry executives, were invited to a special introduction at GoLife Mobile’s headquarters.

GoLife Mobile VADOWERX Framework (Click to enlarge)I went out to do some more research on the VADOWERX Framework site, but everything beyond the first page is currently returning a 404 error. (Please comment if you get different results. I might have just caught them during a transition.)

So, according to the GoLife release on the VADOWERX Framework:

Using VADOWERX technology, developers can rapidly create and monetize mobile widget application services. Developers are also able to collaborate and share software modules in real-time, thus, creating an integrated developer economic model like no other. The VADOWERX framework is designed to enable application development and distribution across a wide spectrum of operating systems, handsets, and mobile operators.

If you’re a mobile application developer who is interested in access to the limited release, visit the GoLife Mobile Developer Lab to sign up. For more on the VADOWERX Framework, read the press release.

Tweetpeek: Create your own Twitter-based “Pulse of (whatever)”

Rick Turoczy on March 11, 2008

Arguably one of the most popular Twitter-powered tools in Twitter-happy Portland, Pulse of PDX has had a lot of folks thinking about how to broadcast their own “group-think,” exposing the conversations of Twitter to a much broader audience. Pulse of Open Source is another great—and popular—example.

And so, maybe, you’re interested in doing the same thing by creating your own Pulse of… well, whatever. But, problem being you’re not really in command of the skills it would take to get the Twitter api to bend to your will.

I hear you, brother and/or sister. And that’s why I’m glad to have found Portland’s newest Twitter-based tool, Tweetpeek.

Tweetpeek is designed to help anyone build a pulse-of-anything widget in a few easy steps:

  1. Create a Twitter account for the entity. Take for example, Silicon Florist.
  2. Follow the folks whom you would like to participate in the flow of the conversation.
  3. Head over to Tweetpeek and tell it the name of the Twitter account you created.

And voila! You now have a site or widget to which you can point anyone, Twitter user or not (for shame!).

http://siliconflorist.tweetpeek.com/widget/

That’s right, my friend, you’re now in the business of building api-driven widgets. Just like that.

Tweetpeek was a joint project of Portland’s Michael Richardson and Josh Pyles. The current version is a very early, yet highly functional, build. Even if you’re not interested in building a pulse, I’d encourage you to spend some time with Tweetpeek, because I’m positive that you’ll immediately conjure up some applications for it.

For more information or to build your own, visit Tweetpeek.

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 11, 2008

Rick Turoczy on March 10, 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.

Portable Social Networks session at sxsw at Fast Wonder Blog

Dawn Foster captured a great deal of the Portable Social Networks session at SXSW, which featured Leslie Chicoine, Jeremy Keith, Chris Messina, David Recordon, and Joseph Smarr. These are some of the leading thinkers on Web profile management and authentication sharing some of their vision for how the Web will work. Important information for everyone who works in Web apps, Silicon-Forest-based or otherwise.

SXSWhat?

Jive’s CMO Sam Lawrence provides a whirlwind tour report, “I can’t really say I went to SXSW this year. 24-hours is hardly enough time to have been there. But I did have a fun, albeit nutty short time.badge.jpg Some highlights:”

Mark Zuckerberg on Data Portability: An Interview – ReadWriteWeb

Portland’s Marshall Kirkpatrick had the opportunity to sit down with Mark Zuckerberg, a guy who runs a little Web site called Facebook. Marshall writes, “Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is at SXSW doing press interviews today and many people want to know what his thoughts are concerning data portability. There’s a big web out there that would like to give and take user data in and out of Facebook. We focused on data portability in our conversation with Zuckerberg and got a fairly clear picture of his views on the subject.”

Map Awards – Platial.com

Portland-based Platial has announced their Map Awards for 2007, highlighting “We’re thrilled to be a part of all these movements which are literally reshaping our new world, a single world united through action instead of boundary. That’s why we started Platial. Being part of these movements and a resource for community action is what we hoped we could do.”

Waxy.org: Worst Website Ever, Redux

Portland’s Andy Baio covers the SXSW Worst Website Ever panel, “Once I can get a copy of the audio from the talk, I’ll upload a screencast of the entire session with the original slides. Until then, here are the descriptions of each pitch.”

Bend Blogs

Bend Blogs is an aggregator and directory of Central Oregon journals, blogs, and weblogs, with blogs from Bend, Redmond, Prineville, Sunriver, Sisters, and La Pine. Updated hourly.

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Portland Lunch 2.0: The sequel

Rick Turoczy on March 10, 2008

Portland Lunch 2.0, the opportunity to meet your Portland peers over lunch at one of the area’s cool office spaces, has set the date and location for the next get-together.

The next lunch will be held April 9 at the eROI offices in Old Town.

Come one, come all, whether geek or not. Have some lunch on eROI, mix and mingle with your fellow Portlanders, learn about the tech scene in Portland, go home or back to work happy.

For more information, see the post on the official Lunch 2.0 blog, or if you’re already sold on the idea, RSVP on Upcoming. I hope to see you there.

SXSW: Josh Bancroft featured by Forrester’s Charlene Li

Rick Turoczy on March 10, 2008

Now, okay. I’ll give you that Josh Bancroft doesn’t exactly work for a “startup.” (He works for a little company called “Intel.”) But no one can deny his impact on the Portland startup scene. Be that his efforts on Ignite Portland, his participation in the Legion of Tech, (both of which are “startups” in their own rights) or even his conversations and guidance via Twitter—he’s a startup guy at heart.

And he’s Portland through and through.

So, it was a proud moment for all of us when he was recognized as a thought leader—or more accurately, a “Revolutionary”—by Charlene Li of Forrester during her SXSW presentation on Sunday.

Dawn Foster of Fast Wonder and Jive Software summed it up best, observing:

[Li] also used Josh Bancroft as an example of someone who made something happen inside a big company using social software (wiki) to create Intelpedia under the radar of the executives (bonus points for a little Portland geek cred).

Other coverage included:

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for March 10, 2008

Rick Turoczy on March 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.

OsoEco: We’re O So Excited to Win!

OsoEco CEO Caroline Cummings, after placing as a finalist for Angel Oregon, writes, “Our next steps are to continue fundraising to finish raising the $1 million we need to close this round. We’re scheduled to launch OsoEco to the public this Spring. If you haven’t already – please sign up on our home page to request an invitation to our next beta launch. We look forward to being able to share OsoEco with the world – and enable consumers everywhere to recognize their collective consumer power.”

At SXSWi

Bruce Kroeze, who joined the Portland SXSW breakfast, shares some thoughts on the event, “I’m sitting in a panel “Social Design Strategies” at South by Southwest Interactive. What a privilege and a pleasure to be here. I can’t believe I’ve never attended this before.”

BarCampAustin and BarCampPortland Compare & Contrast

Dawn Foster provides a comparison between the Austin and Portland BarCamps highlighting, “This is my second BarCampAustin, and it’s been interesting to notice some of the similarities and differences between Austin and BarCampPortland. For some reason, Austin seems to have more presentations and pitches instead of the informal round table discussions that people seem to favor at BarCampPortland; however, Austin also has more of a party atmosphere.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

ExpressionEngine 2.0 sneak peek

Rick Turoczy on March 8, 2008

Bend-based EllisLab took SXSW as an opportunity to give attendees a sneak preview of the upcoming version of ExpressionEngine. [Update: EllisLab has released a video of the ExpressionEngine 2.0 sneak peek.]

From a user standpoint, the big news is the new ExpressionEngine control panel, which the team has designed to greatly simplify the usability of the product with a wealth of AJAX-y goodness.

From a coding standpoint, the big news is that ExpressionEngine 2.0 is now built on top of CodeIgniter, EllisLab’s open-source PHP framework. This means a huge leap forward in the options for customizing and extending the functionality of the tool.

Don’t like how that feature works? Build a new one yourself.

The most interesting thing about this move is that both the ExpressionEngine and CodeIgniter community become one single community, which should push ExpressionEngine development farther and faster than ever before. Best of all, this marks a decided step forward in the EllisLab philosophy as it continues to embrace open-source collaboration.

Oh and one more thing? JQuery. Boom.

For those of you not familiar with ExpressionEngine, it’s designed for the power user or company who has grown beyond the capabilities of current blogging tools, but isn’t interested in wrestling more unwieldy content-management systems. Or, in EllisLab’s words:

ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system that empowers thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies around the world to easily manage their website.

If you’re interested in seeing ExpressionEngine 2.0 for yourself, I’d recommend checking out Startupalooza where Kurt Deutscher, Chief Technology Evangelist for EllisLab, will be providing a similar preview of the product.

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