Last August, I entered a loft in downtown Portland, walked through a door, and met someone I’ve wanted to talk to for the last 20 years: Ghyslain Raza, the unwilling subject of the “Star Wars Kid” meme, the biggest viral video of the pre-YouTube era.
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Any number of online event platforms try varying degrees of approximating an event environment, virtually. But most, at best, create an uncanny valley of “almost but not quite.” So what if you took a completely different approach? Like, I don’t know… riffing on the incredibly popular Animal Crossing as an event environment? That’s about the most accurate description of Skittish.
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If I accomplished one thing during 2020, it was successfully test driving innumerable online meeting and collaboration platforms. I mean, what else was there to do, really? And throughout that time I kept thinking, “Trying to recreate the real world meeting or event dynamic online is only going to result in an uncomfortable and awkward Uncanny Valley situation.” The true winner of the new generation of virtual events, in my opinion, was going to have to come at the problem of gathering virtually in a new and creative way. And with that in mind, Skittish just might be on to something.
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In the early days of this blog—way way back in 2007—when we wanted to find an event or figure out what was happening, there was one place we all went: Upcoming.org. Back then, in Portland BC (Before Calagator), the site provided a unique way of figuring who was going where and what might be an interesting event. Unfortunately, Upcoming had been acquired by Yahoo! And, like many things that Yahoo! has acquired, Upcoming died.
It kind of struck me when I heard someone talking about it on the radio, this morning. And the DJ didn’t really even mention Portland. And he had to explain what Kickstarter was. But he was highlighting how a project had just surpassed the all-time funding record for Kickstarter. And that it was a cooler. Not any cooler mind you. The Coolest Cooler. Read More
When you’re visiting a new town, it’s always awesome to get some insider tips on the best spots. And sometimes, even locals could use a little inspiration. That’s why The Brigade has built a little side project that’s an easily accessible guide to their favorite spots in Portland. Read More
As part of MusicFestNW and PDXconf, we had the opportunity to put Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk and Portland’s Andy Baio together to chat about Girl Talk, sampling culture, and the future of music. After focusing on Gregg’s music in part 1, the two transitioned into a compelling discussion on the future of music. Read More
Portland has been on the edge of transition. We know there’s awesome stuff happening here. But honestly? That remains a secret to the majority of the planet.
But that may be changing. Thanks to XOXO, a labor of love from Andy Baio and Andy McMillan. Read More
