I just heard that Oregon Media Insiders—arguably the de facto resource for all things mainstream media related in Portland—is no more. Writer Lynn Siprelle has decided to hang up the pen after the site led to the destruction of a friendship.
A post entitled “I’m done” outlines Lynn’s reasons behind the shutdown. Read More
To blog or not to blog? It’s a question with which any number of corporations wrestle. And today at the InnoTech eMarketing Summit, Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb and Josh Bancroft of Intel will answer that question—and likely many more about corporate communications, blogging, and microblogging sites like Twitter. (I’ll be on the panel as well, doing a lot of smiling and nodding.)
Here’s the basis of the discussion:
Whether out of curiosity or under pressure, you’ve likely started a company blog. Maybe you’re even letting employees blog. But making blogging a successful component of your organization’s communications and support programs? That’s another thing, entirely. Join this panel of panel of elite bloggers and microbloggers to learn how you can use blogs to increase transparency with your target market, create deeper and lasting relationships with your existing customers, and improve your company’s visibility on the Web. Attendees are sure to leave with both a renewed motivation to blog and specific steps for improving their organizations’ use of traditional blogs and new microblogging platforms.
The three of us will be providing our insight at 2 PM, today, in Portland Ballroom 256 at the Oregon Convention Center. So if you’re at InnoTech, we’d love to see you. For you Twitter types, the hashtag for the event is #emspdx.
Can’t come see us today? Well we can’t save you any… oh wait. That’s okay, but we’ll miss you. And I’d highly encourage to register to attend InnoTech on Thursday so that you can see Rahaf Harfoush talk about the Obama social media campaign.
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Business Leader Northwest—a leadership conference being held February 25 and 26 at the Oregon Convention Center—is pulling in a number of big names for the conference. People like Stephen Covey, Burgerville Chairman Tom Mears, and Umpqua’s Ray Davis.
But did you know that they’re pulling in a ton of big name local bloggers, as well? It’s true. They’ll have an entire “blogger pavilion” on the trade show floor.
The following folks—many of whom you’ll likely recognize—are slated to be around:
Still on the fence about whether or not to attend? Maybe you should read some posts from these bloggers on the Business Leader NW blog.
How about now? Really? Even with all of those cool bloggers and their insights and stuff?
Okay, fine. Here’s another push: $25 of your entry fee goes to the non-profit of your choice.
See? I knew that would get you, you old softie. So why don’t you go register and we’ll see you in the blogger pavilion at some point.
Need more? Visit the site for a schedule of Business Leader NW or keep up-to-date on the latest by following Business Leader NW on Twitter.
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Well, okay. Maybe I’m jumping the gun. But BlogHer ’09 could be held in Portland. It could be, that is, if you exercise your right to vote.
Elisa Camahort writes:
I’ve heard a lot of rumbling out there wondering where BlogHer ’09 will be. Well, just like last year, we’re going to poll the community. We included the below poll in the post-conference survey for attendees, but we want to make sure those of you who didn’t attend can also weigh in.
That’s right, the premiere event for women bloggers is asking you to help choose where BlogHer will be held in July of 2009. And I can’t think of any better spot than Portland.
Why?
So what do you have to do to make this dream a reality? Vote! Female blogger or otherwise. Vote, and let’s see if we can bring BlogHer to the Rose City next year.
(Hat tip Jeff Martens)
Vancouver’s Aaron Hockley is fed up.
I’m going to take a bit of a stand. Effective immediately, I will no longer comment on tech blogs that don’t support OpenID for comment authentication.
And I, for one, really respect his taking this stance. I think it’s these small, self-admittedly “mostly insignificant” kinds of actions that make things happen. The journey of 1000 miles and whatnot.
Aaron makes a strong argument for every blog pursuing its own OpenID login for comments:
OpenID is a win-win for blog comments. It’s a win for the comment author, since it means less info to type. It’s a win for the blog owner, since it means the comments have a “real” identity behind them.
I mean, if you really want to be part of the conversation, shouldn’t you make it as easy as possible for others to join in the conversation?
Of course you should. And OpenID can help you do that.
And you—as a Portlander or Silicon Forester—should be more than embracing OpenID. You should be singing its praises from the rooftops, if only to support great companies like Vidoop, ConfIdent, and JanRain who are the forefront of OpenID development.
OpenID is like the Portland Trail Blazers of technology around here. Only better. Like the ’76-’77 Blazers. That’s right. You know what I’m talking about. The plucky young upstarts who win despite all odds.
And OpenID has more than a fighting chance. But it still needs the support of each and every one of us.
But what if it’s a technical issue that’s preventing your adoption? (Like me, for instance. I wrangled my OpenID WordPress implementation for hours before Chris O’Rourke was able to pinpoint the issue and help me resolve the problem.)
Well, you don’t have that excuse anymore. Because Aaron has offered to help:
And I’ll put my time where my mouth is: I’ll help you. If you follow those links above, and can’t figure it out, or you try it and it doesn’t work. I’ll help. Send me an e-mail. I want you to have OpenID.
I’m looking forward to using my OpenID to comment on your blog the next time I swing by.
In fact, how about this? Let’s round up a list of all the Silicon Forest based blogs and services that support OpenID.
If you’re one of them, use your OpenID to comment below.
I’ll work on gathering a comprehensive list for posting. And then we’ll work on promoting your blog or service for being one of the ones who’s supporting OpenID.
Just as a way—albeit minor—of saying “Thank you for using OpenID.”
