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Tag: Portland

Another Portland startup closes down

Rick Turoczy on November 25, 2008

SandyUsually, when I have to mention a company going through layoffs or—worse yet—shutting down, it’s a fairly grim and unwelcome affair.

This is a welcome change.

I’m happy to report that Portland-based Values of n is being shutdown—because it has been acquired by Twitter, the popular microblogging service that powers the conversations of the Portland Web startup scene.

Why the shutdown? I mean, Values of n has some amazing technology and thinking in its products: my favorite anthropomorphic digital assistant, Sandy, and Stikkit, little yellow online notes that think. Which I guess makes them somewhat anthropomorphic in their own right.

Yes, the technology is amazing. And Sandy has quite an impressive relationship with Twitter. But quite frankly Twitter doesn’t know quite what to do with those assets at this point. So they’re going into the mothballs.

Which brings us to the reason they actually did acquire Values of n: one substantial piece of intellectual property by the name of Rael Dornfest.

Ev Williams of Twitter couldn’t have put it any better when he said:

Rael Dornfest is a famously talented engineer, author, and entrepreneur. Before founding Values of n, Rael served as Chief Technology Officer at O’Reilly Media and is known for his pioneering work on RSS as well being the series editor of O’Reilly’s celebrated Hacks books…. [I] have always thought he was one of the smartest guys I know.

Smart, indeed. Incredibly talented, yes. And in possession of an insane amount of energy.

It’s a little known fact that the amazing—and highly lauded—services of Values of n were single-handedly conceived and managed by Rael with some help here and there. (But he did the bulk of the work.) Even with all the stress of running those services in parallel with a consulting business, he remains one of the most delightful and intelligent people in the Portland tech scene.

And the good news is, Portland is exactly where he’ll remain. Twitter can have his intelligence and guidance, but we get to keep him here. Which means Twitter wins, Rael wins, and we win. Win, win, um, win.

But don’t just take my word for it

This news was all over the tech scene on Monday. Here’s a quick smattering of posts that provide more details on the acquisition:

  • A fork in the road
    “I have taken an engineering position in the User Experience group at Twitter. I started consulting there a few months ago, and fell in love with the team, their way of thinking about things, and of course the product (my Twitter user id is in the low 100s). It turns out we worked incredibly well together, the feeling was mutual, and they pulled me in as a permanent member of the team.”
  • Twitter Hires Rael Dornfest, Shutters Values of n
    “Twitter just announced on the company blog that the company has acquired the assets of Portland, Oregon based Values of n and brought its well-known engineer founder Rael Dornfest on to the Twitter staff. Dornfest’s latest project at Values of n was an anthropomorphized personal assistant service called Sandy.”
  • Twitter Acquires ‘Values of n’, Adds Rael Dornfest To The Team
    “The primary goal of the acquisition appears to have been to bring Rael Dornfest to the Twitter team. Dornfest is the founder of Values of n and former CTO at O’Reilly Media, whose responsibilities also included editing the O’Reilly Hacks series. He was also the head of the RSS-DEV group, which created the RSS 1.0 standard.”
  • Twitter buys a company, closes it, keeps its founder/engineer
    “The micro-messaging service Twitter, fresh off its rejection of an offer to be acquired by Facebook, has turned around and made a purchase itself: A personal productivity and information management solutions company called Values of n, Twitter reports on its blog.”
  • Twitter Buys Start-up’s Assets; Hires Founder Rael Dornfest
    “Twitter grabbed headlines today after reports surfaced saying it declined a $500 million buyout offer from Facebook. Now, Twitter is making more news today by saying it has acquired the assets of Values of n, a company that developed a sticky-note application as well as a personal productivity app that works over e-mail, SMS, and the Web.”
  • Twitter Acquires Values of n (Makers of Sandy)
    “Judging by the lack of updates to Twitter I highly doubt that we’ll see any of the Values of n’s features integrated. I am devastated to hear they will be shutting down all their services as well.”
  • Rael Dornfest joins twitter; now this gets interesting
    “Now the man’s going to join forces with Ev Williams, Biz Stone and other smart people at twitter; my product development head is bursting with speculation about the cool direction twitter could go in (and thinking multiple products people, one at a time…). And of course the dude’s an engineer….”
  • Twitter says I want Sandy
    “These are two pretty cool products and I have been a fan of I want Sandy for a long time and it usually runs most of my calendering.”

While I’m sad to see Sandy go, I’ll eagerly await her return. And in the meantime, I’m looking forward to Rael lending his intelligence, wit, and inimitable energy to Twitter.

Congratulations to Rael. This couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

And Sandy…? Call me.

Puff! The Geeky Dragon is dead (maybe)

Rick Turoczy on November 14, 2008

Green Dragon FAIL WhaleBirds of a feather flock together. Startups like startups. Creatives like creatives. And that’s probably why when a startup distillery and bistro called the Green Dragon opened, the startup tech community in Portland felt a certain affinity for it.

They liked us. We liked them. They were perfect for Beer and Blog. They were centrally located for other tech events. It was a very much kismet.

But now, that’s coming to an end. I’m sad to report that, like many a startup, the Green Dragon has (possibly) been acquired by Rogue Brewing.

And, if it goes through—the lawyers have jumped in to say that “nothing is final”—then the dynamic of the joint may be changing.

OurPDX is reporting:

John Foyston of The Beer Here blog has an update that pretty much states that Rogue plans on keeping most of what the Green Dragon character is today, so that could bode well for us who love it. From how I read the article, the only change would be in ownership, but the heart of the Green Dragon would live on. You decide.

We don’t know what we don’t know. But I’m not exactly holding my breath that the Green Dragon we know and love will be around much longer.

What to do? Show up to Beer and Blog today to bid one of the best geek hangouts in town a fond farewell. Mourning attire and protest armbands optional.

Ignite Portland 4: Tips and Tricks

Rick Turoczy on November 13, 2008

Well, well, well. The long wait is over. That’s right folks. It’s that time again. Time to see the best and brightest sharing their burning ideas on stage at Ignite Portland 4.

As always, I want your Ignite experience to be as fun and rewarding as possible. So whether this is your 23rd Ignite event or your first, here are some tips and tricks for getting the most out of Ignite Portland 4.

First, the venue info:

Bagdad Theater
3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
7:00 – 9:00 PM

Ticketholders get in at 5:30 PM
General Admission at 6:15 PM
Admission is always FREE

Here are some “Do”s and “Don’t”s that will help you get the most out of your first, second, third, or fourth Ignite Portland experience:

  • DO bring your camera, your phone, your sketchpad, or any other way of capturing the event.
  • DO tag anything and everything #ip4 and/or igniteportland. That way, we can find it.
  • DON’T forget your ticket or a device that will allow you to show your ticket electronically.
  • DO get there early. Really early. I’m serious. Early. Did I say “Early”?
  • DO be prepared to give everyone and anyone your Twitter name. (Don’t use Twitter? Get on it.)
  • Now that you’re on Twitter, DO try to tweet about the event and hashtag it #ip4. That way, we can see what you’re saying.
  • DO be nice to all the Legion of Tech folks and volunteers. (They’re all volunteers, actually. And they’re doing this in their free time.)
  • DO be especially nice to the Adam DuVander who has been the lead organizer on the event.
  • DON’T be the assholes who were heckling presenters last time.
  • DON’T be a wallflower. Talk to people in line while you’re waiting to get into the venue. Talk to people while you’re waiting in the food line. The Bagdad is a great venue for presenting, but talking to folks at breaks will take some doing.
  • DO try to get in front of Aaron Hockley and his camera. I swear, that guy even makes me look good. If not him, Kveton will make you look good too.
  • DO take the chance to introduce yourself to me and tell me about the cool side projects you’re pursuing.

Need more tips? Right this way, my friend. The Legion of Tech has a list as well.

Looking forward to seeing you there. And best of luck to tonight’s presenters:

Thrive PDX: Making the Portland tech scene stronger

Rick Turoczy on November 10, 2008

We’ve been lucky enough to develop a tightly knit community with the “Web oriented” folks here in town—those startups that focus on Web technologies, Twitter types, bloggers—all of us brought together by a common interest in technology and the potential it holds for Portland.

As lucky as I feel to be a part of that community, there are times when that community starts asking questions that the participants are unable to answer. Questions about business or funding or more established technology companies.

But here’s the thing: there’s a wealth of information like that in other tech communities here in town. And there are organizations that have those groups of people talking.

So why not get everyone talking together?

That’s the idea behind Thrive PDX, an attempt to get more people talking and sharing ideas about how we can all work together to ensure Portland continues to shine throughout any economic condition.

Dawn Foster describes the idea behind Thrive PDX far better than I could:

For some reason, it seems to me like there is this wall between these two groups of people, and it doesn’t feel healthy to me. I’ve been working with the SAO for months (way before we even suspected that we were heading into times of economic uncertainty) to find ways to break down this wall and get these two groups of people together. With the economy taking a hit, we decided that now was the time to do something about it. We felt a real need to get these two groups of people together to find ways to help each other through tough times. Our ultimate goal is to have Portland emerge out of the downturn with a technology industry that is stronger than ever.

If you’re feeling the same way, I’d highly encourage you to join us on Tuesday, November 11, at Kells. Maybe bring someone along who’s never been to one of the tech events in town? Maybe you could tell some friends in more traditional tech pursuits? Or maybe you could just show up and talk to some people to whom you don’t usually talk?

To get an idea of who’s coming—and a visual example of the divide we’re attempting to bridge—take a look at the Upcoming RSVP and the SAO RSVP. It looks like we’re going to have a good cross-section of folks there. And it would be great to have you as part of that mix.

Have a Happy Halloween at Beer… err Bat & Blog

Rick Turoczy on October 31, 2008

Bat and BlogEvery week around this time, a group of Portland blogging and tech types gather at the Green Dragon to end the week on a good note with Beer and Blog.

This week, it just so happens that Beer and Blog falls on Halloween which has it—like a victim of an unfortunate zombie bite—transforming into the ghoulishly clever “Bat and Blog.”

But wait, there’s more:

Now, if you are like me (meaning, not into intricate costumes that involve actual planning) you may find yourself dressing up as yourself again this year (meaning, sans costume). All that thinking ahead for costume ideas really bums me out, so I usually skip the whole thing.

This year, however, I came up with an easy-to-create Halloween getup of the non-lame variety that lets you participate in the celebrated tradition of being someone else for a day. The best part is that this costume idea is of someone we all admire, whom men and women alike want to emulate. Someone smart, popular, good looking and super-dooper nice, who supports and promotes the Portland tech scene with unwavering love. A bona fide tour de force.

Who are they describing? You’ll just have to head over to the blog and see.

Suffice it to say, I’m buying. But you’ll have to show up to find out if that’s a trick or a treat.

Open Source Bridge: Get involved in bridging the gap

Rick Turoczy on October 30, 2008

We—and I’m using the royal “we”—were all a bit taken aback when O’Reilly decided to pull the plug on OSCON in Portland.

Was it something we said? Did we no longer have the “open source” cred? What did we do? Why hast thou forsaken us?

Confusion reined.

But it was only a momentary lapse.

You see, if there’s one thing I love about Portland, it’s our entrepreneurial spirit. We weren’t just going to sit around and cry in our microbrewed beers about it. We Portlanders are going to figure out how to do something else. We’ll show them.

And true to form, here’s Open Source Bridge, a new grassroots-organized open-source-developer-oriented conference that’s slated to be held in Portland, next summer.

What are we planning? I’m glad you asked. Let me let some of the Open Source Bridge organizers tell the story:

Selena Deckelmann writes:

I love conferences. And I love Portland. Maybe you can guess what’s coming next.

During an intense brainstorming session at Side Project To Startup, a group of concerned Portlanders drew together a plan for a new conference. We packed a tiny room, and had a heated discussion about what we wanted, what Portland needed, and how we might do it. By the end of the session, Audrey Eschright and I agreed to co-chair. And with the support of Portland’s incredible tech community, we knew we could make it happen.

Audrey Eschright writes:

I am excited to be co-chairing this event. Portland is a fabulous place to be working on open source projects, and we’re the ideal community to build an inclusive, diverse conference that focuses on developers’ interests and needs.

Dawn Foster offers:

Were you sad and dismayed to hear that OSCON was moving out of Portland? Are you looking for more open source events to attend? Would you like an open source conference organized by the community? Want one more tech event to attend in July? Need an excuse (any excuse) to visit lovely Portland, Oregon in July? Do you like to help organize events for fun in your spare time?

If you answered yes to any of my obnoxious questions above, I have a great solution for you: The Open Source Bridge event.

Oh, yes. It’s on, my friend.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in some of the early planning. And there’s a great team working to make things happen.

Who?

Well Reid Beels, Professor Bart Massy, Jake Kuramoto, Kelly Guimont, Adam Duvander, and of course the folks quoted above. And the team is growing, adding Ward Cunningham, Irene Schwarting, Harvey Mathews, and Clay Neal (from the City of Portland) since our initial meetings.

Now, we need some help from you.

That’s right. You. We need you.

If this sounds like an interesting concept and you’re interested in contributing some of your time, join us at CubeSpace tonight (October 30) at 7:30 PM to take part in the Town Hall.

The Town Hall will give the organizers a chance to chat with you about the proposed event. And give you a chance to voice your opinions on what you’d like to see. It will also likely give us a chance to guilt you into helping convince you to join the cause and volunteer some time.

Can’t make it? No worries. Just make sure to let one of us know how you’d like to help.

Open Source Bridge is going to be an amazing event. I can tell, already. And I’m already looking forward to seeing you there. Even though I’m not even really sure where there is yet.

At the very least, I hope to see you at CubeSpace on Thursday, October 30.

Portland team quintessential to new ReadWriteWeb Jobwire

Rick Turoczy on October 28, 2008

ReadWriteWebWith the Portland Twitter types, #afterhours is a bit of a running joke that describes the time where we all wedge in a little extra work while more sane less busy people relax.

Generally, there’s little to publicly show for efforts. But that changed today, thanks to ReadWriteWeb‘s Marshall Kirkpatrick, well, marshaling some Portland talent to help build out a new, heretofore top-secret property for the popular blog.

Over the past few weeks, Doug Coleman, Nate DiNiro, and Dionne Fox—and of course Marshall himself—have been burning the midnight oil… on both ends… or whatever. Suffice it to say, they’ve been putting in a great deal of time and effort on the site.

And now those efforts are seeing the light of day (Still carrying the imagery through. I’m an English major, you know.) Meet ReadWriteWeb Jobwire.

Through a mystical recipe of technological magic that I don’t even comprehend, the RWW Jobwire will provide the latest and greatest info on who’s going where, who’s hiring whom, and what companies are securing the most promising talent.

At a time when a number of popular tech blogs (Silicon Florist included) are bordering on the second coming of F*cked Company, this will be a welcome and interesting addition to the tech scene. And no doubt a better indicator of what’s actually happening with the best and brightest the Web has to offer.

According to RWW:

We’ve been working on it for months, well before the current economic climate unfolded, but we’re hoping that a whole site of good news will serve our readers well in these troubled times. Companies are still hiring, people are still getting cool new jobs, and we’re going to report on it. We invite you to check out the new Jobwire site to meet the Jobwire team, learn about our special guest editors and check out some of the great new jobs people have landed lately!

So, get some good news today! Head on over to see Portland’s handiwork in action at the ReadWriteWeb Jobwire.

Where I catch up on WhereCamp PDX

Rick Turoczy on October 22, 2008

Last weekend, Portland played host to all sorts of geolocation goodness at WhereCamp PDX. And proud as I was to sponsor this unique event, I was unable to attend.

What to do? Read the blog posts about the event, of course! And since I’m tracking down those posts, anyway, I thought it might be nice to share them with you, gentle reader.

Let’s get going, shall we?

  • WhereCamp PDX Roundup
    “As you can probably guess, WhereCamp focuses on geo-geeking. It began in 2007 as a way to extend and build on conversations and topics presented at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference.”
  • WhereCamp PDX Takes on PacManhattan
    “On the final day of WhereCamp, it was time for location-based games. After a late night of geohacking, several WhereCampers returned early to play PacManhattan, where city streets become the game board.”
  • Oh my gosh, it’s like being immersed in the brochure online!
    “So the conversation started off all over the board: discussing whether Google was a brand-neutral service or whether or not it over-shadowed the brand; why anyone would want to push branded content to the web; the cost-benefit analysis of any custom solution (including Google or Flash); the perceived need to require Geo-spatial accuracy and so on.”
  • Wherecamp PDX | Paul Bissett on Illuminating the Dark Geoweb
    “These are notes from the WhereCamp Portland morning session on dark content and the geoweb. It was led by Paul Bissett, CEO of WeoGeo. About 15 people were at the session, and brought up some very interesting points.”
  • WhereCamp PDX Resources
    “This Yahoo! Pipe for WhereCamp PDX [built by Amber Case] grabs FlickrPhotos, the Google Map Location, drop.io session note updates, and Twitter Feeds.”

For more details on the event, visit WhereCamp PDX.

Lunch and Unexpected Careers at the Art Institute

Rick Turoczy on October 16, 2008

Yesterday, the Art Institute of Portland graciously hosted what looked like about 175 people in their aptly titled “open space”.

We came for the lunch, but got an unexpected bonus, a career fair. Turns out the “open space” is so ginormous it can house two events at the same time, very nicely.

Some explanation: the AI was holding a career fair for their students in the same space as Lunch 2.0, overlapping us by about an hour or so. Aside from a little confusion, sharing the space, separated by portable wall-boards worked really well. It may have been fortuitous for at least a few people attending Lunch 2.0, since I heard one group mention they were looking for design interns.

The format was a bit different this time, mostly by accident. This was the first lunch table style setting, which seemed to work well for conversations, even though it crimped the milling around time we usually get.

Also, since the career fair was in full swing when we started the lunch, it was too noisy to do my usual five second, stumbing intro and the host’s welcome. So, we did them later, after people had eaten and the noise had died down a bit. I actually think this is a better format, not that there’s a playbook or anything, just an observation.

This Lunch 2.0 featured a swag drawing for Art Institute gear, won by Bill Jackson and Manuel Espino.

Thanks to Allena Baker, Lulu Hoeller and the Art Institute for hosting a highly successful and enjoyable Lunch 2.0, and to Bram for connecting the dots for us.

And finally, thanks to Don Park for providing some shots (and a video), in the absence of the unofficial Lunch 2.0 photographer, Aaron Hockley, who apparently is on vacation. If you liked the food, the event was catered by Kam & Kam Catering.

Upcoming Portland Lunches 2.0

  • November 5 at the Eclipse Foundation
  • January 14 in the ‘burbs at the new OTBC offices in the Beaverton Round

Looks like we may be unintentionally taking December off, unless someone out there wants to host a Lunch 2.0 in December. Interested? Let me know in comments.

Of course, other comments and inquires should also be directed to the comments.

Vidoop banks on, well, banks

Rick Turoczy on October 14, 2008

VidoopMany know Portland-based Vidoop—yes, they DO have a new look—as purveyor of OpenID provider myVidoop and home to the DiSo Project, “an umbrella project for a group of open source implementations of distributed social networking concepts.”

But Vidoop also has a number of revenue generating tricks in its bag, from the advertising that comprises its ImageShield to the enhanced security products that it sells.

Today at Finovate, Vidoop launched a new suite of those security products targeted at financial institutions, healthcare organizations, and corporations. And for banks in particular, Vidoop highlights that they offer “three options for providing strong authentication for accessing Web sites.”

The announcement appears to be striking a chord. According to Banktastic, “Your bank or credit union NEEDS to look into this.”

Of course, the real magic of Vidoop’s easy to implement, tough to defeat, advertising-supported security is that it not only reduces implementation and maintenance costs, it actually provides another way for businesses to generate revenue.

The ImageShield provides advertisers the opportunity to sponsor images within certain categories. Customers who choose to enable advertising-supported logins can obtain Vidoop’s increased security at little or no cost, and in some cases, generate revenue through the sponsored images.

“Not only can financial institutions potentially make money using Vidoop, but they can also realize substantial savings through customer service,” said Mitch Savage, Vidoop’s Executive Vice President, Business Development. “The number one call to most customer support centers is login issues. Vidoop provides an easier way for users to remember passwords with images, and now we have two additional ways they can authenticate without requiring expensive call center support.”

For more from Mitch on Vidoop’s new offering, here’s an interview from Finovate:

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For more information, visit Vidoop.

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