Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
On June 1, 1921, one of the most horrific — and often undiscussed — incidents of racial violence in United States history took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Black Wall Street. One hundred years later, a Portland startup — A Kids Book About — has created a book to help encourage more conversations about this deplorable event.
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It’s common knowledge that we are afforded the luxury of our relatively cushy existence here in Oregon thanks to the efforts of pioneers. Pioneers who spent many an arduous day sitting on uncomfortable wagon seats as they headed toward their new home.
Last I heard, that whole “pioneer” thing isn’t a requirement to be a resident of the state anymore. Unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately for our amusement—no one told the soon-to-be officially Portland-based Vidoop.
Because they’re recreating the Oregon Trail with a trip from Tulsa to Portland. That’s right. The entire Tulsa crew is packing into a convoy and heading north to their new home.
28 people. 4 RVs. 7 U-Hauls.42 people. 4 RVs. 5 U-Hauls, 2 trailers, 2 cars, 8 pets, and 1 blueberry bush. 5 days to get across the country.
And you get to watch all the hijinx with the Vidoop Oregon Trail blog! It’s like our own little Real World Road Rules episode.
And while there’s not much there now, bear in mind that the trip just started. There’s no telling what kind of hilarity will ensue after these guys have been on the road for a few days.
Here’s hoping they never buy more meat than they can haul back to their wagons, no one is attacked by rabid squirrels, and last but certainly not least, no one succumbs to dysentery.
Vidoop is expecting to land in Portland by Sunday. Until then, stay tuned to the Vidoop Oregon Trail.
Well, it’s happened quickly, but it’s been fun. As Vidoop has brought various groups of employees up for a tour of their new hometown, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting Vidoop Troops one, two, and—after this Friday’s Beer and Blog—three.
After that, all that’s left is actually getting them moved up here. And that, my friends, is going to a-whole-nother adventure.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got new Vidoopers to meet and welcome to the Rose City.
Who? I’m glad you asked.
What? I’m involved in several projects, but tend to focus on designing and developing authentication solutions. I also work on some information security related things when not writing code.
How? Raised in Southeast Oklahoma (Spiro), I moved to Tulsa for college and have been here ever since. I earned my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science at the University of Tulsa, and did research in secure operating systems (SE Linux) while at TU. I joined Vidoop as a founding member in March 2006. Outside of work, I enjoy hanging out with family and friends, reading, video games, biking, working out, and movies (especially sci-fi/cyberpunk). Recently, I got married to a wonderful girl named Adrienne, who manages to put up with my various technology obsessions (still trying to get her on Twitter 🙂 )
Links? Nick on Myvidoop, Nick on Twitter, Kernel trap, Bruce Schneier’s blog, FreeSCI
Questions about Portland?
What? I write and edit copy, assist in the development/maintenance of our websites, create and maintain marketing videos as well as other marketing material, work with vendors, etc.
How? Born and bred in Oklahoma, I graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a B.A. in Journalism / Broadcast and Electronic Media. After college, I worked for a couple of years as a video editor at the largest independent sports production company in the U.S., serving clients such as ESPN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox Sports Net, Discovery, Major League Soccer, and many more. One fateful night in 2006, I met Luke Sontag at a concert. He pitched what then seemed like only an outlandish idea, and it soon came to fruition in the form of Vidoop. A year later, I finally joined the wild ride.
I enjoy music, art, traveling, history, puppies and fireworks (though not fireworks in, on, or under puppies). My favorite food is cereal. I love a good estate sale. I despise banana flavored taffy, and I’m the clumsiest person you’ll meet. I have an astute adolescent sense of humor eloquently coupled with a love for corny jokes. My Boston Terrier, Henry, can’t wait to explore Portland’s parks.
Links? FreeIndie.com, @rachelpalooza
Questions about Portland?
What? Attend a meeting, write some code, upgrade a server, accidentally delete a vital directory, restore from backup…you know, the usual life of a web dev.
How? Got a degree in Computer Science; realized programming was slightly more complicated than TI-83 BASIC. Ran my own company from 2 years, escaped to find job security, found… another startup. When I’m not coding, you can find me on the soccer field pretending I didn’t get cut from the team in High School. I Lived in Kenya for 18 years and I’m hoping Portland weather is just like Kenya’s: when it’s not raining…it’s perfect.
Links? http://adam.kuert.net
Questions about Portland?
What? I built the first prototype of our ImageShield technology and since then I’ve worked on nearly every project conceived at Vidoop. Currently working on alien browser plug-in technology to take over the world.
How? I’ve lived in the Tulsa area most of my life, excluding a short tour to Afghanistan. I previously worked for a healthcare software company developing web applications. I’m involved in just about every technology group in Tulsa including Tulsa PHP, Python, Ruby, and even .NET and Java which means I have access to more free pizza than any human can safely consume in their lifetime. Some technologies I’m currently excited about: Django, Python, Android and Mercurial.
Links? Steven’s Blog, Steven’s Twitter, Steven’s LinkedIn
Questions about Portland?
What? Lead of the RecognitionAUTH team, making the backend service that runs myVidoop faster and smarter, then packaging it for licensees. I think in Python, write C++, and study software management.
How? I was raised in Arnold, just south of St. Louis. I begged for a computer, then a Borland C++ compiler, and spent my allowance on programming books. I got an electrical engineering degree from the University of Tulsa, because I wanted to dive one level deeper into computers. However, code mistakes are less painful than electrical mistakes, so I put away the soldering iron and stuck with programming. I worked for 8 years at a flight simulation company, helping to make pilot training simulators and learning
more Fortran than I ever wanted. When my company started to dissolve, I was surprised to find a web startup in our own backyard.
My wife Jennifer is a research librarian, advocating for new technologies to support the information needs of customers. She is also the Foundation Center Coordinator, helping local non-profits find funding. Our daughter Ainsley recently turned four, and confuses Austin and Portland.
Links? Ambient Librarian, John @ Twitter, CppUnit Wiki, ConfIdent Technologies Software Development Kit
Questions about Portland?
Well, the place to meet and greet the past two troops seems as good of a place as any don’t you think? C’mon down to Beer and Blog on Friday afternoon. We’ll be back at one of our favorite haunts: the Green Dragon. That’s right. Not that other place. The Green Dragon. You know. The one where they have more than one bartender? Yeah, that one. Let me give you one more nemonic device to remember that: Green Dragon.
And no Justin Kistner, this week. And no substitute appointed.
Looking forward to seeing you and the last flight of the Vidoopers there.
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard that originally-Tulsa-based Vidoop is now well on its way to becoming Portland-based Vidoop. If not, let me tell you this little secret: Vidoop is moving its headquarters to Portland.
Now, Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a far cry from Portland, Oregon, on any number of fronts. Therefore, a little friendly immersion is both recommended and necessary for this burgeoning crop of soon-to-be Portvangelists.
So, Scott Kveton, the original Portvangelist, has arranged to bring members of the Vidoop team up here in waves, introducing them to Portland and the whole Portland tech scene. There are a group of them in town as we speak. And they’ll be in attendance at the Vidoop sponsored Beer & Blog, this Friday.
Hold that thought. And let’s talk about Twitter for a second.
Like many of you, I’ve been known to use Twitter from time to time. And, one of the things I’ve always appreciated most about Twitter is that I gradually get to gain some sort of insight into a person’s life before I run into them in person.
In essence, I get to meet them before I meet them.
Now, I’m excited to meet all the new talent that Vidoop is bringing into Portland. And I’m following as many of the Vidoop folks on Twitter as I can. But we’re a little short on time. So my little “getting to know you” Twitter trick won’t work.
Long story short, I’m feeling a bit behind.
And, here’s where you come in. Disguising my “self interest” as “community interest,” I asked the Vidoop troop if they would be up for answering a few questions. So I we could meet them—as it were—before meeting them.
Being good sports, a number of them obliged. (I like them already!)
And now, I present those folks to you, to meet them before you meet them. Breaking the ice, as it were.
What? I am one of the web developers at Vidoop who is in charge of the development of myVidoop. I also work on maintaining vidoop.com, confidenttechnologies.com, and blog.vidoop.com
How? I was born in Indonesia in 1982. Came to the US in 2000 and graduated with a degree in MIS in 2004. I worked for a non-profit organization for 2 years before joining Vidoop in June 2006. I have a huge crush on photography and soccer. My dad is a photographer so it runs in the family. My favorite soccer team is Manchester United. I am glad to be a part of Vidoop and what it believes in as far as the way things should go in the identity space, and definitely look forward to seeing where things are going in the near future.
Links? SoccerNet, Digg, Koesbong on Twitter
Questions about Portland?
What? My day is filled with reading tech blogs and different news sources to find info on competitors, potential partners/clients and what’s happening out in the tech community. I also do some market research and help provide information and statistics to contribute to our marketing department.
How? I graduated from Oklahoma State University with a B.A. in Public Relations in 2007. At OSU I helped manage a student-run advertising agency, worked on some non-profit PR campaigns, and worked for the athletic department/football team. I have been working at Vidoop since January. Some things that make my day are: listening to Ray Lamontagne, any sport (but college basketball is number one), Chuck Palahniuk books, meeting new people, being outdoors, a little rain, some time at the gym, an episode or two of The Office, and a good dinner and night out with friends.
Links of interest? The Office Quotes, ESPN, and Go Pokes.
Questions about Portland?
What? Web work of all sorts. Mostly keeping up with myVidoop.com and working with the plugin team. I am frequently seen grazing in areas populated by CSS & JavaScript and have been known to create little icons at the slightest provocation.
How? Raised in Oklahoma, I graduated from the University of Tulsa in ’07 with computer science and psych degrees. I joined Vidoop as an intern last August and became full-time as soon as I could. I take great joy in good design and am obsessed with games (video or otherwise) and music.
Links? Maxheadwound on MyVidoop, Maxheadwound on Twitter, Jason Grlicky
Questions about Portland?
What? I am part of the Business Development Team, working specifically for Confident Technologies which focuses solely on bringing stronger authentication to enterprise. I support my BizDev brothers by finding new leads and building relationships with contacts/companies that we want to partner with to provide the web with stronger authentication.
How? I have a problem (or so my boss say’s, “whatever Mitch, you shut your mouth”) I tend to speak, then realize that I immediately regret what I just said, there is supposedly this thing called a “filter” that most people have and apparently I don’t have it. I am very active, if it is day light I want to be outside, I enjoy combat sports, watching and training, I train Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai kick boxing along with some wrestling and boxing as well. I like to cheat the system (for the record there is no sign that says you have to leave the theater once your movie is over, so the way I see it I am just smarter than everyone else 🙂 ..I am known to go to a movie and then whenever my movie is over sneak into another movie, then another, then another, then another, my record is 6 movies in one day, 5 soda’s 3 popcorns, 2 pickles, and of course a butterfinger…and waaaay too many bathroom breaks. One of my favorite things to do though is simple, get together with quality people and eat some quality food, in that order. I think I am addicted to sushi, our CEO said I am going to wake up one day with gills, I’m still waiting…
Links? T-Rex Vehicles, UFC, and the obligatory ConfIdent Technologies, Vidoop, and Silicon Florist
Questions about Portland?
What? Siedenburg’s core role is business development and strategic partnership procurement as well as account relations and management.
How? Born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, moved to Tulsa for college in 2000, and did commercial real estate (retail investment sales) with CB Richard Ellis. Later turned down doing an amplified level of this in London or Madrid to join Vidoop in Nov of 2006. Have never looked back!
Links? Elpais.es, elmundo.es, Lowes.com (joke, I’ve been renovating a 1928 house), Wes Anderson, Audi
Questions about Portland?
What? Member of the plugin team. I currently maintain the Firefox plugin code.
How? Born in Texas, raised in Oklahoma. I’m 23 and have been working for Vidoop for about a year. My interests include video game programming, Javascript, jogging, two-stepping, beer (favorite: Pilsner Urquell) and math (or what I can remember of it). My current project is losing weight. 🙂 Lately I spend too much time reading blogs and thinking about work. I’m gay and have a wonderful boyfriend who is a
school teacher, and we volunteer together at Oklahomans for Equality.
Links? Not very interesting, I assure you 🙂 My webpage is stechz.com, but there’s nothing there right now. My twitter URL is http://twitter.com/stechz.
Questions about Portland?
So now that you’ve met them, where can you meet them? Beer and Blog, my friend. Beer and Blog. Sponsored—appropriately enough—by Vidoop and featuring Scott Kveton, Michael Richardson, and DiSo.
As always, I’m sure Mr. Kistner would appreciate an RSVP on Upcoming so he knows how many to expect.
Looking forward to seeing you and the Vidoop’rs there.
And if you want to get a jump start on answering some of the questions posited above, feel free to begin sharing your Portland expertise in the comments.