Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
Portland has always been a good town for user groups, where folks gather on a monthly basis to discuss languages and frameworks that are of interest to them. But for all of those amazing gatherings, it’s always nice to see larger user groups taking place in town. Like Sensu Summit.
When I first started Silicon Florist, I was hoping to shine some light on startups and events that might not be getting the attention they so richly deserved. I don’t know that I’ve succeeded. But I feel like I’ve at least made a dent.
Now, I’d like to make the same attempt with another under-served and under-recognized population: Portland’s rich and varied user group scene. I mean, there’s a ton of great stuff happening in our user groups. But—unless you’re at every single user group meeting—you can’t really get a feel for just how awesome it is. Read More
From the better late than never file, I wanted to give you a heads up on the Portland AWS group tonight, hosted by Janrain. If you have any interest in Amazon Web Services, whatsoever, tonight would be a good night to attend. You see, the chief services evangelist for AWS is in town. And he’ll be there.
So head on over to Janrain at 6 PM tonight to chat with him. Read More
For all the awesomeness that is the Portland startup and tech scene, there are still a few things that could use a little work. Things like finding mentors to help startups and founders find success. Establishing funding—like the Portland Seed Fund—to help sustain the efforts of entrepreneurs. And providing space for ad hoc and organized groups and events to gather.
Well, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) wants to help solve those problems. All of them. Because it’s really only a combination of all of them that will help us build a sustainable startup environment around here. But to do that, the PDC needs your feedback, please. Read More
If you’re a coder of any ilk, you won’t want to miss the Winter Coders’ Social, the regular gathering of all coding types here in town. But tonight, there’s also a Silverlight gathering that could prove worthwhile for motion designers and UX folk.
Now, I know if may be difficult to pry yourself away from your space heaters and heat registers, this evening. But despite the drop in temperatures, Portland’s event schedule remains chock full. Tonight, there are a couple of really cool events that make it worth bearing the chilly weather.
If you’re a coder of any ilk, you won’t want to miss the Winter Coders’ Social, the regular gathering of all coding types here in town. And tonight, there’s also a Silverlight gathering that could prove worthwhile for motion designers and UX folk. Read More
The good news is that Jive will be holding it’s first ever user group—affectionately titled JiveWorld09—October 27-29, 2009. The bad news? They’ll be holding JiveWorld in San Francisco.
There comes a time—hopefully—in every software company’s life when they develop enough of a fervent following that they feel compelled to have a user group. I’m happy to announce that Portland-based Jive Software has reached that point.
That’s right. The good news is that Jive will be holding its first ever user group—affectionately titled JiveWorld09—October 27-29, 2009. The bad news? They’ll be holding JiveWorld in San Francisco Read More
Now, now. Don’t worry. There’s nothing scandalous happening.
But there are only so many hours in the day.
Aaron Hockley, the founder of the Portland WordPress User Group, has decided to focus on some other major projects. As such, he is handing off responsibility for the management of the pdxwp group:
Recently I’ve found my time and energies spread thin amongst various projects. In order to focus on a smaller set of projects (and let the remaining projects thrive with the attention they deserve), I’m stepping back from a few things. I’m pleased to announce that Kelly Guimont is assuming the leadership role for our group. Kelly assisted with WordCamp Portland and I look forward to seeing her develop pdxwp further. I’ve turned over information on all pending pdxwp issues to Kelly, please contact her with any questions.
Aaron will continue to lead WordCamp Portland, the second installment of which is slated for fall 2009.
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Just a quick reminder that if you’re a fan of WordPress—and I know you are—you’ll want to make it to the first official gathering of the WordPress Portland User Group.
Enter Portland WordPress User Group, a new event designed to help newbies get the help they need, to ensure power users get more powerful, and to generally forge a stronger community among the WordPress types here in town.
The meeting will be held tonight at CubeSpace starting at 6 PM. For more information or to RSVP, visit Upcoming.
If I had to describe 2009 thus far, I would dub it the “Year of the User Group.” And that would also make Audrey Eschright’s prediction right—already.
What is it with you people? I mean, it’s a totally good thing. But man, there are new user groups springing up left and right. First Portland Data Plumbing, then Portland WordPress, and now Portland Concrete5. And since I promised Igal Koshevoy that I would do a better job of highlighting what’s happening in the user groups and development groups in town, I’m simply trying to keep up.
What’s Concrete5? It’s an elegant open source content management system developed right here in Portland, Oregon, that rivals some other more popular content management systems out there in terms of functionality—and downright crushes them in terms of ease-of-use.
Well, something as good as C5 is sure to develop a legion of fans. And now, those fans and users have the opportunity to meet one another with the newly launched Concrete5 Portland User Group:
Earlier this summer we released our previously commercial CMS as fully “Free Beer” under the MIT open source license. The second half of 2008 was a whirlwind for us as we were named project of the month on SourceForge and saw traffic go through the roof.
As part of running what promises to be the next Drupal, local user groups are going to be a huge component to our success. We have several starting around the states and Europe this month, with the Portland one obviously being super keen as this is our home turf.
Meetings will be held the second Thursday of every month, beginning with the inaugural meeting this Thursday, January 8 at Hopworks. For more information, see the Calagator entry. To RSVP, visit the Concrete5 Portland community.
Hands down, one of the most compelling and beneficial events of the Portland Web scene last year was WordCamp Portland, where the WordPress faithful took the opportunity to gather, share ideas, and learn about new ways to use their favorite blogging platform.
So much WordPress love from the community. It seems a shame to keep it pent up all year.
Enter Portland WordPress User Group, a new event designed to help newbies get the help they need, to ensure power users get more powerful, and to generally forge a stronger community among the WordPress types here in town. And an event—most importantly—designed to occur much more often than once a year.
Apart from the assurances of “I know Beer and Blog. I’ve been to Beer and Blog. This is not Beer and Blog,” the format is still pretty open. The first gathering will be designed to help form that, um, format.
The inaugural meeting will be held Thursday, January 15th from 6:00-7:30pm at CubeSpace. To RSVP, visit Upcoming.