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.

Event Summary:

What is the state of the Geoweb? One of the major problems is that relevant informaton is locked away from being indexed by search engines. We call this dark content because it is unlit and unsearchable.

How much dark content it out there?

~800 Terabytes of data is currently unsearchable online.

~91,000 Terabytes is inaccessible. It’s non-searched, non-indexed digital content.

What does that mean? It means that less than a percent of the digital knowledge we’ve collected and stored online is not availabile for our use.

That means there’s no indexing, no searching, and no synergistic use of that content because it’s not being indexed.

This makes it an enormous productivity sink to everyone involved to access, verify and collect data from the limited sources that are available. Only relatively ill-equipped, uninformed decisions can be made.

What can we do?

Things need to be indexed.

Say we want to buy a house, but we want to make sure we are purchasing a house in a safe area. You can look at a map that has earthquake zones, and one with tsunami zone, and you can even overlay all these maps to see intersections of data. Those are information layers.

But imagine doing that for every decision you make. Having layer maps for everything you do, and ever choice you make.
Now, this probably doesn’t matter as much if you’re making a decision about going to Starbucks, but when you’re deciding where to put a water purification plant, or a park or recreation system, it becomes very important.

How do we do this?

The good thing is that ever since Google Earth launched, geography has become cool.
But it’s one thing to use the data, and another to contribute to it to make it more rich and usable.

The other problem is that most of these data sets are not text based. They require a series of information unwrapping protocols to dissect them into usable content.

You need the tools to be able to do this. You can find a file, but then you must also be able to get into it.

There are also decision processes surrounding that data. Each file is different, that’s why a lot of it stays in the dark. The processing systems become as important as the data when data is so seperate and stuck in silos.

There is no metadata standard/standards that would at least allow for cross indexing of different data and content. This is essential for the sharing of processing of data.

Existing metadata standards are cumbersome and there is limited motivation to use/decipher them.
There’s also the scalability of data sets. Large data sets are difficult to break down into usable chunks.

The openness of data is based on different cultures. Government data has a different culture around it than Myspace. One company has the right to create something, and it is very expensive to get access to it.

All data should be sharable — so that people can build upon each other’s work.

Resources:

You can find out more about WhereCamp Portland here.

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Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist and Social Media Consultant from Portland, Oregon. You can follow her online at @caseorganic.

Doug Fieldhouse of Vesta, ClearEdge Power, ID Experts, nLIGHT and BRING Recycling Are Selected as this Year’s Award Winners

Sept. 18, 2008, Portland, Ore. — The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) announced the winners of the 2008 OEN Tom Holce Awards for Entrepreneurship during its 15^th annual awards ceremony on September 18, 2008. The ceremony, held at the Oregon Convention Center, honored finalists in four categories: Entrepreneurship Award for Individual Achievement; Development Stage Company of the year; Working capital Stage Company of the year; and the Growth Stage Company of the year.

Doug Fieldhouse of Vesta received the 2008 Entrepreneurship Award for Individual Achievement. “Doug exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit that we celebrate with these awards,” said Bob Sternberg, judging chair for this year’s awards. “He thinks big and looks for ways to make a tremendous impact, and he has the ability to execute on those ideas in ways that scale up effectively. His success with Vesta is just one example of his ability to change and jump into new opportunities and persistently grow the business over time.” In addition, he has a long history of mentoring and coaching young entrepreneurs.

In the Development category, ClearEdge Power of Portland, Oregon is this year’s winner. ClearEdge Power is a pioneer and provider of ultra-clean and efficient on-site energy generation systems. They have a substantial market opportunity and are professionally managed, well funded and are making substantial progress with product development and early adoption customers.

ID Experts of Beaverton is the winner in the Working Capital Category. ID Experts provides identity theft protection services for individuals, corporations and the public sector. They have successfully adapted to the changing needs of the market when required. Their painstaking and labor intensive process to restore customers’ identities will make it difficult for other companies to compete successfully against them in this marketplace. Due to these efforts, they have a 100 percent success rate restoring identities.

The winner of the Growth Category is nLIGHT Corporation of Vancouver, Washington.

nLIGHT develops and manufactures photonics modules for industrial, defense, and medical applications. The company had the vision to intelligently re-invent itself in the early stages of the collapse of the telecom bubble and the temerity to implement that new strategy under extremely difficult circumstances. It applied its skills and ingenuity in the marketplace to create, shepherd and grow a novel mentoring program (MAPS—Mentoring for Advanced Program for Students) that is having a real impact on local education and the future of this community.

BRING Recycling is this year’s winner of the Non-profit Award. BRING Recycling collects and resells low-cost used building materials as well as provides deconstruction and recycling services. Revenues generated fund conservation and education programs about the best way to reuse and recycle. BRING Recycling was selected for its organizational and entrepreneurial strengths overall, and how the organization was able to change course to meet changing demands in the community. BRING Recycling received a $5,000 award from the Meyer Memorial Trust at the Awards Ceremony.

“The recipients of this year’s awards have been successful because of their determination, independent thinking, and their ability to change direction and chart their own course.” said Linda Weston, executive director and president of OEN. “From clean power to identity protection, these Oregon and Southwest Washington companies are making innovative contributions that make a difference in our communities and beyond.”

The winners were chosen from 14 finalists by the OEN award judging committee, chaired by Bob Sternberg. Companies from throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington were nominated for the Awards, and were narrowed to the 14 finalists after hundreds of hours of due diligence, including site visits and face-to-face interviews. A comprehensive list of winners and finalists follows this release.

Individual Category

Doug Fieldhouse, Vesta - Winner
Ray King, AboutUs.org
Susan Sokol Blosser, Sokol Blosser

Working Capital Category

ID Experts- Winner
Beaverton, OR

Pop Art, Inc.
Portland, Oregon

PV Powered
Bend, Oregon

Growth Category

nLIGHT Corporation- Winner
Vancouver, WA

HemCon Medical Technologies, Inc.
Portland, Oregon

Timbercon
Lake Oswego, WA

Development Category

ClearEdge Power- Winner
Portland, Oregon

AboutUs, Inc.
Portland, Oregon

Jama Software
Portland, Oregon

Plas2Fuel Corporation
Chris Ulum
Kelso, WA

About OEN

Founded in 1991, the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing opportunities for Oregon entrepreneurs and improving the business climate for emerging, growth-oriented companies statewide. The organization has members throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. For more information about the OEN, visit its website at www.oen.org.

For more information, press only:
Jessica Foote
OnPR
503-802-4406
jessicaf@onpr.com

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Congratulations to all of the winners! Thanks for helping to put Oregon’s Entrepreneurs on the map!

Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist and Social Media Consultant based in Portland, Oregon. You can contact her by E-mail or @caseorganic on Twitter.

Portland rocks. It has excellent food, coffee, people, techies, transportation, foliage, entertainment, and bloggers! But we have suffered a tragedy: we just lost OSCON to San Jose. What!? From Jul 17-19, 2009 Lets replace it with something equally tremendous. And we can.

How?

With this handy Google Spreadsheet Form.

Yep, that’s four lines of text you have to type in. That way I can E-mail you cool stuff. Like little snippets of text to post on your blog, or a list of E-mails with some text to include in them, or ideas for posts, so that lots of people can get really excited about the conference. Like “10 reasons why Portland would be a sweet place for BLogHer”, “20 great places to eat in Portland”, and “Why Portland bloggers rock and how close the airport is” will be randomly sent to you.

The posts will be really short, and from time to time, I’ll make posts on Hazelnut Tech Talk and link them to all of your posts. This way, we’ll get this cool forcefield of blogs promoting the idea of BlogHer. That’s more visibility for your blog, and your friend’s blogs. What’s not to like?

Why am I supporting this?

For the good of the community, of course! Portland has given so much to me, and the wonderful people out there have taught me about amazing things. As a technosocial cyborg, cyberspace is pretty genderless to me, but for those who it is not yet, BlogHer might be a useful way for cool people to meet other cool people and get things done. Hooray for that!

Plus, I voted for Portland after Rick Turoczy made this post about bringing BlogHer to Portland, and we ended up being one of the top cities besides Philadelphia and St. Louis. We’re almost there. All we need to do is make everyone understand just how important this event this will be for the city/people/community.

Contact?

You can randomly connect with me if you’d like. Feel free to E-mail me or follow me on Twitter @caseorganic.

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Hazelnut Tech Talk is a collaboration between Amber Case and Bram Pitoyo.

This episode features Steve Gehlen, Founder & Producer of Portland’s Inverge: The Interactive Convergence Conference that will occur on from 8Am-5Pm on September 4+5, 2008 at the Gerding Theater at the Armory (128 NW 11th Avenue), and Cre8Con,

Steve Gehlen had many great things to say about the future of Portland, the creative and tech community, and how he first got into technology. He mentioned MIT, convergence culture, and the importance of community. Then, as a surprise, he took out a banjo and played us as song, making this episode the first musical Hazelnut Tech Talk since Derrek Wayne’s brief interlude into HTT Episode 2).

Steve has had the unique position of pioneering the entrance of technology into enterprise businesses. He is also the president and founder of Portland’s Internet Strategy Forum.

If you happen to be attending Inverge, I (Amber Case) will be speaking at 1Pm on Friday, the 5th of September. The presentation title will be “From Telephone to Tweetup: an abbreviated history of technology and social exchange“.

Don’t Miss:

Scott Kveton, Chairman, OpenID Foundation, VP of Open Platforms, Vidoop.

And…

Portland’s extremely talented Raven Zachary, Principal, Raven.me, will also be speaking on iPhone intelligence.

You can still register for Inverge if you like.

Thanks to:

Hazelnut Tech Talk was recorded this weekend at SOUK, a coworking space for Portland freelancers, independent consultants and entrepreneurs.

SOUK offers hourly, daily and monthly work space and meeting rooms and is centrally located in Old Town Chinatown. It’s also very quiet, open, and full of comfortable chairs and desks. Contact. Website. (Shh…there’s also a summer special that gives you $250/month for a full time membership).

Click to Subscribe

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Hazelnut Tech Talk is a collaboration between Amber Case and Bram Pitoyo.

Our seventh episode was recorded the evening after Bear and Blog and features Steven Walling, Wikipedia Extraordinaire and chicken tender who works with Wiki inventor Ward Cunningham at Portland’s AboutUs.org, wherein we talked about using Wiki as an academic source (and getting an A for it), Recent Changes Camp 2009, The Wikipedia Manual of Style, breakfast, lunch and dinner, sleeping under the stars and by the river, guinea pigs, User Bots, and trees, snakes, owls and grapevines

If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?

Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers. But Portland’s own event, Ignite Portland, will be happening soon, and it is a chance for locals to make short presentations on anything they are passionate about.

When?

November 13, 2008. On the Ignite Portland Blog, Josh Bancroft urges Portlanders to Save the Date.

Ignite History

Local tech legend Raven Zachary told me that Ignite Portland was founded by Brady Forrest of O’Reilly. He was initially inspired by Japan’s rapid fire presentation method of Pecha Kucha and did an adaptation of that for technology. If you haven’t heard of Pecha Kucha before, it is Japanese for the sound of conversation. Attendees watch a speakers that have only 20 slides, with 20 seconds per slide.Portland Pecha Kucha Night was just last week.

Ignite Portland

Portland, Oregon has had some of the largest events in Ignite history. Ignite 2 packed the Bagdad Theatre with over 750 people, and many waiting in line had to be turned away.

Ignite Portland at Gnomedex

Several alumni of Ignite Portland will be presenting their five minute topics at this week’s Gnomedex 8.0, an annual social media conference organized by Chris Pirillo. Rick Turoczy has a list of the presenters on his blog, Silicon Florist, and Portland Ignites Gnomedex on TinyScreenfuls, the blog of Josh Bancroft, who points out that “The idea for Ignite Portland was hatched at last year’s Gnomedex.”

Ignite Portland Planning Begins Now

November 13th may seem like a long time away, but Ignite events take a tremendous amount of effort to pull off. Want to be part of the event and meet some really cool people in the process? The Ignite Planning Committee is always open to dedicated, passionate volunteers. Help make this Ignite Portland even better than the last three.

The Ignite Planning meeting that occurred at Cubespace tonight was there primarily to deal with a system in large demand. The first major thing discussed how the online ticket reservation system would function. Then, volunteer teams were developed. Currently, they are as follows:

The Presenter Team

Raven Zachary, Mentor iPhone developer and recently of Raven.me, an iPhone development blog. You can follow Raven on Twitter. He’s also a Legion of Tech Board Member.

Tasks

• Review and sort through all Portland Ignite 4 proposals.
• Ensure that all presenters submit 20 images, a Powerpoint, or PDF by the final deadline.
• Ensure that AV equipment does not FAIL upon deployment.

The Marketing Team

Josh Bancroft, Mentor of Intel, Kindle Evangelist, and author of the TinyScreenfuls Blog, and Legion of Tech Board Member. @Jabancroft on Twitter.

Tasks

• Spread the word about Ignite Portland 4 through writing on the Ignite Portland Blog
• Designate an Official Ignite Portland spokesperson to ensure uniform information gets out to local media connections.
• Monitor the Tweetverse for Tweets about Ignite Portland. Tweet from the official Ignite Portland blog, and answer questions as they are asked.

The Sponsor Contact/Site Team

Todd Kenefsky, Mentor CEO of Connect Interactive Media, an interactive marketing company, and Legion of Tech Board Member.

Tasks

• Convert Sponsor logos from .eps format to .gif or .jpg and place them on the Ignite Portland sponsor page.
• Help create sponsor slides

The Ignite Event Setup Team

Dawn Foster, Mentor, Consultant, FastWonder blogger, Legion of Tech Board Member, and recently, of Shizzow, an micro-geolocation released last Monday (a review of its beta release is here).

Tasks

• Help set up the venue during the day of the event.
• Organize attendees and help line flow.

Other Organizers

Adam Duvander also has a hand in organizing Ignite Portland events and has presented in past Ignites. Check out his blog, Simplicity Rules, and Adam’s Twitter profile.
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For more information, check out the Ignite Portland Website.

Ignite Portland 4 will be on November 13, 2008

Bagdad Theater
• 3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd
• Portland, OR 97214
• 7:00 - 10:00 PM
• Ticketholders get in at 5:30 PM
• General Admission at 6:15 PM
• Admission is always FREE

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Please let me know if I missed anything in this post. Feel free to contact the Mentors via Twitter if you’d like to add to the volunteer efforts.

You can follow me on Twitter @caseorganic. I’ll be on the Marketing and Sponsor Teams.

Thanks for reading Hazelnut Tech Talk! We’re proud to bring you event coverage from a mix of creative and tech worlds.

We have a vision for 1 million new people moving into this city. How does design thinking work into this process? What are our hopes and dreams for Portland, and how can we build our city to realize them?

“In the Round: Collective Leadership” was the title of PDXplore #2, part of PNCA’s ongoing Idea Studios. From 6-9 Pm on July 22nd, some of the most active members of Portland’s community attended what would be an important first step in creating a lasting dialog for the intentional and mindful development of Portland’s maturing land and cityscapes.

The panel featured 10 members mayor-elect Sam Adams, Metro president David Bragdon, Hillsboro mayor Tom Hughes, Portland planning director Gil Kelley, and City of Gresham executive manager Alice Rouyere”.

The purpose of the panel was to bring clarity to the relationship between planning and design, while making the needs of a growing population known to important civic leadership. The idea was create a safe space for Elected Officials and Designers to speak about the challenges facing Portland and their vision for the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Attending Portland networking/social events is one of the best ways to meet innovative locals, learn cool things, and get new clients/collaborators for various projects. A weekly list of Portland Tech/Networking events has been requested of me multiple times, and this list is the culmination of those requests. I hope it benefits you in as many ways as possible!

This week, Bram Pitoyo and I will be attending all of these events. Bram’s reviews can always be found on his blog, Link En Fuego, soon after each event. I’ll be reviewing/live-tweeting from the Internet Strategy Forum as well as doing some experimental analytics on it.

We hope to see you soon!

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Upcoming PDX Tech Events for Wednesday, July 16th, to Friday, July 25th

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Wednesday, July 16th:

Noon to 2 Pm:

LUNCH 2.0 at SOUK
See http://siliconflorist.com for details.

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5:30 Pm

Join SEMpdx & pdxMindShare at this networking and educational event. Meet SEMpdx board members, network with other Web professionals, and learn more about membership and sponsorship opportunities.

Who: Open to all - interested in search engine / Web marketing
What: Networking event
When: Wednesday July 16, 5:30 PM ? PM
Where: Paddy’s Bar & Grill
Why: networking, meet SEMpdx, learn about membership & benefits
How much?: Free, no host bar
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6:30 Pm

Writing For Web for Fun and Profit.
(At the Kennedy School - Ask me for details)

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8:30 Pm

Tweetup with Charlene Li (from Forrester Research, a keynote speaker at Internet Strategy Forums). This means drinking.

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/903763

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Thursday, July 17th:

8:30Am-5:00Pm

Internet Strategy Forum - Portland, OR

6Pm:

ISF Afterparty (Contact me for details).

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Thursday, July 17th:

6:00 Pm

SECP Meetup/Portland Freelancer’s Meetup. NE Portland at the Stamp Society Building. $10. (Ask me for details).

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Friday, July 18th:

9Am-10Am:

Morning Meetings: Marketing (Recurring)
[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/634899/ ] Come into CubeSpace between 9 and 10 a.m. on weekdays to chat for free with the professional-in-residence about your needs.
The Friday topic is: Marketing, including web 2.0 and branding

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4Pm

Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon! Yay!
928 SE 9th Ave
Portland, OR 97214
Generally at 4Pm

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Monday 21st:

6:30Pm-8:00Pm

Legion of Talk (Sponsored by Legion of Tech)
Mark Shuttleworth

Mark will be speaking out Ubuntu, the community-developed the open source operating system he founded, as well as his travels in space. Mark was the second man ever to travel to space on a private space craft!

McMenamins Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St
6:30pm to 8:00pm
Doors open 5:30pm (come early, have dinner & hang out with us before the talk)

This one is going to be HUGE.
Register and find out more at www.LegionOfTech.org

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Tuesday, July 22nd:

6Pm:

PANEL DISCUSSION #2 - PDXplore PNCA - 6:00 Pm. “In The Round: Collective Leadership” featuring mayor-elect Sam Adams, Metro president David Bragdon, Hillsboro mayor Tom Hughes, Portland planning director Gil Kelley, and City of Gresham executive manager Alice Rouyere.

A transcript of the PANEL DISCUSSION #1 is here.

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Tuesday, July 22nd:

6Pm:

PDX Net Tuesday July - New Tools for the Nonprofit Sector
AboutUs.org - 107 SE Washington St. Suite 520

This event is usually really fun, has beer, and then a sort of discussion of things.

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See you there!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Cyborg Anthropologist

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If you’d like more information on any of these events, or would like to contact the organizers about workshops, don’t hesitate to E-mail me. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might benefit from it.

I’d love to see you on Twitter. You can follow me at: http://twitter.com/caseorganic

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