One of the first things I’m usually asked when people ask me about WordPress blogging regard the types of plugins I use. In response, I’ve gathered a short list of the very best plugins that have given me the best results over time. It is my hope that you’ll find some benefit in them too.

All of the following plugins are supported by the WordPress community and can be downloaded through eh WordPress Plugin Directory. All of them have been highly rated and tested, and should not give you any trouble upon install (provided you follow the instructions given by the plugin developers). Simply click on the plugin title to go to the download page.

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Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

Google XML Sitemaps Homepage.

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Dagon Design Sitemap Generator

Author: Dagon Design

A very useful plugin. Unlike the Google Sitemaps plugin, It creates a sitemap for your site that is readable by humans. This is not an XML sitemap plugin, but rather a true sitemap generator which is highly customizable one with its own options page in the WordPress admin panel.

Some features include: support for multi-level categories and pages, category/page exclusion, multiple-page generation with navigation, permalink support, choose what to display, what order to list items in, show comment counts and/or post dates, and much more.

I use this on my blog. It works with WordPress 2.7 but requires WordPress Version: 2.1 or higher. You can see the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator on my blog here.

For more information, including installation and usage instructions, please visit the page for this plugin: http://www.dagondesign.com/articles/sitemap-generator-plugin-for-wordpress/

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podPress

Interested in podcasting? podPress is extremely easy to use and super-powerful. It has tons of features designed to make WordPress the ideal platform for hosting a podcast.

* Full featured and automatic feed generation (RSS2, iTunes and ATOM and BitTorrent RSS)
* Preview of what your Podcast will look like on iTunes
* Podcast Download stats, with cool graphs. See below.
* Support for Premium Content (Pay Only)
* Makes adding a Podcast to a Post very simple
* View MP3 Files ID3 tags when your Posting
* Control over where the player will display within your post and what it will look like.
* Support for various formats, including Video Podcasting
* Supports unlimited number of media files.
* Automatic Media player for MP3, RM, OGG, MP4, MOV, QT, FLV, ASF, WMV, AVI, and more, with inline and Popup Window support.
* Preview image for videos
* Support for seperate Category podcasts
* Audio Comments

For the latest information visit the website: http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress.

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Redirection

Note: This Plugin is for WordPress 2.7 only!

Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation.

This is a super-powerful plugin that is especially useful if you don’t want to mess with .hta access files. Saves a lot of trouble and headache.

Existing features include:

* Automatically add a 301 redirection when a post’s URL changes
* Manually add 301, 302, and 307 redirections for a WordPress post, or for any other file
* Full regular expression support
* Apache .htaccess is not required - works entirely inside WordPress
* Strip or add www to all your WordPress pages
* Redirect index.php, index.html, and index.htm access
* Redirection statistics telling you how many times a redirection has occurred, when it last happened, who tried to do it, and where they found your URL
* Fully localized

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WP Super Cache

This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive WordPress PHP scripts.

However, because a user’s details are displayed in the comment form after they leave a comment, the plugin will only serve static html files to:

1. Users who are not logged in.
2. Users who have not left a comment on your blog.
3. Or users who have not viewed a password protected post.

The good news is that probably more than 99% of your visitors don’t do any of the above! Those users who don’t see the static files will still benefit because they will see regular WP-Cache cached files and your server won’t be as busy as before. This plugin should help your server cope with a front page appearance on digg.com or other social networking site.

See the WP Super Cache homepage for further information.

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Google Analytics for WordPress

Confused on how to get Google Analytics to work with your WordPress blog? The Google Analytics for WordPress will solve your problems.

This plugin by Joost de Valk automatically tracks and segments all outbound links from within posts, comment author links, links within comments, blogroll links and downloads. It also allows you to track AdSense clicks, add extra search engines, track image search queries and it will even work together with Urchin.

In the options panel for the plugin, you can determine the prefixes to use for the different kinds of outbound links and downloads it tracks.

Google Analytics for WordPress homepage.

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All in One SEO Pack

Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

Some features:

* Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
* Generates META tags automatically
* Avoids the typical duplicate content found on Wordpress blogs
* For Wordpress 2.3 you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.
* You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.
* You can fine-tune everything
* Backward-Compatibility with many other plugins, like Auto Meta, Ultimate Tag Warrior and others.

Download All in One SEO Pack.

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WordPress Automatic Upgrade

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.

Wordpress automatic upgrade upgrades your wordpress installation by doing the following steps.

1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
6. Upgrades wordpress files.
7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
8. Re-activates the plugins.

The plugin can also can be run in a automated mode where in you do not have to click on any links to go to the next step.

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WP-Polls

Note: This plugin requires WordPress 2.7 or higher.

WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now supports multiple selection of answers.

All the information (general, changelog, installation, upgrade, usage) you need about this plugin can be found here: Twitter Tools

This popular tool by Alex King creates a complete integration between your WordPress blog and your Twitter account. You can choose to automatically update Twitter when you make a new blog post, or integrate Twitter into your blog.

If you use this plugin, please change the default Twitter notification text from “New Blog Post” to something more creative. It’s a bit overused on Twitter and people tend to ignore it when they see “New Blog Post” all over the place on Twitter.

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Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) gives you a list of posts and/or pages related to the current entry, introducing the reader to other relevant content on your site. Key features include:

1. Limiting by a threshold: Peter Bowyer did the great work of making the algorithm use MySQL’s fulltext search score to identify related posts. But it just displayed, for example, the top 5 most “relevant” entries, even if some of them weren’t at all relevant. Now you can set a threshold limit for relevance, and you get more related posts if there are more related posts and less if there are less. Ha!
2. Using tags and categories: New in 2.0! The new 2.0 algorithm uses tags and categories. The new options screen puts you in control of how these factors should be used.
3. Related posts in RSS feeds: New in 2.1! Display related posts in your RSS and Atom feeds with custom display options.
4. Disallowing certain tags or categories: New in 2.0! You can choose certain tags or categories as disallowed, meaning any page or post with such tags or categories will not be served up by the plugin.
5. Related posts and pages: New in 1.1! Puts you in control of pulling up related posts, pages, or both.
6. Simple installation: New in 1.5! Automatically displays related posts after content on single entry pages without any theme tinkering.
7. Miscellany: a nicer options screen (including a sample display of the code that is produced New in 2.0), displaying the fulltext match score on output for admins, an option to allow related posts from the future, a couple bug fixes, etc.

Download Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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IntenseDebate Comments

IntenseDebate Comments enhance and encourage conversation on your blog or website. Full comment and account data sync between IntenseDebate and WordPress ensures that you will always have your comments. Custom integration with your WordPress admin panel makes moderation a piece of cake.

Comment threading, reply-by-email, user accounts and reputations, comment voting, along with Twitter and friendfeed integrations enrich your readers’ experience and make more of the internet aware of your blog and comments which drives traffic to you!

IntenseDebate Homepage.
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WP Greet Box

Author: Thaya Kareeson

This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url. For example, when a Digg user clicks through from Digg, they will see a message reminding them to digg your post if they like it. Another example, when a visitor clicks through from Twitter, they will see a message suggesting them to twit the post and follow you on Twitter.

You can also set a default greeting message for new visitors (not matching any referrer URLs) suggesting them to subscribe to your RSS feed. Having these targeted suggestions will help your blog increase exposure, loyal readership, and reader interaction. Best of all, this plugin is compatible with WPMU and various WordPress cache plugins (so you do not have to sacrifice speed).

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Installing Plugins in WordPress 2.7

You can find additional plugins for your site by using the new Plugin Browser/Installer functionality.

Installing Plugins in WordPress 2.6 or Older

If you run WordPress 2.6 and older, you can find plugins by browsing the WordPress Plugin Directory directly and installing manually through your favorite FTP client.

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Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist who studies new media and the relationship between humans and computers. She enjoys data visualization (click for more info on conference tracking), search engine optimization (ask), and how marketing works in the online ecosystem.

You can follow her on Twitter @caseorganic, or drop her an E-mail at caseorganic[at]gmai[dot]com. She’s spoken at various conferences including MIT’s Futures of Entertainment 3, Inverge: The Interactive Convergence Conferece, Ignite Portland, and Ignite Boulder.

Portland’s role in iPhone development is pretty epic. Due to recent interest (like 5 people asking if I knew any iPhone developers in the last week alone), I’ve compiled a working list of iPhone developers near or in the Portland area. Please spread this list to anyone you feel it may service.

First off, if you haven’t already, sign up for the Mobile Portland mailing list or join the Mobile Portland Google Group. Many more iPhone developers can be reached through the list. Finally, please add yourself to the list through comments, and I’ll add you to this list. Eventually, this list will be stored both on Oakhazelnut and the AboutUs.org Wiki as part of PortlandTech.

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Raven Zachary

Raven Zachary helps people create, develop, and launch iPhone products and services. He works with dynamic, creative, market-driven organizations on iPhone strategy and product development.

Silicon Florist wrote that, “Raven is the creator of iPhoneDevCamp, chair of the upcoming iPhoneLive conference , and consultant to a number of iPhone developers in town and around the nation”.

Raven says that, “If you’re in the area and are going to Macworld, there’s a iPhone Intelligence party on Tuesday 1/6/09″. You can RSVP here.

About: http://raven.me/ravenzachary/
Projects: http://raven.me/projects/

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PheedYou

Founded in September 2008 by three geeks and a business guy, PheedYou is dedicated to producing iPhone applications which deliver rich content at the touch of a button.

Alexander Mace, CEO, Chadwick Marcus, President, Brett Carter, Engineer and Preston Hunt, Engineer, build products that facilitate mobile interaction between users and existing content providers.

They recently built a Craigslist application for iPhone or iPod Touch.

Twitter:@sashamace
Site: http://www.pheedyou.com/about/
Applications: http://www.pheedyou.com/

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Subatomic Studios

Subatomic studios is a small Portland firm specializing exclusively in iPhone app development.

Fieldrunners, the studio’s first App for the iPhone and Apple, was nominated in five categories: Best App Ever, Best Productivity Killer, Best Original Game, Best Long-Play Game, and Best Strategy Game.

More Information: http://www.subatomicstudios.com/
Contact: Sergei Gourski

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Avatron Software (Vancouver, WA)

Avatron was founded in April 2008 by Dave Howell, a six-year veteran Apple engineering manager, Avatron is a leading developer of popular applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Avatron’s Air Sharing application, downloaded by nearly one million users in its first week, has raised the bar for iPhone application design and software quality.”

See Avatron’s first commercial application for the iPhone, Air Sharing (more than 700,000 downloads in one week).

More information: http://avatron.com/

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Cloud Four (Portland, OR)

In his post onObama for iPhone, Rick Turoczy summed up Cloud Four’s foray into the iPhone dev world, “The folks at Cloud Four have really come into their own in the world of consulting on mobile apps—especially when it comes to things like usability. (What? You actually want people to be able to use the app?) They’ve put in some impressive (volunteer) work on the Obama for iPhone app and equally impressive (paid) work on the interface design for the Mobile Wall Street Journal app“.

“Cloud Four is proudly based in Portland, Ore.,” they sad, “but we serve customers worldwide.”

More Information: http://cloudfour.com/

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Spotlight Mobile

Spotlight Mobile is a Portland, Oregon software development firm specializing in mobile devices and web applications. It was founded by Cornell University graduates Kiyo Kubo and Nick Farina, and based on research from the Cornell Human-Computer Interaction Lab. They got their start bringing new uses for location-awareness technology to market.

Spotlight Mobile in the Pearl has been doing mobile development for years: location-based apps for the Smithsonian, Portland Art Museum, and parks, as well as iPhone apps like this one for Vogue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/fashion/28ROW.html?ref=style

Here’s another NYT piece about Spotlight’s Cornell Univ. admissions tour work:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/14/technology/circuits/14gpss.html

More information: http://www.spotlightmobile.com/about/
Full client list: http://www.spotlightmobile.com/clients/
Contact: Kiyo Kubo or Nick Farina http://www.spotlightmobile.com/contact/

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Eric Eaglstun

Although he won’t actually be living in Portland for another two weeks, he’d like to added to this list.
Most of Eric’s has been in web development, and he’s worked on web user interfaces specific to the iPhone (iUI, javascript etc) but he is on track to have his first App in the iTunes store by early February.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ericeaglstun
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Makerlab

Makerlab is a small Portland-based thinktank with ties to Silicon Valley. It lies at the intersection of art and technology, and is comprised of a variety of seasoned programmers, researchers, and artists.

Contact: @anselm, @paigedestroy or @caseorganic.
Site: http://makerlab.org/

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Andrew Pouliot

Another new mobile developer in Portland, aka Darknoon/, is doing native iPhone app development. He’s originally from Silicon Valley, but thinks the scene here is vibrant enough to make a good living (plus working with people elsewhere).

“The Cocoa scene is only getting hotter,” says Pouliot, “and some people are moving to Portland to do this sort of stuff”.

Services and contact: http://darknoon.com/services

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Clifton Burt

iPhone Developer

Site: http://cliftonburt.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/cliftonburt.

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P. Mark Anderson

A Portland based programmer (Ruby, iPhone) and painter developing useful web services that blend code and art.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pmark
Site: http://bordertownlabs.com

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MorganPdx

@morganpdx is an aspiring iPhone developer, but needs a Macbook.

Site: http://www.morganpdx.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/morganpdx.

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Jonathan Leto

iPhone developer.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/dukeleto
Site: http://leto.net/.

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Jonathan Wight (Rural South Carolina)

Even though Jonathan Wight lives, as he puts it, “as not Portland as you can get”, he writes iPhone and Mac OS Software and seems like a pretty cool guy. Besides, in a world of online collaboration and shrinking space between people and ideas, he might be fun to work with on some new ideas.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/schwa
Site: http://toxicsoftware.com/iphoneswpro/

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Good luck and have a great time with your project development!

Sincerely,
Amber Case
Cyborg Anthropologist
http://www.twitter.com/caseorganic

Creating a consistent brand all through many all social sites one of the best ways to maximize the value of a character or brand campaign.

Ryan Summers and I created a presentation on how to track users across various social media sites using mostly free tools. It was given at Web Analytics Wednesday in Portland, Oregon.

History

A few weeks before the MITX awards ceremony, ISITE Design created a short video called “El Consultador” as an introduction to other agencies.

The El Consultador campaign generated diverse social data. This created issues with tracking data from multiple social media sites across problems with social media is that these is no singular way to gather and rank all of the data over time. Tools like Radian6 and Trucast are in use by larger agencies and businesses, but there exist an increasing amount of free tools for data visualization and engagement reporting that are available online.

This Powerpoint was made for an audible presentation. I collaborated with Ryan Summers of ISITE design on it and presented it at Web Analytics Wednesday. I will attempt to explain the results/processes in a textual manner here.

Profiles Created for the El Consultador Campaign

We used analytic data from Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo and Twitter to determine the most successful aspects of the campaign.

On Vimeo:
http://vimeo.com/2309025

On YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz6jt_aSFg0

On Flickr:
http://flickr.com/photos/elconsultador/
(Workers at ISITE design superimposed the Consultador face onto a variety of characters in pop culture).

On Twitter:
http://twitter.com/elconsultador

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Key Performance Indicators

We determined a number of Key Performance Indicators of the social media campaign.

-Direct awareness of ISITE design agency
-3rd part mentions
-Social media followers (number of Twitter followers, comments on YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr).
-Direct communication

YouTube Reports

We used YouTube reports to track the engagement with the video campaign.

Data tracked included:

-Age Demograpics
-Gender Demograpics
-Discovery Sources
-Timeline Trends

The campaign was viewed predominately by 26-45 year old males and mostly during and around the date of the MITX awards. This is the demographic it was aimed at.

Vimeo Stats

Vimeo is a high-quality Video sharing site with a limited but very engaged traffic demographic. We used Vimeo data to find more about who engaged with the campaign and compared it to YouTube data.

Flickr Reports

Flickr has a reporting tool for image views over time for every image. The data can be accessed with a premium Flickr account. We used this data to determine the most viewed (strongest/most impactful) pictures associated with El Consutador on the El Consultador account, and which images should be associated with the campaign on other sites (if future campaigns needed to be implemented).

Google Analytics

We used data from Google Analytics for the page on which El Consultador existed on the ISISTE Webpage. Data was tracked from the “El Consultator” and “MITX” keywords. New visitors and direct traffic were also analyzed.

Social Nodes

The campaign was picked up by three prominent bloggers, including Chris Brogan, Davaid Armano (VP of Experience Design with Critical Mass), and C.C. Chapman (Prominent figure in the community of podcasting, new media, cofounder of the Advanced Guard, a marketing company which focuses on utilizing social media and other emerging technologies).

Blogs linking to the campaigns were not found via inlink searches in Yahoo! Site Explorer, but with an intelligence feed created in Yahoo! Pipes (see below)

Tracking Overall Data

Custom intelligence feeds are useful for checking overall propagation of data. Yahoo! Pipes provides a free custom way to aggregate data across Google blog search, Google news, Technorati, Flickr, and Twitter.

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Data Visualization and Tracking for Twitter

I presented an extended set of tools and data visualization methods for Twitter. Links for all of them are here:

Reports/Demographic Research:
Summize
http://tweetstats.com/

TweetVolume
http://tweetvolume.com/

Twitter Mobile (vs. Twitter in browser)
http://m.twitter.com/home

Neoformix Twitter Stream Graphs
http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/view.php (I provided a live demo of this).

Twitter Stream Graphs are a simple way to rsearch keyword volume associated with a brand or campaign. Neoformix also tracks keywords over time, meaning that one can see when a certain keyword became popular.
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Future Suggestions:
More Flickr photos could be linked to all of the other accounts, such as Flickr, Youtube, and Vimeo. Linking together social media campaigns in a more robust fashion will affect CTR’s by making the campaign spreadable across various demographic profiles and types of social media users.

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Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist who studies new media and the relationship between humans and computers. She enjoys data visualization (click for more info on conference tracking), search engine optimization (ask), and how marketing works in the online ecosystem.

She graduated from Lewis & Clark College in May 2008 with a degree in Sociology/Anthropology and wrote her thesis on cell phones and the effect of technology on cultural constructions of space and privacy.

You can follow her on Twitter @caseorganic, or drop her an E-mail at caseorganic[at]gmai[dot]com. She’s spoken at various conferences including MIT’s Futures of Entertainment 3, Inverge: The Interactive Convergence Conferece, Ignite Portland, and Ignite Boulder.

She also blogs at Nerdabout.com and http://www.blog.makerlab.org, a Portland new media incubator. She founded CyborgCamp, an unconference on the future of humans and technology. She is also involved with building and studying electronics with DorkbotPDX.

What an epic month it has been! There was  the WordPress 2.7 Release party, the Cubespace Holiday party, a couple of Beer and Blogs and a lot of snow. Also, CyborgCamp ran smoothly (the keynote videos are up if you haven’t seen them yet).

This next week looks pretty awesome, too. If you haven’t been before, you should really attend Dorkbot. A lot of amazing people and devices usually show up, and it’s kind of like going to a museum of electronics.

Next month, be sure to check out the SOUK holiday party, as you can work there for free the entire day. And January 14th continues the epic Lunch 2.0 saga at the OTBC headquarters. If you’re heading out there on the Max, make sure not to miss the Lunch 2.0 Party Train for some on-the-go networking.

If you’re a creative type, come to Drinking and Drawing on Jan 14th at 6:00Pm, where two types of fun will undoubtedly collide in new and unexpected ways.

Finally, on Februrary 20th, don’t miss out on RecentChangesCamp. If you’re at all interested in wikis, this place will be heaven for you. It is the only event of its kind in the world.

See below for a sequential list of all of the events happening this month, with details and ticket/RSVP information.

———————–

Monday, December 22, 2008 from 7–11pm

DorkbotPDX Meeting

Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
1945 NW Quimby
Portland OR 97209
US

Website
http://dorkbotpdx.org/

Description
Come join us for an evening of socializing, talking about odd hacks and poking around with other people toys. Bring things for show and tell if you like, or just bring a willingness to share your interests. We’ll be the kids with all the coolest stuff on the table. Hope to see you there.

See original posting on Calagator

Sunday, December 28, 2008 from 1–5pm

DorkbotPDX Open Lab

Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) Room 205
1241 NW Johnson Street
Portland Oregon 97209
US
(map)

Website
http://dorkbotpdx.org/

RSVP on Upcoming

Friday January 2, 2009

Beer and Blog (weekly, every Friday from 4-6Pm)

Green Dragon
928 SE 9th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214
Category: Social
Website: http://portland.beerandblog.com/

We’ll still find a way to hang out and warm our bellies with Holiday ale! After all, even if I said we weren’t meeting, people still would show up. I love you guys for that. So, this Friday we’ll get together and toast to 2008 as we enjoy the last official Beer and Blog of the year (although people may still show up on the 26th).

January will be Beer and Blog’s 1 year anniversary and we have some cool plans in the works. We’re pulling together the best of what we learned in 2008 and turning it into a full or half day workshop for all those who want to start a blog or improve one. We’re also going to do a mini Job Fair.

Monday January 5, 2009

souk’s Birthday

souk
322 NW 6th Avenue, suite 200
Portland, Oregon 97214
Category: Social

Website: http://www.soukllc.com

Celebration of a local small business serving the creative class - we’re 2 years old! Work for free today, or just stop by to enjoy cupcakes, cheer, Blazer tix drawing and more.

RSVP on Upcoming

Monday January 12, 2009 from 6:00pm - 7:00pm

Mobile Love, Android Style #8

Lucky Lab Brew Pub
915 SE Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, Oregon
Category: Social
2nd monday of the month is android day. Android is the mobile phone operating system from Google. meet with local area developers.

RSVP on Upcoming

Wednesday January 14, 2009 from 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Lunch 2.0 at the New OTBC Office

OTBC in the Beaverton Round
12725 SW Millikan Way
Beaverton, Oregon 97005
Category: Social
For the first time, Portland Lunch 2.0 will happen in the ‘burbs, Beaverton to be precise.

The OTBC is moving into new space and partnering with the Beaverton Round Executive Suites.

So, to showcase their new digs and introduce Lunch 2.0 to the suburbs, the OTBC will be hosting Lunch 2.0 on January 14, 2009.

The Beaverton Round is right on the MAX line about 20 minutes from Portland. Just jump off the Blue Line at the Beaverton Central stop, and you’re 90 feet from the new OTBC office.

Lunch 2.0 is a Valley phenomenon that you can read about at lunch20.com, and we’re putting a PDX stamp on it.

You can follow all things Portland Lunch 2.0 at Silicon Florist.

Are you vegan or vegetarian? Please leave a comment so we can plan food accordingly. Thanks.

RSVP on Upcoming

Wednesday January 14, 2009 at 11:00am

Lunch 2.0 Party Train to OTBC

Pioneer Courthouse Square
701 Sw 6th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97204
Category: Social
All Aboard! We’re going to par-tay all the way down to the OTBC for Lunch 2.0.

Here’s the scoop: Meet up at Pioneer Square MAX stop and catch the Blue Line MAX at 11:27. It will arrive just a few feet from the OTBC at 11:50. We’ll all be in the rear MAX car cuz that’s how we roll.

Don’t forget to RSVP for Lunch 2.0 http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1148458/

Chuga Chuga Choo! Choo!

RSVP on Upcoming

Saturday January 17, 2009 from 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Masterbacon: A day for bacon lovers

Kveton’s
2822 SW Boundary St
Portland, 97239
Category: Social

Website: http://bacongeek.com/masterbacon

Have you ever wanted to get together with a bunch of other bacon geeks and just geek out about bacon? What if there was an event specifically catered to bacon geeks to be able to share their favorite bacon treats with the world? Wouldn’t it make sense to make it a competition complete with trophy and prizes? Of course it would.

Masterbacon is just such an event.

RSVP on Upcoming (63 people have saved this event at the time of posting).

Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 7:30pm

Portland Arts and Lectures: Michael Pollan

Portland Center for the Performing Arts - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 Sw Broadway
Portland, Oregon 97205
Category: Education

Buy Tickets

Wednesday January 14, 2009 at 6:00pm

Drinking and Drawing

The Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97209
Category: Media
Website: http://www.drinkinganddrawing.org

Drinking and Drawing is an evening of collaborative animation. Artists, animators, spectators- everyone is welcome, and anyone can participate!

The event is free to Cascade SIGGRAPH and ASIFA members- all others pay $5 at the door, and everyone must be 21+.

Visit www.drinkinganddrawing.org for more information about the event and how it works, and follow @DrinknDrawPDX on Twitter for updates.

Ticket Info: $5

RSVP on Upcoming

Monday January 26, 2009 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm

PDXCritique

CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214
Category: Social
Website: http://pdxcritique.com
The mission of PDX Critique is to provide a monthly forum for designers of any stripe (graphic, web, whatever) to crawl out of their work void to share information and constructive criticism.

Have something you want critiqued? Contact us via the google group or on the blog.

RSVP on Upcoming

Thursday February 19, 2009 at 7:00pm

Ignite Portland 5

Bagdad Theater and Pub
3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd
Portland, Oregon 97214
Category: Social
Website: http://www.igniteportland.com

Save the date! Ignite Portland 5 will happen on Thursday, February 19, 2009, at the Bagdad Theater. Stay tuned to http://www.igniteportland.com/ for more details, and submit YOUR talk idea now!

RSVP on Upcoming

Friday February 20, 2009 - Sunday February 22, 2009

RecentChangesCamp 2009

University Place Hotel
310 SW Lincoln Street
Portland, Oregon 97201
Category: Other
Website: http://2009rcc.org/

RecentChangesCamp (RCC) is the unconference for the Wiki community. Born of the intersection of wiki and Open Space (an unconference facilitation method), it is named after the “recent changes” page found on many wikis.

RCC is 100% free to attendees, and is open to everyone: from hardcore wikiholics to the mildly curious. No pre-registration is required, but it would be helpful if you could add yourself to our list of attendees on our planning wiki. You can also follow our updates at http://twitter.com/RCCamp.

RCC is held over the course of three days, with participants welcome to come and go as they please. Exact times have not yet been nailed down, but it generally starts Friday morning, continues all day on Saturday, and closes late Sunday afternoon.

RSVP on Upcoming

Tuesday February 24, 2009 - Thursday February 26, 2009

“Secrets of Agile Teamwork: Beyond Technical Skills” Workshop

McMenamins | Kennedy School
5736 NE 33rd Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97211
Category: Education

Website: http://www.agileuniversity.org/course_details.jsp?courseid=1…

Beyond technical skills, Agile success depends on productive self-organizing teams. How do you develop, grow, and maintain a functioning self-organizing team? It’s not magic, but it doesn’t just happen either. Effective self-organizing teams rely on personal and interpersonal effectiveness.

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll discover the secrets to developing the skills you need to succeed and lead on a self-organizing team.

Ticket Info: $1500
Buy Tickets

RSVP on Upcoming

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Amber Case can be followed on Twitter @caseorganic. She is available for new media and online productivity consulting, data aggregation, and training in blogging and Internet marketing. E-mail caseorganic at gmail dot com for inquiries.

Caffeine is a freeware software application that solves this problem by placing a tiny coffee cup in the menu bar that you can click on to keep your Mac awake for longer periods of time.

Just click to fill the coffee cup up with coffee, and you’ll be able to sit across the room and watch a DVD without having to touch the keypad every 5 minutes.

App Size

At 240 KB, Caffeine is a super-light app that won’t drag down your ability to run other processes (although if you leave it on, it will obviously drain your battery).

Download Caffeine for Mac

You can download Caffeine Mac App here (link is from Lightware software, Caffeine’s development team).

Turning Caffeine off and On

When you want your Mac to stay awake, simply click on the coffee cup and it will fill with awesome black coffee. And when you want to turn it off, just click the mug again, and the caffeine will disappear, giving your tired computer a much-needed break.

From a usability point of view, this simple on/off system makes Caffeine one of the simplest apps ever (binary sweetness).

I use this handy thing every day, so I figured I should probably let others know about it. Enjoy with a cup of real coffee.

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

After seeing presentations from both Ignite Portland and Ignite Seattle at Chris Pirillo’s Gnomedex this September, and then speaking at Ignite Portland 4 last month, I kind of got addicted to the Ignite-style conferences.

More Ignite-like Events

It’s not just Ignite that inspires people to press great information into short chunks — there’s also Pecha Kucha which in Japanese means ‘the sound of conversation’, and allows a slightly longer period of time (6:20) for a symbiotic exchange between a human, an audience, and a automatically-progressing series of Powerpoint slides.

I grew up in Denver, Colorado, and am currently visiting Colorado for a week to see my parents. When I heard that Ignite Boulder would coincide with my visit, I was extremely excited.

Cool New People

So tomorrow, I am very excited to meet some very excellent Denver/Boulderites. Namely, Jeremy Tanner (@Penguin), Kit Seeborg (@zsazsa), Andrew Hyde (@andrewhyde).

Thanks to Portland and Seattle for getting me hooked on one of the best ways to present information. It will be very exciting to see presentations from a different region! Hooray Hoorah!

———–

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

There are strong indications that the Internet has already become the most pervasive factor in human life. By doing so, the first part of the 21st Century deserves to be named The Internet Age so it can be compared with other periods that have radically transformed human life such as the Agrarian Age and the Industrial Age.

The Internet has been called the Information Super Highway because it transmits billions of documents daily. It is the Internet as a super highway and how it competes with other forms of transportation that will be discussed in this article.

The Internet as Transportation

To get a better understanding of why the Internet is a form of transportation, consider the history of the Pony Express. It started in April 1860 to provide a fast mail service between the east and west coasts of the United States. It took about ten days to deliver its mail. The Pony Express announced its closure 18 months later in October 1861 just two days after the new Transcontinental Telegraph reached Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Pony Express came to an end because the telegraph was a new form of transportation that could deliver messages much faster (in just few minutes) and much cheaper.

Since the Pony Express and the telegraph both delivered messages, even though they did it in very different ways, both of them can be seen as competing forms of transportation.

Once it’s recognized that the telegraph is a form of transportation, it’s easy to see that the Internet is also a form of transportation. It delivers billions of messages, mail, documents, music, pictures and videos worldwide as fast as lightning wherever there are Internet connections, and it does it much cheaper than its slow moving competition—trucks, trains and planes. The Internet moves only digital information, but the problem is that this used to be non-digital information, which was moved by trucks, trains and planes. The Internet is in direct competition with them. The more digital media the Internet transports, the less non-digital media the others transport.

Print Media

eBooks

The promise of digital books, e Books as they are called, is that they can be delivered faster and cheaper and sold for significantly lower prices because they aren’t printed on expensive paper, stored in expensive warehouses and transported by gas guzzling trucks. Millions of acres of trees no longer have to be cut down to make paper. Millions of gallons of toxic ink no longer have to be manufactured to make printed documents. Millions of gallons of gas no longer have to be consumed to transport logs, paper and printed documents. Millions of tons of acid paper no longer need be dumped in landfills. Besides being much cheaper to produce and ship, eBooks are environmentally friendly.

The challenge of eBooks is that the industries that rely on the printed book will have to close their doors. Tens of thousands of print workers—booksellers, printers and truck drivers will lose their jobs and have to switch to other professions.

Some industry analysts believe that most bookstores will be out of business within five years.

Newspapers

Printed newspapers have all of the problems printed books have except they can go to press faster than books. Newspapers, however, have a big problem that books don’t have. Newspapers depend on getting a large part of their revenue from the advertising they print. As newspapers receive competition from TV, radio, blogs, twitters and online news, their advertising sales have declined but their costs have increased. Income from classified ads, once a major source of income for newspapers, has continued to decline as online companies take them over such as monster.com for jobs and eBay for products. Apartment rentals and real estate listings are increasingly be taking over by online companies that also have no newspaper affiliations. In the face of mounting print advertising costs, advertisers are taking advantage of the new online ad opportunities, an option they didn’t have before. They are finding that online advertising is not only cheaper but more successful.

The future of print newspapers is bleak. If newspapers are to survive, their only option is to develop a successful online operation as soon as possible so they can dump everything that involves printing newspapers—paper, ink, printing presses, employees who work with print media, delivery trucks, warehouses, etc. To survive online, newspapers must find a way to obtain enough ad revenues or they won’t be able to survive. The chance of finding enough online ad revenue is not encouraging. Those who hold out and try to make a go of it as a print operation will not survive. Most newspapers will be gone within five years.

Magazines and Journals

Magazines and Journals have all of the problems newspapers have except their article lead times are longer. They will continue to lose advertising revenue. Their choice is the same: switch to an online operation or go out of business. Unless they can carry over their print advertising in a downsized online publishing operation, they too are unlikely to survive.

Music, Pictures, Videos and Software—the Other Digital Media

Everything that applies to digital books applies to digital music, pictures and videos. Recorded music on CDs is coming to an end. Digital pictures have already replaced film prints. Videos can be downloaded from the Internet, and this trend will continue. Eventually Internet videos will replace video DVDs.

Software will become primarily available as Internet downloads.

The Internet as Teleportation

Just as the Internet is a form of transportation that threatens traditional transport companies, it’s also a form of teleportation that threatens many other traditional businesses.

The Internet has not yet reached the “Beam me up, Scottie” type of teleportation where humans are digitized, transported through space and reconstituted. Instead, live images of people are digitized and transported to some Internet cloud where they can transact in real time with other people’s digitized images. This is called videoconferencing. Cisco’s WebEx is one of many software packages that make online sales presentations and conferences possible.

The promise of Internet “teleportation” is that it means the millions of outside sales reps will be taken off the road so they can make online sales calls from offices and home. As online reps they will be able to make extra calls each day because they won’t have to spend time traveling between accounts. The geographical location of their accounts no longer matters because it’s just as easy to make sales calls in New York in the morning and San Francisco in the afternoon as it is to make several calls in the same city the same day.

This will take a million cars off the road and reduce gas consumption by millions of gallons a year. Companies will be able to reduce their sales expenses by tens of thousands of dollars per sales rep. Expensive weeklong semiannual conferences in major cities will be canceled because they can be replaced by inexpensive online video conferences where reps can attend from their offices and their homes.

The challenge of converting outside reps to online reps is that it will have a huge impact on world economies. These sales reps will no longer need company cars, airline tickets and car rentals. They will no longer stay in hotels and motels and eat at restaurants. All of these industries will be forced to downsize and lay off hundreds of thousands of workers as reps are taken off the road.

Virtual Visits

Free Internet phone calls such as those offered by SKYPE allow individuals to visit each other using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) no matter where they may be. This is just the beginning. As video conferencing systems come down in price, instead of getting in the family car to visit relatives and friends, many of these visits will take place over the Internet because they will be easier to make, cheaper and save time.

Virtual Vacations

If you want to see lions in Africa or Kodiak bears in Alaska, you can spend thousands of dollars to go there in person with the hope of encountering them, but if you choose to call up a video on the Internet, chances are you’ll see more animals and learn more about them because the photographers who prepare these videos often spend months and even years taking their pictures. It’s still more exciting to see these animals in person, but it’s likely that more and more people will see them over the Internet because it’s so much less expensive. You can expect to see a reduction in vacation travel because of this.

Telecommuting

As more people work at home by telecommuting, more two car families will become one car families as telecommuting families find they can get by with just one car. There will be less traffic on the road, and less office space will be required. People who work as telecommuters can live anyplace where they can get an Internet connection. Many of those who can afford it will leave the congested, expensive cities to live in cleaner, less crime ridden smaller communities.

Online Education

As education costs skyrocket, there is no choice but to develop an inexpensive system of online education to grant degrees and offer retraining to the millions of people who will find themselves unemployed as the Internet eliminates jobs in competitive industries.

Schools such as MIT and Stanford have already put most of their classes online where anyone can read the lectures and study materials. Online schools such as the University of Phoenix have offered online degrees for several years. Now, Stanford and several other universities are offering online master’s degree programs that they claim match the quality of education found on their campuses. It’s only a matter of time before more universities offer similar online degrees.

With technology changing our world so rapidly, most people will have to receive constant Internet training to update their skills so they can keep their current jobs or switch to new professions. From now on, continuing education will be a lifelong activity. Our current campus based educational system simply cannot handle this increased volume of educational traffic.

The Age of the Automobile Is No More

Even though cars, trucks and planes will continue to be an important part of our lives for the foreseeable future, their role will be diminished as billions of digital products are shipped via the Internet instead of by FedEx, UPS and USPS and as millions of workers no longer need cars for their jobs. To survive, the auto industry will have to downsize. There is simply no way that the auto industry can regain the sales of yesterday. The Age of the Automobile is over.

We Ain’t Seen Nuthin’ Yet

Artificial Intelligence expert Ray Kurzweil suggests that towards the end of the 21st Century it will be possible to create digital copies of human beings and upload them onto a computer. Once this happens, people will be able to live virtual lives that they will not be able to distinguish from life in the physical world. After people are converted to digital entities, it will eventually be possible to create android and “blank” human bodies that can receive the digital copies so that people can move between virtual and real life existences indefinitely.

There are quite a few advantages in having a system like this.

Space Exploration Instead of the huge cost of transporting human bodies through space and keeping them alive in some form of stasis for hundreds, thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of years, it will be much cheaper and more efficient to put copies of people onto a computer, turn off the power for the length of the trip and turn it on when the spaceship lands on a planet suitable for human habitation. Once landed, robots can reconstitute the people in physical bodies, perhaps android bodies to start with, so they can populate it. Since space travel is very dangerous, only copies of living people need be sent into space. The originals can remain at home where they can live normal lives—whatever “normal” might be one hundred years from now.

Once people are copied onto a computer, their digital folders can be sent over the Internet to places on earth as well as to locations in near space such as the moon’s spacecraft launching station. When this happens, it will be a real form of teleportation. Once a new planet has been colonized by the first spaceship, the fastest way to transport more colonists to that planet will, of course, be over the Internet.

Prison Reform Rather than maintain prisons where it costs five to ten times as much to house a prisoner as it does to send a child to public school, governments can use tax dollars more effectively by sentencing people who are convicted of crimes to virtual lives where they can serve out their sentences in inexpensive-to-maintain virtual worlds. For those whose sentences are not for life, they can be reconstituted in physical bodies at the end of their sentences and allowed to live in the real world again. Some prisoners, however, may prefer to remain in their new virtual world where they will have freedom to do things they could never do in the real world.

War and Other Dangerous Occupations Rather than send people to war as soldiers or put them in a dangerous environment, it will be easier to make physical copies of each person loaded into androids so that if the physical copy is destroyed, the original person will remain unharmed. Since the experience gained performing dangerous occupations can provide people with valuable professional experience, at the end of these assignments, these experiences can be merged electronically with their originals so the originals can continue to advance in their careers.

No Turning Back

There is no turning back. If we choose to return to the “good old days” by getting rid of the Internet, we shall simply empower other countries to develop superior technologies that they will use to compete against us. A refusal to utilize new technologies can only lead to greater unemployment and economic hardship.

The Internet is in some ways like Pandora’s Box. Even though it brings wonderful gifts to the human race, it does so at the cost by depriving millions of people of the old jobs that were created during the Industrial and Post-Industrial Ages. This will create poverty and major economic problems unless nations prepare proactively to provide top quality, inexpensive education so the unemployed can begin new careers. To solve the problems created by technology and to reap the benefits it brings, we have no choice but to use technology to facilitate our transition to a new, more environmentally friendly world.

The Internet is already making revolutionary changes in our lives. It is dominant technology of our time. In recognition of these changes, this era should be called the Internet Age.

—–

About

This article was written by Russell Dauterman. His career has covered teaching (philosophy with a specialty in logic), publishing (working for bookstores, book wholesalers and publishers) and computers (retailing and database design). He is also Caseorganic’s Uncle.

Russell Dauterman can be reached at dbtrees at gmail dot com.

Rick Turoczy (Silicon Florist) lead a discussion about the Portland tech scene heading into 2009. Where are we now, how did we get here and where do we want to go?

Bram Pitoyo live-streamed the session, which I’ve embedded here in case you couldn’t make it.

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

Event Recap

We need more resources for outsiders who don’t know the Portland tech community exists.

Calagator did not exist a year ago. We’ve been building a lot more tools to make people capable of communicating with each other and sharing information.

Traditionally, one might say, “look how much we’ve accomplished without marketing”. But we have done a bunch of marketing — we just haven’t done a lot of traditional marking. We market all of the time — but our marketing channels are each other. If you’re not within the bubble it becomes difficult for you to understand that the bubble is in existence.

There’s something magical about this being this little home brew community that has a bunch of people who do what they love to do because they love it.

Aaron Hockley: Maybe there needs to be a “how to get clued into the Portland tech scene” presentation. Short, like the Common Craft show’s “Twitter in 5 minutes”.

We just know all of this stuff is happening because it shows up in all of the tools we’re using. So what are the tools I can use to get clued in that aren’t Twitter?

There are a lot of things people need to be able to have access to.

David Kominsky: While accessibility is a great ideal to strive for, community is, to some degree, defined by exclusivity. One of the strengths of the Portland tech community is the degree to which we all see each other on Twitter, at Beer and Blog, at Backspace…ect.

SAO vs. Inner Portland Tech (Portland Tech Twitter)

With SAO, a quick Google Search brings you right into the heart of the community. We create a lot of data that is spread all over many different sites, so there no one consolidated resource

Personally, I believe communities are based on interest.

By definition, communities have boundaries. Interests create those boundaries. Additionally, Portland, more than almost any other place I’e been — does everything by word of mouth.

There’s a downside to that — there is a sort of hump to get over — in learning how to interact with the tech community.

SAO seems to have much stronger delineated boundaries that the general Portland tech community does.

Do we need a community aggregator for the Portland Tech community so that many different spokes of the wheel can join together in one viewable place?

One of the great things about Portland is that if you see something there — you can act on it. Those connections will form over time.

The weather is terrible. I feel like we should keep people out.

Steven Walling: What we need is not to build a new tool — but to use the tools we have and the community we have to reach out to these people and bring them in.

I don’t think we need to build something and expect them to come. I think we need to reach out and bring them in.

Bad news for everyone in the room: you are the most social skilled people in Portland (in tech). The reason

Or they’re not interested. they have no idea what is going on outside their walls. no idea what is going on outside of you.

Geeks in Portland don’t necessarily know what to do with money. if they even had it. - Carolyn Duncan.

Great things can happen to a community without destroying it — with the addition of money which can provide a living to you and your friends.

Funding

We need a clear infrastructure — where the types of funding are, and how it works.

VC’s really invest in companies, and for a lot of us who do this sort of freelance sort of stuff, it is not as good.

The real problem is the cultural differences.

It is really easy to change software — it is very difficult to change hardware. Paying for things in real life is justifiable, but software has a different model. It is less justifiable to have to pay for software than tangible hardware and physical spaces.

Conclusions

A lot was said, and a lot was brought to mind. One thing was certain — we’re very happy with our community. It is only to get stronger from here.

Want to attend more Web Innovators events? Have a look at the Web Innovators website.

In the past, people lived in zones: you live at home, do other stuff at work, or while traveling. That’s changing now. Things are continuous. There’s no difference between work, home and travel. You want to have the same things with you. We believe people don’t live in categories anymore. As we’re moving around, we want seamless transitions to occur in life.

We’re living as low tech cyborgs now. It is only going to get more interesting in the future.

I’m posting this video to get everyone into the mindset for CyborgCamp this weekend [Dec 6th, 2008 at Cubespace from 9-6 Pm [Get a Ticket] [Preparty at Vidoop, 8:30 Pm Dec 5th, 2008 [RSVP] ]. The world around us is changing, but I’ll let Padmasree Warrior, now CTO at Cisco (and @padmarsee on Twitter [thanks, @nelking] tell you her story:

Nancy King / nelking

Warrior describes how thousands of Motorola engineers are trying to create a transparent network so that individuals can take their music, video, pictures —virtually any kind of data with them — wherever they go. “Mobile devices have become the remote control for life. Let us do things we have not thought about before,” says Warrior. For 75 years, Motorola has specialized in what Warrior describes as “preemptive innovation.” This means not just enabling new ways to communicate (for example, creating the two-way radio and cell phone), but giving customers new reasons to communicate. Within technological view are cars that can download information about a driver’s preferences, from seat height to mirror settings, and homes that can broadcast a favorite radio show from room to room, so the listener misses nothing.

Thanks to MITWorld for the video.
April 27, 2004
Running Time: 46:22

About the Speaker

Padmasree Warrior
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer,
Motorola Incorporated

Padmasree Warrior has worked at Motorola since 1984. She currently leads a global team of 4,600 technologists, guiding creative research from innovation through the first stages of marketing. She also serves as a technology advisor to the office of the chairman and to the board’s technology and design steering committee.

Before assuming her current role in January 2003, Warrior was corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola’s energy systems group. Warrior was corporate vice president and chief technology officer for Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector. She was appointed vice president in 1999 and was elected a corporate officer in 2000.

Warrior received an M.S. degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University, and a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India.

Warrior served on the Texas Governor’s Council for Digital Economy, and is a member of the Texas Higher Education Board review panel. She was one of six women nationwide selected to receive the “Women Elevating Science and Technology” award from Working Woman magazine in 2001. She also is a director of Ferro Corporation.

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Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist from Portland, Oregon. You can follow her on Twitter @caseorganic, see also the Makerlab blog, as well as coverage of local Portland tech events at Nerdabout.com.

We need a kids tech camp.

• Kids need to have a great place to meet each other and experience technology.
• Parents with kids should be able to bring their children to a networking event and get to know each other.
• The venue should be fun and educational. It should allow participation and activities for kids, so that parents can have an enjoyable time alongside them, or amongst themselves.

Twitter Responses:

• Irene_S: @caseorganic That’d be great! Having kids does cut into one’s networking time.
• harrisja: @caseorganic I completely agree! more kid friendly tech events FTW!
• smb: @caseorganic kids networking tech event would be awesome. What age ranges are you contemplating?
• petsaretalking: @caseorganic What an awesome idea!
• anitacochran: @caseorganic That sounds like fun, get any nibbles?
• LeStew: @caseorganic re: #childtech YES YES YES!!!!
• snelson: @caseorganic I’m in for planning… especially if at least some of program could be targeted at GIRLS and technology
• brampitoyo: @snelson @caseorganic I know that some robotic club are connected to DorkbotPDX, and they’re open for both girls and boys.
• neophiliac: @caseorganic sounds cool. I’ve been looking for an excuse to learn (Ruby) Shoes; it’s great for kids.
• MatthewStadler: @caseorganic Yes on all-ages tech event. Key is all-ages, not just “kids,”i.e., adults drink, swear, etc., alongside kids. Venue more Backspace than OMSI
• oleoptene: @caseorganic But kids tech event awesome idea we would totally get behind. Suggest kids take part in planning of it.
• oleoptene: @caseorganic Besides bringing older offspring to Ignite (they loved cyborg anthropology) we’ve talked kidcamp @ barcamp, facility a problem.
• kmcdade: @caseorganic I’m very interested in helping plan a kids event. Also, @kidtech seems like the name of someone’s account, so #childtech might work better.

Venue:

I agree with MatthewStadler that a venue more like Backspace than OMSI is needed. Also, Oleoptene’s dea of letting kids plan the event seems really fun. All ages seems nice — but probably not too young. The cut-off age could be 6, for instance.

Conclusion:

Seems like we have enough interest to proceeed. The question is of “how”. A date would be nice. Some time in Feburary would give us ample time to plan a half day of activities and little workshops, as well as secure a venue and funding (if needed), and to gather momentum. The only question I have is whether the event should be large or small.

Yep. So we need one of these events. Reply or contact me in some way (I’m @caseorganic on Twitter) if you’re interested in helping out. We can probably get a Wiki started and get the show on the road!

Dear Everyone,

Here are a lot of events. I’ll be at most of them this time, as I will not be in Boston. Be sure to check out DorkBot, Beer and Blog, Web Innovators and CyborgCamp. Happy event going!

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Wednesday November 26, 2008

Beer and Blog - Turkey Day at the Green Dragon

4:00pm - 6:00pm
Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub
928 SE 9th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214

Since this Friday is one that most will be spending with family, we’re going to make this week’s Beer and Blog a Wednesday affair (that’s tomorrow as of this post’s publish date).

Official Beer and Blog website

RSVP on Upcoming.

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Sunday, November 30, 2008

Dorkbot Series: Making Noise with the Arduino

1:00pm - 5:00pm
Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA)
1241 NW Johnson Street
Portland, Oregon 97209

As a part of the ongoing Arduino Cult Induction workshop series, this month we will be focusing on sound.

In particular Don will be going over creating sound using the Arduino’s built in Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and Direct Digital Synthesis using resistive ladders. We will investigate using the Piezo element
as both a simple speaker and an input trigger. We will review the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) from a hardware and software perspective, and look at a couple of useful integrated circuits (the lm324 and the lm368).

The workshop will cost $25 and participants will recieve a complete midi interface board for the dorkboard/arduino and a piezo element which will be used to create a midi drum trigger. Participants will also take with them parts for an r2r ladder, an op amp and an audio amp capable of driving small speakers or headphones.

Ticket Info: $25 Buy Tickets (scroll to the bottom of the page to get to the ticket purchasing information).

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Monday, December 1, 2008

Morning Meeting: Legal (Weekly Series)

9:00am - 10:00am

CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214
Category: Education
Website: http://www.cubespacepdx.com/entrepreneurial
Come into CubeSpace between 9 and 10 a.m. on weekdays to chat with the professional-in-residence about your needs. The Monday topic is Legal issues, including questions about incorporation and doing business in Oregon.

The Morning Meetings are free and open to the public. They are part of our Entrepreneurial Series. To learn more, visit the Entrepreneurial Series’ website.

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Wednesday, December 3rd

PNCA Noontime Chat: Louis Marchesano

12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
PNCA Swigert Commons
Pacific NW College of Art
1241 NW Johnson St.
Portland, OR 97209

Louis Marchesano is the Collections Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University, where he worked on 17th Century Italian prints, a topic on which he has published.

His recent exhibition, Drawn to Rome, was a groundbreaking work on the remarkably rich sketchbooks of young French artists who trained in Rome in the 18th Century. Louis’ upcoming exhibitions include two collaborative projects with the Getty Museum, one on the prints and painting of James Ensor, and the other on the drawings and related prints of Peter Paul Rubens. Part of Contemporary Curatorial Issues Series.

Ticket info: Free and open to the public.

Official description on the PNCA website.

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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Web Analytics Wednesday

Host: Ryan Summers

5:30 PM
McFaddens Restaurant & Saloon in Portland
107 NW Couch St, Portland OR (Venue | Map | Group)

Sponsor:
Event sponsored by ISITE Design, Inc.

Please join your web analytics colleagues on Wednesday, December 3rd on the west side of McFaddens in the upper bar area. An assortment of food will be provided by McFaddens, courtesy of ISITE Design Inc.

Share:

Invite friends to join you at this event

Link to this event

Attendees: 16 people plan to attend, including Ryan Summers, allison, amclaughlin, ben, bohlgren, dsprick, eric.peterson, hallie, jesse, jturner, kent, labbott, mmellor, ritchiem, skemper, tyson

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Wednesday, December 3rd

State of Portland Tech - Web Innovators

7:00pm
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214

Silicon Florist’s Rick Turoczy will lead a discussion about the Portland tech scene heading into 2009. Where are we now, how did we get here and where do we want to go?

Join us for the monthly Portland Web Innovators meeting — the first Wednesday of every month.

RSVP on Upcoming

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Friday, December 5th, 2008

PNCA+Five Series Presents Design Futuring, Culture and the Coming Age of Unsettlement

Pacific Northwest College of Art welcomes Australian designer and design theorist Tony Fry in two upcoming events centered on the sustainment of arts education and the reinvention of design. A design consultant and theorist, Fry is also an international leader in sustainable design theory and practice. His lecture, “Design Futuring, Culture and the Coming Age of Unsettlement” will unpack two crucial and linked questions: how can design, as a positive force for change, be made to happen?

12:30-1:30 Pm
Gerding Theatre at the Armory
128 NW Eleventh Avenue
Portland, OR 97209

Free and open to the public.

Official details at PNCA website.

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Friday, December 5th

CyborgCamp Re-Party at Vidoop

Time TBA
Vidoop
117 NW 5th Ave, ste 210
Portland, OR 97209

Come to the official CyborgCamp pre-party! Special guests Cami and Mike Kaos will be live-broadcasting Strange Love Live. There will be drinks and festivities before the conference in the morning. Details forthcoming. Expect a 8 or 9 Pm start time.

RSVP on Upcoming
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Saturday, December 6th

CyborgCamp PDX 2008

9:00 Am-6Pm
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214

CyborgCamp is a hybrid conference/unconference about the future of human computer interaction, technology, and how we deal with it. Notable speakers will be Ward Cunningham (Inventor of the Wiki), Hideshi Hamaguchi (of Lunaar), and Bill DeRouchey (Ziba Design). Unconference sessions to occur throughout the day.

Additionally, the conference will be live streamed, so you can join in online.
To attend the event in person, you must register through CubeSpace. The $10 fee covers food and drink. Visit CyborgCamp.com for information and to get a ticket.

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Sunday, December 7th

DorkbotPDX 0×02: DorkbotPDX brings you Collin Oldham, Shelly Farnham and Steve Davee

6:00Pm
AboutUs offices
107 SE Washington St., Suite 520,
Portland, Oregon 97214

Come join us for an evening of geek meets art. The fine folks at AboutUs will be hosting us for this event, which takes place December 7th at 6PM. AboutUs is located at 107 SE Washington St, Suite 520. Feel free to bring snacks and drinks to share. Please spread the word!

Collin Oldham: The RT (radio trowel) and The Cellomobo

Collin spent the 2005-2006 academic year at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) where began to develop the electronic musical instruments he is presenting today.

The RT (radio trowel) uses a capacitive sensor array based on Max Mathew’s radio baton to detect the position of the trowel on the playing surface. The trowel’s movements control sound synthesis parameters, including filters which process live sound from a contact mic attached to the trowel.

Shelly Farnham: Dorkbot Dorkbot Dorkbot + Seattle

I am that rare combination of geek, artist, and scientist and when I first met Dorkbot Seattle I felt like I’d *finally* found my people — where technology is artistic medium, science is art, and geeking out is just a whole lot of fun. My one complaint was that Seattle Dorkbots were not collaborating enough, and when I took over as Seattle’s “Dork Overlord” it was my main mission — to cultivate the creative geek community.

Steve Davee: Not to kill a thought: The impact of language on curiosity, creativity and scientific inquiry.

This talk explores how easy it is, even with the best of intentions, to stifle creative thought and true learning when it comes to working with children in the areas of science, math and engineering. We will investigate examples of simple but powerful changes in language, with the intention of provoking the best of creative potential and shared inquiry.

Steve Davee is a math and science teacher at Opal Charter School and a Media Specialist for the Center for Children’s Learning at the Portland Children’s Museum. He is a recovering Biochemist with a background in physics and over 20 years of volunteer and work experience in education.

Event is Free. RSVP on Upcoming.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2008

Internet Marketing Conference

5:00pm-7:00pm
Internet Professionals SIG
Portland State University
Market Square Building Suite 1050
1515 SW 5th Avenue - Portland, OR
Cost:$55 for members $55 for non members

This event is with the Software Association of Oregon (SAO). Click here for more information and to register

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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

ThrivePDX (2nd Edition)

5:00pm-9:00pm
(Location to be announced).

The second Thrive PDX. Site says: “Join us for the second meeting of ThrivePDX! Details to follow… check back soon!”

Register…
Deadline
12/10/2008

ThrivePDX Event on Upcoming.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

CubeSpace Holiday Party

4:00pm - 9:00pm
CubeSpace
622 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214

Come celebrate the holidays with us!

RSVP on Upcoming.

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Feel free to contact me for more information on all of these events. Thanks to Yahoo’s! Upcoming, PNCA, Twitter, and Calagator for events. See you soon!

Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist from Portland, Oregon. You can follow her on Twitter @caseorganic.

If you haven’t already, please purchase your ticket for CyborgCamp. This ticket covers food and lets us know you’ll be there.

It’s important that you register as early as possible, the ticket costs $10 person before Wednesday December 3rd, 2008, at Noon. If you register afterwards, the ticket before $20. The form is secure and accepts credit cards.

>>Click here to buy a ticket<<

• The $10 ticket is for food, and because we want to know how many people to order food for.
• Formal conference speakers (BIll Derouchey, Ward Cunningham, Hideshi Hamaguchi, and Lia Hollander) and Sponsors do not have to pay or register, but can if they can if they wish to contribute to the CyborgCamp fund/food items (if you’re a sponsor and have already purchased a ticket, I can refund you if you wish).
• All unconference session speakers must pay.
• 5 student tickets are available. If you’d like one, please contact me (see contact info below).
• The reason we’re charging $20 on the 3 days before the vent is simply to get you to register before then. We’d still like people to be able to register — but we want to know how many people are going to come to the event 3 days before we have the event.
• If you’re tuning into the live streaming, there is no need to register.
• If you’re not registered, you won’t be able to attend the event. Plus, we won’t have a badge for you. This will be sad. Registering on Upcoming is only for approximation purposes and does not count as real registration.

Questions? Extraneous needs? Contact Amber Case at caseorganic@gmail.com, CyborgCamp on Twitter, or Caseorganic on Twitter. We’re really, really excited to have you there, and to have a super-live streamed event with amazing people at it.

A lot of times we wait around for technology to just “appear” like we see in films. But if we continue to do that, nothing will get built. Thankfully, people are out there filling in the gaps.

There’s a set of a new sign language for controlling movement from a distance. Very intuitive and simple to learn. Especially with the rewards of being able to move things across the room without touching them.

The rest of this post is over at the CyborgCamp.com Blog, as it relates directly to the event.

Gesture Recognition Demo at the MIT Media Lab with Jamie Zigelbaum.

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Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist who also posts over at the Makerlab Blog, which is something you might enjoy reading if you enjoyed reading the post above. It’s about more experimental tech and activities related to pushing the limits of art and technology. If not, you can always follow her on Twitter @caseorganic.