Augmented Reality has become more than a buzzword. It represents the next step in human/computer interaction. Interfaces that were once solid have become liquid. With the iPhone, we have the ability to download software from the air. With augmented reality, the interface evaporates from the liquid state into the air as well. Bruce Sterling’s keynote at Layar is a helpful introduction to this field.

There have been a number of applications developed by various companies and individuals, but what’s being done in Portland? As it turns out, quite a lot. I’ve been running an unadvertised Augmented Reality meetup for the past few months (if you’re a developer or Interaction Designer interested in attending this group, comment below), and have found the Portland tech community to be a fertile ground or AR development.

Mobile Portland brings Augmented Reality to you

Starting Monday, you can learn more about what’s going on in Portland AR as well. There will be a meetup at AboutUs.org with two of Portland top AR developers. They’re great people and I highly recommend meeting them. The meeting starts at 6pm at AboutUs.org.

Event Overview

Imagine being able to use your phone to see what that IKEA couch you’ve been considering will look like in your living room. A far-fetched science fiction scenario? No, IKEA has already released an application like that in Europe.

Augmented reality is an exciting and emerging technology. Augmented reality take real life information–typically the video display of a phone–and overlays it with computer information. Augmented reality is something that is completely unique to mobile.

This month at Mobile Portland, we’re lucky to have two speakers who are early innovators in augmented reality. P. Mark Anderson is platform architect for Spot Metrix which provides an augmented reality library for iPhone called 3DAR. Tim Sears created Robotvision, one of the first augmented reality applications for iPhone.

Mark and Tim will share how people are using augmented reality, their experiences using augmented reality, and what the future holds for this new technology.

About the Speakers

P. Mark Anderson

P. Mark Anderson has 13 years experience developing interactive applications. After receiving a degree in Computer Science from University of Colorado in 1999 he started his career as a developer for Sun Microsystems.

In addition to creating several iPhone applications, Mr. Anderson moderates the Helpful iPhone Utilities open source project, as well as My Maps, an augmented reality iPhone app built on top of Google’s personalized mapping system.

Mr. Anderson is platform architect for the 3DAR augmented reality SDK. He enjoys working with both artists and developers, and occupies his spare time with watercolor painting, mountain biking, disc golf and mentoring.

Tim Sears

Tim Sears is a software engineer who works for PR firm Waggener Edstrom by day building web applications, by night creating location-based augmented reality experiences for the iPhone. He created Robotvision, a popular augmented reality browser, for the iPhone in 2009 and currently works with clients to build out mobile geolocation experiences in augmented reality.

His work in augmented reality and social media analytics has been featured in major publications such as ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch and CNET, and has won several awards, including the International Business Awards Best New Product/Service of 2009 for twendz, a real-time Twitter sentiment analysis application.

Date

Monday, January 25, 2010 at 6:00pm

Location

AboutUs Offices
107 SE Washington St., Suite 520,
Portland, Oregon 97214

RSVP on Upcoming.org

Mobile Portland: Augmented Reality on Upcoming.org

Website:

MobilePortland.com

Great News! The next CyborgCamp will be in early May of 2010. That means its time to start planning!

This meeting is everyone’s chance to brainstorm on location ideas, sponsors and speakers. What kinds of topics are of interest to you? How has the idea of Cyborg evolved over the last year? What new kinds of technologies have arrived on the scene?

We’ll discuss volunteers and the wiki too. Come along, especially if you helped make CyborgCamp PDX ‘08 so excellent in the first place. Bring snacks and drinks to share with others.

This planning meeting will most likely be followed by general networking and fun at a local haunt.

RSVP on Upcoming.org

Where:

AboutUs.org

107 SE Washington Street, Suite 520
Portland Oregon 97214
United States

When:

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 from 7–9pm

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What is CyborgCamp?

CyborgCamp is an unconference about the future of the relationship between humans and technology. We’ll discuss topics such as social media, design, code, inventions, web 2.0, twitter, the future of communication, cyborg technology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy.

CyborgCamp’s aim is to have many communication channels, such as Twitter, Flickr, UstreamTV, Video and Audio recordings and live chats displayed on the screen.
Why May 2010? In March 2010, CyborgCamp will make its way to Brazil and back before landing again in Portland, Oregon for its second year.

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Questions? Contact Amber Case @caseorganic or MJ @mama_j.

You can also follow @cyborgcamp on Twitter for updates.

The last Portland Data Visualization Meetup occurred way back in March 2009. That’s way too long to go without a good data viz meetup, so there’s going to be another one. We’ll have five 10 minute presentations and a bunch of networking time. Webtrends will again graciously host us on their top floor.

The event is open to everyone interested in or working in the field of data visualization. This means designers, programmers, information architects, data miners, anthropologists, ect. We’re expecting a similar amount of people to last time, but the presentations will be limited to 10 minutes each or less.

Bring business cards and an excitement to connect with others in this field.

The second Portland Data Visualization Group will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 from 7:30Pm-9:00Pm at Webtrends.

851 SW 6th Ave.
Portland OR 97204
(map)

RSVP on Upcoming or view this event on Calagator.

Agenda:

The second meeeting of the Portland Data Visualization Group will serve as an introduction to what’s going on in the world of data viz. There will be five presentations of 10 minutes each. There are three openings left, so if you would like to demonstrate something you’re working on, please E-mail me or comment below.

If you’re interested in Data Visualization, please come to this event.

Google Group:

Ed Borasky started a Google group called pdx-visualization. As the name implies, it is a group for Portland-area people interested in languages and techniques for visualization of data. http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-visualization

Flickr Photos:

I’ve been collecting interesting data viz photos for a while now and posting them to Flickr. They’re all accessible on my Flickr account in this set. Most pictures contain descriptions and links to the viz sources.

I hope to see you all there!
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About

Amber Case, (@caseorganic is a Cyborg Anthropologist studying the interaction between humans and computers and how our relationship with information is changing the way we think, act, and understand the world around us.

“I think advertising is poison gas.”

“It should choke you up; hit you in the face”.

These are the word of George Lois, well known for Esquire Magazine, Tommy Hilfiger and his biting and intense presence.

Lois was one of a dozen advertising giants featured Friday night at the Portland premiere of Art & Copy, a new film that told the story of the ad industry and some of its most prominent innovators. The film was precise, well-cut, and very entertaining. There wasn’t a dull moment. It was also very familiar, as there was quite a bit of footage from Portland’s Wieden+Kennedy, as well as interviews with founders Dan and Dave.

Opening

David Kennedy opened the film and introduced the audience to a video of Dan Wieden, who apologized for not being able to be there. He told us we were in for a great surprise, and we were. Kennedy was also there after the film to answer questions from the audience.

Advertising’s Beginnings

The story of Bill Bernbach started with an overview of the ad industry before and after he became involved in it. It was explained that advertising was saturated with ingrown mediocrity. Only those from the right school with the right connections could participate, and Art Directors has no input in the creative process. But he had a tremendous way of understanding how to cut right through the tradition in the way of a product selling. He put Art Directors together with the Copywriters and changed everything.

Mary Wells and Branff Airlines

Highlights of the film included interviews with Mary Wells, a copywriter for McCann Erickson. Her advertising campaign, “The End of the Plain Plane” for Branff International Airways was a turning point in the airline’s success. She explained that her origins in theatre largely contributed to how she approached advertising.

The End of the Plain Plane - Branff International Airways

Lee Clow

Viewers were introduced to Lee Clow of TBWA\Worldwide, whose biography was covered via scenes of sun, surfers and sand. His entrance into the world of advertising seemed like a vibrant color in a mess of gray soup. A smell that woke up the senses. It also marked him as a ‘dangerous person’ within the confines of the agency he originally worked for.

“I think fear is a very great depressant. It is okay for ideas to get killed. Ideas are supposed to be killed. But it is important to be in an environment where one has a community where they can get help in picking themselves off the floor”.

-Mary Wells

Hal Riney, The Image-Maker

Hal Riney’s interview and work left the audience completely absorbed and silent, especially after viewing “Morning in America”, Ronald Reagan’s 1984 Presidential re-election campaign.

Morning in America

The Birth of “Just Do It”

Dan Wieden talked about some of the more interesting effects of the “Just Do It” campaign, especially those that extended beyond sports. Some of them included

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

Rich Silverstein was a stark and minimalist contrast to Jeff Goodby, who was interviewed in what looked like the agency’s server closet. They talked about the “Got Milk” campaign as the camera cut between Silverstein’s almost neurotic antics and Goodby’s relaxed creative messiness.

George Lois

No character was as extreme as George Lois, who shocked the audience again and again in ways that are much better explained through the screen.

Expect a pleasant and enlightening journey through some of the most successful ad campaigns in history.

Watch for:

-The real history of the phrase “Just Do It”.
-The great Greek guy from New York.
-A great quote from Dan Wieden at the end.
-David Kennedy explaining the Totem Pole in the middle of the W+K atrium.
-An introspection into the secret lives of billboard rotators.
-TBWA\Chiat\Day and the story behind Apple’s ad campaigns

Featured:

Dan Wieden, Dave Kennedy, Lee Clow, Rich Silverstein, Jeff Goodby, Bill Bernbach, George Lois, Mary Wells, Hal Riney and others.

Missed the Film?

You can see it at one of Art&Copy’s various showings.

Art&Copy Trailer

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About

Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist, consultant, writer, and analyst from Portland, Oregon. You can contact her at caseorganic at gmail.com, or on Twitter at @caseorganic.

It’s that time again. After taking a break from posting events (due to the amazing Portland weather we’ve been having), it’s again time to post all of the interesting events in Portland that are amazing opportunities to go to. There’s a ton happening this month and next, which means plenty of opportunities to connect with great people, new and familiar!

With a list like this, there’s sure to be something you’ll enjoy. If not, let me know what you’re interested in, and I’ll work on finding an event for you.

Happy networking - and let me know if I missed anything. I can always be reached in the comments below, or on Twitter at @caseorganic. If you’re a fan of E-mail, I’m at caseorganic at gmail dot com.

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Mobile Love, Android Style #15

Monday September 14, 2009 at 6:00pmLucky Labrador Brew Pub

915 SE Hawthorne Boulevard
Portland, Oregon 97214
The Google Phone, the Open Source Mobile Operating System. The one and only Android.

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4225653/

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HTML-PDX Meeting

Monday, September 14, 2009 from 6:30–8pm

Nedspace Old Town
117 NW 5th Ave. Suite 210
Portland OR 97209

Website http://groups.google.com/group/html5-pdx

Description: Reid Beels @reidab is going to cover webkit 3D transforms.

See full event on Calagator: http://calagator.org/events/1250457669

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IxDA Portland: Meetup / Design Practice

Tuesday September 15, 2009 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm

About Us
107 SE Washington St. Suite 520
Portland, 97214

Join us for a design practice session! We will start with a description of the design problem followed by work in small groups on design ideation and solution sketches. At the end, the small groups will present their ideas and sketches back to the rest of the meeting attendees.

This is a casual, non-sponsored workshop. Feel free to bring your own snacks or dinner.

IxDA Portland is the local chapter of the Interaction Design Association (http://www.ixda.org/).

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4416829/

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PDXPHP September Meeting : Overview of PHP 5.3

Tuesday September 15, 2009 from 6:30pm - 8:00pm

NedSpace Old Town
117 NW Fifth Ave. (btwn Couch and Davis)
Portland, Oregon 97209
Meeting Desc:

High level overview of PHP 5.3 which is a major milestone in PHP releases.
This discussion will center around:
# Support for namespaces
# Late static binding
# Lambda Functions and Closures

Also, Peter Schmalfeldt will give a tour of a project he is working on and looking for developer help.
He is looking for a few PHP developers to help build http://www.localreuse.org,
the next generation of the current non profit site http://www.gigoit.org.
Website: http://pdxphp.org

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4414444/

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Portland Java User Group: Grid Packet Computing for Java

Tuesday September 15, 2009 from 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Oracle
1211 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 800
Portland, Oregon 97204

This month’s topic: Grid Packet Computing for Java (GPC4J)

GPC4J is a computing paradigm that breaks a partitionable problem into GridPackets, which are routed, processed and re-assembled into the solution to the original problem. This presentation will cover the use of the system and design of the project’s web application. The application is built using REST (Jersey), Maven, Hibernate, JPA, MySQL and GlassFish.

Speaker: Lyle Harris

Lyle Harris is a Software Engineer working in World Wide Operations at Sun Microsystems, where he develops internal Java applications for automation and customer-facing web applications.

PJUG meetings start with some time to eat and socialize (pizza and beverages are provided), followed by the featured speaker, then Q&A, discussion, sometimes a drawing to give away swag.

Though we like knowing how many people to expect, you don’t *have* to RSVP, on Upcoming or otherwise. Go ahead and just show up!

Many people also go for a drink and further discussion following the meeting, at a location determined ad hoc (lately, the Market Street Pub at 10th and Market: http://mcmenamins.com/index.php?loc=24 ).

http://twitter.com/pjug
http://pjug.org/
(join our mailing list, linked from the website!)
Website: http://pjug.org/

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1441297/

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Lunch 2.0 at eROI

Wednesday September 16, 2009 from 12:00pm - 2:00pm

eROI
505 NW Couch, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97209

We’re headed back to eROI for Portland Lunch 2.0.

A lot has happened since they last hosted Lunch 2.0 back in April 2008, including the launch of their new event registration service, eROI Event.

To showcase their new system, eROI wants your suggestions on what they should raffle off at their Lunch 2.0. So, head over to the Lunch 2.0 event, register and suggest something.

You’ll get a chance to test-drive eROI Event, and the winner will be selected from those who register there.

If it’s not too much trouble, please also RSVP here or only here, if you don’t want to win free stuff. As if.

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 an the Silicon Florist.

Are you vegan or vegetarian? Please leave a comment so we can plan food accordingly. Thanks.
Website: http://siliconflorist.com/2009/08/15/lunch-20-erm-201-eroi/

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4230647/

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TiE Oregon - Cloud Computing

Wednesday September 16, 2009 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Intel - Ronler Acres Campus Auditorium
2501 NW 229th Ave
Hillsboro, Oregon

Cloud Computing ties hardware virtualization and software innovation to offer economic choices for deploying and scaling software services. Cloud Services are being offered in different flavors and for different segments by a variety of vendors.

TiE Oregon is hosting a Cloud Computing flyby, with a panel of evangelists, experts and entrepreneurs representing the key providers as well as usage and deployment perspectives for a spectrum of service layers including IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.

Join us on Sept 16th, to learn, explore and get answers to your questions regarding the technical and operational issues, financial trade-offs and business risks and opportunities offered by cloud computing.
Ticket Info: $15 - $30

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4238939/

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Raven Zachary: iPhone applications For the Presidential Election

Thursday September 17, 2009 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Note that this event is not in Portland, but it concerns one of the coolest Portlanders around and his accomplishments. Thus, it is worth noting. Raven Zachary is always worth noting.

Michigan League
911 N. University
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109

The brains behind the team that developed President Obama’s official iPhone application for his presidential campaign – Raven Zachary – is at the top of an industry that never existed up until two years ago. Zachary will travel to Ann Arbor in September, to inspire Michigan residents to reinvent and innovate. Ann Arbor Ad Club, in coordination with University of Michigan American Advertising Federation Student Chapter, is honored to introduce this luminary on Thursday, September 17 from 7-9 p.m., at the Michigan League. Active networking, refreshments and cash bar are available. Raven spoke at Advertising Age’s Creativity and Technology Conference in New York where tickets where $395/person.

Last year, Raven Zachary’s iPhone application generated hundreds of nationwide news stories and was quickly named among Apple’s coveted Top 10 List. His application furthered President Obama’s successful social media initiatives, which helped seal his Presidency. Marketing pundits attribute social media’s instrumental role in helping President Obama communicate with his supporters. Raven will discuss reinvention and innovation - themes that touch the heart of Michiganders - from automotive companies to Detroit’s drive to rejuvenate the city.

Today, as President of Small Society, Zachary works with big brands, established companies, investors, and startups on iPhone strategy and product development. He’s impacted Whole Foods Market, Zipcar, Clif Bar, and Air New Zealand, and founded iPhoneDevCamp, a not-for-profit iPhone developer conference. Raven’s iPhone app for Whole Foods is featured in Apple’s “There’s an App for That” TV commercials. As Contributing Analyst with The 451 Group, an IT industry analyst firm, he works with O’Reilly Media on iPhone and mobile technology events and coverage. Regularly quoted by media, he is a frequent speaker.
Ticket Info: Entry into this event is free for members, $35 for the public, and $10 for students.

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4240480/

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SAOpdx: The Act of Making Clouds: What Every Developer Should Know

Thursday September 17, 2009 at 12:00pm

Portland State Business Accelerator
2828 SW Corbett Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97201

The Software Association of Oregon Dev Forum has partnered with the Portland State Business Accelerator and the Portland SIG of TiE Oregon to bring you the most comprehensive and in-depth technical discussion in Portland about Cloud Computing yet.

This program is specifically designed for developers and architects. In one afternoon we intend to host a collaborative best practice exchange aimed specifically at the top things developers and architects need to know in order to make the right Cloud Computing platform evaluation and implementation decisions.

REGISTER: https://sao.yourmembership.com/events/event_details.asp?id=68684

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WordCamp Portland

Saturday September 19, 2009 - Sunday September 20, 2009

Webtrends
Pacific First Center Building 851 SW Sixth Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97204

Note: This event is now sold out, and there are 50 people on the waiting list. However, I’ve listed it here because it is an important event to keep in mind. If you’re feeling like you missed out, try WordCamp Seattle on Sept 26th, 2009. More information on the WordCamp Seattle Website.

WordCamp is a gathering of people interested in WordPress and blogging. Topics will focus on a wide range of audiences from the new blogger as well as those with more of a technical background.

Follow the WordCamp Portland website for details including speakers, sponsorship, and ticket information
Ticket Info: 20.00
Website: http://www.wordcampportland.org.

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LinuxCon 2009

Monday September 21, 2009 - Friday September 25, 2009

Portland Marriott (Downtown)
1401 SW Naito Parkway
Portland, Oregon 97201
1st Annual LinuxCon

September 21 - 25, 2009 - Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront, Portland, OR

This event is co-located with the 2nd Annual Linux Plumbers’ Conference.

LinuxCon is a new annual technical conference that will provide an unmatched collaboration and education space for all matters Linux. LinuxCon will bring together the best and brightest that the Linux community has to offer, including core developers, administrators, end users, community managers and industry experts. In being the conference for “all matters Linux”, LinuxCon will be informative and educational for a wide range of attendees. We will not only bring together all of the best technical talent but the decision makers and industry experts who are involved in the Linux community.

LinuxCon will feature over 75 conference presentations divided among five tracks and three audience types (Developers, Operations and Business), tutorials, BoF sessions, keynotes, roundtables, a product & technology showcase and sponsored mini-summits, as well as countless networking opportunities in developer lounges and evening events. LinuxCon offers a unique conference experience that encourages collaboration, progress and interaction.

With top notch educational content and collaboration opportunities, those that attend LinuxCon will leave more knowledgeable and better positioned for success in the year to come.

Register on the LinuxCon website: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linuxcon

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1746434/

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Portland Open Source Geospatial User Group

Wednesday September 23, 2009 from 6:30pm - 8:00pm

OpenSourcery
1636 NW Lovejoy St.
Portland, OR 97209
[Or, if you prefer: 45.529986, -122.688206]

Monthly meeting of the Portland area open source geospatial user group.

We meet the 4th Wednesday of every month from 6:30-8:00 PM at OpenSourcery in NW Portland. No need to RSVP, all are welcome- our group ranges from the geo-curious to the überhackers. [Please arrive no more than 10 minutes early, as the developers at OpenSourcery are working up until the meeting time.]

RSVP through Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-osgis or Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4409628/.

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Linux Plumbers Conf 2009

Wednesday September 23, 2009 - Friday September 25, 2009

Portland Marriott (Downtown)
1401 SW Naito Parkway
Portland, Oregon 97201
Linux Plumbers Conference
23-25 September 2009
Portland, Oregon USA

The goal of the Plumbers Conference is to solve problems. The conference is arranged as a series of microconferences, each on a topic that is narrow enough to identify specific problem areas and brainstorm workable solutions. Each microconference is led by an expert in the field and organized to encourage discussion and problem solving. Microconferences will be scheduled so that representatives from related subsystems can attend other microconferences. In addition to the microconferences, there will be a general track for discussing issues that don’t fit into microconferences, or come up during the conference.

Register on the Linux Plumbers Conference Website: http://linuxplumbersconf.org

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1857378/.

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SAOpdx: ConnectPDX

Thursday September 24, 2009 at 4:00pm

Blitz bar in the Pearl District
110 NW 10th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209

SAO ConnectPDX is a new kind of networking, relaxed, open, and the kind that fosters real connections.

You’ve been to enough networking events to know that they’re usually a frantic business card swap, with shallow connections.

ConnectPDX is different. We provide a low key environment, in a fun space, where meeting people comes naturally.

We encourage professionals from different industries to attend, so everyone’s networks can expand.

Free registration + great happy hour + great PDX connections = time well spent!

Blitz (Pearl) is open to minors until 9pm.

Where to park: If you’re lucky, you can get metered street parking, but if you want a cheap garage, use Smart Park.

There is no registration for this event - just show up!

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Refresh Portland

Wednesday September 24th, 2008 from 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Jive Software
915 SW Stark
Portland, Oregon

Refresh Portland is a monthly event (held every 2nd Wednesday of the month at Jive Software) for designers interested in refreshing the creative, technical and professional culture in the Portland area.

Anyone interested in those subjects (not just designers) is encouraged to attend.

Refresh Portland is part of the Refreshing Cities Movement.
Website: http://refreshpdx.com

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WhereCamp PDX

Saturday October 3, 2009 from 9:00am - 6:00pm

Metro Regional Center
600 NE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon

WhereCampPDX is a free unconference focusing on all things geographical. This informal meeting of minds welcomes all geo-locative enthusiasts, anyone who asks “where am I” or feels the need to “know their place”.

An unconference is a conference planned by the participants, we all convene together, plan sessions, and have break-outs into sessions. This gives everybody an opportunity to bring to the table the things that interest them the most and lets us talk about new topics that are still new and exploratory. Part of what is important to hearing new voices and getting new ideas is lowering barriers to participation – this event is free and it is driven by the participants.

WhereCamp PDX runs all weekend: we’re also having a Friday night opening party and Sunday game day. Check http://wherecamppdx.org for details as they’re announced.
Website: http://wherecamppdx.org

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4409467/

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What’s CHIFOO? (It’s the Computer Human Interaction Forum of Oregon, and it is amazing! ).

CHIFOO Meeting: The Ebb and Flow of Activity Streams

Wednesday October 7, 2009 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Jive Software
915 SW Stark St., Suite 400
Portland, Oregon 97205

Ever feel like you’re being hit with a firehose of information?

In the last several years activity streams have infiltrated the enterprise collaboration space. While they promise to alleviate some of the frustrations of email and other communication software, they can also have some interesting side-effects (such as the “fire-hose effect”). In this talk, Joshua Porter will describe the ebbs and flows of activity streams, how they work and don’t work, and how we might design better ones going forward.

Joshua Porter is an interface designer and consultant focusing exclusively on the design of social web applications. Josh wrote the book Designing for the Social Web and speaks regularly at web design conferences and events around the world. Since 2003 he has written the popular design blog bokardo.com.

Ticket Info: FREE for CHIFOO members, $5 general admission, everyone is invited to attend.

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4416668/

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Startupalooza II

Saturday October 10, 2009 at 8:00pm

Startupalooza II is coming. Save the date.
Details later.

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2563394/

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OEN PubTalk™ - Seed Oregon - Round 1

Wednesday October 14, 2009 from 5:15pm - 7:00pm

BridgePort Brew Pub
1313 Nw Marshall St
Portland, Oregon 97209

OEN’s Seed Oregon PubTalk - Call for Applications - Due Friday, September 18 at 5:00 PM

OEN’s Seed Oregon is a unique competition held during four consecutive PubTalk events. The competition is for Oregon and Southwest Washington seed-stage companies who are seeking capital within the range of $100,000 to $2,000,000. One winner from each preliminary round will move on to a championship round, where a finalist will earn a coveted presenting opportunity at OEN’s Angel Oregon, the premier angel investing event in the Northwest.

Nine presenting companies in total will be selected to compete in the 2009-2010 Seed Oregon tournament. Each will have 10 minutes to present their concept to the PubTalk audience, followed by a 10 minute Q&A session. Three companies will compete at each of the preliminary rounds, with the audience voting for the winning presentations to move to the championship round.

Online registration for this event closes Tuesday, October 13th. Please register at the door after that time

Date and Time: October 14th, 2009, 5:15 pm - 7:00 pm
Location: Bridgeport Brewpub - 1313 NW Marshall, Portland, Oregon
Registration to attend: OEN Member: $15, Non-member: $25

Price to submit application:
Member: $75 (includes entry at one PubTalk and the Seed Oregon application fee)
Non-Member: $174 (includes entry at one PubTalk, a discounted one year OEN individual membership {$26 savings}, and the Seed Oregon application fee)

Sign up here through the Oregon Entrepreneur’s Network website.

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Lunch 2.0 at Elemental Technologies

Wednesday October 21, 2009 from 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Elemental Technologies
620 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 400
Portland, Oregon 97204

Elemental Technologies is our host for the 22nd iteration of Portland Lunch 2.0.

Thanks to Davy Stevenson (@davystevenson) for spreading the love to a new venue.

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 the Silicon Florist.

Are you vegan or vegetarian? Please leave a comment (here on Upcoming) so we can plan food accordingly. Thanks.

RSVP on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/4409951/

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Refresh Portland

Wednesday October 22nd, 2008 from 6:30pm - 7:30pm

Jive Software
915 SW Stark
Portland, Oregon

Refresh Portland is a monthly event (held every 2nd Wednesday of the month at Jive Software) for designers interested in refreshing the creative, technical and professional culture in the Portland area.

Anyone interested in those subjects (not just designers) is encouraged to attend.

Refresh Portland is part of the Refreshing Cities Movement.
Website: http://refreshpdx.com

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Craving more events? Check out the Calagator.org.

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About

Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist, consultant, writer, and analyst from Portland, Oregon. You can contact her at caseorganic at gmail.com, or on Twitter at @caseorganic.

“One of the things that gets me excited about cloud computing is the access to resources and processing capabilities for very large data sets,” - Thomas Lockney, one of CloudCamp Portland’s earliest supporters.

CloudCamp was held June 30th, 2009 from 5:30-10:30 Pm on the 16th floor of WebTrends in Downtown Portland. The unconference was set up for people who work with cloud computing, were interested in learning more, or who wanted to understand what Cloud Computing was all about. You can see some of what was said on Twitter about  #cloudcamp, or #cloudcampdx.

This was a very interesting conference that dealt seriously with some very important issues. Many of us in the field will be running into these problems, or already do. The advantages and disadvantages of Cloud computing need to be recognized before they can be dealt with. In this atmosphere (not to mention the excellent weather and balcony we had) information and knowledge sharing seemed to prosper.

The conference began with socializing and then an Un-Panel composed of a handful of campers who were heavily involved in Cloud Computing, either in knowledge or participation. Then, the audience posed a series of questions which were written onto a white board. The panel gave 1-5 minute responses on the questions of their choosing. At the end of the responses and follow up questions, the Dave Nielsen asked how many people were interested in discussion the questions further in an Unconference format. The topics with the most interest became proposed Unconference topics.

This was a unique way to run an Unconfernece. It put everyone on the same page by giving background and preliminary Q+A around key topics. It also allowed experts to distribute knowledge before sessions, and it made it so that everyone got some form of information, so there was less of a liability in missing conference sessions later.

A shout-out to Mr. Walsh, whom I wish I had more time to speak with.

Abbreviation Key:

Software as a Service (SaaS). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS).

UnPanel Questions

1. Would database as a service be also considering cloud computing?

Mark Johnson: It really depends if you’re an object guy or a relational guy. If you’re a relational guy you might think of it as a platform. If you have a really good database layer, it would be a infrastructure. If you have a business object later it would be a platform.

Dave Nielsen: There are still people who will offer SQL databases as a service, but there’s another type where people just need to store data and store it quick, not necessarily structured, and then there’s a third type where people need to store relational data like SimpleDB.

Right Scale: Your application needs to have a database because it needs to something, or you have some bit Oracle cluster and the application is the database.

Dave Nielsen: Data in the cloud was probably that most popular topic at CloudCamp San Francisco.

here, most of the audience was interested in Data in the cloud.

2. What are the security threats with company data? Solutions?

Mark Johnson: I think I’m answering a slightly different question, but the whole thing of security is — when they bring in security experts when they bring them in and get their opinion on Cloud Computing, they say “it’s not really our issue”, but I think that with cloud computing, it forces people to think about these things sooner.

Marcus: I work with government institutions.

Dave Nielsen: At cloud camp Paris I got a very specific computing. “How can I make sure my data is never seen by the NSA?”

Audience: Don’t ask that in public.

John Hartman: A project I worked on, it was much more secure in the Cloud vs. physical privacy. Easier to rob your house than to go up in the cloud and put that data back together.

3. Any examples of hardware integration?

I didn’t take any notes here. My apologies. If you have something to add, be sure to add it in the comments below.

4. How do you avoid Cloud Lock-in?

Jason Mauer: Issues with wishing to switch from Amazon to something else. How smooth is this transition? Does data get stuck? With Azure, GoDaddy could run a verison of Azure in the CLoud and there would be no issues.And I think we’ll see mroe and more vendors running certain flavors of cloud as Cloud COmputing becomres more prevalent. But I think we’re still in the infancy of cloud computing.

BrowserMob: Google provides a very specific way of turning your data to CLoud. But you have to be careful becase if you write your code to assume that certian pieces will be there, then you can be locked in. Just be careful with it.

Dave Nielsen: If you are interested in security, there’s actually a Cloud Security Alliance. Cloudsecurityalliance.org, contact Nils Puhlmann.

About half the audience was interested in security.

5. What are you running?

Dave Nielsen: how many of you are running something right now?

A third of audience raised hands.

The entire room said Linux.

What flavor?

Debian, Ubuntu, most pop. choices.

OSX!

(in the cloud?).
Laughter.

Windows 3.1!
More laughter.

6. What are the potential players right now? What do they bring to the table right now?

Dave Nielsen: Just shout them out.

VMWare, Amazon, Ubuntu, SUn wishes they were, Rackspace, possibly Google, Appengine. Some are software providers, but others are Infrastrucre as a Service. If looking at IaaS specifically, GoGrid, Flexiscale, Joyant, Engineyard is insutry - based on top of Ec2 Amazon.

BrowserMob: A small compnay called COntigex that’s rolling out their stuff any day.

Dave Nielsen: BlueLock is a VMware cloud.

7. What are the regulatory compliance issues?

HIPPA, PCI (payment card industry).

8. Are there open source cloud solutions? Cloud as a service?

Right Scale: Yes, out of UC Santa Barbara, they have a program called Eucalyptus which is very similar to Amazon EC2, and it works just like it…for the moment.

Dave Nielsen: Abiquo out of Barcelona (recently moved to SF), also 3tera.

Ed Borasky: Ubuntu, by Canonical out of the UK Intrepid Ibex contains Eucalyptus. They also have something called Nebuli, which I’m not sure what is.

Audience: That’s not part of Ubuntu, but it’s another open source project looking to build another EC2 layer like Amazon.

9. When would you AVOID cloud computing?

Sid (from Jive): When considering enterprise Dave Nielsening, which is very expensive. A lot of problems with some clients where the data can’t leave the warehouse. Also, it’s alittle more expensive because with Cloud Computing you are paying a little bit more for flexibility.

10. How soon will we be talking about connection speeds to the Cloud?

See 13. Performance Issues (question posed by Ed Borasky).

11. What’s the baseline for cloud computing? (When would you move to the cloud?)

Sid: The lead time to to get ne hardware set up can sometimes b 3-4 weeks, but we have a lot of people wh

So sometimes you can run into complicated capacity planning here, where you guess how many people will use it in the next month and then plan it beforehand.

Red Shirt: One way you can use the cloud if you have predictable spiky load, you can use the Cloud to cover it.

Dave Nielsen: Super easy example would be file storage - for images on your website to push them out tho the edge.

Reid Beels: Seems like they’re talking about finished applications. Where would the development process move from local to the Cloud.

Dave Nielsen: At what point did you in the audience move from local to the cloud?

Audience: When the client wanted to see it.

Audience: It actually was when I was steady to deploy.

@dodeja: One instance I saw was with Animoto, with these massive spikes of access. When you’re doing heavy computing it makes sense to push it out onto the cloud.

Dave Nielsen: David Chappell (writes lots of books) - talked about two high uses of cloud, one when you need to scale, and another behind the scenes.

About 5 poeple were interested in use cases of when to move out onto the cloud .

12. IAAS sems to be a popular choice. Amazon seems to be the only one in the game right now. Why does it continue to be the most popular choice?

Makes more sense to Dave Nielsen there.

13. How does an application running in the cloud get accurate performance metrics (Ed Borasky).

BrowserMob: How do you deal with application performance in the cloud? That’s something people have a lot of concern themselves about because all sorts of things, including network bandwidth is not guaranteed. If you’re expecting to get x megabits of upload speed all the time, then that’s not a good mindset. To have the idea when you go in that you don’t know what upload speed there’s going to be is a better idea. If you need better performance, go with the more powerful equipment.

@dodeja: I think it would be more interesting to know the sorts of optimizations you can do to your infrastructure to make it run more smoothly.

Dave Nielsen: but that’s too specific.

Transition to Unconference Planning

Dave Nielsen: We’ll move now into the Unconference part, in which we’ll have 2 sessions of four topics each.

Proposed Unconference Topics

Pricing for different levels of the cloud, different needs.
Say you made a decision to go to the Cloud, but you want to estimate the baseline costs, the spike costs.

Eric was interested in practical approaches to data security for individuals and enterprise level. About half people attended were interested in this.

Practical uses of Amazon. Best practices.

Scott: Deploying Ruby apps in the cloud and making them scream.

Monitoring applications in the cloud.

Adam: Automation system for servers.

Steven Walling: Is Cloud computing a return to time-share mainframe style computing that we were formerly used to? And if so, does that

Lief: was interested in portability in platforms, standards and portability.

Alex Williams: Interested in defining different types of clouds: public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, and use cases for each.

Session Notes

I went to the session on practical approaches to data security for individuals and enterprise level. About half people attended were interested in this.

Eric: It’s not that your data belongs to you - all of your data belongs to us. These larger companies that hold data. I’ve been working on a completely text based data store, flat files. Ideally, I’d like to have everything as secure as possible.

Lets start by defining things that are nice about the Cloud? What’s nice about Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Drew: It’s just easier.

One is reliability and universal access. The availability is everywhere.

Audience: Until a company goes out of business and the data no longer is there.

Aaron Blew: Scale.

Laura F.: Access.

Caseorganic: The fact that you can have one file, accessible by multiple users centrally updated, instead of 6 files, accessible by one person.

Eric: How can we get some of those benefits while still retaining our ownership of that data in the Cloud?

Cloud Solutions

Eric: Academics utilize primitive version control when they keep renaming files over and over, but they often store multiple copies on one hard drive instead of E-mail, and other storage spaces. What I’m suggesting is having a flattened data store that is diversified.

(At this point, I felt like data was becoming a grain store, and that data store needed to be safe from rats and decay so that it would store tons of grain without bursting or being susceptible to storms (data spikes)).
——–

Group on Amazon Tips and Tricks

I arrived at the group after they’d talked about large scale, heavy duty, and enterprise-level storage techniques.

Group host: For the data hobbyist, you can store all of your data on EBS - a data block. Attach it to an individual EC2 instance. You can at least do things like snapshots of it.

Audience: Klint would know something about this, especially EBS.

Klint Finley: We’ve seen big fluctuations with EBS performance. We’ve turned on CloudWatch to kind of see what’s going on.

Dave Nielsen: Do you have a recommended architecture at this point?

Kint: For now we’re trying to do more in memory. Also, caching everything so we can handle spikes in access.

(And during this session I was looking around, thinking, “this is the underbelly - the equivalent of what the printing press is to printers. What lies beneath. The structure of how things work and what things do”. In other words: the most important thing we can be having a conference about right now).

———

Second Session:

Steven Walling - Is Cloud computing a return to time-share mainframe style computing that wer wwere formerly used to? And if so, does that mean more centralization

Steven Walling: I’m sure you’ve all heard Kevin Kelly’s talk about what technology wants, that what every device will just be a window to the cloud.

@infovore: That everything is a dumb client, and that all the processing is happening up in the cloud.

Steven Walling: but i think that has some of the similar implications, that everything is running through the cloud, or just some of the really important things.

But if everything is running through the cloud there’s the idea that there doesn’t need to be storage anymore. Once everything is in the cloud, you just need a screen and an interface that, you know, you even touch the cloud with.

That entire vision is one extreme of cloud computing, as in, you don’t own anything, you just get to use the resources that someone provides to you.

That was the original idea of computing, that you’d just need a screen and a keyboard.

Bram Pitoyo: Like Thin Client.

Steven Walling: But that these actual computers were so complex and enormous

The reason we did that in the past was because it was cost convenient, and then we pushed it onto the web.

C: But this stuff - this Cloud computing - we’re doing it voluntarily - because it is easier now to store our things on the cloud and then access them from there.

Steven Walling: And what we’re doing is the same thing as before, just flipped upside-down.

Klint Finley: It wasn’t just a time function. you could have a terminal that was a small as a desk that you could access data from the mainframe with.

Joe: But we no longer have the space to be able to store the entire index of the web on your computer. You rely on Google to do that for you.

Some data is so large that you do need it on the cloud.

That was one of the big things Chris Messina was talking about at Open Source Bridge, that there is a need for those big kinds of supermarkets online that provide these large chunks of data service.

StevenWalling: Timeshare computing - too expensive to do anything but Really important science estuff .perosnal computing - anybody can have accress to it everywhere .Does timeshare cut out non-busienss use cases, does cloud cut out business comm?

Caseorganic: I think if a really important business does something online, it will be somewhat secure. But there is not really a set of standards in place for everyone.

Klint Finley: If we had a mesh wireless network it would work out if one network went down.

Jason Mauer: They did air strikes in Iraq in the gulf war to see if they could take down the Internet, and they couldn’t E-mal was used as a test to withstand attack.

Audience: What would happen is that we’d be able to pull off chunks of the Internet and have them function similarly to other chunks.

Audience: I know that a lot of people use Twitter now, or Facebook. A lot of our data is living on those networks now. There’s where I see a lot of problems. How do you get your facebook stuff out? Where does it go? It’s not even structured in the same way as your other data.

Audience: I started using Twitter and followed two people for a while. Now I follow 200. What happened? There’s too much noise. I don’t think I’m ready to handle that much noise yet. What what if I want to step in time? Filter it out? Listen to only the signals I need to?

Eric: It’s question of network structure. If you’re following 20,000 people.
You’re got a representative of every type, 5 people, totally, like Noah’s ark.
You’ve got a DBA, a marketing person. And you’ve got your neighbors, which are total wild-cards. and members of all these tribes i have. It’s about separating that data.

Lief: Yes, but aside from that issue, there’s another. If social networks are like TVs, there are only a few channels. If the channels are owned by giant organizations, then there’s no room for the next Twitter, or Flickr.

Steven :I don’t agree, because the flip side to that is that the guys in the garage don’t have to know anything about database infrastructure in order to know how to build an application. And that weakens the system if many people begin to use it.

Audience: But people are going to want to keep some private data: like family photos, or whoever knows what photos.

Mike Kaos: Consumers are king. They’re going to vote with their bits, so to speak. They’re not going to keep using a service to host their images with their friends, they’re not going to upload their data, unless it’s reliable.

——-

Conference Wrap-Up

We went over each of the Unconference topics, gathering summaries from participants of each. Since it was quite late, I did not get to take notes beyond the point.

Overall, the conference was a great success. The panel/Unconference hybrid model was refreshing and informative. I experienced only slight frustration in not being able to clone myself to watch simultaneous conference sessions. But this is usual.

—-

Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist and New Media Consultant from Portland, Oregon. She is interested in Cloud computing for many reasons, especially since she uses Twitter @caseorganic, and stores her collection of over 18,000 photos, screenshots, and research notes on Flickr.

Welcome to an Open Source Extravaganza. Only in Portland, Oregon.

Open Source Bridge is something unique - the first ever volunteer run, open source technology conference  It works because the structure of the Portland Tech Community works in the same way. A true community organizes, network, and build things because they’re passionate. This conference was organized out of that passion.

Open Source Bridge is a chance to experience three full days of epic open-sourceness. The kind that’s found only in Portland, Oregon.

Cyborgian Keynote on Wednesday

I’ll be giving Wednesday’s keynote at 9:00 Am on June 17 2009 - the first day of OSBridge with Kurt von Finck, Audrey Eschright, and Selena Deckelmann. My part will be on what it means to be a Cyborg Citizen. What is a Cyborg Citizen? Come to the conference to find out. Meanwhile, you can follow me on Twitter @caseorganic for conference coverage and anthropological analysis of tech and the tech world.

Conference Registration

Conference passes are $175 if you register by April 10, and $250 after that date. Student passes are $99 (you will be required to show current student ID when you pick up your badge).

So, if you are at all interested in participating in something incredible, you can register right now for OSBridge. We don’t think you’ll regret it.

Follow OSBridge on Twitter and Identi.ca

For updates during the conference, follow @osbridge on Twitter. If you’re not on Twitter, you can get OSBridge updates through Identi.ca.

OSBridge Sponsors

An enormous thanks to the amazing line-up of OSBridge sponsors, including HP, Google, Yahoo! Developer Network, WebTrends, ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Florist…the list goes on and on.

All Night Hacker Lounge

So, this sweet room at the top of the Hilton should be worth the price of admission alone. Where else can you meet other people with your interests, 24 hours a day? Learn more about the 24 hour hacker lounge.

Final Thoughts

You shouldn’t miss this event. Please just don’t. If you do, you may feel sad, and people who feel sad because they miss amazingly cool Portland events make me feel sad.

—

I’ve been interested in data visualization for a very long time — it intersects with a lot of very interesting things that are going on in the world, and thus is definitely worth studying. Happily enough, we now have whole boatloads of data — because the Internet has given this to us.

We have free tools and programming skills to mess with the data so that we can relatively easily turn it into something useful or interesting without puling teeth or renting computer time from 3-6 in the morning an hour’s drive away at the nearest State University.

It is because of all of these things, and what I feel is becoming an essential next step in the development of trend prediction and the very useful implementation of data and information, that we’ve decided to start having some meetings around this sort of thing.

The first Portland Data Visualization Group will be held on Monday, March 23, 2009 from 6–8pm at Webtrends.

851 SW 6th Ave.
Portland OR 97204
(map)

View the event on Calagator, Portland’s Tech Event Calendar.

Event Description

Researchers have long said that the material published on the Web amounts to a form of “collective intelligence” that can be used to spot trends and make predictions.

Using his 20% time, a Google employee discovered that during flu season, many ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors. When he mapped this data, he was able to discover where flu outbreaks would strike up to two weeks before traditional news sources were able to report them.

This is an example of a time when merging a specific type of data to its geographical coordinates resulted in a unique insight. However, there is much more to do with data and visualization. What was found at Google is only the tip of a very large iceberg. Now that we have access to so much data on the web, we’re going to see an increasing need to understand and present that data.

Agenda:

The first meeeting of the Portland Data Visualization Group will serve as an introduction to what’s going on in the world of data viz. It will be freeform, so if you would like to demonstrate something you’re working on, please be prepared to do so. Micah Elliott will be showing uGraph and Ed Borasky will do a GGobi demo. I’ll be covering what already exists in the ecosystem and what might become useful in the future. We’re dealing with a rapid communication method here. Something that, if done well, compresses the time and space it takes for us to understand something.

If you’re interested in Data Visualization, please come to this event. It will be the first Portland Tech Event at WebTrends besides Web Analytics Wednesday. It’s our chance to try out the space and see if it is a good fit for this group or potentially for other groups in the future.

Google Group:

Ed Borasky recently started a Google group called pdx-visualization. As the name implies, it is a group for Portland-area people interested in languages and techniques for visualization of data. http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-visualization

Flickr Photos:

I’ve been collecting interesting data viz photos for a while now and posting them to Flickr. They’re all accessible on my Flickr account in this set. Most pictures contain descriptions and links to the viz sources.

I hope to see you all there!
——

About

Amber Case, (@caseorganic is a Cyborg Anthropologist studying the interaction between humans and computers and how our relationship with information is changing the way we think, act, and understand the world around us.

Originally posted on Calagator, Portland’s Tech Event Calendar.

Let me preface this blog post with this simple phrase - “We had to do this”.

Hence, the following sound byte.

 

 Grmfwklsnaxp [0:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (192)

History

Grmfwklsnaxp is a concept that is becoming increasingly important. Since its first incarnation only a week ago, it has increasingly grown in the field of AWESOME.

As Grmfwklsnaxp reaches a plateau of importance, it may begin to enter the vocabulary of everyone around you.

Grmfwklsnaxp is VERY Important

In this case, it would be best not to look ignorant.

This is why It is important to understand how to pronounce the word Grmfwklsnaxp. But we need your help. Well, specifically, we need @mettadore’s help. But since he’s not here right now, we’re left to our own defences.

Thanks for listening.

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.

—–

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/

———-

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/

———-

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

——–

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/

——–

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/

——–

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/

——–

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
——–

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/

——–

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

——–

Clifton Burt

iPhone Developer

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

——–

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

——–

MorganPdx

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

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

——–

Jonathan Leto

iPhone developer.

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

——–

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/

——–

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

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