barcamp, barcampportland, blogging, blogs, clearspace, clearspace x, collaboration, community, conference, dawn foster, enterprise 2.0, forums, ignite realtime, im, jive software, openfire, OSCON, productivity, spark, web 2.0, wiki

Dogfood: aka Week 1 at Jive Software

My first week at Jive has been a whirlwind of activity, and I think that I have been super productive for the first 5 days on the job.  I’ve completed a first draft of how we might build Jive’s new developer community on our newly released Clearspace X infrastructure. I am re-working the process for how we give away free licenses of Jive’s Clearspace and Forum products to open source projects. I’ve put together a new demo script for our CEO to use at BarCamp – customized for what I think will be the audience at BarCamp. I was also able to get confirmed speaking engagements at Defrag and OSCON this week.  All this while being constantly distracted with last minute BarCamp details as the co-organizer of the BarCamp Portland event this weekend (note to self: next year, do NOT start a new job the week that you are holding BarCamp!)

How was I able to get all of this done while getting up to speed in a new company?  It comes down to dogfood, specifically, to eating our own dogfood at Jive.  We use the current Clearspace beta product for all of our documents, to hold discussions, for blogging, and more.  Most of the information that I needed was already in Clearspace.  For new information, I just started discussions in Clearspace where I asked other Jive employees about things like what to name the new developer community, how to promote our new developer community, and more.  I posted all of my work as wiki documents in Clearspace, and because everyone uses it, I was able to get feedback and information from across the company.

We are also avid users of our Openfire / Spark IM solution with every Jive employee already populated in our buddy lists from day 1 on the job. I worked with an employee in Canada over IM to help him reproduce an issue that I was seeing in our beta product, discussed our Ignite community with our CTO, negotiated with our web developer on resources to get some web forms completed, and much more.

I have to say that Jive seems to be a great fit for me.  I’m working with people who are just insanely smart, who live web 2.0 technologies, and we’re working on some really cool collaboration software.  Did I mention that we are hiring?

community, conference, open source, speaking

Speaking at Conferences

Part of my new gig at Jive is to be an evangelist for our products.  This means that I need to ramp up my speaking schedule at conferences.  Historically, my typical method of getting speaking engagements is to reactively respond to requests from friends, industry acquaintances, and other random people who invite me to speak on panels.  Now, I want to start taking a more proactive approach by submitting sessions to conferences focused on developers, web 2.0, collaboration, community, and open source.

Any suggestions for cool conferences that are currently accepting submissions?

collective intelligence, community, conference, new media, news, social networking, social software, sxsw, twitter, web 2.0

Mobile Twitter

I’ve been using Twitter both on my computer on my and phone for a while, but the user experience of the phone has been a bit rough.  One option is to turn on text messages and be interrupted by your phone every time a friend Twitters.  Another option was the use the standard web interface, which required lots of scrolling and painfully slow load times.

Now Twitter has just released m.twitter.com.  It’s very simple, clean, and easy to read on the phone.  I think I’ll like using Twitter on my phone even more with this release.

Twitter is one of those services that people either love, hate, or can’t see the point.  I’m in the “love it” camp.  It’s a great way to keep up with friends.  I like knowing what new app or gadget Josh Bancroft or Chris Messina are testing. I also get great lunch suggestions from people like Raven Zachary.  The best use of Twitter is at big events where you can learn which session, party, speaker, etc. really stinks and which ones are a must see.  At sxsw, Chris Messina organized an OpenID meetup primarily over Twitter. News also spreads quickly via Twitter, and I frequently see breaking news on Twitter before other mainstream media sources. The best part is that you get this information quickly and easily from your community of friends, acquaintances, and coworkers.

humor, Linux, Microsoft, operating systems

Using Microsoft Windows May be Linked to Kidney Stones

One of the most interesting press releases I have ever read.  One month after April Fools Day … coincidence?

 A key creator of open source software products that turn Mac OS X and Linux into Windows-compatible operating systems is issuing a medical warning to the open source community: trying to rid the world of its dependency on the Windows operating system may be linked to kidney stones in men in their 40s, it was reported today. (Quote from CodeWeavers Press Release)

Definitely worth a read!  (Thanks to Raven for the Twitter about the release.)

dell, desktop, Linux, mark shuttleworth, Ubuntu

Dell to Sell PCs with Ubuntu

Dell made a great choice when selecting Ubuntu as the operating system for their Linux PCs. Offering Linux on PCs has always been a bit tricky since there are so many vendors. Other companies, like Red Hat or Novell might be good choices for the server, but Ubuntu seems to have a better solution for the consumer desktop. Custmers will even be able to get support from Mark Shuttleworth’s Canonical.

With so many people disillusioned with Vista, the time might be right for a bigger push toward desktop Linux:

Dell, suffering market share losses to top PC seller Hewlett-Packard, is trying reinvigorate its direct ties with customers, an approach that long has been the company’s hallmark. Linux-based PCs was an “overwhelming” request from the IdeaStorm site, Cook said.

“We heard loud and clear from customers that they wanted this,” Cook said. And of those who wanted Linux, “80 percent came back and said Ubuntu,” Cook said.

Dell began selling Linux PCs in 1999 and added laptops in 2000. But in 2001, Dell reversed course, canceling the Linux PCs because of insufficient demand. Today, Dell certifies Red Hat or Suse Linux for use on some business-oriented PCs, but except when larger customers place custom orders, customers must install the operating system themselves.

This time, things are different, Cook said.

“We think great strides have been made since 2001,” Cook said. “Linux has evolved to a point where there is something available for consumers,” though Linux PCs will appeal mostly to a Linux enthusiast market that’s more limited than that for Windows Vista. (Quote from Stephen Shankland at CNET)

General

Welcome to the Fast Wonder Blog

I finally made the leap off of Blogger and onto WordPress with the launch of my new Fast Wonder blog. Fast Wonder is an evolution of the Open Culture blog originally started in November 2005, so this is more of a re-branding than a change in direction. Like the Open Culture blog, Fast Wonder is focused on open technologies, open source, web 2.0, social media, online communities, and innovation. I was even able to import all of the original Open Culture posts (with comments)!

A number of other “Open Culture” blogs gradually appeared over the years, and the time came to come up with a more original name and a real logo for this blog. A big thank you to Stephen Way for designing the Fast Wonder logo.

Fast Wonder Logo (Small)

barcamp, barcampportland, portland, portland barcamp meetup

Remember to sign up for BarCamp, a free tech event in Portland!

Don’t forget to sign up for BarCamp, a free tech event right here in Portland on May 11-12! We will also be kicking off the regular DemoCamp event series during BarCamp to highlight tech startup activity in the Portland area. Sign up now, and tell all of your friends!

How can you help promote BarCamp Portland?


More information about the event:

Tech + Geek + Culture. The event for the Portland tech community, produced BY the Portland tech community.

What is BarCamp? It is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants.

BarCamp is a FREE event and the content is determined by the attendees. The event will be hosted at CubeSpace, which has a number of conference rooms for breakout sessions, a large main meeting area, wireless access, easy access to public transportation, bike storage, and ample parking.

We need your help to make BarCamp Portland a fantastic event for the tech community in Portland. Here’s what you can do…

1) Forward this email on to people in the Portland area that may have an interest in attending. As we have done little marketing of the event (so far), assume that your local tech social network doesn’t know about it yet.

2) If you have not already added yourself to the BarCamp Portland wiki page as an attendee, please do so. This will help us get a more accurate attendance count and plan accordingly (you want food, right?):

http://barcamp.org/BarCampPortland

3) Add a session idea for the event. This could be a talk, a demo, a roundtable discussion – whatever! Please add it to the Proposed Sessions section on the wiki page:

http://barcamp.org/BarCampPortland

4) Attend the BarCamp Portland Meetup this Thursday (04/26/07) evening 5:30-8pm at Jive Software downtown and have the opportunity to network with the tech community in Portland, and help plan for BarCamp Portland. More details:

http://barcamp.org/BarCampPortlandMeetups

I hope to see you at BarCamp Portland on May 11 & 12 at CubeSpace for a fun tech event!

Thanks to our sponsors (below) for making this event possible!
Monthly BarCampPortland Meetup Location and Beer: Jive Software
Facilities: CubeSpace
Facilities (Added Costs): AboutUs, Virtuous
Materials: Lumeno.us
Badges: JanRain
T-Shirts: Portland Development Commission
Logo Design: Lov.li
Podcasting coverage of the event: SplashCast
Friday Dinner: SPONSOR NEEDED
Friday Night Reception: SPONSOR NEEDED
Saturday Breakfast: Iovation
Saturday Lunch: ISITE Design
Saturday Dinner: Microsoft
Saturday Night Reception: SPONSOR NEEDED
Saturday Afternoon Tea (Bubble Tea): Portland Perl Mongers

clearspace, collaboration, compiere, enterprise 2.0, jive software, job, web 2.0

Job Change: Joining Jive Software

I am excited to announce that I will be joining Jive Software as their Director of Developer Relations as of May 3. I have really enjoyed my time at Compiere. I still believe that they have a great product and that they will do some really cool things in the ERP/CRM space. My reasons for leaving were purely cultural / logistical. While working remotely from my office in Portland worked really well when when the company was smaller and more distributed, as Compiere grew in size it became more and more difficult to do my job from Portland. The rest of the management team is now consolidated in Santa Clara, and I am the only member of the management team working remotely.

When working at Intel, location was largely irrelevant. At one point, I managed a team with members distributed across Oregon, Washington, and California. I also worked on a 3 person open source strategy team for a while with two of us in Oregon, one in Washington, and our manager located in Arizona. Working from home was also a weekly activity for me during much of my Intel career. I found that my productivity increased dramatically if I saved those tasks that required more concentration (strategy development, writing, presentation development) for my working at home day. Working remotely can be challenging, but it seems to work best in a corporate culture where remote workers are a common occurrence and not an exception.

I knew that I would eventually need to move on to a new gig based on the increasing number of issues related to working remotely within the Compiere culture, but I had not yet started looking for a new job. I regularly get email from people, either a result of this blog or from acquaintances in the industry, asking me if I am available or asking if I know of someone for a particular position. It was only because I got an email from Sam Lawrence at Jive software about looking for someone to manage Jive’s developer relations that I considered leaving Compiere. Jive has been a great sponsor of our monthly Portland BarCamp Meetups, and I have met quite a few of the people working there through various local technology-related activities.

I think that Jive will be a great fit for me, and I am really excited about working at Jive Software. Jive’s product line fits with my personal interests in online collaboration technology. They have managed to seamlessly integrate file collaboration, blogs, wikis, IM, and more into a recently launched enterprise 2.0 product called Clearspace. As Director of Developer Relations, I will be responsible for building a developer community program for developers with an initial focus on the new Clearspace product.

Jive is a cool company with great products. I am honored to be joining such a fantastic company!

arizona, real estate, web 2.0, zillow

Zillow Faces Potential Legal Issues in Arizona

Zillow, a great web 2.0 tool for real estate, has been sent a cease and desist in Arizona. I used Zillow as a way to get a feel for what my existing home was worth during the sales process and to understand the potential value of the home that I was purchasing. Zillow pulls its data from public records and aggregates them together into a really nice interface based on Google Maps.

A few more details:

The Arizona Board of Appraisal issued two cease-and-desist letters to the company that operates the popular real estate Web site Zillow, saying it needs an appraiser license to offer its “zestimates” in Arizona.

“It is the board’s feeling that (Zillow) is providing an appraisal,” Deborah Pearson, the board’s executive director, said Friday.

Zillow warns users the estimates it provides are not a definitive value but a starting point for consumers. Launched in February, 2006, the company claims it has 4 million users a month, including people wanting to how much their homes – or their neighbors’ homes – are worth.

…

Zillow issued a statement Saturday saying it disagreed with the board’s view, and pointed to an opinion issued by a national appraisers standards group that said online estimates aren’t formal appraisals.

“We strongly believe that providing Zestimates in Arizona is completely legal and in fact an important public service, given that Zestimates are the result of our ‘automated valuation model’ and are not a formal appraisal,” co-founder and company President Lloyd Frink said in the statement. (Quotes from The Columbian)

I seriously doubt that this would hold up in court; however, a small web 2.0 start up might not be able to weather the cost and resource drain of a court battle. I hope that they are able to come to some resolution. It would be a shame to lose such a helpful tool.

Open source, research, and other stuff I'm interested in posting.