OpenSourcery

OpenSourcery CEO Brian Jamison will present at the Open Source Bridge conference on Wednesday, June 17th, at 10am. The presentation — How to Earn an Open Source Living without Taking on Investors or Selling Your Soul — is a topic about which Brian is particularly well versed. As co-founder of a successful, bootstrapped open source development company, Brian has overseen OpenSourcery's growth from three to twenty-plus people, without compromising the company's ideals.

Brian will cover the simple formulas that led to OpenSourcery's success, explore the some of the dubious business models and side adventures we tried along the way, and hopefully assist in the launch of successful new open source businesses.

If you are an experienced open source entrepreneur and would like to join this presentation, please contact us at inquiry (at) opensourcery (dot) com.

To learn more about Open Source Bridge, an all-volunteer conference, please visit their site. You can peruse the schedule, register, and, if you're not from Portland, find an affordable hotel room in town.

Hope to see you there.

Drupal lovers rejoice! This month's Meetup is a Drupal double feature. "You mean in two hours I can learn about an ambitious multi-lingual, multi-domain Drupal 6 project /AND/ soak up the best of DrupalCon DC?" I wouldn't lie to you, would I? No. I would not.

Richard and Katrin from One Economy will take a deep look at The Beehive, an ambitious multi-domain, multi-lingual Drupal 6 project expertly knitted together by Katrin from a host of contributed and custom modules and some very clever theming. Katrin will answer the complicated technical questions while Richard will cover the softer aspects of drupal project management and interject snarky asides regarding ‘the drupal way’.

Jonathan Hedstrom from OpenSourcery will quickly highlight some of the things he's super excited about from DrupalCon DC (including Reusable Features in Drupal and Solr Search), then open it up for other attendees to do the same, facilitating general discussion and questions. We'd love to have DrupalCon attendees post links to their favorite sessions at the user group node so that anyone inclined can watch them before the discussion has the chance.

As always, the Meetup is free and open to the public, so please bring people who are interested in joining the community. NOTE: Please be aware that the developers at OpenSourcery will be working right up to event time. We ask that you arrive between 5:50pm and 6:00pm. Thank you!

OpenSourcery is located at 1636 NW Lovejoy St. between 16th and 17th Streets. We encourage the use of public transportation and there's plenty of space for your bike. This week we're heading to the Lucky Lab at 1945 NW Quimby for after-meeting food and beer.

See you here.

Wednesday, March 25th marks the second monthly meeting of Portland's OS Geospatial users group at OpenSourcery. The first meeting focused primarily on logistical and scope issues, but now it's time to dig into and explore emerging technologies.

To learn more about the group and to follow their discussions, please visit the user group page. There you will find a thread about upcoming presentations. You can also help to shape the conversation.

The event is free and open to the public. Please visit the Upcoming event page and register so we know how many people to expect. Find our office here.

PLEASE NOTE: OpenSourcery's developers will be working right up to event time, so please plan to arrive no more than five minutes prior to the start. We tend to recommend this place for thirsty early-comers.

Thank you for reading.

I want to quickly thank everyone who showed up for OpenSourcery's version of Lunch 2.0 on Wednesday. It was a huge success, with delicious food from Pepino's (thanks, Andy!), good company, and pinball.

Much has already been said of the event, so I just want to add links to a few photos taken by our own Dan Mitu.

One more shameless plug: if you haven't seen Clove, which we demoed during lunch, you haven't given you clients the love they deserve. Curious? Just ask.

Thank you for reading.

The Open Source Bridge is an all-volunteer, all-awesome conference that will take place in Portland, Oregon this summer, June 17-19 at the Convention Center. When OSCON fled south, did Portland cry itself to sleep? No. It organized across languages, across disciplines, and on both sides of the mighty Willamette to stage an even more impressive event.

But the success of the conference relies on real people presenting real content. That's where OpenSourcery and other development shops come in. That's right, it's time to submit proposals. We're encouraging our developers, project managers, systems administrators, and business developers to do so.

A few words about why the Open Source Bridge exists, taken from their website:

"Our primary objective will be to explore what it means to be a responsible Open Source citizen.

"Our conference structure is language-agnostic by design, in hopes of facilitating broader community growth by focusing on Open Source development as a discipline–divorcing the techniques of development from the language used for that development. In so doing, the conference will encourage and foster cross-pollination and widespread knowledge sharing, regardless of each developer’s chosen programming language."

That sounds like the kind of activity Drupal developers should participate in. Please feel free to contact thomas@opensourcery.com if you have further questions about the event or if you would like to volunteer your time as an OSB advocate. We're looking for developers across the country (world?) to visit our fair city during the most beautiful time of year. Come June you'll see why they call us the Rose City.

Thank you for reading.

Fresh off our Drupal for Nonprofit Decision-makers series with NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network), we're proud to announce that OpenSourcery is a Gold Sponsor of the upcoming Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in San Francisco.

The NTC is NTEN's annual technology conference. It brings together over 1,000 nonprofit staff and providers who will attend breakout sessions, participate in workshops, and generally network to their hearts' content. We're huge fans (and members) of NTEN, so it goes without saying that we look forward to participating in the 2009 NTC.

The conference takes place in San Francisco from April 26-28. It's the place to be for nonprofit staff and managers, especially with sessions like these. We're particularly fond of their easy-to-understand schedule and track tags. So visit the site and register today.

The January Drupal Meetup was, once again, the largest on record. To give you an idea of the turnout, we put every chair, couch, desk, and other horizontal surface to work and we /still/ ran out of seating. It's a testament to the amazing Portland Drupal community and to the quality of Todd's presentation that we were able to bring so many developers together under one roof (without free beer, mind you). Special thanks to everyone who attended for being incredibly respectful of the developers who were wrapping up their work until just a few minutes before Meetup start time.

Drewish has posted the outline for February's Meetup, and it looks like fun. In short, February is for lightning talks, giving each speaker about seven minutes to present a topic, show off a module, or demonstrate a trick. Sign-ups are open now in the comment field of Drewish's post.

I have a feeling this will be a great session. As always, the Meetup is free and open to the public, so please bring people who are interested in joining the community. NOTE: Please be aware that the developers at OpenSourcery will be working right up to event time. We ask that you arrive between 5:50pm and 6:00pm. Thank you!

OpenSourcery is located at 1636 NW Lovejoy St. between 16th and 17th Streets. We encourage the use of public transportation and there's plenty of space for your bike. We'll walk to Bridgeport Brew Pub for libations afterward.

Thank you for reading, and we hope to see you here. Contact thomas@opensourcery.com or Drewish with questions.

What better way to invite our friends and cohorts in the Portland tech community to see the new offices than to throw a Lunch 2.0 bash? No way, is what.

So we're doing it. And just to get the obligatory construction out of the way: Lunch 2.0 at OpenSourcery is free (as in lunch) and free (and in freedom). Done.

We're so happy with the new digs that we feel sort of selfish being the only ones to enjoy it. We want to share our two-piece arcade, comprised of Spy Hunter and the Theatre of Magic (and since we never actually get to /play/ the things during the day, it'll be a welcome change to see them brought to life). We want to nosh. And of course we'll be quite happy to talk about what we've been up to.

So let us know in advance that you're coming by visiting Upcoming to register and apprise us of your food preferences. You can also read a similar version of this same information (largely because I stole the details) at SiliconFlorist.

Our offices are located at 1636 NW Lovejoy, cuddled up to the Radio Cab company and under the broad shoulders of venerable I-405. It's easy to reach us by Streetcar, bike, foot, and, er, cab; it's not easy to find parking, however. We encourage public/self-transport.

Please email thomas@opensourcery.com if you'd like more details. Otherwise, we'll just see you here.

This post is a double-reminder: first, please be advised that OpenSourcery's offices have moved. We are now meeting at the Lovejoy Building at 1636 NW Lovejoy (between 16th and 17th). Time: Wednesday, December 10th from 6pm-8pm. Who: Drupal developers, from beginners to power users. As always, the Meetup is open to the public and absolutely free.

Second, due to the somewhat frenetic pace of our move, there was some question as to a topic. But confusion leads to unpredictable gifts: in this case, two (informative if informal) topics.

1. Jonathan Hedstrom will give an introduction to Drupal's Testing Framework. Drupal's own testing framework is modeled on (and originates from) SimpleTest. Jonathan will discuss how test-driven development results in tighter and more solid code, the results of which benefit not only module development but entire sites/applications as well. Without appropriate testing, complicated sites can begin to feel loose and somewhat cobbled together. In addition, Jonathan will discuss the opportunities for developers to write much-needed tests for Drupal 7.

2. Melissa Anderson will give an informal presentation on her ideas for Website in a Weekend (a much-discussed thread on the Portland User Group site). The project in question is the Rose City Resource, a quarterly publication that "is Portland's most comprehensive, updated list of services for people experiencing homelessness and poverty."

We hope you'll be able to attend our first Meetup at the new office. As always, Spy Hunter and Theatre of Magic are in full working order.

See you there (here).

Lest the energy that helped organize and populate the first ThrivePDX wane, the same volunteer organizers are helping to promote ThrivePDX II. The purpose remains to create an open dialogue between all members of the tech community -- corporate & indie, young & old, geek & nerd -- to help figure out how we build a community that will survive & thrive during this economic downturn.

We encourage attendance by anyone in the Portland area tech community, especially those who see value in bridging gaps between groups that might otherwise consider themselves at odds. Much of ThrivePDX I's value derived from the mix of individuals in the room: Beer & Blog folks mingling with Intel developers.

The event takes place Wednesday, December 10th from 5pm until, well, until it ends. Find us at:

Blitz Bar
110 NW 10th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209

Which is HERE.

POSSE* (Portland Open Source Software Entrepreneurs) welcomes Deborah Bryant of the Open Source Lab (and wearer of a thousand amazing hats) to speak at the monthly meeting. She will talk about the recent success of GOSCON (the Government Open Source Conference), which took place October 20-23 in Portland. The conference has been going strong for four years, but 2008 was, by all measures, the most successful yet. Deborah introduced an International Summit to kick things off, and the quality of speakers during was exemplary for the entire conference.

Come hear about the changing role of open source software in government, and learn some of the overall lessons of GOSCON 08.

The meeting will take place Wednesday, November 19 from 5:00-7:00pm at Jax Bar. Jax is located at 826 SW 2nd Ave in Portland. Which is right here.

*POSSE is dedicated to helping businesses in the Portland area and beyond reduce costs, mitigate risk, and make software choice easy by utilizing open source software. Monthly meetings are open to all POSSE members and individuals interested in learning more about the group.

It's time again for Portland Drupal developers to gather at OpenSourcery and count the ways Drupal makes their lives better (and to get help on what still stumps them).

The gatherings have been growing and becoming more informative every month, and we expect November's Meetup to continue that trend. We have another great session in the offing - Steve Edwards' presentation on using Übercart to build e-commerce sites - so we anticipate lively discussion on a range of issues.

It's now clear that Portland has an extremely active Drupal community, which means perhaps it's time to consider two gatherings per month: one that focuses on sophisticated users who need in-depth, technically rich discussion, and another that's geared toward beginners. We'll broach that subject at the Meetup.

As always, join us Wednesday evening from 6pm-8pm, followed by a beer at the Green Dragon. We're located at 711 SE Ankeny, one block south of East Burnside.

Show your support

OpenSourcery has been looking forward to the world premiere of Fuel for months, and now the time has come for Portlanders to learn about the film and show the country that we're at the vanguard of sustainable living. We should be proud to host the world premier, but we also need to support the film in numbers. Distributors and filmmakers around the country will be watching to see how well Fuel is attended.

What is Fuel?

Fuel is about America's addiction to oil, but the film is about solutions rather than dire predictions. The energy behind the creation and distribution of this film will serve as a breath of fresh air to those of us who have felt overwhelmed by a seemingly hopeless series of warnings. Among Fuel's most exciting goals is the creation of active communities that will fight to improve how we create and use energy.

The documentary runs from this Friday, November 14th until November 20th at the downtown Portland Fox Tower. Their website makes it easy to purchase tickets for a showtime that works for you. Group ticket sales and private screenings are available by calling 1-800-792-8244. We'll be there in force, with a group purchase of seats for OpenSourcery.

We encourage you to learn about more by checking out the Fuel website and watching the trailer.

Purchase tickets here.

OpenSourcery is proud to sponsor the Clean Technology Alliance's special Smart Grid technology event tonight. The event will be hosted by noted expert Jesse Berst of GlobalSmartEnergy, who will chronicle the rapid growth of Smart Grid technology, forecast what's next, and point out the profit opportunities for regional businesses.

The sponsorship is a perfect fit for companies - like OpenSourcery - that practice what they preach. We're proud of our connection to renewable fuel development, intelligent urban growth, bicycle commuting, green energy-powered offices, and the consistent use of earth-friendly materials for print (that is, when we print anything at all...).

Smart Grid brings together moderator Jesse Berst and a panel of experts to discuss the state of the industry and where to go from here. This is a must-attend event for energy professionals, tech executives, and business leaders interested in the opportunities that surround a newer, smarter electrical grid.

Please visit the SAO's website to learn more, get directions, and register. We look forward to seeing you there.

Well, the two day core program of GOSCON comes to a close this evening, and I'm left with more ideas than I can possibly digest here. Instead of attempting to chronicle every presentation, I'll share some high-level notes that I'll take away from my interactions here.

First of all, it's clear that open source software and philosophies have entered the practice of cutting-edge agencies. Take, for example, the work Vivek Kundra has done in Washington, D.C. Vivek's biography is a revelation in itself, but his presentation was probably the most exciting example of open source ideas in action. In short, Vivek has opened public data, collected by the city, so that individuals, vendors, and NGOs can create applications that give citizens access to information. For example, they've created a public innovation competition that gives $20,000 to the developer who produces the best application for public use. He showed an iPhone app that geolocates users, provides them with scores of civic information (public transportation times, crime statistics, etc.), and allows them to use the data however they need. He expects hundreds or thousands of other ideas to come online in the near future.

In addition, Washington D.C. has created feeds so that public data can be picked up on different devices and disseminated to those individuals who crave it. It's truly democratizing the data taxpayers fund, and which they need in order to make informed decisions.

Look for more news postings with video, photographs, and other reflections on this incredible conference.

Thank you for reading.