Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub

UX Happy Hour is a monthly drinkup for anyone interested in user experience & design!

Do you have a SaaS site that you run? Then you should come to our event! We are entrepreneurs who run and/or manage small software as a service businesses.

Your app can be written in any language we welcome all technical abilities, programming languages, and business stages.

The important thing is that you have passion for technology and are interested in hanging out with other like-minded folk.

We meet on the 4th Wednesday of every month at the Green Dragon in SE Portland.

This is a new group, so volunteers and suggestions are welcome.

Interested in volunteering at this year's Open Source Bridge? Join us at the Green Dragon to get all of your questions answered and sign up for shifts.

The white owl is closing for a private event so we are moving to the Green Dragon

For May, we'll be taking our beer and UX-loving selves over to White Owl in SE. Anyone with an interest in user experience is welcome, so you don't have to strictly be a designer.

Tonight I'm giving away free attendance to the Cleanweb PDX Hackathon this weekend. (hint the promo code is TiE, log in at http://cleanweb-pdx.eventbrite.com/?access=TiE to sign up)

And dont forget to come to the Green Dragon tonight to get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

This week we were officially recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Come celebrate this major milestone with us!

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

The Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference wants you to speak at our conference! We want hear from you about what you're working on. We're accepting abstracts now for speakers for October's conference, and want to work with you to speed up the application process. Come get your questions answered and have some food on us.

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Free Beer, a great price on TiE membership, and door prizes! Tonights' TiE Startup Happy Hour is sponsored by Dice.com the career hub for tech with over 80 thousand tech jobs Dice has started a bus tour that is going up and down the west coast, from San Francisco to Seattle to sponsor events and spread the good word about Dice. Dice will buy your first drink of the night and will be handing out t'shirts and other fun goodies.

TiE Oregon will be offering one year memberships at the incredibly low price of just $75 for everyone who joins during the event. That's such a great price for access to a global network of high-quality mentors and great events!

Maizey's Portland Style Kettle Corn will have drawings every half hour for their delicious gourmet popcorn

 Follow Dice at @DiceTechJobs for the latest on Dice and use #DiceTechTrek for the bus tour and check out dice.com/techtrek for updates.

TiE Happy Hour is where you go to get your geek on by meeting with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public.

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Tonights' TiE Startup happy hour will be co-hosted by TiE Charter Member Ranjit Pandit, and will have door prizes from Maizey's Portland Style Kettle Corn.

( http://www.facebook.com/MaizeysKettleCorn )

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Portland Startup Weekend Pre-party

Gathering for current and future PDXSW Alumni. Let's start the party early! A great chance to get together to have some beer, share ideas of how to get the most out of Portland Startup weekend, informally practice your pitch, gather interest in your idea and make connections for the big day.

No host, all ages.

Please RSVP on Eventbrite http://pdxswpreparty.eventbrite.com/#

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

Get your geek on by meeting up for happy hour with some like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss tech startup issues! Enjoy some good company over a drink, share ideas and build relationships. Attend the TiE Startup Happy Hour Tuesday evenings starting at 5:30 pm.

This event is open to the public. There is a no-host bar

Contact Sheri Dover, or just show up if you are interested in joining this coming week.

sheri.dover@gmail.com

Ph: (541) 602-6215

In an effort to get to know and support developers in the thriving tech communities all over the country, Singly is heading out on the road to throw API happy hours.

This is not about marketing, and it's not about sales. APIs & IPAs is focused on community. We want to support your local tech community, and we want to get to know developers everywhere.

In each city, we're partnering with local companies that strive to build developer communities, as well as non-local developer-centric companies.

All you have to do is show up ready to talk shop – and we'll foot the bill for drinks.

We enjoy talking about elearning design & development and meeting our peers in the PDX elearning community.

Come find out how you can help make Ignite Portland 11 great!

Join Ignite planners for a meet-and-greet to find out about volunteer positions we need filled.

Remember, Ignite Portland volunteers get the best, reserved seats in the house for the event.

We are by the back bar on the picnic tables. Come join the fun!

Cocoa and Objective-C geeks socializing over beers. All are welcome.

Drink. Talk. Repeat.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth at OSCON last week. We received lots of great feedback on our new online engagement platform, aspiring to revolutionize the nature of political dialogue.

We’d like to invite you to join us for a hack session, led by founder Mark Frischmuth and lead developer Bjorn Freeman-Benson. We’ll describe our vision for the platform, get you set up with github, pair program to learn the technologies under the hood, and get you on your way towards being part of the project. The event will be held next Thursday, August 2nd, from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Green Dragon at 928 SE 9th Ave in Portland.

Drop a line at info@democracylab.org to let us know if you can make it. We hope to see you next Thursday!

Are you an entrepreneur who's considering applying to the Portland Seed Fund? Then come pitch the business you plan on applying with or an idea you're passionate about, get some feedback and receive one free drink ticket on us.

(Note: You must pitch in order to receive the complimentary drink.)

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Green Dragon. Every Friday 'round 4. Home-grown tech happy hour, no central authority needed.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Green Dragon. Every Friday 'round 4. Home-grown tech happy hour, no central authority needed.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Green Dragon. Every Friday 'round 4. Home-grown tech happy hour, no central authority needed.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Green Dragon. Every Friday 'round 4. Home-grown tech happy hour, no central authority needed.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Green Dragon. Every Friday 'round 4. Home-grown tech happy hour, no central authority needed.

From @beerandblog:

A weekly, Friday happy hour in PDX held at @PDXGreenDragon where bloggers help bloggers over beers.

From @beerandblog:

A weekly, Friday happy hour in PDX held at @PDXGreenDragon where bloggers help bloggers over beers.

Ignite Portland 10 is looking for some good volunteers! Come join us to learn more about what roles are available and learn how your time and passion can make Ignite Portland 10 the best yet!

We enjoy talking about elearning design & development and meeting our peers in the PDX elearning community. This week's theme: favorite tech tools.

We enjoy talking about elearning design & development and meeting our peers in the PDX elearning community.

We enjoy talking about elearning design & development and meeting our peers in the PDX elearning community.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Come have a beer and a bite to eat with founder Richard MacManus and the Portland ReadWriteWeb crew! We'll be there from 6:30-8:30.

We enjoy talking about elearning design & development and meeting our peers in the PDX elearning community.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Please join the community of Beer and Blog on September 30th from 4-6pm at the Green Dragon to say Bon Voyage to our friend and founder Justin Kistner. There will be cake, and a tequila shot special, and lots of chances to make his face turn red from the heat of our admiration for all he’s done for the Beer and Blog community. Hope to see you there!

We enjoy talking about elearning design & development and meeting our peers in the PDX elearning community.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Portland Bitcoin Meetup Users We will merge a meeting with the group setup at eventbrite. http://pdxbitcoinjamboree.eventbrite.com/ Portland, OR 97214 - USA Wednesday, July 6 at 6:00 PM Photo: http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/6/5/b/9/event_30746041.jpeg Details: http://www.meetup.com/Portland-Bitcoin-Meetup-Users/events/24308681/

not sure exactly what this is but hey... bitcoin!

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Beer and Blog is on a roll with top-notch sponsors this year! We’re thrilled to announce that our latest high-profile sponsor is, drumroll please… Groupon! Yes, in addition to giving you steep discounts at cool local businesses, the daily deals giant wants to buy you a beer. And it all happens this Friday, June 24.

Former Beer and Blog captain Kerry Finsand will represent on behalf of Groupon Portland, so make sure to say hi and congratulate him on his new marketing role (where he gets to do this kind of thing all the time, maybe even at a future Beer and Blog? Hint, hint…). In addition to providing beer for all attendees, one very lucky person will win a $100 Groupon gift certificate! You must be present to win.

As always, your free pint or beverage of choice is first come first served. We’ll see you this Friday from 4-6pm at the Green Dragon!

Inviting IndieWebCamp.com folks to come along as well for a pre-weekend meet and greet.

(and if you're an indie web builder/sharer, check out and sign-up for IndieWebCamp this weekend June 25-26)

We meet monthly to talk about elearning design and development, eat fries and network. Join us!

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Join us to talk about elearning design & development - and network with your peers in the PDX elearning community!

OpenSesame will get some appetizers, as usual!

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

As most of you know, our beloved film/tech/train/jazz/labyrinth/werewolf/volunteering-loving Renaissance man Paul Bingman passed away from cancer on April 3, 2011. A private memorial in his honor is planned for this Sunday, April 17, at the Portland Art Museum’s Whitsell Auditorium. All are welcome (There will be chocolate! And a labyrinth!) but you must RSVP because there is a capacity cap. You can do that here: http://friendsofpaulbingman.eventbrite.com/

What you might not know is that the organization planning the memorial--they appropriately call themselves Friend’s of Paul Bingman--is raising funds to cover the expenses related to the memorial. They are also raising money to donate to two of his favorite organizations in his name: The Northwest Film Center and The Trinity Labyrinth Guild. You can donate money via this website: http://paulbingman.chipin.com/memorial-event-for-paul-bingman

Because Paul’s interests were so varied and vast (and so are the friends he made) the Friend’s of Paul Bingman group is asking all of us help spread the word about his memorial. Not all of the lives he touched are Internet savvy, so they might not know about the memorial. They might not even know that Paul has passed. So, if you’re part of a group that Paul had been involved with, we ask that you share the news of his death and invite anyone who may have experienced his bear hugs and kindness to RSVP and attend the memorial.

This Friday’s Beer and Blog meetup is dedicated to the memory of our dedicated friendly soul Paul, the man everyone loved so much. We’ll be accepting donations to turn over to the Friend’s of Paul Bingman group. And we’ll be sharing stories about the giant with the giant heart. We hope to see you there. I know Paul will be, in spirit.

Join the Portland elearning community to talk about elearning design & development and meet your peers in the PDX elearning community.

Appetizers courtesy of OpenSesame.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Come party with Mozilla employees this afternoon at the Green Dragon Pub and celebrate the evolution of Firefox - the best open source web browser in the world!

Many of the amazing new improvements in Firefox 4 are outlined here:

http://limi.net/articles/firefox-4

Join the PDX eLearning Network crew for our monthly meet-up at the Green Dragon this Wednesday, starting at 5 pm. We'll get some appetizers!

At the last few meetups, we've learned about virtual worlds, new learning management systems, innovations with Flash and technical writing - all while devouring delicious french fries. Please join us as we build connections between elearning professionals in the Portland community.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

Portland Semantic Web Interest Group

Marco Neumann, organizer of the Lotico San Francisco Semantic Web meetup group is coming to Portland this week, and he'd like to meet everyone! I'll be joining Marco at the Green Dragon in SE Portland this Friday at 6pm for socializing. Since this is also Beer and Blog, many of us would already be planning on attending. I'm not seeing Beer and Blog on Calagator, but I think we can soldier on if it's not happening.

Attending: 4

Details: http://www.meetup.com/pdxsemweb/calendar/15251920/

Beer and Blog is thrilled to have Burk Jackson, volunteer superhero and talented photographer, to come to this Friday’s Beer and Blog to chat up his wonderful non-profit CreativeCares http://creativecares.org/. It’s sort of a casual dating service for non-profits who are looking for mutually satisfying relationships with volunteer creatives and techies to build websites, develop digital marketing strategies, and create logos for them. No strings attached, and everyone’s left with warm-and-fuzzy memories.

It works like this: CreativeCares partners with non-profits in need of creative and technical services worldwide and matches professionals who wish to volunteer their expertise with organizations who need their help. Volunteers are needed both locally (the Right Brain Initiative, Habitat for Humanity, and the ReBuilding Portland) and internationally (the Disability Aid Abroad program which works to improve the lives of people living in developing countries).

With so many cash-strapped non-profits in need our help in crafting their stories, planning their social media marketing campaigns, and building databases for their online community portals, CreativeCares is currently looking for several volunteers expertise in:

Photography Film/video Graphic design Web design and development Art direction Marketing Copywriting Public relations Strategy Creative direction

Please join us and hear Burk describe his vision for CreativeCares at 4:30pm this Friday, October 1. He’ll be around until at least 6pm for informal mingling and Q&A. Can’t make it Friday but want to be a creative that cares? Head on over to the CreativeCares website and apply online here: http://creativecares.org/join-our-cause/sign-up-here

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

Fresh from the shower of fantastic press and outstanding numbers from the very successful "Smell Like a Man, Man" digital marketing campaign for Old Spice, Wieden+Kennedy is steaming hot. They’re so hot, in fact, they’re sending three of their digital strategists and $500 in beer money to Beer and Blog this Friday to talk about the future of W+K Digital and how you might be a part of it if you’re a strategist or community manger.

This means 1) FREE beer and 2) W+K is hiring. 3) You’re coming.

Join us on the patio of the Green Dragon this Friday from 4pm to 6pm to chat up W+K’s digital strategists Dean McBeth, Ken Brady, and Cody Corona. They’ll have the drink tickets, so be on your best behavior :)

P.S. I dare someone to arrive on the back of Loch Ness creature looking ridiculously good-looking while changing a baby’s diaper and playing chess.

One more thing! There will be some folks in town Friday -- three folks, to be exact -- who are traveling the U.S. to find new members to join their group called Way Below Status Quo. They’re a sassy bunch of entrepreneurs, so I know they’ll fit right at Beer and Blog. They’ll stop by the Green Dragon patio and mingle before their event later in the evening at Amnesia Brewery on N. Mississippi Ave. (More info here: http://statusquo-portlandor.eventbrite.com/)

The website says...

"Beer and Blog is about bloggers helping bloggers over beers. It is a meet up that takes place every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon in Portland, OR. It started as a means to swap information among peers in the Portland tech scene. Now it has grown into a weekly happy hour for Portland area bloggers. Sometimes we work. Sometimes we discuss. Sometimes we go on a field trip. But we mostly play and celebrate the transition from the work week to the week end. It’s the kind of place that is fun to network in, kindle ideas into side projects, and announce a release."

... but it really has very little to do with blogging.

Join Art of Community author Jono Bacon at Friday's Beer & Blog!

Remember that the Community Leadership Summit is this weekend!

www.communityleadershipsummit.com

Founder of ReadWriteWeb, Richard MacManus is in town and he's buying beers. Come join us!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a special treat for everyone this week. Involver is coming to town!

If you don't know them, Involver is the leading creator of custom tabs and apps on Facebook. No, they don't make Farmville type stuff. Other people use their services to make their own tabs and apps. And, business is booming for them. So much so, that they are expanding their offices and are scouting out Portland as a potential location! I told them we had a seriously under utilized pool of developer talent here and they want to see for themselves. Help us roll out the red carpet for these out of town potential employers so they have no choice but to open up shop somewhere in PDX.

Are you going to SXSW Interactive in March? Not going, but wish you were going and want to hang out with other geeks? Want to learn more about SXSW so that you can go next year? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, you should join us at a special pre-SXSW party at Beer and Blog on Friday, February 26th from 4pm - ??.

Since this is a community organized event, you’ll be buying your own drinks, but it will be just as fun! We’ll be pairing up with Portland Beer and Blog for this event, and it will be a great opportunity to chat with others about sxsw. We can find out who else is going and talk about ways to stay in touch at the event. If you are new to sxsw, you can get some tips from the experienced attendees. SXSWi is my favorite large tech event held every March in Austin, TX. SXSW is also referred to as spring break for geeks, not that I expect the parties to sway your decision to attend (cough).

The Details: Friday, Feb 26, 2009 from 4:00pm – ?? Green Dragon Bistro & Brewpub 928 SE 9th Ave, Portland, Oregon 97214

Meet and talk with real life land managers at the Green Dragon this Thursday to discuss how augmented reality can aid their field work.

Green Dragon is kid friendly in the bistro section after 4pm. So much beer too.

Might head over to the hackfest afterwards -- http://calagator.org/events/1250458223

The final Friday of our 2nd anniversary celebration is here. So far this month we've given away lots of free booze and cool stuff (courtesy of @AlaskaAir, @SexyNurd, and @DarkHorseComics) to record-breaking numbers of Beer and Bloggers. Even the staff @LaughingSquid stopped by to join in on the hoopla. Sweet!

Have you been enjoying yourself so far? We hope so!

And now, for our final Friday celebration, we've managed to work our way into the schedule of a very special guest who's heard good things about Beer and Blog and wants to come and celebrated with us: Portland's own Mayor Sam Adams!

We're honored by a visit from the Mayor of the city we love so much. We believe it's the spirit of community that Portland, Oregon is known for that has kept Beer and Blog humming along, growing steady and strong like we have the past two years. Portland is Weird, it's awesomesauce, and a visit from Sam Adams is pretty much a Seal of Portland Approval in my eyes.

Please join your fellow Beer and Bloggers this Friday at the Green Dragon for the final round of cheers in celebration of our 2nd year. We'll start gathering at 4pm as usual, and expect the Mayor around 5:30pm.

A very special W00t! to long-time Beer and Blog supporter @faddah for coordinating the introduction to Mayor's Office :)

RSVP on Upcoming or get you 411 on Calagator

Whoo-hoo! Our month-long 2nd Anniversary celebration continues!

This Friday at Beer and Blog, Alaska Airlines will provide free snackage for everyone and two drink tickets to the first 40 people who arrive. As usual, our event begins at 4pm at the Green Dragon, so if you have a hankering for freebie booze you should show up close to start time.

(Special message, just for Brian M. Westbrook: A sincere bottom-of-our-hearts thanks for making this happen! You rock!)

But the Alaska Airlines-sponsored fete isn’t all that’s going on this Friday night.

Almost as if it was fate (and who am I to say it’s not?) the Laughing Squid crew is in Portland this week, and they plan to join us at Beer and Blog for a spell.

What is Laughing Squid? It’s an online resource for art, culture and technology that also provides web hosting services. The Squiddies are having their own party — a PDX Drinkup — this Friday at 7pm at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub, just down the street from the Green Dragon.

Coincidence? Or FATE? ;)

So, after we’ve exhausted our wonderful Beer and Blog server Lexie, we’ll trek a couple of blocks down to the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub to meet the the Laughing Squid team at their PDX Drinkup.

I hope to see you at Beer and Blog and later on at the PDX Drinkup. Come and say hello!

We're giving away presents! Come join us :)

Very soon — this Saturday and Sunday, to be exact — a mass of bloggers will pack the conference rooms of Webtrends for the 2009 WordCamp Portland. This is a fun and informative couple of days stuffed with opportunities to learn tasty tidbits about the popular open source web site software WordPress. Perhaps you've heard of this WordPress thing? It's a free and mighty powerful content management system that makes hosting your own blog a snap. And with two solid days of learning such things as how to be your podcast’s dom and not its sub, how to build (and how NOT to build) a WP plugin, and how to make your blog load efficiently, you know it's going to be where all the cool kids are.

Tickets have been sold out for weeks (great job Aaron, Betsy and Dale!!) but if you were lucky enough to get your name on the attendees list I congratulate you on your good fortune! Last year I didn't get around to buying my WordCamp ticket before it was too late, and it was torturous seeing my twitter stream inundated with remarks of camp joviality, WordPress "Ah-ha!" moments, and links to flickr images of the smiling faces of my fellow bloggers. (OK, fine. I'll admit it. I simmered in silent resentment at some of the more active tweeters at last year's WordCamp Portland. But all is forgiven now. Mostly.)

Whether or not you've got yourself a ticket, please join Beer and Blog in extending a warm welcome to several WordPress speakers (and many attendees) for beers and conversation the day before the camp starting bell rings. We'll be at the Green Dragon. I'll be there, too, trying not to rub salt in the wounds of the ticketless. I feel your pain...and I'll be thinking about the pain Ill be inflicting while I drown my twitter stream in bragging, gleefull tweets with the excessive use of the #wcpdx tag.

You're welcome.

Last Friday at Beer and Blog @evacatherder's name was chosen from a pitcher stuffed full of the names of people hoping to win a 4G Sprint network card with a one year data plan. Judging from her tweets, Eva seems to be enjoying her new toy and I think I speak for all of us when I say we're all very happy that she won it! It's a pretty awesome score, no? (Thanks again for the hook-up @BMW!)

This Friday we're thrilled to give away MORE stuff, and this time the odds of winning are much better! Courtesy of Network Redux, the first 50 Beer and Bloggers that want it will get 1 free shared Internet hosting account FOR LIFE. That's right, for a lifetime. AND the first 100 attendees get beer koozie, modeled here by Network Redux's Director of Communication Laura Gonzales.

Handy and stylish, yes? And that's not all! To sweeten this amazing FREE giveaway deal, Network Redux is also paying the tab — up to 300 buckeroos — for our beer. That's right. FREE BEER. We know how much you like free beer. It just tastes better, doesn't it?

Starting at 4pm at the Green Dragon (on the patio, of course) a sign-up sheet will be available for the free hosting program. After that's done you can celebrate your lifetime of hosting by ordering a complementary beer and picking out your stylish beer koozie. Will you choose the black one...or the black one? You decide. FREELY! Ha!

If you want more info, head over to the Network Redux blog where Laura explains a bit more. And remember: as awesome as free is, eventually what's free is all gone. Don't take your sweet time getting to this Friday's Beer and Blog or you'll miss out on the goodies!

Hope to see you there!

Thanks to an introduction by Brian Westbrook (aka @BMW), Sprint is giving us a 4G network card and a 6 month data plan to raffle off this Friday! How flippin' rad is that?!! ♪ Movin' on up / To the East side. ♫

The plan is to collect names in a pitcher and then pull a name from it. We'll choose a name at 6pm and that person will be given the 4G card on the spot with contact details to get the 6 month plan activated. One thing to note, is that we hear this card is not compatible with Macs. Don't whine, it was a free giveaway and we want to encourage more companies to send us goodies that we can pass on to y'all.

We're having a meetup where online community managers can talk about best practices with other community managers. If you are managing online communities, feel free to join!

  Here are a few topics we'll be discussing:
  * Free vs. fee content ... if / when / how?  "Separation of church & state"
  * DRM issues... 
  * Constituent management (database used, other processes, etc.)
  * Your topic here

Have beer with geeks. Well-mannered dogs welcomed on patio.

PDX iPhone Developers is the best place to meet other iPhone developers and catch up with new news in the iPhone mobile market. This is a recurring meetup on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Come down to the Green Dragon and find us in the back on the south side!

   This Time 

  We'll be discussing what people have been up to in the past month, as well as the implications of the rejection of Google Voice and inconsistent policies in the App Store.

The wait is over...it's FINALLY time to celebrate a 3rd year of the wiki-awesomeness called AboutUs.org!

Portland-based burgeoning Web site indexing service AboutUs.org turned another year older last month (June 20, to be exact), and in appreciation to the community for helping their database grow to more than 14 million pages they're buying the Beer and Blog community a beer.

Happy birthday to US and AboutUs!

This Friday's free birthday beer comes right on time, too. The night before, on Thursday, is the eagerly anticipated Ignite Portland 6 (brought to us by Legion of Tech and many, many hardworking volunteers). How very poetic (and convenient) to have a decomp the day after in the form of a birthday toast celebrating a successful local business. This will surely help us ease back into the progressive craziness ahead, because just you wait: demands to submit your IP7 proposals will soon be streaking your twitterstream.

Join us on the patio at the Green Dragon this Friday from 4-6. Oh! One more thing: show up sooner than later, because free beer goes fast. That's just common Law of Free Beer sense. ;)

PDX iPhone Developers is the best place to meet other iPhone developers and catch up with new news in the iPhone mobile market. This is a recurring meetup on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Come down to the Green Dragon and find us in the back on the South side!

   This Week 

  Just a good ol' open discussion and meeting some new friends in the group.

I'm TOTALLY excited about the fun in store for the Beer and Blog community this Friday, July 10. Back by popular demand is What the Shit, that Twitter dramatic reading event we all enjoyed back in May. Far too long ago, and now the wait is over.

What the Shit, the dramatic over-acting of Twitter tweets, was invented by @melissalion during a moment of undoubtedly utmost genius. The reading encourages you to invite your inner cheese ball out to play and read any tweet in your very best over-the-top oratory form. Also, emoticons are spelled out and there are RULES to follow. Helpful rules as this:

If one of your tweets is read, this is a compliment. Remember, there's no crying in Twitter dramatic readings. Chest beating and keening are okay.

Yeah, I've got me a nice little collection of tweets in consideration for my reading. Done in my best poetry voice, I hope to make my high school theatre teacher Mr. McDonald proud this Friday. The bummer is, the limit is 6 tweets. Who am I going to cut? Soooo difficult.

What the Shit starts at 5:45pm, and sign-ups start at 5:30. Go see @melissalion's Upcoming.org event page for more information and the rules of the game.

One more thing: Don't forget to spread the word on End Bloglessness, scheduled for July 18th. We all know someone who's been talking about starting a blog, but might not be Internet savvy or involved in social networking and wouldn't ordinarily hear about End Bloglessness. Tell them about it. We'll set them up with a platform in one afternoon.

By that way, that's MizD's birthday. I will be making something chocolate-y to celebrate for all to share. You don't mind, do you? =)AYE

Join the Shizzow team at the Developers Meetup on Thursday, July 9th at Green Dragon at 5pm. We’ll be discussing how to enable your applications to access the Shizzow API using oAuth, and how to create mashups using the Places in the Shizzow database.

My goodness. Summer is here already! How is it I've just today noticed my first fireworks stand of the holiday season? Time to slow down and smell the sulfur, I say.

This Friday's Beer and Blog is casual. As in: we have nothing planned and yet we'd like to hang out anyway. Unwind from the work week and kick of the 4th of July weekend with the usual suspects on the patio of the Green Dragon. Casual Friday style, yo.

Next week, however, it's time for some fun. July 10th we've brought back by popular demand What the Shit, @melissalion's heelarious Dramatic Twitter Reading Series. I lamed out last time, but this time I've already got a couple of good tweets to orate. Time to put those high school theatre skills to use. BONUS: AboutUs is having it's anniversary party at Beer and Blog and wants to share the love in the way of beer. For the Beer and Bloggers. Yay! Stay tuned for more info.

And finally, while I've got your attention, I'd like to announce a date change for the hugely successful End Bloglessness. Again. (Long story.) BUT THIS TIME WE MEAN IT. On July 18th, Beer and Blog proudly continue its collective efforts to put an End to Bloglessness. We feel everyone should be polluting the Internet with our hopes, opinions, rants, and obsessions, not to mention hocking the Next Big Thing. Held at Web Trends, more details to come.

Have a safe and explosive holiday weekend!

Firefox 3.5 is being released! Come hang out with Firefox developers and fans at the Green Dragon on Tuesday June 30th from 11am to 2pm. Have lunch, have a beer, and watch the download counter go crazy. Hackers: bring your laptop and come play with the new features! BYOBL (buy your own beer/lunch). If you hack up an awesome use of one of the new features, your drink is on me (@dietrich)!

For a year now the OurPDX blog has pointed readers to the best and worst Portland has to offer online and off, engaged in transparent discussions about culture and post content, and sought to inform and entertain the fine citizens of Portland, Oregon. You might know the names of some of the authors of OurPDX from the Beer and Blog community: @morganPDX, @ahockley, @CamiKaos, @Dieselboi, @abrahamhyatt, @betsywhim. Any of those ring a bell? How about @mediaChick? Yep, I write there too. But not as often as I should, I'm afraid, but I do proudly call myself an OurPDX author.

Or...maybe you don't know them. Or me. If that's the case then here's your chance, because this Friday Beer and Blog is thrilled to host the 1st birthday party of OurPDX, Portland's awesome group blog authored by 23 writers who pour their honest insights about our fair city onto the Web.

Come celebrate OurPDX's first year with cake on the patio of the Green Dragon (hopefully...rain, rain, will stay away) starting at 4pm. In fact, if the weather does cooperate, Beer and Blog will bust out the summer gear for playful fun. That means we might get to frolic in the kiddie pool, my beer and bloggie pals. Awww-yeah. Here's hoping @portlandsun hangs around because, personally, I want my cake (on the patio) and to eat it (water pistols) too!

Also, later that night, tune into a special Strange Love Live broadcast, hosted @CamiKaos and @docnormal, with as many OurPDX authors who can stay up that late. Signature SLL tiki rum drinks will be served to the writers to get them sufficiently liquored up in the hopes they'll say embarrassing things for everyone's amusement. I'll be there, trying to remember that the show is, indeed, broadcasting accross the Interverse, and is, indeed, being taped for prosperity and posting later. As in inrefrutable evidence of one's drunken, public confessions.

On behalf of Beer and Blog and OurPDX, we hope you'll join us this Friday. Won't be the same without you!

Unless you're living off the grid in some shack nestled deep in the lush Oregon forest, you already know that Oregon is still 2nd in the nation for unemployment numbers with more than 12% of our friends, neighbors and family pounding the proverbial pavement looking for a job.

If you're a hermit, I applaud your good taste in blogs despite your Internet connection challenge. If you're unemployed, or know someone who is, I invite you down to the Green Dragon to find out how to transition into not only a career, but one you actually like.

Interested? Join us at 4pm on Friday in the patio for Beer and Doggie's feature presentation: Career Transition!

Whether you find yourself unemployed, underemployed, or unhappily employed, it's all for the dogs. We think you can do better. We think it's entirely possible for you to not only secure a steady paycheck, but land that job you lust for, even in "this economy".

Career coach and strategist Brian Kurth of Career Transitions will explain how to use his straightforward 8-Steps of a Successful Career Transition to not only find a job, but find the job of your dreams. He'll cover defining your ideal job, finding a mentor, and creating an action plan, plus much more.

Bring your well-mannered pooch and listen to Brian extol the virtues of what he calls his "vocationing" process, which has so far helped thousands of people land their dream gig.

Learn how to find work you love, and soon you'll be saying you live a dog's life!

Come meet the Twitalyzer Top 100 people in Portland on Twitter. Twitalyzer creator Eric Peterson will be there to explain his service and will kick in for some drinks!

PDX iPhone Developers is the best place to meet other iPhone developers and catch up with new news in the iPhone mobile market. This is a recurring meetup on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Come down to the Green Dragon and find us in the back on the South side!

   This Time 

 We'll be starting off the discussion with a demo and code of a table view that has fixed header cells and left hand index cells similar to the What's on TV app.  

While we've had a couple of days on the patio, this Friday marks the official opening of patio season. We'll be on the patio every Friday until the sun don't shine. This calls for a celebration!!

We're talking about rolling out some bright green astro turf. Busting out the baby pool with some lawn chairs around it. Squirtguns (of course). And some games like ring toss.

These meetups are for people currently using the Shizzow API to develop applications or for any developers interested in using our API. We'll be talking about OAuth and any other topics you think are important at this meetup.

A beautiful day to socialize and network outside on the patio with cool drinks and good people.

Portland, Oregon 97214 Get Directions There's a lot going on this Friday. Have you noticed? I've laid it all out the who/what/when/where of the very busy schedule of May 22nd, including our own: What the Shit? featuring the dramatic reading of tweets (starting at 5pm).

I've even provided a helpful google map to help you make as many of these awesome events as possible.

http://portland.beerandblog.com/2009/05/20/eye-of-the-social-storm/

I will be there, and am hoping to hear one of my tweets read with such melodrama that would put Wm. Shatner to shame. What a compliment that would be!

Hope to see you, my fellow beer-n-bloggers, at least once on Friday. Shouldn’t be too hard, from the looks of things!

I love being the Portland Chapter Beer and Blog Provost. I LOVE IT. I really, really do. Except, momentarily, maybe not right this second. Right now, you see, I am a wee sad to be your Official Provost. It means I am ineligible to win the most excellent beer-related loot we have ever had to give away:

2 VIP tickets to the Portland International Beer Festival in July, courtesy of GoTime.com.

Yes, really.

But wait! There's more!

These two tickets for the Portland International Beer Festival, which is scheduled for July 17-19 in the North Park Blocks of the Pearl District, includes the following goodies and privileges:

• Unlimited entry/re-entry all weekend
• VIP express entry (no waiting in line)
• Commemorative festival glass (beer mug & shot glass)
• A premium festival shirt
• 15 beer tickets each

Generous prize package, I'd say! GoTime.com is a Seattle-based outfit with a sweet (free) iPhone app that tracks hundreds of detailed happy hour listings and nightlife discounts in the Portland area.

All you have to do for your chance to win is put your Beer and Blog Network username in the proverbial hat this Friday at the Green Dragon. There may even be an actual hat, I don't know, but I do know names will be accepted starting at 4pm and the name of a very, very lucky Beer and Blogger will be drawn at 6pm.

Don't have a Beer and Blog username yet? No-problemo! Just show up this Friday and one of the usual Portland Chapter suspects (read: Justin, Kelly, Christine or myself) will enroll you. Maybe you tried to register online for the Beer and Blog network but couldn't get in? That's because our online network requires offline registration. Here's the reasoning behind that:

We want everyone in the network to be a real person, with a true interest in the health and viability of the idea behind Beer and Blog: bloggers helping bloggers over beer. With a free, online Beer and Blog membership you can communicate with any member of the Beer and Blog family, from any Beer and Blog chapter, as well as chime in on discussions concerning your local chapter. Most importantly, we want your Beery and Bloggy input on upcoming presentation ideas, field trips, and the like, and what better way to collect opinions then to create a gated online community! Seriously.

So if you're not already registered, get registered at this Friday's Beer and Blog for your chance to win the goodies generously donated by GoTime.

I only ask that the winner let me briefly hold the commemorative festival glass and remind me how much I love being the Portland Beer and Blog Chapter's Provost.

Because I really do. =)

PDX iPhone Developers is the best place to meet other iPhone developers and catch up with new news in the iPhone mobile market. This is a recurring meetup on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Come down to the Green Dragon and find us in the back on the South side!

   This Week 

  This week we'll be discussing using some of the emerging frameworks like the <strong>Three20 project</strong> , <strong>FMDB</strong> , and <strong>SQLitePersistentObjects</strong> .

Time to get your account for the Beer and Blog network! Registration only available at the offline meetups.

Join the Shizzow team at Green Dragon on Thursday, April 30th at 5pm. We will be discussing Shizzow application development, and have a round table discussion about implementing and working with oAuth, which will soon be available for the Shizzow API.

Bloggers helping bloggers over beers

Join us for a lively Twitter debate and prizes!

This Thursday, as part of the Intel Insiders program, Intel will be hosting a who's who of social media types here in town. And on Thursday night, they've scheduled a meetup in conjunction with the Social Media Club of Portland.

  Who will be there?

  * Sarah Austin (@pop17)
  * Cathy Brooks (@cathybrooks)
  * Tom Foremski (@tomforemski)
  * Frank Gruber (@frankgruber)
  * Irina Slutsky (@irinaslutsky)

  Hosted by Social Media Club of Portland and Intel.

Drop by to ask us questions, make suggestions, and discuss uses for the Shizzow API. We would also love to see demos of your apps!

I'll be there from 5-6:15 in case anyone wants to stop by and talk iphone stuff.

First of all, thanks to all of you for enduring my cleverly-worded, extremely cheesy headlines. They give me such pleasure to think up, you see. So...thanks.

Next of all, it's time for Beer and Blog again! Whoo-hoo!

This time around Jason Harris (of techcraver.com fame, a most excellent tech blog) will be demoing Taptu a "super-fast entertainment search engine for your mobile."

(This is the part where you get my "tap" headline pun, shake your head, and chuckle "that silly, silly @mediaChick." It's okay, I'm used to it.)

Jason is the US Community Manager for Taptu, which enables media searching on your cell phone and SMS media link sharing with your friends. Intriguing, no? He'll be showing off his mobile search-and-share engine starting at 4pm, so all you mobile software rock stars should make plans accordingly.

Also, in case you haven't heard...Justin and Christine are outta town. In Vegas, again. Yep, left me with the keys to the castle, at the helm of the ship. Funny thing, though. All I can think about is who's going to buy me a beer at Beer and Blog. ;)

See you there, beer-and-bloggers!

Newly launched MioWorks will be hosting Portland Lunch 2.0 revision 14 on April 8, 2009 at the geek-friendly SE watering hole, the Green Dragon, also the home of Portland Beer and Blog.

Come hang with the MioWorks crew and the usual suspects, and maybe meet some new folks. If Spring springs early, maybe the patio will be open for lunching.

It's bound to come up, so the food will be on MioWorks, but not the booze. Of course, you're welcome to have a liquid lunch, and the Green Dragon is certainly a good place for that.

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.

Aaaannddd, we're baaaaaack! Let's hope for some sunshine to enjoy a nice pint back at the Green Dragon.

This is your chance to drop by to ask us questions about the API, request new API features, make suggestions, and discuss uses for the Shizzow API with the Shizzow team and other people who are developing Shizzow apps. We would also love to see demos of your work in progress applications or hear your ideas for new Shizzow apps!

We're not at SxSW, so let's enjoy a pint in the sun together!

We wanted to have one more meetup before the Shizzow team heads down to Austin for sxsw. Drop by to ask us questions, make suggestions, and discuss uses for the Shizzow API.

We had a great pre-sxsw party here in Portland on January 19 organized by the official staff of the sxsw interactive event. We had such a great time, that we decided to do a community organized, unofficial party exactly one week before the big event in Austin. Since this is a community organized event, you'll be buying your own drinks, but it will be just as fun! We'll be pairing up with Portland Beer and Blog for this event, and it will be a great opportunity to chat with others about sxsw. We can find out who else is going and talk about ways to stay in touch at the event. If you are new to sxsw, you can get some tips from the experienced attendees.

  Quite a few of us are planning to use Shizzow to keep in touch at the event to find the best sessions and the best parties. We even have a few things specific to sxsw that we plan to roll out prior to the event. If you want an invite to Shizzow, you can ping the community evangelist for Shizzow (me) by emailing me: dawn at Shizzow

It's been a whirlwind year, with the last Friday of February fast approaching. And honestly? After brainstorming with my Beer and Blog buddies to plan March's fun, I can barely wait to tell you what we have in store.

But I'll only tell you a little, for now. You'll have to wait for more details until Friday, when we meet once again at the Green Dragon for happy hour.

Here's your Official Sneak Peek to Beer and Blog's March Announcements:

• While February was dedicated to Ending things like Bloglessness and Joblessness, March will be about skillz. Social skillz that is.
• Beer and Blog swag. (You know you want it.)
• Want to be a Beer and Blog photog? We're having a little fun in our search to find folks who like taking pictures, and it involves the tag #pdxbnb.
• It is entirely possible that Beer and Blog will be available live via streaming video soon. Very very soon.
• St. Patty's day is on a Tuesday this year, and that's a great excuse to hang out with your blogging friends twice in one week. Green beer. Details to come.
• Field trip. 'Nuff said.

Pique your interest? Whet your palate? Join us this Friday to hear the full lineup of fun we've got planned for you in March.

Oh, and one more thing: as your Official Portland Chapter Provost, I would be remiss to not give a Beer and Blog cheer for those lucky blogging and beer chugging friends of ours who made it onto @thesquare's Live at 7 segement on KGW news recently. We can thank our most lovely Kelly Guimont (@verso)for that, who is featured front and centered. Check it out!

We wanted to make ourselves available every couple of weeks to help you get off to a running start on your new Shizzow-based apps. Meet us at the Green Dragon on Thursday, and we can discuss the API as well as some of the architecture principles behind people, places and shouts on Shizzow.

Get-together for users of Identi.ca, OpenMicroBlogging developers, and people who care about microblogs, open standards, Open Source and a federated Internet. Onlookers welcome -- please come if you're interested in Identica or Laconica. Evan Prodromou is in town from Montreal.

Once upon a time on the Magic Animal Farm in a sparse corner of Colorado there was a boy who was raised by wolves, who grew up to be an accidental open-source evangelist and now lives in Portland, Oregon. I call him Dante Vatican. (That's his Ron Mexico name. Suiting, isn't it?) Everyone else knows him as that unpronounceable twitter handle @xolotl or the otherwise normal-sounding Nate Angell.

Me, I like ALL of his personalities.

Nate has worked with a lot of open source platforms over the years, right now working as Client Evangelist at The rSmart Group, which focuses on the education industry. He has an unhealthy love for Drupal, which is why the story of the boy raised by wolves now concerns you, my fellow Beer and Bloggies.

This Friday, starting at 4pm at the Green Dragon, Nate will be extolling the virtues of Drupal. I like to call it Drupal Magic Animal Farm because it makes me giggle. Specifically (but of course subject to change, such a life and underwear) Dante, darnitImean, Nate will be covering:

• Why one might choose Drupal as a blogging platform over other alternatives such as WordPress
• Installing Drupal
• Drupal look and feel using themes
• Using OpenID with Drupal
• Extending Drupal to add additional functionality to your blog, including
  • Aggregating content from other sources such as feeds
  • Custom content types and views in Drupal

Wow! That's a lot of Drupal knowledge to dispense!

If you can't make the Drupal Magic Animal Farm, that's okay. All your friends will be along shortly. The beer will flow, the laughter will bubble, and maybe you'll have some conversations about blogging.

Have you signed into a site or made a blog comment yet just by logging in with your Facebook account through Facebook Connect? Sexy and intuitive, isn't it? Makes you wonder why the majority of sites still require you to create clunky usernames and passwords, just for them. Well, with VidoopConnect, we make any site's login process sexy, and let the users choose how they want to sign in. Like to use your email address with Google, Yahoo!, AOL, or ANY old email address? Cool. Prefer to use your Facebook or MySpace account? Go for it. Do you follow the Aaron Hockley method and prefer to only sign up on sites that accept OpenID? Got it covered. Even if you sign in with your Gmail account on one site but decided to use the Facebook signin for another, with our single profile capability, we'll detect that and default the signin method you prefer when you return to any site using VidoopConnect.

For our customers, a better user experience during the registration and login process makes for more registrations and better membership retention rates. We also offer reporting capabilities to sites implementing VidoopConnect so that they can see who their users are, how they're logging in, and can react to their customers' needs better. It's easy to implement and unlike our competitors, we offer a solution based on open rather than proprietary standards.

This has been our top secret baby for a couple of months now, so we're really excited that on Friday at Beer and Blog we'll be able to show the product in action. There will even be a round of drinks on us.

Now that the beta verison of the API has been released, you can finally build those Shizzow mobile apps and mashups you've been scheming about for the last couple of months. We wanted to make ourselves available every couple of weeks to help you get off to a running start on your new Shizzow-based apps. Meet us at the Green Dragon on Thursday, and we can discuss the API as well as some of the architecture principles behind people, places and shouts on Shizzow.

This will be our second monthly meeting. Hopefully we'll be able to continue these on the second Tuesday of every month.

Topic TBA, subscribe to the mailing list for updates: http://groups.google.com/group/pdxiphone

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1744700/ ] The 5th Friday of the month finds us getting our Beer and Blog on at the Green Dragon as usual. And just like last Friday, Legion of Tech will be there to digitally record your 15 Seconds of Flame. So, if you have something to share with your 500 + close personal friends, now's your chance: if it’s selected it will playback on the silver screen February 19th. Beery cool!

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1507793/ ] Now that the beta verison of the API has been released, you can finally build those Shizzow mobile apps and mashups you've been scheming about for the last couple of months. We wanted to make ourselves available every couple of weeks to help you get off to a running start on your new Shizzow-based apps. Meet us at the Green Dragon on Thursday, and we can discuss the API as well as some of the architecture principles behind people, places and shouts on Shizzow.

[Full details at http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1507230/ ] Come eat some cake and celebrate one year of Beer and Blog! Legion of Tech will also be there to record 15 Seconds of Flame videos for the upcoming Ignite Portland 5 . Good times will be had by all :)

We're starting up an iPhone developers interest group in Portland, come hang out with us and show off all of those sexy applications you've been working on.

Hopefully this time we won't see two-feet of snow.

         

Come toast the latest chapter this Friday’s Beer and Blog at the Green Dragon. In preparation for next Saturday’s mini job fair, I’d like to talk to anyone with leads on businesses and organizations that are looking for employees, contract work, as well as other opportunities (like equity for work). Come find me!

         

Now that the beta version of the API has been released, you can finally build those Shizzow mobile apps and mashups you've been scheming about for the last couple of months. We wanted to make ourselves available to help you get off to a running start on your new Shizzow-based apps. Meet us at the Green Dragon on Thursday, January 15th at 5:00pm, and we can discuss the API as well as some of the architecture principles behind people, places and shouts on Shizzow.

We're starting up an iPhone developers interest group in Portland, come hang out with us and show off all of those sexy applications you've been working on.

Hopefully this time we won't see two-feet of snow.

         

We're going to talk about hosting to A) Help End Bloglessness attendees get their hosting dialed before the workshop and B) To compare notes again among the veterans in search of better hosting.

         

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

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

Weekly Portland blogger meet up where bloggers help bloggers over beers.

We're starting up an iPhone developers interest group in Portland, come hang out with us and show off all of those sexy applications you've been working on.

         

Hi friends! Rick Turoczy asked me if he and the Open Source Bridge crew could lead some discussion tomorrow @beerandblog. I think what they are up to is valuable to the Portland community and her tech scene, so I said yes. If you’re not yet familiar with Open Source Bridge, they are a group of local techies that want to continue OSCON now that they are not coming back to Portland. But, they’re growing into much more than that. Here’s what they say on their about page:

We are advocates, developers, and Portlanders making the world better with open source technology.

Open Source Bridge will bring together the diverse tech communities of the greater Portland area and showcase our unique and thriving open source environment. We will show how well Portland does open source and share our best practices for development, community and connectedness with the rest of the world.

We’re setting out to change the structure of conference planning: asking interested people to come together at a Town Hall meeting, and share their collective experience and wisdom. Following the lead of the Linux Plumbers Conference, we’re enlisting curators for our conference sessions, planning mini-confs for critical topics and including unconference sessions. The focus will always be on increasing interaction between participants and engaging everyone in the content. 

Kevin Fox, formerly of Vidoop, unveils his new start up project: Panels.

Dress like Turoczy day!!

Portland Open Beer Club and Portland Open Coffee Club are monthly meetups offering a low key, agenda-free format centered around meeting like-minded individuals and talking about technology, the web, and startups.

The Portland Open Beer Club meets the second Thursday of every month at Green Dragon at 5pm.

Both meetups are part of the international Open Coffee Club movement. Read more at http://portlandopenbeerclub.com

Join the OurPDX authors (and help celebrate Betsy's birthday!) at the Green Dragon. We'll have appetizers there for all to share (although you'll need to spring for your own beverages or full-on meals, though.)

Please RSVP so we know you're coming, will you?

Please join @wonderwindy77, @colemangirl & @ dougcoleman at the Green Dragon on Sunday @ 5pm to learn all about the wonderful fundraising event of the year, a proposal will be presented as well a great opportunity for local geeks/techs & creatives to strut their stuff for a full year and raise money to help local charities :) We have a few wonderful participants already and have 9 more months to fill. There will also be a Blue Grass band playing at 3pm on this day so come enjoy the music and "Get Naked for a Cause" at the same time!

Hope to see you there!

Portland’s Community College Multimedia Club has taken on the task to execute the design and production of a 2009 “Get Naked For A Cause” calendar. This calendar will be a fundraiser to help raise money for local charities/groups, as well as for educational opportunities within the club. The three main charities/recipients chosen this year are p:ear, Girls, inc., and Free Geek. We are currently seeking Portland media professionals to get involved in the making of this calendar. The theme (beyond the implied nudity) is for all photos to be of “geeks”, or techs/media professionals. This is intended to be tasteful and fun, even a little silly.

CampFire Camp is a fun end of Summer backyard campfire get-together and you are invited! Here's the scoop:

- Please RSVP here so we can gauge attendance.

- Bring your own food, and a little extra to share. We're talking campfire food; s'mores, roasted marshmallows, popcorn, hot dogs etc. If you've ever wanted to try making bacon-on-a-stick over an open fire, this is your chance!

- Significant others and kids are encouraged to attend.

- Location: This event is semi-public. Anyone in the PDX techie community is welcome to come, but we don't want to post the address here on Upcoming. Join us at Beer&Blog on Friday and we'll tell you where to go from there. It's near NE 33rd & Prescott.

These are super informal meetups where we hang out, talk about geeky stuff (wikis, open source, new technologies, openid, ...), and wind down with like-minded people over beverages.

Contact Dawn Foster dawn@fastwonder.com if you want to sponsor our drinks.

These are super informal meetups where we hang out, talk about geeky stuff (wikis, open source, new technologies, openid, ...), and wind down with like-minded people over beverages.

Sarah Lacy (business week reporter, author, and more) is going to be in town, and we thought that it would be fun to have a little tweetup to show her how awesome Portland is!

Sarah will also have copies of her book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, available for sale for $20 -- buy three get a free User Generated Book Tour t-shirt http://www.sarahlacy.com/sarahlacy/2008/07/ugbt-t-shirts-p.html

We'll also be holding this event on the new outdoor patio at the Green Dragon (near the Qhut).

We'll be outside on the patio. Bring something to keep cool! Squirt guns, fans, slip-n-slide, whatever.

Yay! We just launched Shizzow into private beta this week, and we wanted to invite people to celebrate with us. Shizzow is a location-based social web service that we built with the goal of helping you build quality relationships through face-to-face interaction. Shizzow provides the technology for you to notify your friends of your location, with as little effort as possible, so you can spend more time hanging out with your peeps and less time trying to coordinate bringing them together through phone, email, SMS and IM.

If you like Shizzow, you can come buy us a drink to celebrate. If you don't have an invite yet, show up before people buy us too many drinks, and we'll set you up with an invite to the service.

If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about, you can start by reading our blog: http://blog.shizzow.com

Planning Meeting and Call for Discussion Leaders

For those of you local in the Portland area, several of us will be gathering this Thursday, July 17th at 6:00pm at the Green Dragon (928 SE 9th Avenue, Portland OR). We’re going to nail down some details on registration, scheduling, speakers, and facilities/logistics. All are welcome; volunteers are needed.

A basic schedule framework has been developed which includes a couple large-group (everyone) sessions, a few more specific sessions for a targeted audience (developers, writers, etc), and some community-organized sessions to be determined during the event. We’re actively seeking those who want to lead a discussion. If you have an idea for a session, please contact Aaron Hockley with your idea. Any topic related to WordPress could be a potential WordCamp session.

More details about the schedule and registration should be released next week.

Wave 3 of 3 of Vidoopers and the last of their sponsored sessions. @kveton is going to facilitate discussion around Twitter conspiracy theories.

"Come spend your workday at the Green Dragon, celebrating Firefox 3's release in grand craft-beer style!" -- Dietrich Ayala

On this Friday the 13th we're going to talk about DiSo with Scott Kveton and Michael Richardson of Vidoop. DiSo is a cool project started by Chris Messina and Steve Ivy to create a distributed social network.

Vidoop is sponsoring the session and will have several of its out-of-town employees there.

There are many reasons to optimize your blog and make it load as fast as possible. You'll use less bandwidth, save money, and make your readers happier.

But there is yet another reason to make sure you site loads as fast as possible. It is one of the easiest things you can do to reduce the energy your site uses. Unfortunately, most web sites don't do the basic things that would make them run faster and use fewer resources.

So this week at Beer and Blog we'll shave seconds off an example blog using simple techniques and do our little part to make our blogs greener.

Is there anything that Twitter does uniquely that we can't do with our blogs? At this Beer and Blog work session we plan to explore that question. Our goal is to figure out how to replace Twitter without needing to create anything new. And, if we do need to engineer a centralized service, how minimal does it need to be and how can I use my blog to make the updates.

Are you tired of feeling frustrated about the design or functionality of your blog? Do you have questions but have no one to turn to? Do you have a blog, live in or around Portland, and enjoy drinking beer? Well then, this meet up is for you!

Come join fellow Portland bloggers for a work session every Friday from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon. We help each other work on our blogs. Maybe you need some design help. Maybe you want to power your comments form with OpenID, but don’t know how. Maybe you just need the social space to get off your duff and do the shit you tell everyone you’re going to do. Whatever your story, we’ll be then and there enjoying delicious beers and pounding keys. We’ll be the ones with the extension cord and power strip huddled around a grip of mostly Mac laptops.

informal weekly meeting. check the URL for details.

THEME - How to mine your traffic stats for value

Come join fellow Portland bloggers for this presentation from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon (we do this every Friday). We help each other work on our blogs. Maybe you need some design help. Maybe you want to power your comments form with OpenID, but don’t know how. Maybe you just need the social space to get off your duff and do the shit you tell everyone you’re going to do. Whatever your story, we’ll be then and there enjoying delicious beers and pounding keys. We’ll be the ones with the extension cord and power strip huddled around a grip of mostly Mac laptops.

Meeting for the Portland ruby group to talk about their new website plans.

Bi-weekly meeting

Planning/organizing meeting for all those organizational odds and ends.

THEME - Tonight we're going to explore how does one get traffic to their site from places like Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and more. Come join fellow Portland bloggers for this presentation from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon (we do this every Friday). We help each other work on our blogs. Maybe you need some design help. Maybe you want to power your comments form with OpenID, but don’t know how. Maybe you just need the social space to get off your duff and do the shit you tell everyone you’re going to do. Whatever your story, we’ll be then and there enjoying delicious beers and pounding keys. We’ll be the ones with the extension cord and power strip huddled around a grip of mostly Mac laptops.

Theme: WordPress 2.5 is due to be released any day now, and the upgrade offers both cosmetic and functionality enhancements for the WordPress platform. Come learn about what's new, what looks different, what theme authors should know, and what plugin authors (and users) should keep in mind for the upgrade. And if you're not currently using WordPress... come let me convince you to switch platforms. Come join fellow Portland bloggers for this presentation from 4pm until at least 6pm at the Green Dragon (we do this every Friday). We help each other work on our blogs. Maybe you need some design help. Maybe you want to power your comments form with OpenID, but don’t know how. Maybe you just need the social space to get off your duff and do the shit you tell everyone you’re going to do. Whatever your story, we’ll be then and there enjoying delicious beers and pounding keys. We’ll be the ones with the extension cord and power strip huddled around a grip of mostly Mac laptops.