Thetus Corporation

Managing and Utilizing Big Data for Your Workforce | HR Event

It’s been said that Big Data is like dating in middle school - everyone talks about it, but nobody knows what they’re doing. We aim to help change that.

What information can/should/must we collect from employees, and how do we connect it to large business and benefits management systems?

Join us on October 7th as we explore Big Data and What it Means to Your Workforce.

Panelists:

Eric Wilson, Principal, HR Integrated Solutions -- Eric will try to separate the fact from fiction with regard to how big data is likely to impact the future of HR. How do you determine what data you should consider acquiring and from what sources? Once you get your hands on the information how do you turn that “raw” data into something that is actionable, with potentially predictive relevance? How do you present the data in a way that can drive decisions to achieve organizational change? This should be a thought-provoking primer regarding the relevance of Big Data in HR.

Check back for additional panelists.

Moderator:

Gloria Ilg, SVP of Human Resources Worldwide, Rentrak

This month the PMI Portland Chapter Agile Round table will facilitate a discussion on "Dealing with Non-Agile Dependencies". This round table is open to anyone interested in discussing, debating, contributing experience / ideas, seeking input, etc.

1 PDU is available for those seeking additional PDU's.

This event is sponsored by MapR, one of the biggest Hadoop Distributions on the market, and big contributor of Apache Hadoop projects like HBase, Pig (programming language), Apache Hive, and Apache ZooKeeper.

Description

Hadoop has been a huge success in the data world. It’s disrupted decades of data management practices and technologies by introducing a massively parallel processing framework. The community and the development of all the Open Source components pushed Hadoop to where it is now.

That's why the Hadoop community is excited about Apache Spark. The Spark software stack includes a core data-processing engine, an interface for interactive querying, Sparkstreaming for streaming data analysis, and growing libraries for machine-learning and graph analysis. Spark is quickly establishing itself as a leading environment for doing fast, iterative in-memory and streaming analysis.

This talk will give an introduction the Spark stack, explain how Spark has lighting fast results, and how it complements Apache Hadoop.

About the Presenter

Sungwook Yoon is a Data Scientist at MapR.

Sungwook's data experience includes:

-  Malware detection algorithms for packet stream analysis

-  Mobile network signaling analysis

-  Social network analysis

-  Job title analysis

-  Call center data analysis

Before joining MapR, Sungwook worked as a Research Scientist at Palo Alto Research Center and as an Architect in Seven Networks. Sungwook's main technical background lies in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Sungwook holds Ph.D. degree from Purdue University and is a graduate from Seoul National University.

Agenda

5:30 – 6:00 Welcome & Networking

6:00 – 7:30 Spark presentation by Sungwook Yoon

7:30 – 8:30 Networking + drinks and our signature delicious thin crust pizzas!

This month one of our regular attendees will reprise her talk at XP2014 for us.

Applying Agile Management Concepts to a Complex, Multi-Year, High Stakes Scientific Research Project presented by Alicia Lanier

The South Florida Water, Sustainability, and Climate Project is a $5M research project funded by the National Science Foundation. This research project is in its second year of a five-year duration, with a geographically distributed team representing ten universities across the U.S. This research team is developing a hydro-economic optimization model and relevant inputs that will be used to evaluate management scenarios for south Florida water and environmental resources. A unique human systems dimension is also included as input to the model. Risks from potential climate change impacts, such as sea level rise, are major drivers for pursuing this work.

Alicia introduced Agile management and Adaptive Action concepts have been introduced over the last nine months, including iterative development, retrospectives, Scrum, kanban , and agile chartering. This combination of ‘light-weight management’ concepts has enabled researchers to continue to pursue their scientific inquiry independently, while ensuring collaboration across the sciences. Ensuring individual creativity with simultaneous collaboration and integration additionally maximizes stewardship of federal funds. The effectiveness on integration and productivity will be continuously analyzed through tools such as in-depth interviews, retrospectives, and online surveys of project participants and stakeholders.

Alicia's inner fire is stoked by helping teams achieve big dreams using agile project management, adaptive action, and unique facilitation methods. Alicia is intrigued by the possibility of a world of (non-software) teams who understand the power of being agile, and have tools to help get them there. Her clients include municipalities and state organizations, distributed university teams, and businesses. When she started her own company 11 years ago, she gave herself the gift to study anything that piqued her curiosity. That gift led to her exposure to agile principles, human systems dynamics, servant and facilitative leadership concepts, importance of retrospectives, unique facilitation methods, Lean, and more. She currently manages the LinkedIn site ‘Agile Project Management (non-software)’. Prior to starting her own company, she worked for over 13 years at CH2M HILL, and 6 years at North Carolina State University. She is a registered Professional Engineer in California, Oregon and North Carolina, as well as a Human Systems Dynamics Professional.

Want some expert eyes on your UX portfolio?  

Join us for a portfolio review session where you can get valuable feedback on your UX portfolio, resume, or case studies from UX hiring experts.

This month the PMI Agile Roundtable welcomes a local PMP to talk about Serving Two Project Management Masters with a Hybrid Approach. Read the article (http://pmi.memberclicks.net/serving-2-pm-masters--chiang-). Then come to the roundtable and get the back story on the article he published in the newsletter this month, and we’ll take this opportunity to talk about hybrid agile adoptions, their efficacy, challenges, benefits, and dangers.

Allen Chiang, PMP is a career IT project manager with deep experiences in companies like Intel, IBM, and Nike. Allen has over 15 years of experience managing both hardware and software projects, as well as small business ownership. He is also an avid electronics hobbyist and collector.

Join PDX-UX and a diverse panel of user experience designers as we discuss the realities of UX design work and how to prepare for, cope with, and celebrate our growing field.

Our panel includes:

Derek Keevil, Principal UX Design Consultant at The Hat Sharpener

Verne Lindner, Senior Designer at Puppet Labs

Søren Muus, Director of Experience Design at Urban Airship

Paul Souders, Director of Design at OpenSourcery

Networking and refreshments start at 6p and the panel starts at 6:30p.  Co-organizer Tom Quick will lead the discussion with plenty of time for questions at the end. 

Just starting out or want to learn more about a career in UX?  Check out the User Experience Careers report by PDX-UX member Susan Farrell and UX pioneer, Jakob Nielsen.

You know how to plan a sprint and now they say you have to plan a release? You've got agile release planning down like clockwork and you want to share how you figured it out? You think release planning is bunk and want to explain why? Have we got a venue for you!

In April, the PMI Portland Agile Roundtable comes together for a fast dive into agile release planning. Please plan to start and end on time: we do. Networking after the event as you walk back to the office in the lovely sprint weather.

The PMI Portland Agile Round Table is held on the second Wednesday of every month during the noon hour.

The round table provides project managers, scrum masters and others engaged in agile projects an opportunity to discuss topics of interest, issues they're facing and to join in an evolving community to promote effective use of agile methods.

Bring your lunch, ideas and challenges to the table.

(Note: PMP's & PMI-ACPs can claim 1 PDU for attendance)

Big Data is changing the world and whether your company’s data was created today or 20 years ago, it’s time to explore incredible new database technologies and analytic ecosystems that will transform your business.

Join Lilien Systems as we review the data continuum, how the value of your data continuously changes and what to look for in a game-changing Big Data Solution for your enterprise.

Discover how a real-time analytics solution lets you act on data at the point of maximum value – “right now” with velocity and real-time analytics.  Today’s leading database technologies ingest maximum amounts of structured and unstructured data at high speeds with complete accuracy, coupled with the ability to make decisions the moment it arrives through analytics in real-time. 

Data is being used in its oldest state and newest state to help organizations make decisions in real-time. With the phenomenal growth of Hadoop infrastructure and the subsequent emergence of powerful databases such as VoltDB and HP Vertica, and a self-service visualization utility like Tableau, many industries and individual companies are finding considerable value in different ways and faster than ever before.

Join Lilien Systems as we review the life of data and how an analytics solution ecosystem would enhance your competitive advantage.

Thanks a lot to the guys of Thetus Corporation for allowing us to do the event there!

Bonus: Your favorite thin-crust pizzas & beers!

Presenters

Paul Cattrone, Big Data & Analytics Practice Director @ Lilien Systems

Nathan Hughes, Director of Sales – Big Data & Analytics @ Lilien Systems

Agenda

6:00 - 6:30 Welcome & Networking

6:30 - 7:30 Presentation by Paul & Nathan

7:30 - 8:30 Dinner (on us!) & Networking

COME LEARN TO PROGRAM JAVA...

The most popular & scalable computer language in use today and the language used on the AP Computer Science Exam. This session is hands-on, it is designed for immediate feedback throughout the course, allowing for students to have fun creating with Java and removing much of the frustration normally associated with computers. See how rewarding & accessible programming can be. Students will learn clean coding techniques and proper use of advanced tools.

Register for a free ticket with the Event Brite link above.

Ages: 11-18 Requirements: Please bring a laptop setup with code & eclipse from the "more information" link below. Note: we will be pairing durning the event, so kids will share laptops. This means we might not use your actual laptop and that if you don't have a laptop you can still join and participate.

Adults: Every child must be accompanied by an adult. Adults are welcome to particpate as well, although we ask you to pair with other adults instead of with your kids.

On Wed 19 March there will be a more adult focused session on the techniques: http://calagator.org/events/1250465770

More information: https://github.com/TeachingKidsProgramming/TeachingKidsProgramming.Java

About the speakers...

Lynn Langit - Big Data Architect and Educator. Former FTE at MSFT (4 years). Awards – SQL Server MVP, Google Cloud Developer Expert, MongoDB Master. Lynn has done production work with SQL Server, MongoDB, AWS and Google databases and more. Lynn has over 150 BigData screencasts on her YouTube channel (SoCalDevGal). In addition to her work with Big Data, she is also the co-founder of a non-profit, ‘Teaching Kids Programming.’

Llewellyn Falco learned to jump horses in the 7th grade while living in France. Back in states, while studying drafting in high school, he started fire eating, sleight of hand magic, and once rode a unicycle 6 miles. After learning to juggle torches, he joined a acrobatics group in college where he specialized on the trampoline and walking a slack rope. He can calculate the cube root of any perfect cube under 1,000,000 in his head, as well as pick a standard lock. He can rollerblade down a flight of stairs, backwards. Later, he has learned to play the doumbek (a type of drum), to accompaniment a belly dancing girlfriend. Llewellyn studied Tai Chi for 2 years, can throw a knife at 20 feet, and a playing card at 50. He has taught swing dancing, and loves to salsa. He is also an accomplished speed chess player. In the last year, he has been scuba diving over 20 times, become a guitar hero, and broke his personal record of paddle balling over 200 times. Llewellyn attributes his success to the large amount of caffeine he has consumed, and enjoys computer programming in his spare time.

Our topic this month is "Distributed Agile Teams." One of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto is "The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation." And, we know that distributed teams, whether around the world or across a large corporate campus, are a fact of organizational life.

What have you seen or experimented with that has worked well? What's your thorniest remote worker problem? Have you been able to move to co-located teams? What persuaded the organization to do that? Has it helped?

This month we're moving to a larger space where we can move around, work in small groups, and get those sticky notes up on the wall!

The PMI Portland Agile Round Table is held on the second Wednesday of every month during the noon hour.

The round table provides project managers, scrum masters and others engaged in agile projects an opportunity to discuss topics of interest, issues they're facing and to join in an evolving community to promote effective use of agile methods.

Bring your lunch, ideas and challenges to the table.

(Note: PMP's & PMI-ACPs can claim 1 PDU for attendance)

Join us for a technical overview of asynchronous programming on iOS with our own Paul Jungwirth covering:

• an overview of ARC, strong/weak references.

• blocks & closures, including the "strong-weak dance"

• techniques for writing to memory from multiple threads.

• GCD - queues and dispatch_async.

Agenda:

• Intros & Announcements

• Presentation

• Questions and Discussions

• Old Town Pizza for food, drink and further discussion.

Paul Jungwirth is a freelance developer specializing in Rails, Postgres, Javascript, and Chef, with some iOS thrown in too. In high school he helped build one of the first HTTP servers for the Macintosh, and despite efforts to escape to the humanities, he can't seem to quit his love for programming.

A lot has changed with the tools and methods for web-based and mobile development. Affordable cloud hosting and full stack development solutions exist in great numbers. But what is the real benefit? Can using these new tools help build better software, faster? Or is it just for toy apps? Join the TAO Developer Forum as developers build a responsive web-based application using some of the newest technologies available (AngularJS, RESTful services, Firebase, Xcode, JetBrains, AppCode, JetBrains WebStorm, Android Studio, Objective-C, Java, Cloud providers, JIRA, GitHub and so on).

The event will start with the audience selecting the application that will be built, and will lend with a Q&A session. If you're looking to learn about the latest technology trends in web and mobile development, this is the event to be at.

With version 1.0 just around the corner this is a perfect time learn more and meet others interested in this amazing technology.

In this meet up we will cover what you need to know from a general overview to building you first app.

Meteor is an open-source platform for building top-quality web apps in a fraction of the time, whether you're an expert developer or just getting started.

Join us, and bring your laptops, for a night of learning, discussion and hacking.

Agenda

• Introductions

• Why I’m excited about Meteor: A Surgeon’s Perspective - Michael Conlin

• Build your first meteor app - Ryan Casey

• Q&A - Discussions

• Move to Old Town Pizza for further discussion

Join us for a discussion on BTLE programming on iOS.

Bluetooth low energy, (Bluetooth LE / BTLE / BLE / Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless computer network technology poised to become an important part of sensor and device communications in applications such as healthcare, fitness, security and (home) automation.

Agenda

• Introductions

• Non technical overview - William Henderson • Technical hands on development presentation - Zsombor Papp

• Q&A - Discussions

• Move to Old Town Pizza for further discussion

Julie (JB) Booth is a veteran UX designer and researcher. Recently back at Intel after a 7 year hiatus, JB is coaching integrating User Centered Design into Agile Software development teams. You can find her on Twitter @uxsuccess.

Join us for networking and refreshments from 6-6:30p; talk begins at 6:30p.

Sprite Kit is a 2D graphics and rendering system built into iOS 7. It supports animations, sounds, physics and particle systems to help you quickly and easily develop fun games.

In this intro we'll talk about the basic concepts and then build avery simple game together so bring your laptop with Xcode 5 installed.

This is aimed at people with some Objective-C experience but we'll all work together so complete beginners are welcomed also.

You may want to review Apple's Xcode and Objective-C guides as well as the Sprite Kit Programming Guide

Regardless of the size or stage of your company’s life-cycle, intellectual property is important. The development of, the documentation of, and the management of your IP is critical to the success of your business and how it is evaluated for future transactions (funding or strategic).

Please join other entrepreneurs and engineering managers for this insightful workshop.

We will hear from: Julia Voutyras, IP Attorney, Ford Motor Company on the process they implemented to reinvent themselves into one of the most innovative car manufacturers in the world. Jennifer Yruegas, General Counsel, Coaxis and formerly with Sol Republic where in both of these positions she worked with her product development teams to utilize innovation to strengthen their position against must larger competitors. Anna McCoy, Attorney, Alleman Hall McCoy Russell & Tuttle LLP who will outline IP innovation as a strategic tool and how to manage and drive productive innovation.

Additional Topics will Include: How to prioritize innovation How to track and implement innovation The importance of IP to your valuation The workshop will end with an information panel discussion so be bring your questions for this esteemed panel.

Join us at Thetus for a mix-n-mingle event, made even better with free beer and pizza! Drop by to meet fellow UX enthusiasts, learn about job opportunities, and ideate with us about PDX-UX events for 2014!

Thanks to Aubri and Thetus Corporation we have a space for the next meeting. I'll lead a casual hands on workshop/class and we will cover

• Introductions
• Overview of native iOS development
• Intro to Objective-C and Xcode
• Walk through a simple "Hello World" style app

Feel free to bring a Mac laptop with Xcode 5 installed if you'd like to follow along or want to ask questions afterwards. We'll be using Xcode 5 and iOS 7.

I've created a resources page with info that may help you get started developing for iOS. You can check it out at http://e-string.com/resources/

It particular, you may want to take a look at the first few resources from Apple and download and install Xcode before Monday.

Thanks.

Julio

Developers, designers and cleantech professionals! This is a networking event you don’t want to miss. You will learn about the Cleanweb Initiative and the movement in Portland.

This event also connects PSU-TAO Cleanweb Hack participants as well as tech and cleantech industry professionals.

The networking provides opportunities for the hackathon participants to discuss project ideas, scout out team members and learn hackathon 101 basics. It will also serve as a platform to open dialogue that connects cleantech and tech industry in Portland.

This is free networking event. There will be food, drink and good conversations!

About the Event Health care reform presents an opportunity to position your health benefits for recruitment and retention. Faced with "play or pay,” you can still play while managing health care costs. Catch-up on the changes coming online in 2014, maximize your health benefits offering and learn about moving to a self-funded plan.

What Will You Learn? - How to navigate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) components in place for 2014
- How to leverage the ACA environment for recruitment and retention of talent - How one company made the decision to manage costs through self-funding its health plan

Panelists: - Suzi Alligood, SPHR, Director of Training and Development, Xenium HR -- provides HR consultation and training to growing businesses, with expertise in recruitment and retention

• Kristen Clark, VP People and Culture, Urban Airship -- Kristen has international experience leading human resources and a track record of implementing cost containment strategies

• Zach Fritz, Benefits Consultant, The Partners Group -- Zach has expertise in creating competitive and sustainable health care plans, and works with mid-size and larger employers with self-funded plans

• Iris Tilley, Attorney, Barran Liebman, LLP - The focus of her practice is employment and benefits law

Moderator: - Sarah Ryan, Managing Partner, Jackson Lewis, LLP -- Sarah is regarded as a leading employment lawyer and actively involved in the Portland human resources community

Who Should Attend? HR professionals in small to mid-size firms, benefits and compliance representatives for growing startups, tech firms curious about moving to a self-funded health insurance plan.

Event Details: When: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 Time: 7:30 - 9:00 AM Where: Thetus Corporation, 34 NW 1st Ave Portland, OR 97209 Cost: $25 TAO Members $45 Nonmembers

HR Forum Series Sponsors: CBRE Executive Forum

NOTE: This is now a 1 day event. We hope you can join us.

Let's use our skills to make our community a better place for women and girls!

Are you a woman interested in brainstorming and creating solutions for a nonprofit? Well, we have the event for you! We're bringing in nonprofits who are focused on women and girls (or issues that women and girls encounter) who have something that they've been struggling with...and our goal is to have a viable solution for each of them by the end of the weekend!

Do I have the skills to attend?

• Are you a women who is 15 years of age or older?
• Are you a programmer?
• Are you an interface designer?
• Are you a manager?
• Are you a teacher (either officially or not)?
• Do you have experience with psychology?
• Are you an artist?
• Are you passionate about helping non-profits?

If you answered yes to any of those, then yes! You should. We are looking to have teams of women with diverse backgrounds. If you are under 15, let us know and we will see if we can work something out.

Why should I attend?

• Altruism. Community-Mindedness. You'd like to help the local community with your skills.
• Learn from your group members. You'll be on a diverse team of women. We are sure that you'll learn a lot from each other!
• Learn about the non-profits. Portland has a great nonprofit community and this event will help you get in touch with some of them.
• Help fundraise for ChickTech K-12 events. By paying for your participation, you are not only getting this experience (and food for days!), you are also helping to make our K-12 events free for participants. Thank you in advance for your support!
• Childcare is provided.
• Delicious food is provided. Eat up!

What are we doing, exactly?

You will be in a group of women working on a project for a local nonprofit. The projects are listed below under the Nonprofits section.

Each project will have a tech component, but we're looking to create a team with diverse skills to address the needs of the nonprofit. Each group will have a ChickTech or Thetus volunteer to help out. Each group will have a representative from the nonprofit to answer any questions. At the end of the weekend, we want to have a viable solution for the non-profit.

Can men attend?

YES! We are looking for supportive techie guys to help provide childcare for the event in order to break yet another stereotype. We are hoping to have some fun, hands-on activities for the kids too, depending on ages and age ranges.

Can I attend for free?

YES! We are offering a sliding scale because we do not want cost to be a barrier for anyone to attend. If you can afford any of the cost options, please help us out! This will help us cover the costs of this event. Any extra money goes to funding our K-12 programs to ensure that they remain free for participants.

Event Schedule

Friday: 6:30p - 9p, hors d'oeuvres, choose projects, meet teams! Saturday: 9:30a - 5:30p, breakfast, work with teams, lunch, more work! Sunday: 9:30a - 5:30p, breakfast, work, lunch, work, present (not the noun, the verb)!

Help us by spreading the word!

Tweet: "Let's help nonprofits in #pdx! Join me for @ChickTechOrg's Nonprofit Problem Storming Event! Learn more: http://chicktechproblemstorming.eventbrite.com/" Facebook: "Let's help nonprofits in #pdx! Join me for @ChickTech's Nonprofit Problem Storming Event! Learn more: http://chicktechproblemstorming.eventbrite.com/"

Nonprofits and Projects

Below are the nonprofits who are involved with this event. If you have one of any of the skills listed on any of the projects, consider attending this event to help out our nonprofit community.

My Sister's House

My Sister's House is a home for women with children who have suffered domestic violence/and or abuse and need a safe environment to create new lives.
Problem: Need complete website and branding overhaul! http://mysistershouse.net/ Skills needed (including but not limited to): website design, website development, user experience, branding, artists

Oregon Tradeswomen

Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. (OTI) is dedicated to promoting success for women in the trades through education, leadership and mentorship. Problem: Need help with communications throughout the organization! Especially around email, calendars, etc. Skills needed (including but not limited to): experience with nonprofits, organizational skills, management, software/website development

Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington serves members throughout Oregon, and Clark and Skamania Counties in Washington; they currently serve 24,000 girl and adult members. Problem: Need help creating a training strategy that works for the adult volunteers in the organization, especially with regards to online and blended methods. Skills needed (including but not limited to): education, pyschology, web service development, training experience, evaluation experience, web design

Betties360

Betties360's mission is to inspire confidence, well-being, and community in girls through action sports, outdoor adventure, and life-skill education. Problem: Need help with publicity and fundraising...in general getting the word out to more people! Possibly a creative marketing campaign? Skills needed (including but not limited to): nonprofit fundraising, marketing, social media experience, branding experience, designers, artists

Snowdrift.coop

Snowdrift.coop is an in-progress web platform aiming to provide on-going community engagement and fundraising for all manner of creative projects (software, music/art, research, educational resources, and more) where results are released freely with no proprietary restrictions on access, modification, or sharing. Problem: We need help introducing the Snowdrift.coop system to creative projects and to patrons; maybe an infographic or a game? Skills needed (including but not limited to): nonprofit fundraising, marketing, designer, game development, user experience designer

Lilka, Inc

[Note: Lilka is not a nonprofit, but their mission is to help nonprofits work together better, which we think is worth supporting! Plus, it's a women-founded tech startup, which is awesome.] Lilka, Inc is creating a project coordination tool for nonprofit organizations to help them coordinate both internal projects and projects between nonprofits who want to work together.
Problem: We're at the stage where we're fleshing out our ideas, and we would love some help integrating the functionality of Asana and Google Docs/Drive as a first step. This tool will be used to coordinate NPOs in both everyday situations and emergencies where cooperation between NPOs will save lives. Skills needed (including but not limited to): Front end web design, user interface design, business, project management, back-end programming, nonprofit experience, graphic design

If you know of other nonprofits who would like to participate email us at [email protected]. If you would like to get more information on volunteering for this event, also email us at [email protected]. ChickTech's fiscal sponsor is TechStart, a registered 501(c)(3).

EVENT INFORMATION

Application security is a moving target, but the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is here in Portland to help you write and deploy applications securely. Speakers James Bohem and Tim Morgan will walk you through all of the free resources made available by OWASP to developers, application architects, and information security professionals.

As an example of how OWASP can help, we'll present some of the finer points of secure web session management, covering the variety of attacks on SSL-protected web traffic if sites are not configured properly. We'll touch on cookies, state management, SSL and some common problems and solutions.

Q&A will follow. Pizza and beverages will be served.

SPEAKER INFORMATION

James Bohem manages the security program at WebMD Health Services, which includes a large web-based application with millions of users, as well as other security technologies and risk management for a 400+ person division of WebMD in Portland. James has 15 years in security consulting with a focus on application security, design and technical compliance with a range of regulations and standards. In addition, he has experience developing large distributed applications, microkernels, the UNIX kernel, and international software systems for open systems.

Tim Morgan has been taking deep technical dives in security for over a decade as an application security specialist and vulnerability researcher. Tim resides in Oregon and works as VSR where he helps to secure his customers' environments through penetration testing, training and forensic investigations. Tim also develops and maintains several open source digital forensics tools, including Bletchley, an application cryptanalysis toolkit.

"The White House wants you to hack for a better America. Today it announced the National Day Of Civic Hacking on June 1-2 where many government agencies will liberate data for citizens across the U.S. to use to build tech that helps their communities. Twenty-seven cities have planned events where hackers will have access to data from The Department of Labor, The Census Bureau, and even NASA’s space stats.

The National Day Of Civic Hacking is a joint project from the U.S. government, Code For America, Random Hacks Of Kindness, and Eric Schmidt’s early-stage venture fund Innovation Endeavors. Part of a growing initiative to increase government transparency and civic engagement,..."

from http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/national-day-of-civic-hacking/

Quality Assurance Forum Event: Plan Less, Break More, Deliver Faster - an Agile Test Planning Workshop

There are as many Agile Test Plans as there are flavors of Agile. They range from simply no test plan at all to fossilized relics left over from the Waterfall days. So what does the Agile Manifesto say about test plans? It says two things, but nothing really specific: "working software over comprehensive documentation” and "responding to change over following a plan”. What does this all mean when it comes to the Agile Test Plan?

In this hands on workshop, we will split into teams, analyze a real-life case study, devise a test plan (or perhaps discount the test plan), and answer this question once and for all. Using a real-life case study we will fast forward through time, change deadlines, change scope, open defects, and see how effective your test plan really was.

When: Thursday, May 9th

Where: Thetus Corporation, 34 NW 1st Ave Portland, OR 97209

Time: 5:30-8:30

· 5:30 Doors Open, Networking · 5:45 Program Begins, Problem Statement · 6:00 Split into teams, eat and work · 7:15 Teams present Test Plans · 7:45 Fast Forward Through Case Study · 8:30 Dismiss

$25 Members $45 Nonmembers To Register - TAO at [email protected]

As mobile web usage has exploded over the past few years, Responsive Web Design (RWD) has become one of the go-to solutions to provide content across a universe of different browsers and devices. Apps and websites have merged into one. In simple terms, a responsive web design uses "media queries" to figure out what resolution of device it's being served on. Flexible images and fluid grids then size correctly to fit the screen. From a QA view, how can we effectively test RWD. The Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) is excited to provide an opportunity to gather and discuss lessons learned and real life strategies to test these applications.

On Thursday, February 28th, the Quality Assurance Forum of the TAO is presenting a panel discussion on Responsive Web Design – Testing. Come join us for an engaging evening with your SQA peers centered on how to test Responsive Web.

Panelists:

Lyza Danger Gardner, co-founder, Cloud Four Since co-founding Portland, Ore.-based mobile web start-up Cloud Four (http://www.cloudfour.com) in 2007, Lyza has tortured and thrilled herself with the intricate ins and outs of the bazillion devices and browsers now accessing the web globally. Lyza and co-founder Jason Grigsby are the authors of Head First Mobile Web.

Trent Peterson, co-founder, AppThwack - Trent Peterson spent seven years at Intel designing system-automation solutions trusted to test products used by millions of customers with an emphasis on simplicity and user experience. He left in early 2012 to co-found AppThwack,a mobile app testing service that helps developers quickly and automatically test their apps on real devices.

Pawel Wojnarowicz, co-founder, AppThwack - Pawel Wojnarowicz built an automation platform in his spare time that became the official solution for testing all wireless products at Intel. Pawel left after nine years to co-found AppThwack, a mobile app testing service that helps developers quickly and automatically test their apps on real devices.

Event Details: When: Thursday, February 28, 2013 Time: 5:30 – 8:30 PM Where: Thetus, 34 Northwest 1st Avenue, Portland, OR 97209 Cost: $25 Member | $45 Nonmember To Register: 503-228-5452

Welcome to World Information Architecture Day 2013! Please register for this event on Eventbrite.

Come learn about what Information Architecture means and about some of the challenges facing Portland's leading practitioners.

Ideal for: Anyone interested in technology, creative tech, business of tech, industry pros, students and everyone in between. 

Thanks to our sponsors: AIGA, IxDA, PDX Web and Design Meetup, Northwest Creatives Social Club, People's Sandwich of Portland and Floyd's Coffee

Our speaker lineup is amazing!

10am: Jeanne Turner-Walmart Labs  Cultivating Good Will in the Digital World When we have to wait 20 minutes for service after being seated at a restaurant, or when a grocery store is disorganized and the clerk is distracted and unhelpful, then we know that something is wrong with the situation. In the physical world, lack of information and poor interactions are obvious. In the physical world, we know how to make improvements that increase customer satisfaction. How can we translate this understanding to the digital world? What do we need to understand about human nature to improve digital experiences? In this talk, Jeanne Turner will discuss concepts and techniques that allow us to cultivate good will in the digital world.

11am: Patricia Colley-Interactionflow Civilizing Information Architecture: A meditation on systems design What is the scope of information architecture practice? To design optimal architectural structures, we know we must empathize with its inhabitants, and apply deep expertise in organization, language and flow. But we've learned, this alone will not ensure a design's success. As we dive deeply into the churning sea of design and technology trends, tools and methods, we often forget how we orient to design practice, and its increasingly complex problems, as thoughtful human beings. Will our apps, widgets and gadgets come to serve us, or will we lose ourselves in a wilderness of unmitigated digital distractions and breakdowns? To civilize our digital future, we are compelled to take a systems view of design practice. We are compelled to shift our perspectives and spark grander dialogues.This session will examine the origins and evolution of the IA role, the current and emerging climate in which our products reside, and put forth a few principles and methods to help answer the call to broaden our vision and expand our influence in a changing world.

12p: Huston Hedinger-Wikisway Networks as a User Interface The mathematics of graph theory and its many applications via network science in sociology, bioinformatics, intelligence, and even physics, represent a paradigm shift in how we study and consider information. Over the last 30 years, machines have allowed us to structure data in such a way that allow us to analyze the complex interactions between the individual actors in networks. These interactions turn out to reveal patterns that are both predictable and obedient to mathematical laws- many in the academic community are just beginning to grasp the power an the importance of these claims. The ability to visualize networks allowing the researcher/user/customer to quickly understand the structure and behavior of a network is the main focus of this talk.

1p: Matthew Baranauskas and Noah DiJulio-Ziba Meeting the Challenges of Innovating on Top of Existing Platforms Information architecture is the keystone of every digital experience. It's where consumer needs and desires often collide with a brand's hopes and dreams. The danger for companies as they grow is figuring out how to integrate new features into their customer's existing experience. Using real world examples and personal anecdotes, Matthew and Noah will discuss how they navigate the challenge of innovating on top of existing platforms using a consumer-centric approach. You'll gain perspective on where to look for inspiration and insight, how to prioritize features into something that is meaningful and authentic, and how not to lose your mind in the process.

2p: Joel Barker and Michael Sulis-Wordlions and Summit Energy Tech, respectively Capture, Tagging and Release of Institutional Knowledge: Delivering Information in the Real World When creating a system to deliver institutional information outside of the organization, the success of the project rests on understanding the requirements and work process of all stakeholders. In this case study, Summit Energy Tech and Word Lions collaborated to collect, organize, and make available the mission critical institutional knowledge that was the foundation of our client’s relationship with their customers. This presentation will cover not only our solution, but the points where understanding the client capacity makes the difference between implementation and project failure.

3p: Alison Stump-The Social Wall Visualizing Insight: Getting Started in Information Architecture Information Architecture has only recently been given the respect it deserves by those outside the realm of User Experience. Often the designs we build are so elegant they appear simple. The average person on the street knows that a menu bar probably goes at the top of the page. In most cases its "common sense". It is positioned on the top of the page because an Information Architect thought about all the options, considered the usability and user research data and delivered a product that just works.That is what information Architecture is. So how do you do it? We will discuss a basic schema, various tools and resources to help you get started as well as key terms and phrases that will allow you to escalate your career.

4p: Dedrick Sprick-OHSU Progressive Content Strategy: A content commitment model There are a lot of hurdles to overcome for managing content well on any site. Managing content well includes knowing your website, scheduling tasks, getting the resources together, staying on top of trends and responding to visitor needs. Learn how to tackle this monumental task one step at a time, so your team can grow with your website.  

We can have only 80 guests/session, so it's all first come, first served, so make sure you're on time! 

Also, food and drink is allowed, but not provided. Please go to Floyd's Coffee across the street or People's Sandwich of Portland to find food, or bring your own.

Afterparty @Backspace 'til whenever. Please register through Eventbrite for this. http://worldiadaypdx2013.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see you all here!  

It's Show and Tell time at PDX-UX. We will be showing off two applications, one that is brand new and almost finished and another that's going through some updates based on usability studies. Come down and see what some of your fellow Portlanders are working on. Questions and constructive criticism from the audience is encouraged. Networking, snacks, drinks and beer start at 5:30, presentations start at 6:00.

Caleb Sayan, Founder of Blue Rider Design

BLUE RIDER DESIGN, based in Portland, Oregon houses and maintains the Andrea Aranow Textile Archive a private international a collection of 26,000 textiles and original artwork. In 2009, the studio began the process of digitizing and cataloging the entire archive to provide greater access and utility for the collection.
Currently we are developing a unique web application to showcase the archive. The application allows users to navigate the archive's rich visual content based on a variety of criteria including subject, style, era, color, origin, technique and material among many others. It uses node.js, CouchDB, Solr, and jQuery as its main technologies.
Combining the extraordinary physical design archive with its innovative digital counterpart we strive to inspire the next generation of designers.

Roger Gilliam, New Relic

Roger Gilliam is a designer/developer at New Relic with a background in graphic and web design, usability, UX, and development. A designer / developer at New Relic is responsible for visual design, and implementation of those designs into our CORE customer facing product.

New Relic is the all-in-one web application performance tool that lets you see performance from the end user experience, through servers, and down to the line of application code. We at New Relic are passionate, possibly even crazy, about application performance management (APM). Our mission is to make web applications run better, to make the internet more productive, and to make life easier for developers and devops.

Vitamin T, "The Talent Agency for Digital Creatives", will be at the event. If your looking to network with first class recruiters, this is a great opportunity.

Agenda:

• Snacks, Beer and Networking 5:30 - 6:00
• Presentation and discussion: 6:00-7:30 or so 

Join our google group here - http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-ux?hl=en  Don't forget to follow us on twitter - @PDXUX -  https://twitter.com/#!/PDXUX

Henrik Joreteg – “Avoiding the Spaghetti” Clientside code doesn't have to be an ugly cluttered mess. Building clean, sane, maintainable client-side applications is indeed possible. We'll talk a bit about CommonJS on the client, properly abstracting a model layer, the DOM as a dumb view layer, sharing code between client/ server and other techniques for avoiding insanity like automated static code analysis. 

Henrik is a partner and lead JS developer at &yet (http://andyet.net), a boutique web software company in Richland, WA. He's a member of a growing group of javascript developers who are blazing the trail of realtime and single-page web application development and server-side javascript. Let’s put it this way: the dude cannot shut up about node.js, backbone, and socket.io. 

He is the primary developer for &bang (http://andbang.com) and has written a slew of single-page real-time web apps using a number of technologies. He recently spoke at NodeConf and KRTConf and was a technical reviewer for O'Reilly's JavaScript Web Applications. He is the author of the popular open source javascript templating solution, iCanHaz.js and as an early adopter of Backbone.js wrote several definitive blogposts on the subject. 

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This month we’re discussing the “Value of Bad Ideas.” When we create, we try to do the best work we can. There's not room for failure, but within the messy grey area of the creative process, there's plenty of room for bad ideas. In fact, bad ideas can often lead to the best solutions.

Our speaker, Ben Cerezo, helps make things simple to understand and intuitive for people to use. Ben’s background - From logo and identity development to complex application and web design, Ben has spent nearly ten years designing solutions to a variety of communications and design problems for clients of all sizes. He believes in the power of open collaboration and enjoys working with other designers, development engineers and clients, from discovery and strategy through implementation.

RSVP here: http://plancast.com/p/bv7u

When: June 28, 2012 Snacks, Beer and Networking 5:30 - 6:00 Presentation and discussion: 6:00-7:30 or so 

Where: 34 NW 1st Avenue, 3rd floor Portland, OR 97209 

Join our google group here - http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-ux?hl=en  Don't forget to follow us on twitter - @PDXUX - https://twitter.com/#!/PDXUX

Quantified Self is a self-organizing group of people interested in technology to measure and improve their health, happiness, and effectiveness. Free to the public -- new members welcome! Agenda:

• 6-630pm -- Food and networking
• 630-8pm -- Brief intro to QS for newbies, then show-and-tell sessions, including stories from the PDX Vibrant Data Hackathon
• 830pm -- Optional after-meetup at an area pub

Join us!

Imagine a world in which data becomes a personal asset that works on behalf of our personal interests and communities. Everyday, apps like yours could control how to send their data out into the world to circulate and bring back value to users. Certainly this would require a change in the way the world views data today, and in the infrastructure that enables it to flow freely while protected. This event is a first step in building that infrastructure for the benefit of all.

Consider the prospect of Facebook, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn and other data silos bidding against each other for what data you might provide. What kinds of data might be the most interesting? How could that value be enhanced? How could you collect it with minimal effort? How would your privacy be protected? What could you get in return?

At this event you’ll pick a particular type of personal data and build an app to show how its value as a personal asset can be enhanced. The app can be mobile, desktop, web or something else.

About Vibrant Data

Inspired by the Arab Spring popular uprisings’ use of Facebook and Twitter, The Vibrant Data Project is trying to understand the development landscape that is giving rise to the Gutenburg press of our era: disruptive communication and commerce vehicles that have the potential to overthrow corrupt regimes, spread new ideas, broaden economic opportunity, improve health and well being and aid in the fight for social justice and human rights.

We’re back from a quick restructuring period. This month’s meeting we’d like to hear from y’all! We’re looking for three to four presenters who are interested in showcasing their latest project. Show us your work and get feedback and discussion from the audience. Whether it's a design for an upcoming project or a post-mortem on something you've just launched, we’d love to hear from you. As usual we’ll provide snacks, drinks, networking and discussions.

Who: Anyone interested in discussing or showcasing their newest user interface and user experience development and design projects.

When: Thursday, May 17th Snacks, drinks and networking at 5:30 Demos start at 6:00 and will wrap up by 7:00ish

This month's topic: Giving your Application Thumbs

Mobile phone texting (txting) is now ubiquitous - a comfortable UI to everybody that has a cell phone. With most age groups, the time spent texting far exceeds time making voice calls. Logically, Java developers should be considering txt interfaces to their applications.

We will look at adding mobile txt interfaces to three applications: - A mobile web healthcare application with group push txt notification to other caregivers of an event - An iPad POS web application for ordering from your car via txt from your mobile phone - An installed Swing application to display group txting for public display

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Speaker: Jon Batcheller

Jon is the founder of PJUG and Java architect and UI developer for RealPage in Wilsonville, OR. He has been writing in Java since his first taste in version 0.9, 17 years ago! In addition to being a code monkey, Jon is a licensed Veterinarian, owns two bars, is an auctioneer and in his spare time teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology at PCC. Having never missed a JavaOne since their inception in 1996, he hopes to see you there in the Fall!

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

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

Many people also go for a drink and further discussion following the meeting, at a location determined ad hoc.

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

We are going to switch it up this month with PDX-UX's first group workshop. We'll present you with a small UX challenged interface in need of some pretty, some information design and even some data visualization skills. You and your peers will form groups and nosh on some solutions. Bring your brains and a laptop if you have one, and we'll provide the pens, giant pads of paper, food and drinks. We'll also be giving away some free books on data visualization courtesy of O'Reilly Media.

This meeting is sponsored by Thetus Corporation and O'Reilly Media

We are going to switch it up this month with PDX-UX's first group workshop. We'll present you with a small UX challenged interface in need of some pretty, some information design and even some data visualization skills. You and your peers will form groups and nosh on some solutions. Bring your brains and a laptop if you have one, and we'll provide the pens, giant pads of paper, food and drinks. We'll also be giving away some free books on data visualization courtesy of O'Reilly Media. Please RSVP at Plancast! http://t.co/yVvPR5qt

January’s meeting will be devoted to UX Wireframing tools.

Damon Eckhoff will be presenting on OmniGraffle Josh Marinacci will be presenting on Leonardo Sketch

We have one more presentation slot available and we’re hoping to find someone who can talk about Axure. If you or someone you know uses this tool and can demo it for 15-20 minutes, please let us know. We’re open to including other tools as well!

Food, Beer and Networking 5:30-6:00 Presentations: 6:00-7:30 or so

We'd like to dedicate this month's meeting to HTML5. If you want to see some great apps built by local talent and get the skinny on HTML5 and CSS3 (the good, the bad and the the ugly) then make sure to mark your calendar.

We could always use more presenters! Do you or someone you know have a great app built in HTML5 or CSS3? Then come show it off or get some community feedback!

If you would like to present but it doesn't fit into the HTML5 topic, no sweat - just let us know if you're interested in presenting!

Join our google group here - http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-ux?hl=en

Don't forget to follow us on twitter - @PDXUX - http://twitter.com/#!/PDXUX

Who doesn’t love to be part of something new? Join us for the very first meeting of the PDX-UX user group! This month, we’ll have three to four demos from local companies showcasing the latest techniques in UX and UI development and design. We will provide free food, drinks, networking and discussions.

Who: Anyone interested in discussing or showcasing cutting-edge user interface and user experience development and design. We’d also love to meet some exciting and motivated potential employees, so feel free to invite your talented designer and developer friends!

When: Thursday, September 29th Food and networking at 5:30 Demos start at 6:00 and will wrap up before 7:00

Where: Thetus Corporation 34 NW 1st Avenue (corner of 1st and Couch) 3rd floor Portland, OR 97209

---Google Group--- We’ll be meeting the 3rd Thursday of every month in the same location--if you’d like to join and/or you're interested in getting updates for future meetings, join our PDX-UX Google Group! http://groups.google.com/group/pdx-ux?hl=en

Interactive is not a goal - it is a way of thinking and approaching problems. Though we have orders of magnitude more power at our fingertips, real interactivity is still illusive - but it need not be.

Interactive applications have been a multi-decade goal. Flex is yet another in a long history of frameworks for delivering interactive applications, but technology alone does not an interactive application make. You need to understand the problems, existing solutions and techniques for solving the problem, and the user of the application. Fast is never enough, because the complexity will grow until the app is not fast enough and pain limits what the user can do, underscoring the perception of your app - what the pain prevents me from doing vs. what the lack of pain enables me to do. Scaling is the name of the game - let's talk about bigger problems than you can imagine.

Speakers

Roy Hall has been writing interactive graphic applications for more than 30 years. Trained in civil engineering and architecture, he started writing 3D interactive apps for stadium roof design on E&S PSII's in the late 70's. He later wrote the rendering pipeline for Robert Abel and Associates (Tron - sucking Flynn into the computer and throwing him back out); was the system architect for Wavefront Technologies (Science and Technology Academy Award for that) - and which through many morphs is now the Maya animation software; was an Assistant Professor at Cornell's Program of Computer Graphics; wrote the 'Joey 3D toolkit' extensions for Microsoft MFC in the 90's; worked on the interaction model for Sketchup; and is now the CTO for Thetus Corporation.

Writing Testable code. You all know by now that you should be unit testing your code, but do you know how? It is unfortunately really easy in flex to architect code which is very difficult to test. In this session, we will explore how to build components and applications in flex which are inherently testable, and see how we test them.

Join us Thursday, October 14, for food and networking at 5:30 PM sponsored by Thetus Corporation in association with the PDXRIA User Group. Our speaker, Michael Labriola starts at 6 PM.

Michael Labriola is a Senior Consultant at Digital Primates and the Lead Developer for FlexUnit 4. He has been developing Internet applications since 1995 and working with Flex since its 1.0 beta. Michael is an Adobe Certified Instructor, Community Professional, and co-author of the Flex 2, 3 and 4 Training from the Source books and Breaking out of the Browser with Adobe AIR.

As an international speaker and team mentor on Flex and AIR projects, he has consulted for many of the world’s most recognized brands. His free time is spent escaping from technology through wine and food.

RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6735069/OR/Portland/Flex-and-Maven-a-joint-event-by-Thetus-Corporation-and-PDXRIA-User-Group/Thetus-Corporation/ Your RSVP enters you in a raffle for a Powell's gift card!

Join us Thursday, September 16, for food, networking and a look at building and deploying Flex applications with Maven. We invite experienced Flex application developers to bring their resumes and meet Thetus Flex developers.

Building and deploying complex Flex applications is a challenge. How do you ensure repeatable builds that are correct on multiple platforms and in multiple IDEs? Maven is one tool that has been long used in the Java community to provide application lifecycle (build, test, deploy) functionality that is standard across projects. By utilizing a common filesystem layout and a predefined set of goals or targets (the Project Object Model, POM), you can easily move between projects without having to learn the intricacies of each project's build and deployment setup. Modern IDEs such as Eclipse and IDEA have support for loading Maven POM files and configuring projects automatically. Recent additions to Maven (flex-mojos) allow this same power to be applied to Flex as well. I'll show practical examples of how Maven works in a mixed Java/Flex project that deploys to the Amazon cloud.

Christopher Mason is a Flex developer at Thetus corporation. A refugee from bioinformatics, Christopher has focused for more than 10 years on building applications that aren't afraid of large information sets and that scale both from a technology and a user-understanding perspective.

Meeting starts at 6 PM. Food and networking at 5:30 PM sponsored by Thetus Corporation in association with the PDXRIA User Group.

RSVP: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/6735069/OR/Portland/Flex-and-Maven-a-joint-event-by-Thetus-Corporation-and-PDXRIA-User-Group/Thetus-Corporation/ Your RSVP enters you in a raffle for a Powell's gift card.

Join us March 4th for an evening of local, sweet Flex and Flash demos, food and beer, and a look ahead. We invite experienced Flex application developers to bring their resumes for speed interviewing with Thetus VP of Client Services.

Sponsored by Thetus Corp and in association with the PDXRIA User Group.

Ryan Stewart, Adobe's Flash Platform evangelist, will get things started with a talk on cutting edge Flash Platform features. Ryan will be raffling a free copy of Adobe CS4 Master Collection.

Then, we're on to Flex demos from: Matt LeGrand (Multi-touch capability with Flex); Rob Reinhardt (videoRx.com); and Thetus (Savanna UI platform).

That gives us time for a round of lightning presentations from community members and breakouts for code looks. Finally, don’t miss a chance to win as we raffle off the Adobe CS4 Master Collection.

Meeting starts at 6 PM. Food and networking at 5:30 PM sponsored by our host, Thetus Corporation.

Your RSVP enters you in the Adobe CS4 raffle. Let us know in your RSVP if you'd like to present your work during our lightning round.