Monthly Archive for January, 2009

Beer and Blog’s 5th Friday Flame Fun

Crowdsourcing the End of Joblessness

Crowdsourcing the End of Joblessness

It was standing room only at last Saturday’s End Joblessness event. Did you make it? An estimated 65-75 people did, all of us squeezed into OTBC’s new home in Beaverton, Oregon for pizza, beer and conversations about gainful employment.

We heard from several representatives of projects and organizations looking for qualified people for tech-focused positions in the area, such as Avatron, the Mainz Brady Group, the Democracy Lab, APCON, and KC Distance Learning.

Sean Harry of the social networking site Career Crossroads was there too, spreading the word about his goal to help people get into jobs that make them happy.

Not offering jobs, but instead dazzling us with Web 2.0 wizardry, was Magic Seth. What fun to see what tricks he has up his sleeve!

We hope you can make it to the next End Joblessness event. In the meantime, how about a beer and a blog?

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. And if it’s selected it will playback on the silver screen February 19th. Beery cool!

You know, you’d better start thinking up something to say. Just remember, 15 seconds can feel like 15 hours in front of the camera. Here are my Professional Video Tips: Don’t wear white. Also, for the Love of Pete, abstain from going the Liquid Courage routine. Trust me on that one. =)

RSVP on upcoming.org or Calagator

Published
by
Michelle aka mediaChick
on January 30, 2009
in Events
. 0 Comments

End Joblessness – A mini job fair

Back in December it was suggested that we should do a mini job fair to help out the local scene during this down economy. So, we’re organizing End Joblessness to give potential employers and job seekers a chance to come together (over beers of course). We’ll be meeting at OTBC on Saturday, January 24th from 12:00-3:00pm.

End Joblessness at OTBC

Saturday, January 24th from 12:00-3:00pm

Job Fair Agenda

  • 12:00-1:00pm will be mingling and a beer;
  • 1:00-2:00pm employers will get 2 minutes to share their jobs, contracts, and opportunities with the group;
  • 2:00-3:00pm work seekers chat with employers to explore working together

Help us get the word out!

Most of the people we’re hoping to reach are either to far outside of our social circles or are offline completely. We could use your help in letting people know about this free job fair. We’re looking for people offering jobs, contracts, and opportunities; as well as those in need of such things.

Why is this free?

Because we’re a community, and if we can’t help ourselves, then not even Obama can.

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 21, 2009
in Events
. 10 Comments

1 year anniversary, job fair, and 15 Seconds of Flame, oh my!

Cake So much is going on, and I’ve just got back from Vegas to blog about it all! Speaking of Vegas, Christine and I attended Beer and Blog Las Vegas this past Thursday while we were there. We had an awesome time and they had a great turn out with at least 30 people attending!

This Friday we’re going to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of our first Beer and Blog meet up. Naturally, this calls for a celebration!! So, we’re going to have a cake and maybe some party hats :)

At this Friday’s meet up, Legion of Tech asked if they could set up to record 15 Seconds of Flame videos for the upcoming Ignite Portland 5. They wanted to make it easier for folks that want to make a video, but may not have the equipment or the skillz. I told them hell yes we want you guys to record some 15 Seconds of Flame clips!! So, make your hair look pretty and wear your Friday best cause you might have enough beers to feel like stepping in front of the lens.

Also, this Saturday we’re holding a mini job fair at the OTBC from noon to 3pm. I will do a follow up post with more details either later today or early tomorrow. If you know people that are hiring, have contract work, or are looking for sweat equity opportunities; have them contact Michelle so we can give them 2 minutes to share their opportunity with our attendees. Similarly, if you know someone looking for a job, project, or opportunity; please invite them down too.

As usual, you may RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator.

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 21, 2009
in Announcements
. 4 Comments

We’re growing, again! Come celebrate!

Last Saturday’s End Bloglessness workshops were blogtastic, were they not? A huge success, I’d say. Many, many people arrived ready to be workshopped into shape. One couple built their wedding Web site, and several business blogs went up as well. You can be sure there will be more valiant strides towards the End of Bloglessness. Oh, yes.

I’m wondering, though, how many blogs actually DID go up. Please leave a comment and let us know?

(Special knuckle dap to @endlessmonkeys for his steadfast hand-holding assistance in deploying my first WordPress self-hosted installation EVER.)

Here’s a panorama pictorial of the event:

Furious Ending of Bloglessness

Furious Ending of Bloglessness

Lookit all the intense blog-making! That’s my fellow Beer and Blog comrade, the Mistress of Organizer Affairs @verso herself in the back. She’s talking about connecting with people through twitter. What a whacky idea! It would be great to see everyone identified on the Flickr image. Get over there and ID yourselves, please.

And onto official Portland Chapter Provost business: there’s a change of schedule. Instead of celebrating our First Birthday this Friday as planned, we’ll be doing it next week instead (January 23rd). The following day (January 24th) will be our mini job fair.

Now, I hate postponing joviality as much as you do, but it was out of necessity. Justin and Christine, Mr. and Mrs. Beer and Blog, felt compelled to celebrate their legally wedded union with a trip to Sin City. I say, what took you so long?? And it’s not all pleasure, folks. There are plans to launch the latest Beer and Blog chapter: Las Vegas. That took – what? – a day or two from Aaron Hockley’s WordCamp Las Vegas presentation entitled Beyond Beer and Blog: How Social Media Lit Up the Portland Tech Scene to inspire a chapter there. I think we’re onto something.

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!

And as for Justin and Christine: remember, while the cat’s away….meow!

RSVP on Upcoming or Calagator, if you are so inclined.

Published
by
Michelle aka mediaChick
on January 12, 2009
in Events
. 9 Comments

End Bloglessness quick start guide

Attendees of End Bloglessness can do these three things to help us start quickly:

  1. Buy your hosting package and domain name. Not sure who to use? Try Bluehost.com. Domain name is free with a 1 year purchase (we don’t get any money from you hosting with them).
  2. Download the plugins we’ll be installing at http://www.beerandblog.com/plugins.zip
  3. Download the theme we’re going to start you out with http://getk2.com/download/

Ok, looking forward to seeing you all soon!!

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 10, 2009
in Announcements
. 1 Comment

New approach for topics

So, the hosting talk was difficult. Not for the reasons that I expected, however. I was anticipating a lively debate over what hosting package was right for a new blogger. Instead, it was hard to hear and tough to follow. Sorry about that!

I’ve heard complaints before about it being hard to hear. A lot more people are showing up these days and it’s impossible to hear now. I was thinking about what to do. Christine mentioned getting another venue. I pointed out that a lot of people talking is noisy no matter where we are. We agreed that we didn’t want to make people stop talking or split the room up as solutions either.

Then it occurred to me. The only time people are working on anything is in the beginning before most people show up. And, it’s quiet then. So, we’re going to start doing topics earlier at 4:15 when you can hear and are still sober. Then as more people show up, the topic will divide into the many wonderful discussions that makes it too hard to hear later. And, if you weren’t there to hear the points shared earlier, you can ask about them from the folks that were there, which gives you the chance to continue the discussion with your fresh perspective.

I felt like a smart monkey coming up with that one. What do you think? Good idea?

* No the kitty in the beer doesn’t relate to the story, but it’s pretty cute, huh? :)

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 10, 2009
in Announcements
. 0 Comments

raincoaster to sponsor End Bloglessness

raincoaster media At the last Beer and Blog I said hi to a new face, Jim, and we talked about a friend of his that works with the homeless on blogging. So, from that serendipitous meeting raincoaster media is now bringing us some beer! This is Beer and Blog afterall :)

About raincoaster media

Tagline: 49 degrees latitude, 360 degrees attitude.
Ten Second Pitch: Social Media with a side of Awesome.

Much thanks to Jim for introducing us to Lorraine! And, much thanks to raincoaster media for your support of End Bloglessness!!

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 9, 2009
in Announcements
. 0 Comments

Having the hosting talk

That’s what we’re doing this Friday. Partially because we’re doing the End Bloglessness workshop this Saturday. And, because hosting is like religion and everyone’s path is different. All bloggers need to check-in with their hosting needs and make sure they are still on the right path.

For those looking to End their Bloglessness this weekend

Coming this Friday is a good way to be ready for Saturday’s workshop because you’ll need your own hosting to follow along with the install process. You can get some help buying your hosting account on Friday, which will make your Saturday smoother. Workshop attendees without hosting will have to take notes and repeat at home later or buy hosting on the spot (which can be stressful when you want to take time to select a domain name).

This will also be a good way to meet some of the folks you’ll be blogging with. They’ll be many happy faces excited to tell you about your upcoming adventures. You may learn that the hosting account you want is different from the one I’ll be sharing about at the workshop.

For the Beer and Blog Regulars

I know I’ve learned a lot about hosting the painful way over the years. Just recently I learned a bit about the unique hosting requirements for WPMU. I still don’t have a hosting company that I love for every project. It would be good to talk about hosting again and see if someone knows the magic hosting package. Think hosting doesn’t matter, I bet you’ll learn something about hosting you didn’t know.

RSVP on Upcoming and Calagator

Hosting packages

When you’re starting out, your hosting needs are pretty simple. Since we’ll be working with WordPress, you’ll need PHP and MySQL, which is fairly common. I recommend staying away from Windows based hosting because it’s usually not set up well for open source applications, like WordPress. Here are a few of the characteristics to look out for:

  • Shared Server – This means you share your server with other websites. Sharing the hardwarre allows hosting companies to offer the accounts for cheaper. Sites with less than 100K visitors per month won’t appreciate the difference between a shared or dedicated server, so save your money.
  • Unlimited features – Hosting has become an inexpensive commodity. Most hosting companies will offer you unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage space, and more. The reason is that they know few accounts actually user their hosting features anywhere near the limits. Steer clear of hosting accounts that impose limits like 1 GB of bandwidth a month because there are enough
  • cPanel, ideally with Fantastico – cPanel is a nicely done graphic interface for managing your server. Having it means you don’t need to use a terminal or Unix commands to do tasks like create an email account or create a database. Fantastico is a sweet feature available for cPanel that is an installer for things like WordPress. So to install a WordPress blog using Fantastico makes it a one-click process. Very handy for the new blogger.
  • 24/7 domestic phone tech support – I know several big name hosting companies that offer 24/7 domestic phone support, so don’t put up with anything less.
  • $10 or less per month – Starting out, you shouldn’t spend more than this or you’re getting hosed.

The further you go in blogging, your needs may become more complex. You might need more bandwidth, more servers, or more privileges. System Administrators and Programmers may want things like shell access or co-location, but these are not concerns for the starting blogger.

Here a few hosting companies that offer the above amenities:

There are some hosting companies that I don’t recommend, such as Go Daddy. They are in the business of upselling, so it’s confusing to work with them because you have to constantly turn down sales pitches.

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 8, 2009
in Announcements
. 3 Comments

End Bloglessness – A half day workshop to get your blog up and running

As part of our one year celebration, we want to offer the past year’s worth of wisdom that we’ve built up to help you launch your blog. We’re looking for all of those folks that have wanted their own hosted blog. End Bloglessness will be a 4 hour, 4 session workshop. We’ll be meeting at CubeSpace on Saturday, January 10th from 12:00-5:00pm.

End Bloglessness at CubeSpace

Saturday, January 10th from 12:00-5:00pm

Session Format

Each session will be 1 hour: 15 minute presentation and 45 minutes of assisted help. During assisted help, attendees can raise their hands to get help from one of our assistants. Assistants are folks from the Portland tech scene that have done this process before who can help you with your questions.

Agenda

  • Session 1 – Install your blog 12:00-1:00pm;
  • Session 2 – Configure your blog 1:00-2:00pm;
  • Session 3 – Stylize your blog 2:00-3:00pm;
  • Session 4 – Connect with other bloggers on Twitter, by Kelly Guimont (@verso) 3:00-4:00pm;
  • 4:00-5:00pm will be an open help time to ask help with anything you’d like.

What to expect

We are focusing on launching WordPress blogs for this workshop. We’re also focusing on self-hosted blogs, so you’ll need a hosting plan and your access information with you at the workshop to get assisted help. Owning your own hosting account, and therefore your blog, is important and the reason we want to do this workshop is to expand access to blog ownership to more people.

By the time you leave the workshop, you’ll have a blog that is ready to go and some direction on how to connect with other local bloggers. We are expecting people from all skill levels, including the technically challenged. Everyone will be treated with respect and will be encouraged.

Help us get the word out!

Most of the people we’re hoping to reach are either to far outside of our social circles or are offline completely. We could use your help in letting people know about this free workshop to get a blog up and running. We don’t care if your motivation to blog is personal, professional, or political; we’ll help you get one up and running.

Why is this free?

We’re hoping to make new friends and be good citizens. We don’t want to be an insular group, so we want to enable others to join. And, because we’re Portlanders inspired by other Portlanders to DIY and that Yes We Can. :)

Help out

If you have experience with installing WordPress, we’d love to have you help answer people’s questions. Contact Michelle if you’re interested in helping!

Published
by
Justin Kistner
on January 7, 2009
in Events
. 20 Comments