Central Oregon Web Professionals Usergroup

December OOPS! and a Tweet-up

2008-12-01T21:01:00.000-08:00

Awww, crud. (Not that kind of CRUD. Wow, you are a geek!) Here it is, December 1 already. What with traveling to the Adobe MAX conference in San Francisco and Thanksgiving in Klamath Falls I was a big slacker and never got around to planning a meeting. I'm sorry, folks!

Hopefully maybe this will tide everyone over...

Tweet-up with Andrew Hyde of Techstars
Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 5:30pm
Blacksmith Restaurant

What's a Tweet-up, you might be asking? It's a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service. (Don't know what Twitter is? Click here to find out.) Not using Twitter yet? Maybe it's time to start! (But you are welcome to attend the Tweet-up, either way!)

Those crazy Bend Twitter folks found another cool guy who's coming to Bend tomorrow and asked us to spread the word.

We're meeting at the Blacksmith for a no-host happy hour to welcome Andrew Hyde. He's the community manager for Techstars, a well known startup incubator in Boulder.

Come meet your fellow techies and Twitter-ers (Twits!) for a purely social networking event after work.

More on Andrew:

Oh hai. My name is Andrew Hyde, and I'm a startup enthusiast. The great company that I work for is TechStars, which is most certainly the finest startup accelerator in the land. I have founded 4 companies, including Startup Weekend and VCwear.

Hope to see you there!

This Event is in partnership with other great local usergroups!

Central Oregon Information Systems User Group (COISUG)
Women in Technology (WoTech)
BendTech
Software Association of Oregon (SAO)

COWPU.GIT

2008-11-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

What:
Mark Turner will make a presentation on Git, the newest rage in version control.

When:
Friday, November 14th 2008
7:00 PM

Where:
The Bulletin
1777 SW Chandler Ave
Bend, OR 97702
(map)

Parking Instructions:
Park wherever you want, just not in the rear of the building.

Bring: Beer and food

November Meeting

2008-10-29T15:24:00.001-07:00

Since the first is on a Saturday, no meeting is planned for November. Hope to see you at the SAO event, "Selling your IT / Tech Business" on Wednesday, November 12th (details here).

COWPU on Rails

2008-10-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 6:30pm
McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Smoke Room

Advanced Ruby on Rails Discussion and Collaboration
Main topics will be Passenger and Git

If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm Going".

O'Reilly Media survey - Win a free book!

2008-10-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

O'Reilly Media is conducting research about in-person, live workshops on software and business topics, and we'd really like your opinion. If you live in the United States and work in the tech industry, please consider taking our 19 question survey to help us understand what you look for in a live training course – what motivates you, what you expect to get out of a workshop, what topics you'd like to see, and so forth.

To participate, please click here

To show our appreciation, we'll select 10 people at random to receive a free book of your choice. The drawing will happen on Friday, October 17, so you'll need to complete the survey by that date to enter. The last question on the survey will ask for your e-mail – we'll use that only to contact the randomly selected winners – and your responses will remain anonymous.

SAO Event: Selling your IT / Tech Business

2008-10-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

Location: McMenamins Old St. Francais School (Bend, OR) - Rambler Room
Date: Wednesday, November 12th 2008
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Cost: $15 for non members
Free for SAO, EDCO, COWPU, COISUG, WoTech and BendTech members!

Bob Chalfin, author of "Selling Your IT Business" will share practical suggestions for leaders to build into their business plan before they consider selling their company.

Click here to find out more, and to register for this event (pre-registration is required).

October Meeting - REMINDER!!

2008-09-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 4:00pm
McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Rambler Room

The Ultimate Web Balance: Brand, Search, Content
(Choosing a company and system for your success)
Click here for the details.

If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm Going".

Thanks to Smart Solutions and the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) for sponsoring this event!

Tweet-up!

2008-09-21T20:16:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 5:00pm
Blacksmith Restaurant
211 NW Greenwood
Bend, OR 97701

BendTech Tweet-up with Julio Fernandez

What's a Tweet-up, you might be asking? It's a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service. (Don't know what Twitter is? Click here to find out.) Not using Twitter yet? Maybe it's time to start! (But you are welcome to attend the Tweet-up, either way!)

From the BendTech Meetup site...

We're planning an impromtu "Meet Up" on Wednesday, requested by Julio Fernandez, via Twitter, who's coming to town to meet with his Bend client, Global Strategies. Julio's flying in from Florida, and it's his first visit to Bend. I figured this is a good excuse for a happy hour event!

Julio is an intersting guy, with experience as Global Marketing Manager at Oracle, and as an Evangelist at Google B2B Technology Council. He also won a Pulitzer while at the Miami Herald.

Specialties:
Metrics, metrics, metrics: Omniture web analytics, SiteCatalyst, Discover, A/B testing, multivariate analysis, behavioral targeting, site auditing, Google Analytics and more.

This will be a casual, no-host get together at the BlackSmith (great happy hour prices on food and drinks!)

Hope to see you there, and feel free to bring friends! Bloggers, Twits, Techies and even marketing people are welcome to attend!

This Event is brought to you by BendTech, in partnership with other great local usergroups!

Central Oregon Information Systems User Group (COISUG)
Central Oregon Web Professionals' Usergroup (COWPU)
Women in Technology (WoTech)
Software Association of Oregon (SAO)

October Meeting

2008-09-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 4:00pm
McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Rambler Room

The Ultimate Web Balance: Brand, Search, Content
(Choosing a company and system for your success)
Presented by Wendy Roe, Smart Solutions

Everything boils down to three things when you are building a successful web site. We’ll review the meat behind the brand, search and content balance to help position your site for ultimate visibility and conversions. Once you have these tools in hand, you’ll have some helpful tips to determining which company and which system to work with. From choosing a CMS to working with a design firm/agency, the balance is the key.

If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm Going".

Thanks to Smart Solutions and the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) for sponsoring this event!

Bring your appetite!

Sodas and heavy appetizers will be provided - including McMenamin's famous cajun tater tots. There will be a cash bar serving beer and wine (or you can mosey over to the Fireside Bar if you prefer a cocktail).

Agenda
4:00pm - Doors open, networking
4:15pm - Announcements and door prizes
4:30pm - Presentation (about an hour)

   ...Can't make it to the meeting, but want to stop by and say "hi"?
    ...Want to ask questions after the meeting?
     ...Haven't finished networking and want to chat?

You'll find us hanging around a fireplace on the patio at O'Kanes (aka "The Grateful Dead Bar") starting at 6pm.

Books, Books, Getyer Books Here!

The O'Reilly Publishing Company is a sponsor of COWPU. Not only do they offer discounts on great tech books on a wide variety of topics... they also offer complimentary review copies to group members. See something you like at their online store? Drop a line to TeeDub with the book title and ISBN number. He'll bring your book to an upcoming meeting. After you have a chance to thumb through the book, write a review and post it to the O'Reilly website.

This Event is in partnership with other great local usergroups!

Central Oregon Information Systems User Group (COISUG)
Women in Technology (WoTech)
BendTech
Software Association of Oregon (SAO)

COISUG Meeting with Sun Microsystems September 16, 2008

2008-09-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Location: McMenamins Old St. Francais School (Bend, OR) - Rambler Room
Date: September 16, 2008
Time: 1:30 PM
Lunch will include Pizza, Tater-tots, and a vegetarian entree

Why show up to hear from Sun?

Sun Open Source Software: Did you know that virtually all Sun's software is Open Source? That's right...go out to our web and start downloading right now. Should you desire to have you installation supported, we are less expensive to support than Red Hat! You might have heard that Sun now owns the world's most popular database, MySQL. Come hear how Sun will be supporting MySQL and optimizing servers for even better MySQL performance! Find out why Linux people lust after dTrace. Find out why Ebay called Solaris a better Linux than Linux and how they reduced search times by over 40% with just a few hours of dTrace tuning.

Sun CMT Servers: Did you know that Sun has servers that do 5x the work of a typical Dell or HP Server, utilize 1/5 the space in the data center and on average use 1/2 the power? Sun has developed the world's first 8 core, 64 thread processor. Learn why and where you should be deploying the greenest server on the planet.

Sun xVM: Looking for an alternative to VMWare? Looking for better deployment methods? Try Sun xVM. xVM Ops Center is a highly scalable, knowledge driven, cross-platform, datacenter management solution; it runs across x86 and SPARC systems, supporting both Solaris and Linux, enabling enterprises to provision and administer both physical and virtual datacenter assets. Sun xVM OC provides a simple way to discover, provision, update, and manage across global IT environments providing average operational savings in the range of 35-60 %.

Sun is a Storage Company: That's right...check us out for Storage. We have all the strorage options you will ever need including Sun's still unique x4500, which provides up to 48 TB's of raw storage for $1 per GB. Find out why all the tech writers won't quit writing about the virtues of ZFS and why ZFS has the storage companies running scared. Oh, and yes, ZFS is open source!

We will be presenting on September 16th and giving away at least one cool prize...but the coolest prizes at Sun are all open source. Go check it out at www.sun.com.

October Meeting, Save the Date!

2008-09-08T15:42:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 4:00pm

Topic: The ultimate web balance between brand, search, content
Location: McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Rambler Room

Agenda:
4:00pm - Doors open, networking
4:30pm - Announcements and door prizes
4:45pm - Presentation

See you there!

Hug A Developer Today

2008-08-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Happy almost-holiday-weekend, everyone!

Footgaming - TONIGHT!

2008-08-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

Footgaming
presented by BendTech
August 26, 5pm
McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Rambler Room

About Footgaming and Judy Shasek: Judy is a Bend resident who has invented a very cool device that can replace a regular computer mouse with a foot operated mouse, for gamers. Judy has the patent, The FootGaming and FootPOWR project are games and peripherals used in consoles like Wii and PS2. FootGaming is an independent company encouraging active game play during thousands of existing casual games (Pogo.com, PopCap, WebKinz World etc). RSVP here if you plan to attend.

Hope to see you tonight!

COWPU's normal meeting schedule will resume on Wednesday, October 1, 2008. We are always looking for speaker nominations and volunteers. Contact Jen if you would like to speak at an upcoming meeting.

In the news...

2008-08-21T11:42:00.001-07:00

COWPU and COISUG got some ink in today's issue of the Bend Bulletin. You can read the article online, here!

Bend Geek Events

2008-08-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

Since the first of September is Labor Day, let's take the month off!

Instead, I hope you will check out a couple of other great tech events planned in Central Oregon.

Microsoft Lunch and Learn
presented by COISUG
August 20, 12:30pm
McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Rambler Room

This will be a great event led by Chris Avis from Microsoft discussing Windows Server 2008 and other Microsoft technologies. If you have yet to attend an event led by Chris, this is your chance, a lot of fun and extremely informative. As always there will be giveaway, sodas, snacks (tater tots, pizza, fruit), and maybe a pint!

Footgaming
presented by BendTech
August 26, 5pm
McMenamin's Old St Francis School - Rambler Room

About Footgaming and Judy Shasek: Judy is a Bend resident who has invented a very cool device that can replace a regular computer mouse with a foot operated mouse, for gamers. Judy has the patent, The FootGaming and FootPOWR project are games and peripherals used in consoles like Wii and PS2. FootGaming is an independent company encouraging active game play during thousands of existing casual games (Pogo.com, PopCap, WebKinz World etc). RSVP here if you plan to attend.

Hope to see you at one, or both of these events!

COWPU's normal meeting schedule will resume on Wednesday, October 1, 2008. We are always looking for speaker nominations and volunteers. Contact Jen if you would like to speak at an upcoming meeting.

August Meeting - TONIGHT!

2008-08-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 1, 2008 at 6:30pm

Topic: Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Location: Vince Genna Stadium

Don't miss out!!

Enjoy a laid back evening at the ball park with the COWPU crew (and maybe some of our friends from BendTech, WoTech, and COISUG). Bring your family, friends, or anyone else you want to cheer, chicken-dance, and do the YMCA with. This will be a great chance to network and enjoy the laid-back fun at the game!

What's that? Did someone say "BEER"? Why yes, they have SEVERAL outstanding brews on tap at Genna Stadium. In addition to Bud and Coors Light they also pour a variety of micros including Golden Glove Ale. It's brewed by Cascade Lakes and available exclusively at Bend Elks games!

Let us know how many seats to save! Click on over and RSVP on Upcoming. See ya there!!

August Meeting

2008-07-15T15:55:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 1, 2008 at 6:30pm

Topic: Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Location: Vince Genna Stadium

Enjoy a laid back evening at the ball park with the COWPU crew. Bring your family, friends, or anyone else you want to cheer, chicken-dance, and do the YMCA with. General admission tickets cost $5/person and you can buy them that night at the stadium or in advance at the "Pro Image" store (Cascade Village Mall).

From the Bend Elks website...

Good old-fashioned baseball is back with the Bend Elks. Everything you love about baseball - Fierce competition. Wooden bats. Beer. And none of the things you don’t - Politics. Huge egos. Crowded parking lots. So get ready for some intense action. There’s no question that these up and comers are hungry to play in the big leagues. Having said that, we recommend you hang on to those autographs.

If you want to let us know you are coming feel free to RSVP on Upcoming. See ya there!!

Agenda:
6:30pm - Gather near the box office so we can enter as a group. If you are late we will save a few extra seats. Hopefully we'll be on the third baseline near the top of the bleachers. (In the shade!)
7:00pm - Game time!

Slides!

2008-07-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

A big COWPU "thanks!!" to Ryan Stevens for his presentation about Cloud Computing at the last meeting. If you missed the meeting, or want to refresh your memory, Ryan was kind enough to upload his slides here.

We have a couple of options for our next meeting.

Our August date would technically fall on Friday, August 1. Would anyone be interested in organizing a social for that evening? Any suggestions for a location?

Another option is to have a regular meeting on Monday, August 4. Kate has reserved a room at OSU-Cascades. If you are interested in speaking or would like to recommend someone let me know.

Post your opinions in the comments, or feel free to give me a call. Looking forward to seeing everyone again, soon!

Meeting Reminder - COWPU meets tomorrow!

2008-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 6:00pm

Topic: Amazon Web Services - Is "Cloud Computing" the answer?
Location: McKay Cottage

Learn more about the topic here. If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm Going".

Hungry? Bring food for yourself... or better yet bring something yummy to share. Thirsty? Beverages are welcome too... as usual! Let us know what you're bringing in the comments or on the upcoming.org page.

Agenda:
6:00pm - Doors open, networking
6:15pm - Announcements and door prizes
6:30pm - Presentation

July Meeting

2008-06-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at 6:00pm

Topic: Amazon Web Services - Is "Cloud Computing" the answer?
Location: McKay Cottage

So you've created a sweet web application... now what? Age old decisions come into play when determining where to host the application, who's going to manage the servers, and how much bandwidth is needed. Is "Cloud Computing" the answer? Can you really just "throw" your application on the cloud and have all your hosting nightmares disappear?

For the next COWPU meeting we will be discussing this new paradigm of cloud computing ushered in by Amazon Web Services. This new way of doing things forces developers and administrators to think in an entirely different way when implementing a solution on the cloud.

Need to serve images and video? Put them on S3 which has NO storage limit.

Need a server farm for a web application? Launch a load balancer, your app servers and database server in 5 min. When that server farm gets hammered with traffic, dynamically (programmatically) launch more app server on the fly... 5, 10, 50- No problem.

Do you have a batch processing task that takes 100 hours to crunch? Launch 100 servers and plow through it in a hour...

Total operational cost: $10.00.

We'll be discussing all the above scenarios as well as any negative downstream effects of cloud computing. Fore as we all know, with any new great way of doing things comes new challenges and considerations.

If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm Going".

Agenda:
6:00pm - Doors open, networking
6:15pm - Announcements and door prizes
6:30pm - Presentation

June Meeting

2008-05-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

June 2, 6:00pm

Topic: Nothing in particular
Location: McKay Cottage

Hello fellow Cowpuddlians!

The first of the month is just around the corner. Our group has McKay Cottage for June 2 at 6pm. The restaurant is offering a nice dinner for anyone that wishes to purchase a meal:

- Warm Goat Cheese Salad (Caramelized walnuts, roasted peppers, mixed greens, goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.)
- Pesto Chicken Pasta (Chicken and radiatori pasta served with a creamy pesto sauce, pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and mushrooms topped with fresh Parmesan.)
- Apple Cinnamon Bread Pudding (Egg bread custard with chunks of tart apples and cinnamon, served with whiskey sauce.)
$11.95

Yummm... sure sounds good, doesn't it?! Please contact Jen directly if you wish to purchase a meal.

There is no speaker for this meeting, unless someone would like to step forward at the last minute. On the other hand, this might be a nice opportunity for us to socialize and chat about our projects and summer plans.

Hope to see you there!

If you are interested in attending please contact Jen, or visit the page for this event at upcoming.org and click "I'm attending".

Agenda:
6:00pm - Doors open, networking
6:15pm - Announcements and door prizes
6:30pm - Dinner is served!

Central Oregon Blogger Meet-up... Take Two!

2008-04-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with jury duty, hosting baby showers, getting hitched, and starting a new gig... so there won't be a May meeting. Sorry! Instead, think about going to the...

Central Oregon Blogger Meet-up
Wednesday, April 30, 5:30ish at the Summit, Downtown Bend
To RSVP visit this event's page on Upcoming and click "I'm Going!", leave a comment, or email me at jenblackledge at gmail.com

The first blogger meetup was a big success! Since then there's been a lot of growth and new folks have popped up in our local "blogosphere". Meetups like this are a nice chance for all of us to gather, unwind, and put some faces together with the blogs.

This event is primarily intended for bloggers who wish to meet other bloggers. If you don't have a blog, then this may not be the get-together for you. So, if you just can't stand not being there and don't already have a blog... what are you waiting for?!

Web Support Tech

2008-04-17T07:28:00.001-07:00

Work at home, flexible hours. Knowledge of web site management (FrontPage or Dreamweaver), Photoshop, email and occasional telephone required. SQL and code experience a plus though not required. Pay is commensurate with experience, initial expectation is 40-80 hrs/month.

Web Mentors has an immediate opening for self-motivated, customer oriented professional. This is an exciting position ideal for someone with their own PC, broadband internet connection and experience managing websites. You will help customers enhance their existing websites by taking text, photos, PDF, audio and video and contributing to the web. Approximately 15% of the support requests are graphical in nature, requiring manipulation in graphic programs such as Photoshop and Fireworks. We have many happy customers and while most work is done online, there is a periodic need to speak by telephone for clarification, and professionalism is a must when doing so. While the initial need is website management, the ideal candidate also has some experience in technologies such as SQL, and web programming. Occasionally updates to the source code are also required and this is an anticipated area of training and growth for the position.

Please email resume and short explanation of your experience in the areas we are seeking as well as availability to begin work.

Read the COWPU job posting policy.

Apr 17th PubTalk - hear the founder of Jive Software

2008-04-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

JOIN US FOR A LIVELY TECH DOUBLE HITTER!

Keynote Speaker: Dave Hersh, Jive Software
As CEO of Jive Software, Dave Hersh is responsible for overseeing the company's strategic direction, planning and implementation. In six short years, Dave has led Jive Software from a small open source project to an Inc. 500 company with 100 percent annual growth rates.

Previously, Dave held the roles of CFO and product strategist at 4charity. Prior to that, he was a management consultant to Hewlett Packard, focused on HP's Worldwide Information Management Strategy. Dave began his career as a strategy and change management consultant at VIA International in Chicago and London.

Dave has gained a reputation for his deep industry knowledge of collaboration, knowledge management and open source, and he is frequently tapped to present at industry events and serve as a media reference. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from DePauw University.

Early Stage Presentation: Lloyd Fassett, Azteria
Lloyd Fassett is CEO and co-founder of Azteria, a Bend-based company specializing in national recruiting and career management for the health care industry. Azteria takes an open database approach to common recruiting problems, making it easier for employer and candidate to connect. Fassett and co-founder Jim Smith bring real world experience to their solution with backgrounds in travel nursing, and software development for enterprise supply chain management and the Internet.

Get ahead of the game and reserve your spot today. Fast forward to valuable networking and save time at the door.

Sign up online, or
Call EDCO offices at 541-388-3236.
Economic Development For Central Oregon
109 NW Greenwood Ave., Suite 102, Bend, OR 97701
(541) 388-3236 or (800) 342-4135

OSCON Discount

2008-04-02T18:17:00.000-07:00

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) is returning to Portland, Oregon. Once again we're offering a special discount to the locals--User Group members in Oregon and Washington. With this "locals only" discount, you get 20% off the registration price for OSCON. Use code "os08pdxug" when you register.

To register, go to: https://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/register

Join the OSCON Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11018041402

Or Contribute to the OSCON 2008 Wiki: http://wiki.oreillynet.com/oscon2008/index.cgi?HomePage

Hope to see you there!