PDX Web Innovators

We had ten excellent gatherings in 2008. New Year's Day seems like an apporiate time to look back, as we get excited for 2009.

Mobile Web with Jason Grigsby: It was hard not to be excited about the mobile web and the possibilities after Jason's presentation (slides and audio).

Getting Down to Business: Attorney Kevin Spence and accountant Lynn S. Hoyle answered questions and gave business and tax advice at a busy time of year.

CMS Wars!: Three fellow innovators represented content management systems they use often. Drupal, Expression Engine and even WordPress were compared. See my write-up of the event.

Reimagining the Wiki with Ward Cunningham: The wiki inventor led a group discussion about what features would be in the wiki if it were invented today.

A Tale of Two .orgs with Andy Baio: Andy told about creating Upcoming, selling it to Yahoo and his meme-tastic life as proprietor of Waxy.

Demolicious:Five fellow Portlanders showed their side projects and businesses at the first-ever DEMOlicious.

Toonlet's Story:Craig Schwartz and Seth Ladygo talked about their site, subsisting on a gift from a kind uncle and the crazy place it's landed them (like the cover of Oregon Business Magazine and inside the office of the guy Jeremy Piven's Entourage character is based on).

Demolicious: Now a quarterly event, there was much interest in both presenting and attending Demolicious. We're all interested to see what others are working on.

Social Network Spaghetti with Scott Kveton: The pieces are there, Scott says, for creating the web we want: OpenID, OpenAuth, OpenSocial and even Facebook Connect.

State of Portland Tech with Rick Turoczy:The Silicon Florist led a discussion about where the Portland tech scene has come in 2008 and what lies ahead in the next year. See my write-up.

Thanks very much to those who presented in 2008. Your enthusiasm makes for great events! Also, a big thanks to the companies who hosted our meetings: Nemo Design, AboutUs, ISITE Design, CubeSpace and Vidoop.

Lastly, thanks to those who attend, especially the regulars. The PDXWI meetings work because you come and participate. I hope to see you all at next week's Demolicious and the first Wednesday of every month.