Dyepot, Teapot

I’ve been meaning to write about my personal technology toolkit for a few weeks. Reading about executive dashboards at Jive reminded me again.

My main goals are to be able to connect with people, keep track of what friends and colleagues are up to, and spot emerging patterns in my areas of interest as they’re happening.

Component A: Google Reader

Recently I reorganized my feeds to be sorted by XFN tags, plus a few other categories. I stretched the definitions a bit.

• “Neighbor” is anyone in the Portland metro area.
• “Colleague” refers to anyone working on something I consider related to my own professional interests, whether they’re technically in the same field or not.
• “Contact” includes feeds from my contacts on Flickr, Ma.gnolia, and del.icio.us.
• “Muse” is any blog not in one of those categories that I’m excited or inspired to see. It creates some interesting emergent behaviors.

I can tell when my mom posts because suddenly I have new items under “parent”, “neighbor”, “met”. It creates an interesting subconscious motivation to read the posts by the people I have the most connection with first, because the game of using a feed reader is to make the numbers (unread post counts) all move toward zero, and what does that faster than reading items that are counted in more than one category?

I also have a few tags that have nothing to do with my relationship with the feeds’ writers.

• “News” encompasses both traditional news sources, and the blogs of companies whose services I use.
• “Fun” is my daily comics, plus a couple of low-volume sites like The Food Whore.
• “Research” is for search feeds on my name, projects I’m working on, and other things where I want to know if there’s new mentions somewhere.
• “Bucket” is the category for everything else. I’m interested enough to subscribe, but not enough that it’s in another category. I skim it when I’m bored or procrastinating (which are often the same thing).

This is already pretty long, so I’ll save the other pieces for other posts.

I’m reading Everyware, by Adam Greenfield, and finding it perfect timing with the discussion of Google’s new social graph API (see Marshall K.’s summary if you need a primer).

This is Thesis 35 in Everyware: “Everyware surfaces and makes explicit information that has always been latent in our lives, and this will frequently be incommensurate with social or psychological comfort.” Sounds like a pretty good description of the current conversation. It might be okay to expose that information. It might not. Maybe it’s inevitable. Regardless, if the decision is made solely by technologists, other people lose.

This isn’t information that people know they’re creating, like posting a picture or emailing someone. Google is mapping the network of connections between people, created as they go about other tasks. And it’s information that we consider very personal. I already feel awkward if someone adds me as their friend on Facebook and I don’t want to add them back.

I’m increasingly aware of the privilege I experience because I know how to write software. I understand how the tech works. I’m also in a position where nothing Google could expose would irreparably harm my career or personal life. I am not typical.

One of the things we’re trying to do with Calagator is to create software for and by people. Not developers. Maybe not even technologists. How can we know whether our project will meet the needs of the community it intends to serve, without inviting everyone to participate in its development? I want to see the social graph movement take this on as well. Open the conversation and explain what’s at stake.

Over the last few weeks a group of Portland tech community members have started work on a project to create a single community-wide calendar site. It’s just in the initial stages, but we have a site up, and a project blog where you can learn more. Most of the development will happen at bi-weekly Code Sprint meetings, with the next one on February 2nd. These are open to not just developers, but any interested community member who would like to attend. People can help by writing code, working on the user interface, planning, research, or even just blogging and otherwise documenting our work.

If you’d like to participate, sign up for the discussion group and introduce yourself. Hope to see you there.

Since January, Raven Zachary has been posting daily profiles of Portlanders at Portland on Fire. I was featured on January 8, and I really enjoy reading each profile as it’s posted. It’s neat seeing what other people are interested in and working on. If you live here, you can submit a profile too.

I don’t often read Scobleizer[3] but his job change announcement caught my attention yesterday.

In particular, this part explaining reasons for moving to Fast Company rather than start his own business:

I want to build communities that lead to interesting events. But if I did my own business, running an event team would have to wait until I got my business on solid ground. That could be a year or more. That would mean opportunities lost. Fast Company and Inc have awesome event and marketing teams — I’ve been to their events and if I wanted to build a team like that it’d take capital, time, and talent that I don’t have.

Maybe it takes all that time and capital to do a big corporate conference, but when I see “community”, I think of what we’re doing here in Portland with the user groups and Ignite and Legion of Tech… and absolutely none of that required formal event or marketing teams, money up front, or things of that sort. These events are happening because some of us started going around and talking to people about doing something fun in our spare time. It’s amazing what you can pull of with a small group of volunteers, and the act of planning and running an event creates community in itself.

People shouldn’t be intimidated that they have to do it big. Simple works well: a space donated by Free Geek or CubeSpace, a company or two chipping in as pizza sponsors, recruiting a few people to talk about fun stuff they’re doing, and emailing everyone we know to show up. That’s really all you need to start. Maybe things grow from there, maybe not. Either way you’ll meet people and learn something new.

There’s details, of course, especially when you start to grow. Legion of Tech[1] is working[2] on a guidebook to what we know about running events, so hopefully soon I’ll be able to point people to that as well.

[1] Which is a non-profit corporation, but mostly because the things we’ve been planning started to involve more cash and liability than any one person should be responsible for. We could get by without a formal legal organization (and did, for the first Portland BarCamp and Ignite), it just makes bigger events harder to manage.

[2] By working I mean that I think we have a couple of wiki pages set up to start writing things down.

[3] Why? It makes me feel like we’re from different planets, and not in an interesting way.

There’s some interesting things coming up in the new year for Portland geeks. Ignite will be back on February 5th at the Bagdad Theater. You can submit a proposal to talk anytime between now and January 15th. We’re also looking for sponsors.

Putting on big events like Ignite or BarCamp requires all sorts of resources (sponsorships, volunteers, friendly spaces) and coordination. In order to do this more effectively, we’re starting a non-profit organization called Legion of Tech. I’m excited to be involved as a board member. We’ll be the umbrella organization for future Ignite, BarCamp, and Startupalooza events. We’re also looking at other ways we can support the Portland tech community.

One of my personal projects, the PDX Groups wiki and calendar, continues to grow, thanks to help from several local community members. Since I started this, I’ve heard from a lot of people who want to see the calendar become a better tool for everyone. So one of my new year’s projects will be to try to connect all of the people who want to work on this, and try to make that happen. We have a really friendly and active tech community forming here, and the more tools we have for connecting people with resources that match their interests, the better.

Portland Art Center, one of my favorite First Thursday stops, has been going through difficult financial times. This fall they invited interested local artists to decorate a square wood panel for a December fundraiser show. A piece of my own textile experimentation will be on display, along with ~300 other works. It should be really interesting to see what everyone created.

They’re having an opening reception tomorrow from 6-10PM, in the main gallery at NW 5th & Couch. Panels sell for $300. 75% of that goes directly to PAC, and the Henry Hillman, Jr. Foundation is providing a matching grant up to $20,000. This fundraiser will determine whether PAC can continue to operate into the new year, so I really encourage everyone to go look, and tell your friends.

Lucas and I are on our annual Thanksgiving Vegas Vacation right now. We spent the weekend in downtown Las Vegas, but most of this week we’ll be in Arizona, with two nights back downtown at the end.

I’m feeling a little sour about our first night’s accommodations. Shortly after we checked in at the Golden Gate Hotel, someone tried to run a test transaction with a company I’ve never heard of on the credit card I used to make the reservation. Fascinating old hotel, but I’d rather stay someplace that doesn’t cause me to spend my morning on the phone with a fraud department.

Saturday we had a really wonderful dinner at Bouchon. Fabulous food, friendly service, entertaining people watching at adjacent tables. I want to go back… as soon as I can afford it.

Our plan from here is a Route 66 adventure, Ash Fork to Topock, returning back to Lucas’ mom’s house in Golden Valley for Thanksgiving. Rusty abandoned gas stations await.

Silicon Florist has a round-up of links from last night’s Ignite Portland event. I had a great time. Those five minutes go really, really fast.

Here’s some links to follow up on my talk.

That binary scarf pattern is available on Knitty. Knitty is a great resource for interesting, attractive patterns, and they’re all free. It’s published as a quarterly online magazine.

The sweater percentage diagram came from Knitting in the Old Way, by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman, is another great book for learning how to make a sweater that fits you, using any yarn you’d like. The method of designing by percentage comes from her.

If you’re just getting started, Stitch & Bitch by Deb Stoller (editor of Bust Magazine), has really good illustrations showing exactly how knit stitches are formed, as well as detailed explanations of how to fix common mistakes.

The “knitting 2.0″ site I mentioned is called Ravelry. It’s still in invite-only beta, and the waitlist is long (but moving as fast as they can handle), but as someone who uses a lot of “social” sites, I am really impressed with this one. It seems to do exactly what it needs to, no more, no less.

And for online knitting entertainment, the queen is Yarn Harlot. She has four books out, one of which won the 2006 Ben Franklin Award for humor.

Did I leave anything out? Leave a comment and I’ll add the needed links.

Ha, maybe I do want to write.

To my occasional embarrassment, sometimes I get in the habit of watching a lot of tv while knitting. Especially shows like What Not to Wear and America’s Next Top Model, which send Lucas running. One recent Saturday, I saw an episode of ANTM where Janice Dickenson (former model and full time crazy person) was teaching the girls the difference between posing for editorial and catalog photos, and it clicked with something I’ve noticed about how people respond to fashion content.

Editorial photos are what Vogue does with those multi-page articles showing Keira Knightly on the savanna. Catalog is more obvious; it’s what you see in department store ads and mail-order catalogs and anywhere a retailer is trying to convince you that you, too, could be that woman in the turtleneck and boot-cut jeans. Models pose differently for these two kinds of pictures (check this yourself: where are they looking? are they smiling? what about posture?) but the way the clothing is styled is different too.

A catalog image needs to convince you that you can wear something. The people will look happy. They’re probably standing straight and looking at the camera. The clothing will be styled to reflect the buyer’s (presumed) lifestyle, without a lot of elements you’d have to be highly exhibitionistic to pull off. But editorial photos are meant to do something else. They’re more conceptual, less practical. The focus is on inspiring the reader and evoking a mood. Runway shows will do this too. They’re trying to sell you on an idea.

But people outside the fashion industry aren’t necessarily tuned in to this distinction, and are often more focused on ‘can I wear that?’ than ‘ooh, I want to be a Baroque German Princess too!’. So you get complaints that the models in Vogue Knitting are wearing tutus with their sweaters, or there’s no camisole under the sheer blouse, or something else along those lines. Our habits for evaluating clothing are more practical, less imaginative, and we don’t automatically analyze ‘how could I make that work for me?’. I don’t think that’s bad, but it’s an interesting tension to observe. It probably has applications elsewhere, too. Are we selling an idea, a mood? Or an item to plug into someone’s existing needs and lifestyle?

As a footnote, this is what’s interesting about ’shopping’ magazines like Lucky. Their aim is to take these concepts and break them down into things the reader can directly buy or do, bridging the gap. They identify trends and break out the components, and then show multiple versions so the reader can find one they like. If you’re interested in staying fashionable without spending a lot of time on it or hiring a stylist, this is perfect.