Category: Announcements

Mobile Presentation Posted

After a process that took far too long, I’ve finally managed to publish my slides from last week’s mobile presentation.

The big news out of the event was the announcement of Mobile Portland, a new user group focused on mobile development. We’re currently planning our first meeting for March. Sign up now receive details on our first meeting.

Lots of Delicious Links Coming

Tonight’s Delicious links update may be a bit overwhelming. I had a lot of links open from my research over the last few months that I finally bookmarked and closed out of my RSS reader. I want to apologize in advance for what will surely be a novel of links when it gets posted to the blog later this evening.

Speaking at Web Innovators on Feb 13th

I’m going to be speaking at the PDX Web Innovators February meeting on Mobile Web and the upcoming mobile tsunami. I’m excited to have the opportunity to share my love for the mobile web and possibilities available for businesses and developers.

Here are the details:

Graciously Hosted by Nemo Design
1875 Se Belmont St
Portland, Oregon
February 13th, 7 pm
PDX Web Innovators
RSVP Here

In preparation for this event, I’m going to be starting a series of blog posts talking about the mobile market and how it mirrors the early days of the Internet. These posts are likely going to be posted on Cloud Four’s blog, but I’ll be sure to link to them from here.

Office Warming Party

Note: Cross-posted at http://www.cloudfour.com/19/office-warming-party/.

Please join us as we celebrate the grand opening of our new office space and the birth of our new company:

When:
Thursday, Dec 13th at 5:00pm
Where:
Cloud Four
107 SE Washington St., Suite 440
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 477-5340
Directions
Map (The main entrance to our side of the building is on SE Stark St)

Festive drinks and light appetizers will be served! RSVP if you get a chance (but feel free to drop by).

Cloud Four’s Web Site Launches

Tonight we launched CloudFour.com. Tomorrow we pick up the keys to our new office. Friday we start painting and assembling furniture. If all goes well, we’ll open doors on Monday and start planning our office warming party.

We’re overwhelmed, excited, and anxious. What a remarkable thing it is to start a company. There is really nothing that compares.

So why another web development company? Here’s why.

First, my co-founders and I have spent the last several years doing very similar work, but for a very specific market. In some ways, we’re just continuing what we’ve always been doing, but with a larger public presence and in a different location.

Second, we’re see new opportunities in spaces outside of the niche market we worked in. We see opportunities to:

We’ve also got some exciting side projects. More on that later. ;-)

Finally, we’re thrilled by the idea of building a business and a culture together, continuing to work closely with our former colleagues, and meeting new people tackling interesting challenges.

It’s been three fast months since Guy Kawasaki’s video kept me awake with the realization that I wanted to start my own company. I’m proud to be working with such an amazing group of co-founders, and I’m pleased that we’re all sharing equaling in the creation of the company. We have an all-star team. If this was a pick-up basketball game, I’d feel guilty for having so much talent on one squad.

Most importantly, I find myself going back to what inspired me about that video and what compelled me to choose a different, more risky direction. I believe we have a chance to make meaning—to make an impact—in the lives of others. That means a lot to me.

So that’s what Cloud Four is about. We’ll have more to discuss in the coming months. If you know of someone who can use our services, we would appreciate you pointing them in our direction.

What’s Next: Cloud Four

As many of you may know, I recently left my job of over seven years. In today’s world, it is an amazing thing to stay find a place to work that you believe in and feel passionate about. The first two years I worked at Kavi, I had two bad days. Who else can say that?

I have been incredibly blessed during my time at Kavi. I’m very proud of what the company has become, of the impact it has in the world (just try to buy a computer that doesn’t include a standard being developed on Kavi’s servers), and of the direction the company is headed. I have such admiration, respect, and affection for the people I worked with.

And like most things that have happened since I found Kavi, even my departure has been a good thing. We’re leaving on amicable terms. Kavi has been very supportive of our new venture, and we’re already working together on projects.

So what’s next? Three of my co-workers and I have formed a new company called Cloud Four. We’re going to continue to do web site development and expand our services into areas of interest like performance, analytics, and mobile devices.

I’ll have much more to talk about regarding Cloud Four soon. :-)

Heading to Storage Networking World, SNIA at 10 years

Later this morning, I fly to Dallas for Storage Networking World (SNW). I’m going to visit the Storage Networking Industry Alliance (SNIA) who is one of the sponsors of SNW.

The SNIA is celebrating its 10 year birthday at SNW. I’ve been working with the SNIA for half of that period. I don’t think I’ve seen a period of time when the SNIA had such great sustained momentum as it does right now.

SNIA just launched a major redesign of their Website. The SNIA staff had a plan for the launch. They were organized. And they worked their tails off to make it happen. It was great to watch.

On the technology front, SNIA just announced their Green Storage Initiative. There is a lot of enthusiasm around the idea of reducing energy consumption in data centers.

The future looks very bright for the SNIA, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

On a related note, if you are going to be at SNW or live in the Dallas area, I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a line or contact me via Twitter.