Thoughts & Deeds

The launch of Google Maps’ “Bike There” feature has been a pretty big deal in Portland. After poking around on it a bit, Joseph Rose from the Oregonian asked his Twitter followers if it seemed a little “beta” to them. I replied that it was “very beta” and was even published, though my follow-up tweet wasn’t published and my real point was lost. It wasn’t until I was on a long ride over the weekend that I realized exactly why the Bike There feature felt beta to me. … more

We had an interesting experience in Portland this past weekend when our typically pristine water supply was tainted by e. coli, affecting west-side residents and businesses. That meant that anyone served by the tainted reservoir had to boil their water before using it — which is no big deal for people who are used to camping — and the city government had to get the word out about the contamination. Now that is a pretty big deal. … more

The other night during a New Communicators event idea discussion group,  I had a conversation with Jerry Ketel and Tyesha Snow about the power of inspiration and the idea that all creative companies should subsidize – in some way — inspirational experiences for employees. … more

It’s become a dirty world in the creative community. “Crowdsourcing” often means a business has chosen to ask all-comers to submit responses to the businesses request – be it a logo, web site design, or engineering design for NASA’s next space shuttle – with no guarantee of pay or selection of their submitted work. On one hand, it’s a great way to get the community involved in solving a problem rapidly. … more

September means Bike Commute Challenge month in Portland – a month in which the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the city promote bike commuting by encouraging friendly competition between individuals at local businesses to see who can bike the most in the month. It’s a great idea, especially for larger companies that draw a lot of employees who drive into town from suburbs (or even near-town neighborhoods). … more

What started as a group conversation over coffee about the relevance of awards shows, professional organizations, and the establishment turned into a keen interest in organizing a multi-day convergence of events that would help Portland’s many voices to rise above the fray and be heard. These voices are those of the New Communicators, and they’re already evolving the way conversations happen. Isn’t it time we all listened and joined in? … more

I don’t know about you, but I often find responding to Request for Proposals unsatisfying. Either you’ve received it as a preferred vendor on a short-list, it’s a blind RFP, or it’s sent to you and 20 other agencies. The description of the needs and goals are either A) unbelievably vague or B) unbelievably specific, followed by a list of required features, tools, and canned objectives such as “improve search engine ranking” and “increase sales and traffic.” … more

Today’s Portland design community buzz on Twitter is the City of Portland’s decision to make a design contest out of the Portland Online website. Many of us reviewed the RFP released for project last month and found the budget lacking ($10-20k for a 140,000 page site? Right.), which may explain why they’re moving forward with a design contest. No agency worth its salt wanted to reply to such a poorly proposed project with so little funding.* I know we looked at it and decided to pass. … more

Portland is a funny city of transplants from around the United States, natives, and transplants who have gone native. While we’ve all come here for different reasons — the rain isn’t one of them — I think we’ve stayed for the same reason: Portland is awesome. … more

Last night we received some tough news. A friend had been killed in a cycling accident in Virginia, having been hit by a dirt hauling truck while it was making a right turn. To say that I was close to Bonnie Tinker would be a stretch, but I knew her as part of the Quaker community in Portland. She was at my wedding, signed the marriage certificate, had known my wife for nearly two decades. I had given her advice about how to change and improve the Love Makes a Family website. … more