Portland’s tech community is incredible. Each week there are tons of events, meetups, and coffee-shop hanging out between people who are thinking up great ideas. Since moving to Boston, I always think about what went into building such a great, open, excited community in PDX, and how that could be applied here.
There are tons of factors that go into it, but recently, PDX techies put up a website in Portland, highlighting the tech community there:
I’m thinking about other cities which would like to grow their tech community. Having a resource like this guide can allow people to know what projects are brewing, what events are going on, where people are talking (IRC channels), and people who you’re likely to meet when you go out to one of the events. Having the guide be community edited (I can add someone, or a project) is a fantastic way to keep it relevant. And the user interface + design is wonderful.
While a community may be healthy due to the actions of a few individuals, having a guide like this opens up the community boundaries, and relieves ‘hub’ individuals with many connections of being he only information conduits. With higher information flows in the community, members have a better idea of the social capital around them- who to go to for advice on Android Dev, Mapping, UX design, etc.
This sort of information ecosystem builds a community that is conducive to collaboration, adaptation, and growth.
