Lunch 2.0

Bacon and OpenID were the themes at yesterday afternoon’s Lunch 2.0, graciously hosted by OpenID provider Vidoop.

Vidoop’s new office space in Old Town held about 100 or so people who milled in and out, tasting culinary delights, including bacon, from Fords on 5th, which is conveniently located on the ground floor of the same building.

Mitch Savage and Scott Kveton kicked off the event with some swag giveaways, Vidoop hardhats, and then the eating and networking began. Joel Norvell, CEO of Vidoop, and I chatted about the epic roadtrip their Tulsa office is making out to Portland, which apparently will be broadcast, a first of its kind.

Thanks to everyone at Vidoop for the hospitality, especially to Kevin Fox, who organized the event, and then got stuck manning the door for half an hour.

Aaron Hockley has a recap and great set of photos (including all the ones on this post) on Flickr from the event. His notes that the crowd attending has shifted from purely geeks to include more Twitterati and other non-geeks. Jason Harris also noticed the shift. Kelly Guimont has also beaten me to the punch with a recap.

I love the diversity of Portland in general, and it’s great to see it reflected in our Lunch 2.0s. All the hardcore geeks are still coming, and now, we’re cross-pollinating with people who are new to the tech scene. If you don’t know, Portland is happening place, e.g. last night there were three events at night, LiSA08, Strands private beta meetup and GoLife Mobile’s open house, and today, RailsConf 2008 starts.

Lunch 2.0 gives people who can’t attend evening or weekend events a chance to be part of the scene.

Looking ahead, Wieden+Kennedy has set a date for the next Portland Lunch 2.0, June 30. The brainchild of Gaia Borgias Brown, this one will be a little different and a little more fun than your average Lunch 2.0. This is just a teaser; watch this space for full details in early June.

I’ve also got a few leads for July and August, so it looks like the Portland chapter will live on for a few more months.

Upcoming Events

• Thursday, May 30 – Wishingline, Toronto
• Wednesday, June 4 – Topix, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 13 – gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 – TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 – TBA, Fremont, East Bay
• Monday, June 30 – Wieden+Kennedy, Portland

Hey-o! Topix is hosting us for lunch 2.0 in a few weeks in sunny Palo Alto – and they’ve got a taco truck. That’s right. Unlimited taco truck action. Need I say more?

Hosts: Topix
Address: 1001 Elwell Court, Palo Alto, CA 94303
Date: Wednesday, June 4th, 2008, 12:00PM – 2:00PM
RSVP on Upcoming – they’ve got space for about 150 people, so RSVP soon!

For more info about topix, check out their about section, their jobs page, and their blog!

Upcoming (and some past) Events (since the last time I bothered posting)

• Friday, May 23 – XS4ALL, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Wednesday, May 29 – Vidoop, Portland
• Thursday, May 30 – Wishingline, Toronto
• Wednesday, June 4 – Topix, Silicon Valley THIS EVENT!
• Friday, June 13 – gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 – TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 – TBA, Fremont, East Bay

A year ago I had a dream.

The dream was to bring Lunch 2.0 to San Francisco, saving all that carbon necessary to make the long trek down to South Bay.

In short, my dream was to save the world (and my pocketbook) one free lunch at a time.

And so, the weather in San Francisco turns warm(ish) again and it’s time to kick off another Summer of Lunch. And who better than a Lunch 2.0 alumnus and soon-to-be-part-of-CBS CNET who graciously opens up their BNET Speaker series:

Hosts: BNET
Address: 235 Second Street, (Liquid Hot) Magma Conference Room. San Francisco, CA 94105
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 10:45AM-1PM
RSVP on Upcoming

Note the time: that’s because it starts with a Q&A between News.com Editor-in-Chief, Dan Farber, grilling Mary Jo Foley about her new book on Microsoft. Seating is limited so be sure to RSVP on Upcoming.

And just so you know that Lunch 2.0 is still alive and kicking…

Upcoming (and some past) Events (since the last time I bothered posting)

• Wednesday, March 12 – familienfreund, Leipzig, Germany
• Friday, March 14 – Byte, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday, March 14 – Parker Technical, Seattle
• Thursday March 20 – I Love Photos, Honolulu, Hawaii
• Friday, March 25 – Microsoft, San Diego
• Wednesday, April 2 – Ogilvy & Mather, Financial District, San Francisco
• Thursday, April 3 – Vysr, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley
• Wednesday, April 9 – eROI, Portland
• Friday, April 18 – Nulaz, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday, April 25 – Ontela, Seattle
• Tuesday, April 29 – Experian, Santa Monica, Los Angeles
• Wednesday, May 7 – SocialText, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley
• Thursday May 8 – cellity, Hamburg, Germany
• Friday, May 9 – IDG Netherlands, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday. May 9 – Yahoo!, Burbank, Los Angeles
• Wednesday, May 14 – Citrix, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Thursday, May 15 – Xoriant, Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley
• Wednesday, May 21 – BNET, SoMa, San Francisco <– THIS EVENT!
• Friday, May 23 – XS4ALL, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Wednesday, May 29 – Vidoop, Portland
• Thursday, May 30 – Wishingline, Toronto
• Wednesday, June 4 – TBA, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 13 – gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 – TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 – TBA, Fremont, East Bay

I want you to eat my lunch!

Apparently, we’re hard to contact. Whoops! That’s because we’re flakey engineers. Heck, while you are enjoying a discussion on Microsoft and free Lunch on CNET, I’ll be delivering a snooze-fest seminar on internet architectures of consumer-facing websites using just about every buzzword I can find on my Web 2.0 bingo card.

So in case you want to host a Lunch 2.0 in the Bay Area (especially San Francisco, because I think I forgot how to drive my car), contact terry chay at tychay [at] php.net and Mark Jen at markjen [at] tagged.com, and we’ll hook you up!

Hurry up, the summer will be filling up fast!

When: Friday, June 13 @ 6:30 PM

Where: San Diego @ gWave Consulting

RSVP: on MIxergy invitation

(There’s limited space, so if you’re coming RSVP early.)

Instead of lunch, Melanie Gordon of gWave is inviting the San Diego tech community for drinks at her building’s sky box. If you’re in SD come join us. If you know someone in SD, invite them.

About gWave:
gWave has 10 years of experience building and managing exceptional online success stories. Our multi-faceted team knows how to drive your brand awareness, convert prospects to clients, measure / monitor responses and create profitable Internet marketing results.
http://gwaveconsulting.com

Mary Jo Foley, author of Microsoft 2.0 and editor of the popular ZDNet blog All About Microsoft, will discuss her new book on the future of Microsoft and answer questions from veteran technology reporter and News.com editor-in-chief, Dan Farber. An audience Q&A and book signing will take place immediately following the session.

A big lunch will be provided, so come hungry. Arrive as early as 10:45 to get good seating.

The official RSVP is here:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/659957/

We have 150 spots open to the public. Please only RSVP if you plan on coming so we can have an accurate count.

I spent some time at BarCamp Portland last weekend recruiting hosts for Lunch 2.0 here in Portland and talking to people about why they should host and/or attend.

It looks to be a busy summer, based on the positive reactions, and Open ID provider Vidoop will be kicking off the summer’s festivities on May 28, 2008.

Hosts: Vidoop
Where: 117 NW 5th Ave, Suite 210, Portland, OR 97209
When: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM
RSVP on Upcoming

Good news if you attended last month’s lunch at eROI, Vidoop is in the same building in Old Town, so you’ll know how to find them. The address is different because they have a separate entrance.

Gaia Borgias Brown from Wieden+Kennedy is planning something really great, which will take a little time to organize, so while we wait with baited breath, Vidoop has stepped up to fill our stomaches and minds with bacon.

From what I hear, this will be a cool time for Vidoop. Apparently, their entire Tulsa office is transplanting itself to Portland this month, in an epic roadtrip. So, this will be a great chance to welcome them to Portland and give them a taste of how we do Lunch 2.0 here.

Here’s a blurb on Vidoop:

Our Mission
One username. No password.

When it comes to identity and security, the Internet is a crazy place. In real life, you don’t change your name at every store you visit. And you don’t protect your house with a front door made of cardboard.

But online, that’s exactly what we see happening. Users have separate identities at each site they visit, translating to dozens, perhaps hundreds, of usernames and passwords they have to remember. And companies spend fortunes securing their servers against attack only to have their users’ accounts compromised by passwords that can be easy to guess or steal.

For more, check out their site, and definitely take time to mouse over their corporate photo for an Easter egg. Good stuff.

If you’re wondering about the bacon meme, make sure to ask Scott Kveton, VP of Open Platforms at Vidoop, Chair at the OpenID Foundation and Chief Portvangelist.

Upcoming Events

• Wednesday, May 9th: SocialText, Palo Alto, CA
• Friday, May 12th: Yahoo!, Burbank, CA
• Monday, May 15th: Xoriant, Sunnyvale, CA
• Wednesday, May 28th: Vidoop, Portland, OR <-This event.

Alright, Socialtext is hosting all of us a free lunch @ their office on Wednesday May 7th so come by people and eat their generous lunch. If you don’t know who and what they do, here is a snip of their description.

About Socialtext:

As a wiki culture, we’ve had amazing success and wikis have become an essential tool for public and private groups world-wide. The next step in the evolution is putting people in the center of the discussions, and that’s what the newest release of Socialtext’s wiki is focused on. Come join us to check out the exciting new product release at Socialtext (if you missed it at the Web 2.0 Expo), and chat it up with us. We’ll even feed you!

http://www.socialtext.com

Time and Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2008

SocialText HQ