Ok, not exactly the first one, but I hope it’s at least one of the most comprehensive and among the easiest to read. It’s posted at ConcreteCMS.com, the website for the company where I work as director of technology. Get the full story over there:

A First Look at OpenSocial
Answering Questions About Google’s Effort at Standardizing Social Network Widgets, and the Creation of Your First OpenSocial Widget

Who should read it? Any web developer who has any questions about OpenSocial; anyone curious about what OpenSocial brings to the table; and anyone who thinks its a death knell to Facebook applications. By the end of it you’ll know all about OpenSocial, and you’ll even know how to write a social widget.

Oh, and please, give me feedback.

Just in time for the primaries, here’s something I cooked up to waste time and facilitate arguments:

PoliticalBubbles.com

It’s fairly self-explanatory: choose a candidate, give’em a quote, and paste your code on your various websites/social profiles. It’s harmless fun. But don’t take my word for it; what do you think, Fred Thompson?!

. . THOMPSON LIKE!@#! Steal This Bubble! Get more Political Bubbles!

Please, feel free to post bugs or suggestions to this entry. (I’ve got a few things in the hopper, but would love to hear from others.)

My firm, Concrete Websites, officially launched the website for Lemonade.com, a startup with whom we’ve been working for months. I say “officially” launched because, while the site was actually like most of last week, an article about the site appeared in the New York Times today. Ooh…pressure!

What’s lemonade.com? Lemonade let’s you “add your favorite stuff to a Lemonade stand and put it on your personal profile, website, blog, wherever” (from the site.)

You can learn more here. And in the spirit of Web 2.0ishness, I present to you my first non-testing Lemonade Stand:

Yes, there are kinks to work out, and more retailers to get on bored (I really wanted to include the MOTU 8pre in the stand above, but it was nowhere to be found) but for now I’ll just settle for catching my breath…

Bookmark to:

Not to be outdone by my Portland Portal, electricstate.com (aka, this site) has been redesigned to look like more of a traditional blog. The emphasis is on readability.

• Bio/links are easily available

• Site searching and browsing can be easily accomplished

• Font size and leading should make reading my entries easier.

• You can get in touch with me through my LinkedIn profile and Meebo sidebar. Yeah, I’m hip to the web 2.0, kidz.

Oh, and some posts – ones I deem worthy – will be following by a plethora of icons. Using these icons, you can submit these aforementioned posts to sites like digg and reddit. Let’s get viral!

So, after many, many months, I’ve relaunched The Portland Scene. This is mostly a visual thing – I’ve tried to generally make the site less hideous, faster to load, and more (heh) Web 2.0-compliant. It should be a bit easier to navigate as well.

Additionally, there are some enhancements:

• Events can occur on a range of days
• Stories can be written about nearly anything (places, pictures, events, etc…)
• A recently added page helps keep you up to date on, umm, the most recently added things
• A conversation/questions section replaces the odd, and somewhat malfunctioning live chat section. Ask away!
• Events don’t actually have to be tied to a specific location

The Portland Scene is a website focused on finding something to do in Portland OR, the results of this hunt. Members can post pictures, write stories, add events to the community calendar and promote their favorite places. Check it out and let me know what you think!