Category Archives: Clearspring

Follow My Widget Adventures at the Clearspring Community Blog

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As I mentioned earlier, Wednesday I started at the widget platform company Clearspring Technologies.  As part of my duties as Developer Community Manager, I’m going to be making contributions to Clearspring’s Community Blog.

On Thursday, I made my first post.  Here’s a snippet:

Upon entering our office complex in the morning, I was greeted by our local fire fighters.  Our office was without power because apparently a tree  fell on a nearby power substation.

When you’re a Web-based startup like Clearspring, it’s pretty hard to get any work done when there’s no power.  So what do you do?  You setup a mini-golf course around the cubicles and offices.   It was fun and a great way to get to know some of my co-workers.

There will be many more posts so stop by, drop me a comment, and say hello.

BTW, Here’s a fun sticker I found on our office Red Bull container.

Starting at Clearspring…

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So… it’s official.  I’m now the Developer Community Manager at Clearspring Technologies. There is a lot of work to be done and everyone here is very excited to see me get started.

Here’s to a new year and new opportunities.

WidgetDevCamp rocked Washington DC.

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Friday night and all day Saturday Washington DC held the inaugural WidgetDevCamp. 

It was a gathering of local geeks to talk about the issues relating to widgets and other modular social applications ( like Facebook apps.)  There was also a lot of widget and social application hacking.

On Friday night we gathered to talk about the overall goal of the event, we discussed high level issues and uses related to widgets, and also brainstormed widgets we wanted to build. Before and after there was also lots of time to hang out and relax.  It was a good opportunity to get to know others who were interested in the space.  I think there were 50-60 people who were there on Friday night.

Bill Rubacky

On Saturday while only 30-40 people there, we had folks leading GREAT discussions.  There was everything from how to use widgets with the social graph, an overview of the Clearspring platform, widget best practices, desktop versus Web widgets, JavaScript vs. Flash vs. Flex for widgets, Facebook app development 101, and much more.  It was great!

Also we had a number of folks who spent a lot of time Saturday doing some coding.  We had guys writing widgets, Facebook apps, and some even playing with Google’s Android mobile platform.  At the end of the day on Saturday, we gave the different developers time to demo what they’d been hacking up and the demo’s caused some really great discussion too.

One conclusion that I walked away from the event with is that all too often people work on their various projects and home by themselves but they’ll have a TON more fun if they can do it with or around other people with like interests.  We need more co-working in Washington DC.  I’ll write more about this later.

If you’d like to have a WidgetDevCamp in your city, please e-mail me at justin AT clearspring DOT com.  I’d be happy to help however I can.

Note: First photo was taken by Jason Garber.  The second photo was taken by me.

Social Matchbox DC – Washington DC Tech Startup & Geek Speed Dating

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 UPDATE: My apologies!  The event is on Monday not Tuesday.  Thanks John for the correction.

My good friend and recruiter extraordinaire Robert Neelbauer  along with one of his compadres is holding an event next Tuesday Monday called Social Matchbox DC.   It’s a job fair/meet and greet for local DC tech startups and local geeks.

I’m confident it will be a great event.  Unfortunately, I can’t be there but you should go, especially if you’re looking for a job.  A lot of local startups will be there… Razoo, Mixx, Webs (formerly Freewebs), Hotpads, Clearspring, Intridea Inc, CustomInk and others.

Widgets are The Future of The Comic Strip

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Growing up, reading comic strips was my major reason to read the newspaper.  To this day, I still enjoy reading the comics within the Style section of the Washington Post.  Mainly, I read Garfield, Peanuts, and Dilbert.

But I have the feeling that the physical newspaper isn’t long for this world.  (I think my home town newspaper is getting small enough that it will qualify as a pamphlet.)

People are turning to the Web for their information.  Web applications like personalized home pages are becoming the view port into the world.  The Web can give me what I want… where I want it

If the comic strip wants to succeed, it needs to be modular so that its content  can be syndicated in whatever environment a user desires.

Well… Dilbert has done just that. There is now the Official Dilbert Widget.

You can post the Dilbert widget to your personalized home page, your social network, or your blog side bar easily. From within the widget, you can search view today’s comic strip (pane by pane) or you can view past comic strips.

I think it’s wonderful. It’s on my iGoogle page.

And… Yes, the Official Dilbert Widget is powered by Clearspring Technologies. (Disclosure: I’m joining the staff at Clearspring.)

What do you think of the Dilbert Widget?  Have you installed it somewhere yet?  Could you make it better?  How could you take the future of publishing comic strips to an even better level?

I’m joining Clearspring as the Developer Community Manager

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For a little over a year now, i’ve been working for the government contractor CACI International as a full-time on-site contractor supporting the Library of Congress.

Well… at the end of the month, I’ll be starting a new chapter of my life.  I have accepted the position of Developer Community Manager at Clearspring, a widget and social application platform startup company in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

I’ll still be based out of Washington DC but I’ll be traveling across the country, talking to developers about widgets, talking about Clearspring’s platform, and trying to understand how the process of creating widgets and social applications can be made easier.  I’ll be picking up from the work of Clearpsring’s very own widget rockstar Will Meyer who has moved over to the engineering team.

You can expect me to do quite a bit of on the job blogging and online video.  I’ll be working to develop some of my own bad ass widgets and social apps.  I’m going to be attending quite a few user group meetings and conferences all across the country. It should be a lot of fun.

I look forward to getting out there, talking with, and getting to know as many of you as possible.  If you see me, please introduce yourself.

I’ll truly miss all of the heroes I’ve gotten to know at the Library of Congress. This is an extraordinary place with an extraordinary mission.  I know that regardless where I am in my life I’ll be an advocate and cheerleader for the Library of Congress and all that it sets out to accomplish.