BendTech

Mission

BendTech will help build a stronger, more coherent technology community in Central Oregon.

Manifesto

Everyone involved with technology in Central Oregon has aspirations for furthering the role we play in the area’s economy and culture.  These goals may be as lofty as the creation of a 4-year university or as modest as hosting a one-time meetup to discuss some new product or idea with like-minded peers.  Unfortunately, efforts to pursue these ideas struggle when they turn to the local tech scene for support.

The problem is not a lack of resources.  This area is host to numerous technology professionals, enthusiasts, businesses, and tech-related meetups and user groups; not to mention two upper-level education institutions and a venture capital conference. It is a respectable technology population, with impressive talent and expertise.

Rather, the problem is in how unstructured our tech scene is.  There is little in the way of common interests to draw people together in the way hi-tech does in Silicon Valley, or automobiles do in Detroit.  As small as our region’s population is, there is tremendous variety in what we do;  aerospace, internet, medical, manufacturing… you name it, there’s someone here doing it.  Nor is there a dominant company like a Microsoft or Boing or Dow-Corning to act as a focal point.   We have lots of small or medium size businesses doing a little bit of everything.  Central Oregon “dabbles” in all sorts of technology, without excelling at anything in particular.

The problem is further compounded by a tendency for many people and firms to be “outwardly focused”.  Their attention is on employers or customers outside the area, leaving little energy (or reason) for getting involved in the local tech scene.

We are a smattering of technology outposts spread around the High Desert, with little in the way of resources or mindshare for acting like a real, coherent community.

BendTech hopes to help change this.  But our approach is not one of coercion, or even encouragement.  Rather, we simply hope to provide resources that are useful to people interested in creating a better technology community.

Interpreting the Mission

Like any good mission statement,  BendTech’s is sufficiently vague as to be almost meaningless without some sort of explanation.  This section is our current take on what it means in concrete terms.

Who is our audience?

BendTech will serve the local community of technology enthusiasts.  People with an interest in questions like:

• What are people doing with technology locally?
• What is going on in the world of technology that has a local impact?
• How do I get involved in the local tech scene?

What kinds of things will we be doing?

BendTech will be a part-time endeavor for everyone concerned.  This is a critical concession to the realities of life for people here.  We all have more important things to think about than building a richer tech community.  Asking for a significant, long-term commitment from someone is simply not practical.  Thus, our efforts will focus on:

• Finding ways to engage people that only have a few hours a week available (if that)
• Making it easier for individuals and groups to act on ad-hoc ideas and inspirations that benefit the community
• Creating the infrastructure necessary to create and sustain a coherent community, and doing so in a way that minimizes the overall administrative burden.

Currently we have two (maybe three) concrete tasks…

Build the BendTech web portal

Our audience will vary in background and interests, but they will all be online.  Thus, the most effective way to bring the community together is with a “portal” – a website that provides valuable information and acts as a focal point.   To that end, the BendTech website (http://bendtech.com) will be reworked as a community blog, with the following features:

• Regular contributions from guest contributors and regular columnists.
• Syndicated content from local tech groups and blogs.
• High-quality content that is representative of our community’s technology issues and interests.
• Editorial style and content that emphasizes a “neutral point of view”, while accepting content from as many sources as possible.
• Tools that encourage active, open discussion and interaction.
• Open access to the site’s analytics and metrics so that everyone involved can applaud or criticize the site’s effectiveness.

Find places where groups can get together

People often talk about getting together to share ideas or “network”.  But these meetings often founder for lack of a suitable venue.  BendTech will address this problem by locating a handful of spaces that meet the following criteria, and make them available to anyone who is interested.

• Space should be available in the evenings (after business hours)
• … and available on relatively short notice (1-2 days)
• … and hold 10 or more people
• … and have high speed Internet access
• … and be free to use
• (bonus!)… and have A/V equipment (digital projectors, whiteboards, etc.)

TBD: Get involved in BVC

Is there value in getting involved in BVC?  On the surface it seems like an obvious thing to be doing but… well… there is a fundamental difference between a highly structured conference and the [very] organic approach BendTech is taking.  (Can BendTech help BVC better engage the people who “do” technology here?)

Establishing Boundaries

BendTech’s mission is vague by design.  We know there is an untapped energy in our tech scene, but we don’t pretend to wholly understand it’s nature.  Our goal is to provide a service that adds value on a level that cuts across the whole community, and then see which direction people are interested in taking it. Keeping our personal biases and interests in check will be hard enough without writing them into our charter.

But we can’t be completely unstructured.  In particular, there are certain “philosophical” issues worth touching on …

Do we aid economic development?

Where this aligns with our goal of connecting the community, sure.  But it’s not an explicit part of our mission.  Where these issues arise in the context of BendTech, we’ll encourage people to work with EDCO, the city, the county – whomever is already there and better equipped to address them.

How do we relate to COCC, OSU, or other educational institutions?

Currently we don’t, but that may change as BendTech evolves.  For now our focus is on finding ways to connect people.  We expect this will often take the form of meetups put together by volunteers that discuss and inform on technology issues.  We expect these to be much more ad-hoc than any formal curriculum offered by COCC or OSU.  We don’t anticipate there being any overlap but if and when there is we’ll work with everyone involved to do what is best for the community.

Is BendTech a promotional forum, a way for people/companies to market their wares and reach potential customers?

Generally, no.  We are not interested in working with people that are only in this to flog their company’s service or products – this does not further our goal of creating a better community.  However, a company may have unique insight into a given technology or local issue.  To the extent a company is willing to share those insights and engage our community, and do so in a way that reflects a desire to inform and discuss as opposed to sell, we’ll happily work with them.

By way of example, our local ISP, Bend Broadband, has unique insights into the changes in our nation’s broadband infrastructure and the local effects of those changes.  This is a fascinating issue that is obviously relevant to our mission.  But we’re not particularly interested in helping them sell people the latest HDTV channel lineup they’ve put together.

Is BendTech a forum for hiring/recruiting?

For now, no. We’ll be referring people to the Bend Craig’s List job section for this sort of thing.

Does BendTech “compete” with other tech meetups or user groups?

No.  BendTech’s goal is to improve the strength of Central Oregon’s tech network as a whole, whereas meetups and user groups focus on particular interests.  These groups play an important role in helping to connect people so we’ll happily make what resources we have available to them.   We’ll do our best to respect their work and cooperate with them wherever possible.

If we find areas where there is overlap – for example if we are getting requests to initiate a meetup on a topic that COWPU has expertise and interest in – we will first coordinate with the appropriate groups to determine what level of involvement they want and go from there.   We are not trying to change nor supplant what these groups already do.

Does BendTech make money or serve some political (or religious/corporate) agenda?

No.  BendTech does not have revenue or other income.  Costs, where they occur, are paid for by individuals.  There may come a day when it makes sense to create a non-profit organization for all this, but we’re not there yet.

As for political agendas, BendTech intends to remain a neutral entity. We believe this neutrality is important to being able to serve our entire community.