The 2008 Technology Awards Winners top

The 5th TechMaine Technology Awards Gala was a major hit! If you weren't able to make the event, you can read about the winners and finalists and gaze upon photos of the event.

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Technology Awards:

The Governor's Award for Technology Company of the Year

  Blue Marble Geographics, Gardiner

Gazelle Company

  CLYNK, Scarborough

CxO of the Year

  Peter Murray (Quantrix, Portland)

New Technology of the Year

  Parco Merged Media, Portland

Technology Innovator of the Year

  Jeremy Knope (RainStorm Consulting, Orono)

Best of the Web Awards

Corporate Image

  www.susancollins.com (designed by Maine Coast Design, Searsmont)

Arts & Entertainment

  www.mymetromama.com (designed by Insyt New Media, Farmington)

Non-Profit

  www.tanzanianchildrensfund.org (designed by Integra Strategic Technologies, Portland)

E-Commerce

  www.fetchdog.com (designed by Fetch Enterprises LLC, Portland)

Maine Fund of Funds top

We worked hard within the past year to bring together our state legislators and government executives with venture capital partners and other successful Fund-of-Funds managers to develop legislation for Maine. This is complex legislation that involves some risk, but much potential reward. We're not ready to give up -- we believe this is a good idea for Maine, and will work with our legislators and the governor in the next session to make the private equity Fund of Funds a reality in our state.

Read the recent Editorial in the Portland Press Herald "Maine needs venture-capital stimulus"

You can stay up-to-date with this initiative at: www.MaineFundofFunds.com

Post This! top

Share the listing of events with your peers and co-workers. You can now download and print a 1 page Calendar with the highlights of this month's technology events.

Be sure to post the calendar at your office in a location that encourages others to notice the schedule and duplicate it to share with your peers.

Oracle Users Group top
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

Introduction to Oracle Data Integrator - with Cori Peele, Oracle Corporation

In today’s fast-paced, information-based economy, companies must be able to quickly integrate vast amounts of data from disparate systems. Oracle Data Integrator streamlines the high performance movement and transformation of data between disparate systems in batch, real-time, synchronous, and asynchronous modes. This presentation will provide an overview of how ODI's innovative, modular design and built-in connectivity to all major databases, data warehouse appliances, analytic applications, and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) suites dramatically enhance user productivity.

About the Speaker: Cori Peele has served as the lead Middleware Architect on consulting engagements and has over 12 years of experience in the IT industry as a developer, consultant, and project manager.

Door Prize: Registered attendees will be entered in a drawing for a copy of the O'Reilly book, Oracle PL/SQL Language Pocket Reference, Fourth Edition, by Steven Feuerstein, Bill Pribyl and Chip Dawes. You must register and attend to be in the drawing.

ORUG is sponsored by Oracle.

ORUG meets bi-monthly, on the first Wednesday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

Metro NETpm top
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Sapphire Technologies, 280 Fore St, 4th Floor, Portland

Kick start summer with Sapphire Technologies!

Don't miss TechMaine’s upcoming monthly networking event. Join TechMaine and Sapphire Technologies on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 for a party at Sapphire Technologies in Portland from 5:00 - 7:00 pm.

We will close out the workday in style with NETpm. Meet your friends and network in a relaxed, unstructured atmosphere. Admission is free. Pass the word! Everyone come join the fun and festivities. Win Red Sox tickets and other great prizes plus free hors d'oeuvres and an OPEN bar of soft drinks, beer, wine, and frozen summer cocktails! WOW! Please register online here for this event.

Sapphire Technologies is our benevolent host for NETpm this month. Metro NETpm is presented on the first Thursday of every month by TechMaine.

Sapphire Technologies is an Information Technology staffing service. Specializing in IT since 1984, Sapphire attracts and retains the highest quality technology professionals across the U.S. and Canada for contract and permanent positions in all industries, including telecommunications, banking, software, R & D, and Internet/e-commerce. Sapphire Technologies Portland office opened in Maine in October 2004, and has over 40 offices nationwide. Sapphire Technologies is located at 280 Fore St, 4th Floor in Portland. More information can be learned @ www.sapphire.com.

Ruby Users Group top
Monday, June 9, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

Meeting topic TBA (but you can register to attend now)

General meeting schedule:

• 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Ruby Beginners: a Ruby newbie half-hour. You other seasoned Ruby pros are welcome to help answer questions as well, so everyone should still show up at six o'clock.
• 6:30 to 7:30: Regular topic.
• 7:30 to ??: Informal discussion at the pub down the hall.

RUG meets bi-monthly, on the second Monday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

Network/Systems Administrators Users Group top
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

Data Protection Strategies - with Bill McKeen, Workgroup Technology Partners

The discussion will be a high-level tutorial of various current storage technologies, including a contrast between NAS and SAN technologies, data protection strategies, etc. The presentation will also cover how technologies from Network Appliance can be utilized to improve performance and reliability while reducing capital and operational costs. A discussion of virtual environments (server, storage, and networking) will be included as well.

A demo of Netapp technology will be provided. The goal will be to show the advantages in database environments like Exchange, SQL Server, Oracle, etc, as well as the tremendous benefit for virtual infrastructures. As time permits, the demo may extend into other areas.

About the Speaker: Bill McKeen has been designing, implementing, and supporting various IT solutions for over 20 years. Currently, he is the VP of Systems & Technology at Workgroup Technology Partners, where he manages the technical staff, and determines the company’s technology and services direction. Bill is very familiar with the practical aspects of current IT environments, including the disciplines of networking, storage, security, and virtualization.

Door Prize: Registered attendees will be entered in a door prize drawing for a copy of the hot-off-the-presses O'Reilly book, The Book of Wireless: A Painless Guide to Wi-Fi and Broadband Wireless, First Edition, by John Ross. You must register and attend to be in the drawing.

NETSUG meets monthly, on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

Web Designers Users Group top
Monday, June 16, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

Shine on you Crazy Diamond: the 10 Shiny Facets of Information Architecture - with Susan Doran

Details soon, but you can register to attend now.

WDUG meets monthly, on the 3rd Monday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

Digital Communications Users Group top
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

Fiber Technology Primer - with Oxford Networks

Details soon! This will be an interesting and informative presentation on fiber optics in communications networks. (Go ahead and register to attend now -- we'll post presentation details soon.)

Door Prize: Registered attendees will be entered in a door prize drawing for a copy of the Addison-Wesley book:Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses, by Markus Jakobsson and Zulfikar Ramzan, courtesy of Pearson Education. You must register and attend to be in the drawing.

DCUG meets monthly, on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

JAVA Users Group top
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

JQuery - with Dan Bachelder

Details soon -- but you can register to attend now.

Door Prize: Registered attendees will be entered in a door prize drawing for a copy of a new O'Reilly book, title TBA. You must register and attend to be in the drawing.

MaineJUG is sponsored by Starlit Software.

MaineJUG meets monthly on the last Wednesday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

Drupal Users Group top
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

First Meeting of our new DRUPAL users group!

Drupal is an open-source, LAMP-type website content management system. The TechMaine Drupal Users Group will be geared toward website developers who are interested in using Drupal as a CMS environment. We will look at the how-to of installing, setting up and running Drupal sites, and at the modular functions.

Details on the August meeting soon -- but we wanted to get the word out early. (You can register to attend now.) If you're not sure if this group is spot-on for your interests, or if you just want to know more about Drupal and the new users group, please contact Todd Woofenden, The TechMaine Users Group Coordinator (and an enthusiastic Drupal user!).

Door Prize: Registered attendees will be entered in a drawing for a copy of a new O'Reilly book, title TBA. You must register and attend to be in the drawing.

DrupalUG meets monthly on the first Tuesday of the month. Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.

Metro NETpm top
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm
Location: Axon Design & Marketing, 377 Fore Street, 4th Floor Portland

Keep your summer fun rolling with the creative crew at Axon!

Join TechMaine and Axon on Thursday, August 7, 2008 for good food, good drink, and great people at the Axon offices in the heart of the Old Port from 5:00 - 7:00 pm.

We will close out the workday in style with NETpm. Meet your friends and network in a relaxed, unstructured atmosphere. Admission is free. Join us for hors d'oeuvres and an open bar of soft drinks, beer, and wine. Please register online here for this event.

Metro NETpm is presented on the first Thursday of every month by TechMaine, and Axon has graciously offered to host this popular gathering of TechMaine friends and associates.

Axon is a team of experienced designers and web programmers, providing a wide range of marketing, design and web solutions to its clients. Axon is currently in the process of designing and programming websites incorporating web 2.0 features for the Maine Heritage Policy Center, the Association of Consulting Expertise, and the Biotechnology Association of Maine. Visit Axon during NETpm at 377 Fore Street, 4th Floor, Portland or on the web at axondm.com.

BioInformatics Special Interest Group top
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Time: 6:00 - 8:00 pm
Location: TechMaine Technology Center, 506 Main Street, Westbrook

This summer TechMaine is starting a new Bioinformatics Special Interest Group, and you are invited to attend. Our first presenter will be Jason Moore, of Dartmouth.

Details on this new group and presentation details for the August meeting will be posted soon -- but you can register to attend the August meeting now. Come help build an exiting new special interest group!

Please Register Here to attend the next meeting: include your email address to be notified of any change in schedule.