PortlandMusicFoundation.org – Best Non-Profit Site.

annie|catherine.com – Best e-commerce Site.

Another Pemaquid site, MaineLobsterFestival.com, was a finalist for Best Arts & Entertainment site.

Two out of three ain’t bad! All three sites use the Django open source framework for content management and e-commerce. More details about the sites were posted earlier this month.

Thanks to our Clients for giving us the opportunity to show what we can do!

Below is a rundown on the people who made our Jelly “Jell”:

Nick Hall (@tripdragon) – showed how he creates custom brushes and textures in Photoshop.

Our new coworking partner, Sarah Robbins (@brightworkllc) showed us how she uses Protoshare to make quick mockups for her projects.

Big, big thank you to Casey Rosenthal (@caseyrosenthal), for getting a more powerful wifi broadcaster in place to handle all the traffic. Internet service was screaming and flawless throughout the day. Casey also arranged to make sure we had plenty of coffee from our friends at Bard Coffee (@bardcoffee, @bardtogo).

Dave Weinberg (@daveweinberg, @AIGAMaine) created one of his patented cellphoneSketchpads. Dave and I also compared notes on working with local ad agencies with Web designer Katie Benedict (nope, not on Twitter… yet).

Progmatica members Justin Henry (@jhenry) and Russ Jones (@codeofficer) swooped in. Among other things, we hacked around the inner workings of the Django framework SQL. You guys are super geeks! (and I say that with admiration).

Arielle Walrath (@ariellebw) and her husband came by and, I think, got a little Web design work in.

Jason Thaxter (@thaxter) was wrangling with Flash action scripting for some online videos he’s working on for WGBH.

Good news! It looks like Jason, Tiffany Rad (@tiffanyrad) and Keith Sirois (@sirois) will be joining us on a more regular basis, starting in August.

Suddenly realizing it’s strange that Casey, and not Pemaquid’s intern Jordan Warren (@jmwarren19) who fetched the coffee for our event. We kept Jordan out of trouble by having her browser-test two new site launches.

While we’re on the subject of coffee (it happens a lot), I want to thank: Bard Coffee for being a friend and cutting us a break on the java; our landlord Portland Pie (@portlandpie) for the wicked good pizza they provided for lunch (Dave Weinberg is right; you must try the Nor-easter); our neighbors at Blush (@blushimagery) who provided an extra table as more people started to arrive, and Steve Darnley (@stevedarnley) of Tugboat Creative (@tugboatcreative) for offering his conference room for overflow.

And finally, thanks to Pemaquid’s Creative Services Coordinator Sheila Reiser (nah, not Twittering) for organizing the recycling of trash and generally ensuring our carbon footprint is minimal.

We missed you: Jeff Norris (@thumbtech – hope you’re enjoying your vacation) Mikey Hougland (@lamikey), Alex Steed (@alexsteed), Fred Abaroa (@costavidafred), Sarah Wallace (@sarah_wallace – glad you’re feeling bettah!) and Frank McMahon (@franklinmcmahon).

Things went so extraodinarily well that we’ll probably do this on a monthly basis on the third Tuesday of each month. At last word, Space Gallery (@space538) is planning on continuing their Jelly every first Tuesday, so hopefully we’ll make Portland a two-Jelly town! Amazing for a city this size, which tells me there’s a lot going on here under the hood.

How was your Maple Jelly? Let us know in the comments.

It’ll happen Tuesday, July 21, from 10am – 4pm.

We’ve been working with the folks who brought Jelly to town, Chelsea Baker, Nat May and our friends at the Space Gallery (congrats on the new Web site, guys!), to try to hold Jellies bi-monthly. For now, we’re aiming for a Jelly @ Space on the first Tuesday of the month and one at our place on the third Tuesday.

So come on down! There’s plenty of bandwidth to share and we’ll keep the coffee hot.

Coworking, to us, is about “you + me + he + she = bettah!”

Pemaquid will now receive pro bono counseling from the entreverge advisory committee and we have access to pro bono promotional services from entreverge business partners.

It’s great to be recognized for an idea you feel passionately about. But ideas are the easy part. Now we need to get to work and do some heavy lifting to make the idea a reality.

I hope you’ll pitch in.

Portland Press Herald article on entreverge awards

We’re jazzed that Web developer Casey Rosenthal has joined us down at the “Fab Lab” at 28 Maple Street. Casey runs Port 49 and he’s an accomplished Ruby on Rails developer.

Casey also organizes the techMaine Ruby user’s group and is a member of the MaineUX usability interest group. But most importantly, Casey is a staunch supporter of the coworking concept and as such we couldn’t be happier he’ll be working with us.

You can follow Casey on Twitter at: @caseyrosenthal

Pemaquid Communications has been nominated for an entreverge award for our work pioneering and promoting the concept of coworking here in Portland this spring.

It certainly is nice to be recognized. What began simply as a search for office space evolved after a conversation with Chris Messina, founder of the original coworking space – San Francisco’s Citizen Space – and now seems to have captured the imagination of many Digital Creatives in town.

We got some media love from The Maine Switch, we had a successful and well-attended social last month, the coworking social Jelly has come to town, and now there are two Facebook groups on coworking here: Portland Coworking and Portland (Blueberry) Jelly.

Best of all, there are now four of us (five if you count Jordan, Pemaquid’s intern) at our little coworking space at 28 Maple Street.

Entreverge is an organization formed recently to promote entrepreneurs and business innovators in Maine.

Five award winners will be selected from the nominees at a party at Port City Music Hall this Thursday evening.

A Facebook group has been set up for Digital Creatives who are interested in coworking.

Portland Coworking is a space where local folks can share ideas on how we can make coworking, well work.

A lot of folks have expressed interest in our space at 28 Maple Street, and this will make it easier for everyone to stay in touch with what’s happening in town. So surf on over!

The nominees are….

Eastern Book Company
http://www.ebc.com
Best Corporate Image
More Eastern Book

Maine Merchants Association
http://www.mainemerchants.org
Best Non-profit Web site
More Maine Merchants

Bluezberry Jam
http://www.bluezberryjam.com
Best Arts & Entertainment Web site
More Bluezberry

Another Pemaquid site, OakhurstDairy.com, was submitted in the Best Corporate Image category, but was not named a finalist.

Winners will be announced at the techMaine 2009 Technology Awards Gala June 2, to be held at the Eastland Park Hotel.

Open House/Social

May 19th 5:30 – 8:30pm – Free pizza, beer and wine provided by Portland Pie (our landlords; they run their business out of the ground-floor space. We’re up on the top – 3rd – floor).

Coworking Links

Photos of 28 Maple Street (Flickr) – taken recently when it was occupied by the previous tenant, a Portland ad agency.

Coworking Survey – Take our quick survey and let us know what you’d like to see in a coworking space here in Portland, Maine.
Coworking Wiki – share ideas on coworking with people who are operating similar spaces in other cities.