Lockheed Martin developing smarter robotics in South Jersey

A major corporation’s subdivision in our region is becoming a leading innovator in “brain-inspired computing,” according to a Philadelphia Business Journal story by their technology writer Peter Key, who, our sources tell us, can rock a mean air guitar.

The Cherry Hill-based Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories has spent the last four years researching “brain-inspired computing” and is poised to make inroads in the science fiction-style technology, fueled by recent funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which is credited for offering the initial funding for a little project that helped lead to the Internet.

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Oh, Ignite Philly 3 where art thou?

Turns out, the Ignite Philly guys actually have day jobs too.

Ignite Philly 3 was over three weeks ago but the videos have yet to be published online. To top it off, earlier this week, the official site was down for a short bit, displaying a database error. There was a camera crew present at Ignite Philly, and past events eventually posted individual presentations.

Organizer Far McKon said that the reason for the delay is academia.

“The video was done by some UArts students, and they are in finals crunch right now,” he said in an email.

Ignite plans on releasing raw video first, and then more polished versions in a month or so. We know organizing the Ignite events is a volunteer position and we’ve been in that finals crunch before, so we’re here to do our part and help. After the jump, check out a handful of videos we gathered up from around the web to hold you over.
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Another city list: Philadelphia named top spot for tech jobs

Update 9:23 p.m. 5/19/09

Philadelphia is one of the 10 best cities in the country to find a tech job, according to PC World.

Add this to the heaping pile of other ways cities are ordered, grouped and ranked by magazines seeking attention.

This tech list, which doesn’t put the 10 in order, includes tech mainstays like the Silicon Valley and Seattle. Other major cultural cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston were also on the list.

Of course, it ain’t the first time one of these lists breezed by.
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Today’s primary involves online advertising ballot question

The day’s primary polls in Philadelphia are open and lively already, and the Web, it would seem, is on the ballot.

In what most analysts are, of course, suspecting will be a low turnout affair and media coverage has focused on contested Democratic primaries for district attorney and city controller, one of two citywide ballot questions just might have implications for the future of online advertising.

As city political oversight group the Committee of Seventy explains the second of two ballot questions today: “currently, the Home Rule Charter imposes specific advertising requirements with respect to certain legal notices of the city.”

A yes vote on the question would allow City Council to change the avenues through which newly incorporated businesses, city contracts and public hearings are publicized.

It just might help kick newspapers when they’re down.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt weighs in on Philly’s tech future

Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks to press at a media event at Penn Monday afternoon. Credit: Rikard Larma/Metro Philadelphia

Google’s Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt thinks Philly has what it takes to be a hub for technology.

Schmidt was prompted by a question from Technically Philly at a press event following Penn’s 253rd Commencement Monday afternoon where he gave the ceremonial address.

“To have a tech renaissance, you need universities, which you have here. You need good engineering programs like [Penn and Drexel]. You need a vibrant youth culture and a diverse culture. I think you have all of that criteria here,” he said.

“It’s not a suburban phenomenon. It’s an urban phenomenon. Young people want to live in urban culture.”

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Technically Not Tech: Tech training and another chance at YouthBuild Philadelphia

YouthBuild Philadelphia Leads a green build at the National Mall in D.C. on March 17, 2009. YouthBuild also has technology courses.

She wasn’t going to pass.

Testing for an ICDL, a license noting she had mastered general computer functions, is the goal of the six-week technology class at the YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School, but sometimes there are too many challenges for some students to get there.

This young woman tried, but it sure seemed like she’d be one of the students who miss the mark. Female high school dropouts aren’t often thought as players in technology fields.

But then, she passed. And now, one year later, she’s at the Community College of Philadelphia, reaching even further.

Stephanie Virgo, a YouthBuild technology instructor who had those concerns about that student she liked, now sees that triumph as something of a lesson on how technology can challenge and motivate.

“We have students who have never used a computer before,” Virgo says. “It can be very empowering and help them pursue that post-secondary education. If you’re given a paper to write, that can be hard. If you’re given that paper and you don’t know how to use a computer, it’s a whole ‘nother challenge.”

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Events highlights for the week of May 18 – May 26, 2009

Ready to take a road trip to a magical city that will give you easy access to multimillionaires, let you hook up with people to start the next great independent gaming studio and allow you to listen to a VP at AT&T talk about mobile media?

Well, save your SEPTA tokens, as Philly provides all of that and more this week.

First up is First Round Capitol’s office hours at the World Cafe Live. The event is an informal gathering to discuss all things startup with one of the region’s most well known venture capital firms and is modeled after a college professor’s office hours. If you are up for a short walk, stroll on over to the Cira Center afterward to PANMA’s Mobile Monday. There, listen to a panel stacked with talent discuss Mobile Marketing and Advertising.

If mobile isn’t your thing, make sure you can knock back a few brews with Phillyrb, the city’s Rails user group. We hear if you buy them a few they’ll talk about regular expression syntax for hours.

Continuing University City’s status as center of the tech event universe this week, PANMA is getting together at the Science Center to talk about SEO in 2009, which, we assume, does not involve the <blink> tag.

And lastly, Philly’s game developers are getting together at the Comcast Center to introduce themselves and talk about the future of the group.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.
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Software development firm Avencia releases Philly election data

The primary election for a host of local candidates is being held Tuesday — from district attorney to city controller, municipal judges and others.

On the heels of releasing a new version of a subscription-based district-matching and legislative data API, Callowhill geographic analysis and software development firm Avencia released yesterday a free Web-based tool to search and map Philadelphia’s election results from 1992 to 2008 (click at bottom right to proceed anonymously for preview).

The application runs on Avencia’s Kaleidocade Indicators Framework, which enables users to visualize, interpret, and map large data sets. The “Philadelphia Election Results, 1992-2008″ application, the data set includes more than four million records, like the results of elections held in Philly for all state and national offices for those 16 years, along with the results of the 2007 elections for city offices, both at the precinct and the ward levels.

“This is a very important data set, one that doesn’t exist anywhere out there, so we’d like to expand it, by adding years further in the past and continuing to update it,” says spokeswoman Abby Fretz.

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Friday Q&A: John Pino, CEO of networking site i-Meet

John Pino loves launching companies and loves Philadelphia.

So where else would you expect him to launch what he says just might be the next big professional networking service?

In November, Pino founded and self-funded i-Meet.com, which utilizes social-networking features to connect like-minded people in their efforts to organize, plan and promote events. The South Philadelphia-native, who grew up near 17th and Oregon Avenue in St. Monica’s Parish, didn’t want his tech startup based anywhere else but Center City, which he says is on its way to being the next great corridor of innovation.

His “strong launch team” all learned the tech-business game in Philly.

“The impetus,” for the launch Pino says, was a “screaming need for a worldwide network in the meeting and event industry, and we decided we would make it happen. Especially when we figured out how to put a business overlay over the social aspects of the community.”

Now i-Meet has more than 7,000 members from 100 countries worldwide, Pino says, and, though he wouldn’t disclose specific revenue figures, the company has a real monetization strategy, including premium options.

We didn’t mention that we caught the social networker on Facebook, but he did mention how he’s going to make bank, why we don’t need another social network and that his parents were not part of organized crime.

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Old City Shooters wants state help to develop digital film production in Philadelphia

The Curtis Building in Old City, home of post-production company Shooters Post and Transfer

Updated 5/15/09 3:08 p.m.

Sometime in the 1990s, Ray Carballada was thinking of moving a Cherry Hill-based post-production company to New York City.

Instead, he did something strange. He moved it here.

“Then, there was something special, something different about being in Philadelphia,” says Carballada.”It was part of our draw.”

Dave West, Jay Hartidain and Craig Needlamn started Shooters in 1981 in Cherry Hill, where they still have an office. But the crown jewel of Philadelphia’s post-production community is housed in Old City at the old Curtis Building, once part of Philadelphia’s global publishing nerve center. in 1981 in Cherry Hill, where they still have an office. But the crown jewel of Philadelphia’s post-production community is housed in Old City at the old

And, so, whether Carballada likes it or not, he’s become something of an activist in support of $75 million worth of suddenly tenuous annual state tax credits for film production.

The city’s place as a growing home to the screen could depend on it.

Last week, another hearing of the state Tourism and Recreation committeeas the Inquirer reported. The state Senate approved a budget that cut $400 million worth of tax credits, including those aimed at the film industry, as KYW reported Friday. went through a variety of proposals aimed at postponing or tossing out the credits,

If those cuts pass the House, Carballada says the state’s film industry is in trouble.
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