Technically Not Tech: Larger Than Life Prints, a partnership with Start SOMA and coverage by TechCrunch

Pulling a fabric graphic printed by Larger Than Life Prints from a wall is easy and clean. The graphic has been removed without a tear. The wall remains unmarred, without a mark.

It’s a landlord’s dream.

The Old City-based company, founded by Kendall Schoenrock and business partner Carsten Petzold, provides the technology that allows users to submit their own high-resolution graphics and print them on one- to seven-foot fabric sheets that can easily be placed on a wall. Artists, too, are able to cash in on the action. By partnering with the site, they are able to price their works appropriately, and keep a portion of the sales after material and labor has been deducted by LTL.

Thought it may seem little like a technology startup, LTL is funded by Ben Franklin Technology Partners and has been active in Philadelphia’s and Silicon Valley’s technology communities.

Recently, the company announced a partnership with San Francisco-based Start SOMA to feature well-known artists organized by Start on one of LTL’s partner pages. The two companies have managed to nab art by Susan Kare, the graphic designer who created the original graphics and fonts for Macintosh computers, urban artist Justin Bua, Sugarluxe and a handful of other known artists.

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Announcing our jobs board, free postings for the next week

Let’s face it: Philly’s got skills.

And don’t think we haven’t noticed. We constantly run across talented marketers, freelance developers and small design firms. At the same time, when we interview CEOs, directors and managers they consistently tell us that they are looking for high-quality local candidates.

Well Philly, let’s all help each other out. We are pleased to announce the Technically Philly Jobs Board, a modest effort to connect members of our talented and capable community while helping us sustainably serve the city. The board has four employment categories, Full-time, part-time, freelance and internship. Full-time postings will be $50 while all other categories will cost $25. For more details check out our FAQ.

But we’re no fools, we know our jobs board is unproven and untested. So that’s why we are offering free jobs and freelance postings for the next week. All postings will remain for 30 days and will be included in our sidebar and will be randomly placed at the end of posts (like this one). Technically Philly has more than 500 subscribers, 1000+ Twitter followers and reaches thousands of techies, science nerds and entrepreneurs, all locally based.

To post a job, head on over to the board and look for that huge button in the upper right sidebar. Postings will be free until Sept. 21st when the above rate will be in effect.

Consider the board in “beta” as we work out some of the kinks. We welcome all feedback about bugs, categories, design, functionality and more. If we discover an abnormal amount of bugs, we will extend the free window.

Post a job, apply for a job and spread the word.

Hey look! An entire post about jobs that didn’t use the phrase “in this economy.”

Event Highlights for September 14-20, 2009

It’s a good week to be in Philadelphia. The Eagles and Phillies are winning, the weather is lovely and our calendar is chock full of events.

On weeks like these, picking the event highlights is like picking our favorite child. There’s something to attend every day of the week ranging from the 8Static chip party to Bloblive. But in the cage match that is TP’s event highlights, many events enter, only four can leave leave.

This week: Refresh Philly hosts representatives from GRID magazine (Full Disclosure: Brian James Kirk and Chris Wink have both written for GRID), Philly Build Guild reconvenes under its wide-open format, Philly Startup Leaders encourages entrepreneurial group therapy and Parking Day annexes local parking spaces.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

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Friday Q&A: Kelly Lee, Innovation Philadelphia President & CEO

Updated 9/11/09, 2:15 p.m.: Clarified summit tracks, noted “no frills” package clarification, and updated Philly panelists.

If it wasn’t for the first Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit in June 2006, Innovation Philadelphia may not have found it’s niche in the creative industries.

President and CEO Kelly Lee says that it was the attendees of the inaugural event, hosted three years ago, who inspired the economic development organization to shift focus from the broad spectrum of technology-based businesses to creative one: art, design, web development, and others, in place of biotech and life sciences.

This year, Lee is spearheading the second of the summits, the well-marketed and polished 2009 Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, which happens next month, October 5 to 6 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is a panelist for GCECS2009, "Creating a Culture of Entrepreneurial Journalism" on Oct. 6]

The summit focuses on economics, entrepreneurship, workforce, technologies and sustainability, five interdependent tracks that Lee says make up the creative economy and that cities and regions need to have a strategy for.

There are dozens of workshops, panels, roundtables and presentations that include innovators and leaders from across the globe and the Philly region, like keynotes from author Elizabeth Gilbert, entrepreneur Peter Shankman, game guru Jane McGonigal and global economic developer Randall Kempner.

From flyer to Web design, packed-schedule to text message update technology, there’s little doubt that the nonprofit has invested quite a bit in this year’s summit. The organization has even launched a series of glossy, high-def videos on the conference website this week that features local entrepreneurs and policy-makers who will attend. It certainly doesn’t appear that Innovation Philadelphia is taking GCECS2009 lightly.

But critics aren’t taking their words lightly, either, including high-profile members of our business and technology communities.

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Links: Pittsburgh “perfect” for G-20, John Gruber misses and More

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun. See others here.

DEFINITE READS

• Forbes reports that Pittsburgh is the “perfect” city to host a G-20 summit — and that isn’t a joke about the backwaters of the Monagaheal. They’re calling it a “global coming-out party.” We’re way happy for our fellow First Class City in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but there are lessons that need to be had here.As White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Forbes, “It’s an area that has seen its share of economic woes in the past but because of foresight and investment is now renewed–giving birth to … industries that are creating the jobs of the future. And I think [Obama] believes it would be a good place to highlight some of that.”

After the jump, our city’s industrial buildings get rebirth, John Gruber gets Apple community grief and other tech links you should eye, including our best read story of the week.

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Announcing our events submission form

In an attempt to streamline our events calendar submission process, we’re officially launching an events submission form. The submission form is available by clicking the “Submit your event” icon located on the left-hand margin of our events calendar.

It’s the easiest, fastest and most assured way to make sure that your event hits the region’s most populated technology events portal.

The submission form has been in a soft launch for several weeks, and for those of you that have already submitted events, we apologize if we missed posting it. Now that the bugs are worked out, we’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

Our events page is the most popular page on this site and one that we keep traffic flowing to with our weekly event highlights and coverage. We hope to continue to improve this resource.

Let’s work together to make this community thrive.

Comcast Roundup: TV Everywhere rollout imminent, Comcast a “small player” and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.

Comcast’s TV Everywhere, the subscription-required streaming TV Web site that has seen collaboration from a host of big name content providers in recent months, is near enough to completion for ZDNet to report that it will be released on a limited basis in the next 30 to 60 days. Inquire business columnist Joe DiStefano brings to light an MSNBC story suggesting that online video competitor Hulu could be a natural partner to bolster the business, while others say the site should go it alone and charge for content.

After the jump, a Wharton professor calls Comcast a “small player,” the company seeks to acquire content creators and five other stories about the ‘Cast.

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City CTO and community to publicly discuss broadband policy at One Web Day kick-off

Nothing says civic duty like a town hall meeting. Now it’s Philly tech’s turn.

City Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank and a handful of influential members of Philadelphia’s technology community will hold a public panel this month to discuss broadband policy, Digital Philadelphia and the city’s technology future.

The September 22 panel, hailed as One Web Day Philly‘s inaugural event, marks the first public discussion concerning Digital Philadelphia since Frank reached out to members of technology community earlier this year.

“With all the energy that’s gone into broadband expansion over the last few months because of the stimulus grant,” One Web Day Philly organizer Gwen Shaffer says, “we need to think about how we’re going to build on that momentum, and make sure there’s public input.”

Discussion will surround a pivotal question that Frank has been meek to respond to: If Philadelphia doesn’t receive federal broadband stimulus money, how will the city realize the Division of Technology’s Digital Philadelphia vision and the Nutter administration’s promise to expand Internet access in Philadelphia?

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Technically Not Tech: Game Time Philly puts Philly on the top of the Madden World

Ron Jackson may be the best football player in Philadelphia you’ve never heard of.

The Mayfair resident is one of the founding members of Game Time Philly, the most successful and respected crew of Madden gamers in the nation and the home of the city’s pseudo-underground training and tournament ground for the popular NFL video game.

If training for a video game sounds bizarre to you, then you haven’t peaked into the world of the professional Madden player. Much like their real-life counterparts, talented Madden gamers can score thousands of dollars by playing a game they love, especially in the burgeoning world of professional video game tournaments.

The Madden world’s most celebrated tournament is the Madden Challenge. The tournament has been the subject of an ESPN reality TV show with the champion often taking home six figures in winnings, and Philly just happens to be the city with the most championships.

“Someone from Philly is always coming home with $100,000,” says Jackson, “All of the Madden Challenge winners except for one or two have come from Philly.”

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Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School expands

The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, an online-based school providing K-12 instruction, has announced that its Philadelphia enrollment has nearly doubled from 800 to 1,500.

As a result, the school’s administrative centers will moving into larger offices. The school’s new Philadelphia branch, located in Ridley Park, will be having an open house today, from 4 to 6 p.m.

“In the past two years our office has added 10 professional staff members and 700 students. We now have more than 30 instructional and administrative staff and this year will serve 1,500 PA Cyber students in the Philadelphia region,” said Eric Woelfel, Director of the School’s Eastern Support Center in a press release.

Upon enrollment, students are provided with a laptop, a high-speed connection, a printer, textbooks and a supervising teacher. Though most instruction takes place online, each administrative center offers in-person tutoring and support.

As a graduate of a New Jersey high school, I think I can speak for the entire state in saying: We were gipped.

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