Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Chariot Solutions – Long-time Technically Philly advertiser Chariot Solutions is host of the annual Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference. This month, the developer and training partner is promoting its SpringSource Core Spring 2.5 training course, January 27-29.

Springboard Media – Springboard Media is a certified Apple Specialist and retailer based in Center City and now, in Exton. They’ve got a ton of accessories and a great trade-in program that can score you up to $1,500 when you’re ready to upgrade.

Alex Hillman – IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman has signed on as Technically Philly’s first “Philanthropist” sponsor. Be sure to check out his blog, where he’s recently continued writing his Cluetrain-a-day business series.

Nonprofit Technology Resources – Fairmount-based NTR refurbishes used computers and peripherals for families and individuals in Philadelphia who may not otherwise be able to afford to buy a computer. We urge you to donate to this great local cause.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact Ad Sales Manager Tara Levin. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.

Friday Q&A: Ryan Davis, Philly.com President

Updated: colleague’s name @ 1:47 p.m. 1/8/10

He may not live in Philadelphia quite yet, but Philly.com President Ryan Davis says he’s “a southeast Pennsylvanian at heart.”

Ryan Davis

Of course, in the interest of disclosure, it should be made clear that Davis, who was put in charge of Philadelphia’s most visited Web site in October, lives in New York City, a rival if there ever was one.

The native of Allentown takes a daily train trip to Center City but says he, his wife and their new baby daughter — who he says has delayed the move — will be relocated to the region in the coming months.

If you’d think his location would keep Davis from the gig, the age of this 32-year-old might, too, seem like an obstacle. Yet there at the Market Street Philly.com headquarters he is, and, like every where else he’s gone professionally, he’s gotten there quickly.

Outside of college, Davis has never spent as much as three years with a single organization during his precipitous rise from aspiring journalist to newspaper dot com chief executive.

After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 2000, Davis spent 29 months reporting with the St. Petersburg Times and then two years and nine months at the Baltimore Sun. He spent two years in Manhattan with executive management consulting firm McKinsey before taking the director of strategic operations position with Philly.com in February. Nine months later, he was named president of the 70-person staff.

That rise, he says, has put him where he wants to be when he wants to be there.

“It’s an exciting time when a lot of people are trying to figure out what local means on the Internet,” he says.

Below, Davis explains living in New York, lays out his priorities for improving on 72 million monthly page views and talks about the coming explosion of local on the Web.

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Links: 1,200 jobs to be cut by Lockheed Martin, parking kiosks falter and More

• The Inquirer reports on Cooper Hospital beginning to use a new type of heated hospital gown that has more benefits that warming tushies.
• The Inquirer reports that those parking kiosks in Center City have been malfunctioning all over the place.
• Knowledge@Wharton talks to alumnus and AdMob founder Omar Hamoui about mobile advertising.
• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Lockheed Martin will cut as many as 1,200 jobs in the region.

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

Thanks to all who came to our second monthly meetup

From the bottom of our techie hearts, thanks to all who came out to Public House in Logan Square for our joint Happy Hour with Center City Philadelphia. By our count, more than 45 people braved the cold for a free drink and a chance to mingle with fellow tech heads.

The TP staff saw many new faces and we welcome all the new readers we were able to speak with.

Much like our last meetup, we heard valuable praise, criticism and advice from you, our readers. We will be sure to tweet when the hundreds of photos snapped by fellow organizer Brett Silver are posted online.

We’re liking this whole face-to-face thing, so keep an ear out for our next meetup as we hope to continue the good times in February. Be sure to bring a notepad full of your thoughts on TP, some business cards and – most importantly – a thirst for some brews.

Comcast Roundup: Antitrust reviews begin of NBC deal, carrying ESPN 3d and More

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

• The Washington Post reports that the Justice Department will begin an antitrust review of the Comcast-NBC merger.
• The Post also reports that a Senate Judiciary subcommittee and a host of other House and Senate panels want to review the deal.
• The Silicon Alley Insider reports that Comcast is in talks to carry ESPN’s announced 3d sports channel.

Below, the power of Comcast’s top attorney, the Tennis Channel is pissed and More.

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Carole I. Smith, Mayor’s Commission on Technology director, 67

This has been updated here.

Carole I. Smith, a radio personality, columnist, entrepreneur and educator who advised the city on technology policy, passed Monday evening, a friend told Technically Philly today. She was 67.

Educated at Yale University, Occidental College and Temple University, according to an archived biography, Smith was most recently the executive director of the Mayor’s Commision on Technology, hosting a monthly Web cast and weekly radio show in that capacity.

Comment from her family or the mayor’s office was not immediately available. This story will be updated as information comes in. Cause of death was not disclosed.

On Wednesdays on 900 AM WURD, Smith hosted Carole’s Technology Corner, discussing mostly national gadget and trend stories with various guests from the region and beyond.

Shop Talk: XIPWIRE mobile payment platform lets you text cash

Sharif Alexandre wants you to text more.

The founder of Fitler Square-based mobile payment platform XIPWIRE lets consumers send and receive money by SMS message. After registering for the service and linking a bank account, users can send a simple message which automatically pulls money from a virtual wallet or bank account.

“Xip $10 to Bill.” Bill’s got your dills.

The service works, Alexandre says, for inconvient circumstances when someone’s forgotten a wallet or has to divvy up a tab. “If you go out to lunch and have to split the check, you go to ATM, you don’t know how much you owe,” Alexandre says. “If everyone has a XIPWIRE account, you can literally xip them money.”

Currently in soft-launch, plans are for XIPWIRE to be available to consumers next week.

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Tonight: Our Technology Professionals Happy Hour

We’re way into hanging out with the community in 2010. It’s practically our resolution. Join us and other technology professionals for a happy hour at Public House at Logan Square this evening.

We’ve partnered with event promoter Center City Philadelphia and others to setup the event, and it turned out not so shabby, we say: you get a free drink just for being there.

More important is the opportunity to network with folks who are interested in the same things as you are. No, not drinking, silly. Technology. Events. And shiny, shiny business cards. See you there!

8static seeks donations for new sound system; free show at $4,000 goal

The sound setup at the 8static chiptunes dance party in West Philly's Studio 34 | Photo: Ben Mason (flickr:su1droot)

Since inception, 8static has been defined by Do-It-Yourself.

The crew of the vintage video game equipment-powered dance party has lugged hand-me-down and borrowed sound and visual equipment to West Philly venue Studio 34 almost monthly since last year.

Now, the group is seeking donations to purchase new speakers, a subwoofer, monitors and a new projector to replace beat-up counterparts and help keep the party rockin’.

The chiptunes enthusiasts kicked-off a $2,000 online donation campaign last week, making the goal in its first 24 hours and surprising the heck out of coordinator and visual chiptunes artist Don Miller, aka No Carrier. Three donors alone – none from Philadelphia – covered the first 75 percent of the goal.

There’s more incentives in the works, Miller says.

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VC Roundup: 2009 slightly less depressing than 2008, Google invests in DreamIt grad

Welcome to our brand new weekly round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line or corner us at our next meetup.

DEFINITE READS

The National Venture Capital Association has published its yearly “exit poll” tracking VC-funded company exits. IPOs were higher in 2009 in year-over-year numbers, but M&A activity declined slightly. Both metrics are still lower than pre-recession numbers.

Boston-based DreamIt Ventures grad SCVNGR has just received $4 million from Google Ventures. The company, makers of location-based gaming platforms, is profitable with over $1 million in revenue in its first year.

After the jump, the passing of a local VC leader and the firm that is touring New York City incubator spaces as if it were on a pub crawl.

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