CalendarFly to offer free community calendar integration for Philadelphia Charter Schools

Though there certainly are plenty of options for keeping track of calendar appointments with software like Microsoft Outlook and online services like Google Calendar, there hasn’t been a good way to integrate the calendars of different stakeholders across communities, like public schools.

CalendarFly, a 2009 GoodCompany Ventures graduate, hopes it can solve this problem.

“I remember desperately needing a better education organizational tool when I was in middle school and high school,” Chief Executive Officer Drew Aldrich says. “I was annoyed that there was no effective way to get my friends and family to connect to my calendar intelligently.”

With CalendarFly, teachers can post homework assignment deadlines and test dates to an online community calendar. Administrators can post important events and reminders there. Coaches can submit practice schedules and matches, meets and games. On the other end of distribution, students can add their own appointments. And where it becomes most tangible—Parents are able to view all of the calendars online or on thier mobile device.

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Can mobile ubiquity help bridge Philly’s digital divide?

In partnership with Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, the university’s capstone journalism class, students Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will cover neighborhood technology issues for Technically Philly and Philadelphia Neighborhoods through May.

Apple’s iPhone and iTouch sold 57 million units in 28 months, according to Morgan Stanley’s The Mobile Internet Report.

Smartphones and other Internet-ready handheld devices have gained immense popularity. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 83 percent of people own cell phones or smartphones and 35 percent of people have surfed the Internet with their phones.

Ashley Cox on smartphone

“I go on there for everything,” says Ashley Cox of her mobile smartphone, “I’m on it everyday, all day.” African Americans are the most active users of mobile Internet. On an average day, 29 percent of African Americans used mobile Internet in 2009, up 141 percent from 2007. In 2009 the national average was only 19 percent.

“Mobile Internet expands people’s realization of the power of the Internet,” says Michael Morgan, an industry analyst on mobile devices for ABI Research, “you know you can be connected to information wherever you are.”

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Startup Roundup: It’s a great time for startups in Philly (even if you’ve been at it for 30 years)

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

Philadelphia Business Journal‘s Tech biz reporter Peter Key has asked several Philadelphia tech experts if it’s a good time to launch a startup in Philly. Valerie Gaydos of Private Investors Forum, Ravi Ganesan of Core Solutions Inc., Stephen M. Goodman of Morgan Lewis & Bockius and David Bookspan of DreamIT Ventures were unequivocally supportive.

Though it’ll be a challenge in the recession, if you can prove yourself now, you can prove yourself always. As Bookspan puts it: “Resources are cheap, talent is available, and a lot of funding is poised to start coming off the sidelines and back onto the field.”

And uhm, it’s still a good time, even if you began your startup 30 years ago. Lesson: Keep your head up. For a damn long time.

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As funding dries, Historical Society’s PhilaPlace unveils compelling new features

Update: April 1, 12:39 p.m.: Historical Sociey of Pennsylvania spokesperson Lauri Cielo clarified with us that though a lack of funding may affect the possibility of new features and expansion to other neighborhoods, the Web site will remain available to users and staff is budgeted to keep the project going with story uploads and maintenance. Project Director Joan Saverino makes note of these clarifications in her comment below.

Funding is running dry for an online historical project that is a powerful example of the intersection between forward-thinking technologists and history-minded academics.

Organizers of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania‘s three-year, $500,000 PhilaPlace project, an interactive documentation of “beyond the bell” 19th century ethnic and immigrant working-class history, are seeking new grants and innovative ways to keep the project sustainable.

The news comes as impressive new features were unveiled last week, coordinators tell Technically Philly.

Adjacent to PhilaPlace’s historic Google Map overlays that show the city’s dense development at the turn of the century, the site now features a “Streets” section that details ethnicity, land use, occupation and population, showing rapid change over time in several prominent Philadelphia neighborhoods.

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Ten most followed Philadelphia Twitter users

Roots drummer Questlove is Philadelphia's most followed Twitter user as of March 2010. Graph courtesy of TwitterCounter.com.

It’s tough to say just what it all means, but there’s some fascination with Twitter follower counts.

It’s a metric of some kind. Not quite popularity or power or purpose. Influence, yes, though many a spam account accrues tens of thousands of followers. So, take that as our warning. Twitter follower counts don’t necessarily mean jack, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

So we took a quick spin to meet who was out there representing Philadelphia in Twitter conversations. Who are the 10 most followed Twitter users listing Philadelphia as their home?

Below, you find out.

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Division of Technology’s $120 million budget laid out to City Council

In an informal partnership with Philadelphia magazine‘s new Philly Post daily news blog, Technically Philly will be offering our insight on Philadelphia technology to a broader audience of tech-interested individuals every Tuesday. As is true of so much of our effort, this is yet another opportunity to voice the triumphs and concerns of the community to a broader audience in the city and beyond.

Last Tuesday, city chief technology officer Allan Frank laid out the Division of Technology’s unprecedented six-year, $120 million budget in a hearing before City Council.

The sizable investment is a commitment to an executive order announced last July when Frank’s staff was more than tripled to 520 employees and plans were put in place to consolidate resources, improve technology infrastructure and streamline city services.

It is, in our opinion, absolutely necessary. As Frank told Council, according to the Daily News: “The world changed, but the city never changed.”

Read more at Philly Mag’s Philly Post.

Venture Capital: BFTP wants to give you money, a new fund in Bala Cynwyd?

Welcome to the VC 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.

Programming note: We skipped last week due to some technical troubles.

Update: looks like Franklin Park isn’t a straight VC fund.

DEFINITE READS

Ben Franklin Technology Partners is looking to award cash to clean energy companies that employ less than 500 people. The money comes from the federal government and companies must match the funds, which can be as high as $50,000. A notice of intent to apply must be filed by April 7th.

(see update, above) According to SEC filings, Bala Cynwyd-based Franklin Park Venture Fund has raised $50 million. We couldn’t find evidence of preexisting activity from these guys, so drop a comment a if you know anything.

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This week on our Jobs Board

Technically Philly’s Jobs Board is becoming a go-to resource for employers and job-seekers hoping to connect. We recently launched the board with new technology to better serve you, or customer, and hope that it will continue to be a go-to resource for technology-focused positions in the region. Check out the jobs currently posted!

Each week, we’ll highlight the some of the postings that you, your friends or family might have missed.

• The City of Philadelphia is looking for a Senior Application Developer. Two of them, in fact.
• The Chamber of Commerce is looking for a part-time Web designer.

If you’re a company looking to affordably connect with our audience of 16,000 technologists in the region, be sure to post your job openings here. Over 1,000 people checked out our Jobs Board in the past month, and each job is tweeted out to our 1,750 Twitter followers.

Every Monday, Technically Philly will highlight jobs on our Jobs Board.

Azavea submits BusMinder for Massachusetts Department of Transportation contest

BusMinder, a bid from Azavea for a contest from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

The story of a government looking for technology to do what it does better is becoming increasingly average.

And Callowhill-based GIS software firm Azavea, which recently changed its name from Avencia, has made it something of a habit of getting involved whether those discussions are happening in Philadelphia or not.

More than a month after chasing New York City’s BigApps contest, an Azavea developer has his eyes set on winning a challenge from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

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Event Highlights for March 19 – April 4, 2010

Hey, at least it ain’t snowin’.

If you can stand to brave the rainy and cloudy weather this week, head out to some of Philadelphia’s technology events.

This week, Next Fab Studio will let passersby through its doors for an open house and lecture from University of Pennsylvania professor Peter Bressler. After UX Book Club on Wednesday night, network with PhillyCHI at its free happy hour in Old City. Finally, join Philly Startup Leaders for its second Cigars & Startups event. It’s way gangster.

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

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