Over the past two days, we’ve previewed five of the fourteen DreamIt companies in detail as a preview to the incubator’s Demo Day event on August 11th.
There are nine other companies that didn’t wish to demo products to Technically Philly, but we still dug up some basic facts to prepare you for their launch.
Thanks to DreamIt’s partnership with Startl, the remaining companies are a diverse blend of education tools and web applications worthy of a look.
In 2011, Code for America will select five developers to work in Philadelphia for a year to create applications that improve how city government connects with residents.
As we reported in our Q&A with Mayor Nutter, the grant comes as the city is getting serious about technology, elevating the CTO to a cabinet-level position while investing $120 million in the Division of Technology.
At today’s Supernova conference, we caught up with Code for America’s City Program Director Alissa Black to ask her about the program’s timeline, how she’s measuring success and why Philadelphia was selected as one of CFA’s inaugural cities.
Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:
Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce – The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to promoting growth and economic development, advocating for sound public policy, and serving its members with outstanding programs and benefits. GPCC is the premier advocate of the region’s business community, representing members in 11 counties across three states with one voice.
Caffeine Fish – Caffeine Fish develops the Trainboard iPhone app and offers iPhone development consulting in the Philadelphia area.
Towerstream – Towerstream is the leading 4G service provider in the U.S. and is setting up shop in Philadelphia. Contact Towerstream to find out how, in less than a week, you can have first-class 4G service for your business.
Eight Eleven – The folks at Camden-based Eight Eleven do it all. Branding, communications, marketing, advertising, Websites, Web content management, user-experience (Web & software) and public relations. And they also do it for a lot of tech companies, of all sizes, to boot. Heck, they even customized a media kit just for you. Hit ‘em up.
NextFab Studio — NextFab is a membership-based, high-tech workshop and prototyping center. Our facility provides comfortable, clean, and safe workspaces with hand tools, 3D printers, computer controlled machine tools, software, and electronics workbenches. Expert instructors and a community of collaborators are on hand to help you problem-solve and achieve your vision. NextFab Studio has everything necessary for you to invent, repair, create, and innovate!
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.
Volpe and Koenig, P.C. — Since 1987, intellectual property boutique law firm Volpe and Koenig has provided guidance on matters relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, e-commerce, technology joint ventures, non-disclosure agreements, technology acquisitions, licensing and litigation. Whatever your intellectual property law issue… Volpe and Koenig bring law to your ideas.
Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact our Ad Sales Manager. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.
David Cohen (left) is interview by Supernova Hub organizer Kevin Werbach
According to what David Cohen says, Comcast isn’t worried about the shift to online video.
In fact, he says, the company is welcoming it — enough so that the future of online video has become the dominant conversation surrounding the company’s proposed acquisition of NBC Universal. Regulators are a wreck over what the merger might mean for moving pictures on the web, but Comcast maintains that the deal would stimulate, not stifle, competition.
During his keynote interview at today’s Superniva Hub conference, Comcast’s Executive Vice President answered a wide range of questions about his company’s merger with NBCU and privacy concerns (see our Q and A with him here).
“People often don’t realize how large Comcast is,” said Cohen adding that NBCU will only be 20 percent of Comcast.
But Cohen’s main focus was Xfinity and its role in content creation. Below, hear why Cohen and Comcast aren’t concerned about the shift to online video.
At 9:30 this morning windows were being washed at the new Walnut Street Apple Store. Apple’s flagship Philadelphia store will open this evening at 5:00 p.m., according to reports.
Copyright City of Philadelphia. Photograph by Mitchell Leff.
Since we launched a year-and-a-half ago, we’ve not only watched, but followed as closely as we could City of Philadelphia technology policy.
Even in our short tenure covering all that is involved — like municipal information technology, government transparency, citywide broadband network infrastructure, economic policy and much, much more — we’ve been witness to a city intent on finding new ways of utilizing technology and finding better ways of connecting with citizens.
Throughout, we’ve heard repeatedly from leaders that Mayor Michael Nutter understands the value of technology in city government and he is intent on involving Philadelphia’s technology community.
Though we write about these initiatives weekly, nothing was more of a reminder of the Mayor’s commitment to technology than when Nutter announced a $120 million capital investment in the Division of Technology during the pageantry of his budget address to City Council in March.
And with his support, DOT has been steered in a new direction, a Chief Technology Officer appointed to the mayoral cabinet, pilot programs created to attract technology businesses and broadband stimulus dollars and gigabit broadband chased.
So, we had to get the man on the phone to talk tech. Yesterday, we spoke with Mayor Nutter about government transparency, Philadelphia’s tax structure, and about his call to action to Philadelphia’s technology community. Our Q&A with Philadelphia’s Mayor after the jump.
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Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.
Demo Day previews:
Part One : Giveloop, Adapt.ly, Yunno
Part Two: 8tysix, Campus Sponsorship
Part Three : The rest
Edited: Corrected Campus Sponsorship details.
In part two of our DreamIt Demo Day preview series, we preview two companies that continue a noticeable trend in this year’s DreamIt class: the reliance on social networks for user acquisition.
With the exception of Adapt.ly and Giveloop, all of the companies previewed yesterday lean heavily on Facebook to create a frictionless login service and to help promote user actions to friends and these two companies are no different.
After the jump, read our previews of 8tysix and Campus Sponsorship to get you ready for August 11th and see which company told us that its site has “double rainbow possibility.”
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.
Below, ESPN has new reason to battle, how advertising dollars could be worth $10 billion and more.
Edit: added beta code for Adapt.ly
This year, it’s different.
For the past three summers Dreamit Ventures has incubated early-stage startups at the University City Science Center, giving each startup a small bit of seed capital while providing advice from some of the brightest entrepreneurial minds in the city.
Startups like SCVNGR, Seatgeek and Notehall all have roots in the incubator.
This year, DreamIt upped the ante by partnering with Brooklyn-based Startl to incubate more companies than ever and DreamIt is starting to receive national attention as one of the best early stage technology incubators in the country.
Demo Day previews:
Part One : Giveloop, Adapt.ly, Yunno
Part Two: 8tysix, Campus Sponsorship
Part Three : The rest
“One barometer [for the city] is DreamIt,” says Gil Beyda, founder of an early stage technology-focused venture capital firm Genacast Ventures. “Year after year, I’ve seen better companies and better entrepreneurs coming out of there.”
The first two DreamIt seasons culminated in Demo Day, an all-day event where companies show off their wares in the hopes of attracting attention and investment — see last year’s coverage — and that much will stay the same this year when the companies gather on August 11th.
Technically Philly stopped by the incubator last week to get a sneak peak of what some of the companies are working on, and five of 14 were ready to offer a small preview of what they will be presenting.
In the first of three parts, we look at Yunno, Adapt.ly and Give Loop. Tomorrow we will preview two additional companies and on Friday we’ll round up those who didn’t demo their product for us.
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