Links: Wharton professor has two exits in a single month, ‘Cyber-Terrorist’ of Wikileaks and More

DEFINITE READS

• eBay Buys Into College Entrepreneur’s Shopping Concept [Entrepreneurs' Adventures: Portfolio.com] Milo.com from Jack Abraham, on leave from Wharton, whose father built and sold comScore.
• Wharton Professor’s Winning Streak [Scaling Up: Forbes] — 67-year-old Leonard Lodish recently earned exits on two e-commerce sites, Diapers.com and, as noted above, Milo.com, for a total of some $575 million.
• Editorial: City Council: Let us in [It's our Money: Philly.com] — “For starters, we can’t understand why Council seems so behind the times on technology. The city’s inability to provide Internet access to the public during Council meetings – City Hall’s thick walls are apparently kryptonite to wi-fi – seems antiquated in the age of citizen blogging.There is also no way for the public to submit comments through Council’s website.”

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Temple Prof. Calls WikiLeaker A “Cyber-Terrorist” [CBS] — Temple journalism Professor Chris Harper says so, following news that Center City startup XIPWIRE may be the lone U.S. payment merchant offering donations to the controversial nonprofit. [Full Disclosure: This author has a relationship with Harper]
• IT Beyond the Campus [Campus Technology] — “Drexel University positions itself as an outsourced IT department for smaller colleges.” H/T Keystone Edge
• Paying attention to how we pay for things [PhillyInc: Inquirer] — Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
• Azavea wins crime-risk forecasting grant [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “Azavea said Monday it has been awarded a $216,000 Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research grant by the National Science Foundation to develop advanced crime-risk forecasting capabilities for HunchLab, its Web-based, geographic crime data-analysis and early-warning software.”

GIVE A GLANCE

• Create Your Own Archive.org with Reed Tech Web Archiving [Read Write Web] A Horsham company, as Philly Tech News notes.
• 4 charged in high-tech hooker ring [Daily News] — They “ran a prostitution ring using laptops, prepaid credit cards, cell phones and digital cameras to post photos of girls looking for “dates” on Craigslist’s erotic-services section.”
• LevLane to represent Philadelphia Technology Park [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “LevLane, a Center City agency, will also handle media relations and “reputation management,”… Philadelphia Technology Park, which opened in September at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, is in the business of data backup for corporations in the region.”
• Paycheck mortgage [Philly Deals: Inquirer] In the second item of this column, Ami Kassar of “Plymouth Meeting-based loan-screener” MultiFunding calls for innovation in bank lending by allowing lenders “to take an ongoing percentage of the borrower’s [future] earnings until the obligation is paid off.”
• Virtual justice: Online game world meets real-world cops and courts [Inquirer] — “If someone steals your virtual Roger Paulino pants, is it considered a real theft? Is it possible for an avatar to rape another avatar? Can you be hauled to court on harassment charges for annoying a game character? When the virtual blends into the real, trying to distinguish one world from another can be mind-bending.” Featuring Joe Osbourne and Tim Quirino of Geekadelphia.

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:

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.

OpenDesks – OpenDesks is an evolution of the coworking movement – a mobile coworking community for home-based and mobile workers, individual entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams. Connect with each other and connect with professional places to work together.

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.

Cadence Watch Company: The 4-bit binary watch by Cadence: “Simple, geeky, and clean, the Cadence 4-Bit watch is stylish without being gaudy,” says CrunchGear.  Technically Philly readers get 25% off to make holiday shopping easy.

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.

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.

Comcast Roundup: Ed Rendell urges NBC deal approval, Level 3 parries back 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.

DEFINITE READS

• Comcast and NBC [New York Times editorial] — Urging regulators to not feel rushed in approving the Comcast-NBC merger.
• As Comcast-NBC try to tie up merger, news editorials differ on consequences [Post Tech: Washington Post] — An October Washington Post editorial “said that many of the same critiques of the Comcast-NBCU deal were voiced in 2001 by hand-wringers nervous about the AOL-Time Warner merger – worries that came to naught.”
• Comcast merger helps consumers [Politico editorial by Ed Rendell] — Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell responds to an editorial from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders criticizing the NBC deal.
• Level 3: Comcast Charging For Local Access, Not Peering [Multichannel News] — Colorado online distribution company Level 3 lobs back more detailed criticism of Comcast, after last week’s blow up. Comcast quickly denounced the update as, well, as not being an update.

Hulu and Earthlink give more details on their perspective on the NBC deal, extension of the partnership and more.

Read more

XIPWIRE opens platform to donate to WikiLeaks, after MasterCard, Visa stop

XIPWIRE, the Center City-based mobile payments company, has launched an online platform through which supporters can donate funding to the controversial WikiLeaks and the legal defense fund of its founder Julian Assange, as reported by Raw Story.

The move comes after major credit cards Visa and MasterCard, in addition to online payment giant PayPal, halted any payments to the nonprofit, which was the mechanism through which thousands of pages of classified U.S. government diplomatic documents were made public.

On the XIPWIRE WikiLeaks page, the following message is posted:

While people may or may not agree with WikiLeaks, we at XIPWIRE believe that anyone who wishes to support the organization through a donation should be able to do so.We are waiving all fees so that 100% of the donations collected will be directly passed on to WikiLeaks.

More from the Baltimore Sun’s technology blog here.

Do you think this is a brave or a dangerous act? Tell us below.

Verizon launches high-speed 4G LTE network in Philadelphia

On Sunday, a new entrant to the next-generation 4G wireless market emerged in Philadelphia.

Verizon Wireless announced in a press release that it has launched its Long Term Evolution network in the region, one of 38 major metropolitan launches. The service offers Verizon users average download speeds of 5 to 12Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps with compatible devices.

The anticipated launch is years in the making, and as we’ve noted many times before, it’s a crowded market.

Sprint, Clear and Comcast all offer similar high-speed 4G offerings on the Clearwire white-labeled WiMAX network. We reviewed Sprint’s service in May, which should give consumers a snapshot of service offered by the three carriers.

Clearwire launched its 4G network last October, as we reported.

Startup Roundup: Wharton restructures MBA program, news orgs get schooled by local

Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup parses 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 newsletter or RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

MUST READS

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Monetate has raised $5 million in venture capital to increase its staff from 30 to 50 employees with the help of First Round Capital.

Wharton faculty have approved a new design for its MBA program, which focuses on strengthened teaching of microeconomics, an integrated focus on ethical and legal responsibilities, more oral and written communication concentration and a new tack on self-reflection and self-analysis. Read the full announcement. In related news, Forbes covers the success sreak of marketing professor Leonard Lodish, who was an early investor in Diapers.com and Milo.com, which combined, exited for roughly $575 million. Lodish is currently working with DreamIt grad NoteHall and Philly’s First Flavor.

Read more

10 ugliest websites in Philadelphia — voter’s choice awards

We’re not one to question the look, feel and design of online presences, but sometimes it’s fun to let other people.

So, over the past couple weeks, we sought your opinion for the ugliest websites in Philadelphia.

South-Philly.com

Our nominator says: part of an empire of bad templates from a quick hit web design firm in town, as noted by other suggestions. Visit here.

As submitted privately.

WMD Hotsauce

Our nominator told us: “Actually had a convo w owner, “You don’t like my logo? I designed it myself!”" Visit here

As suggested by Danya Henninger.

Read more

Common Cause PA honors Robert Cheetham, Azavea founder, software developer

You probably wouldn’t need to check IDs to confirm that most of those in attendance at Monday night’s Common Cause Pennsylvania 40th anniversary celebration were alive for the progressive citizen lobbying group’s debut in 1970.

The eighty, mostly gray-haired, people in attendance at the Center City Radisson at 17th and Locust streets saw another small piece of the nonprofit’s history. Though headlined by a women’s issues advocate and featuring a host of political candidates from elections past, for the first time in 10 years of giving out the award,  a software engineer was honored with the Common Cause PA Public Service Achievement Award.

“Robert Cheetham uses data for good,” said Chris Satullo of WHYY, who introduced the co-founder of Callowhill GIS software development company Azavea.

Read more

Monetate raises $5.1 Million in venture capital

Welcome to the VC Roundup, 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.

DEFINITE READS

Far McKon steps down from Hive76 leadership

Far McKon at Hive76 in late 2009

After nearly two years at the helm, Hive76 leader Far McKon is passing the torch.

“I’m off to go build stuff,” McKon said in an email to Technically Philly.

Spun out from The Hacktory in March 2009, Hive76 has grown quickly, rapidly expanding to its current headquarters at 915 Spring Garden.

McKon said that he will be handing the reigns of “instigator” to Mike Hogan.

In an interview last year, McKon told Technically Philly that Hive76 prides itself on being a “second generation” hackspace that is open to the public. The space at routinely hosts robotics meetings, guitar effects workshops and open houses.

The hacker space recently held an open house and was on the front page of NPR.com last week.