The profane Twitter abbreviation that is a Philly staple and other Links

• Regional quirks: Datz phila on Twitter [Inquirer] — A Carnegie Mellon report shows ‘accents’ developing on Twitter, including Philly’s contribution: ctfa.
• David Bowen’s Data Sweep: Tech Meets Art @ Esther Klein [Geekadelphia]
• Ex-Philadelphia mag editor named Philly Daily News editor [Poynter]
• Phila. attractions promoted in N.Y., Washington [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Check out that new Visit Philly campaign TV spot and check out their contest so you can finally get your handiwork onto a billboard.

Monetate’s David Brussin: Why you should launch a tech company in Philly

Writing for VentureBeat, David Brussin, CEO of Monetate in Conshohocken, lays it down:

“Contrary to conventional wisdom, Silicon Valley isn’t the only place to go when you get serious about building a new company in the technology space.

Sure, it’s  a great place to start this sort of business, but the case for moving your company there is not as strong as it used to be. I’ve stared, run and sold many companies far from the Valley – with my latest venture firmly based in Philadelphia. Here’s why I’ve avoided ground zero for many tech companies:“

H/T Alex U-A

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:

Caffeine Fish – Caffeine Fish develops the Trainboard iPhone app and offers iPhone development consulting in the Philadelphia area.

Empowerkit MLM Software – Empowerkit roots are in Philadelphia where it started as a company. It creates websites for Franchisees through powerful software solutions.

Optimized Cable Company – OCC is a distributor of high end electronic cable products, at a much lower price than most physical storefronts. Pick up some HDMI cables for your upcoming football parties today!

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.

OpenDesks – OpenDesks.com lets you monetize unused workspaces – a cubicle, a conference room, an office or a seat in the lunchroom – as long as there’s somewhere to sit and work, you can post it. Join OpenDesks.com‘s Founders Circle today for a low-cost lifetime membership.

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.

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.

MEI hopes Yards Brewery iPad app is a prototype for publishers

Fri., Jan. 14, 12:09 p.m.: Corrected detail about Reader’s Digest app. It is not being created by MEI as originally published.

After making a surprising appearance in Wired in November, it’s maybe less of a surprise that a local brewery is tapping its techie customers.

Late last month, Yards Brewing Company launched a free iPad app, which allows customers to hear the brewing backstory, watch a video with Yards founder Tom Kehoe and explore particulars of the brewery’s selection of beers.

But, let’s be frank—good beer is not a hard sell.

It’s perhaps the production of the app that is more representative of technology’s impact, as a local company with deep roots in the publishing industry is keeping up with the times by shifting its business.

Read more

Comcast’s live streaming TV tablet app facing pushback from cable networks: Roundup

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 Chief Roberts Urges FCC Members to Approve NBC Purchase [Bloomberg] — “Comcast Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts asked two Federal Communications Commission members for the agency’s prompt approval of the cable company’s purchase of NBC Universal, according to a filing. “
• Comcast’s live TV iPad app is running into resistance from cable networks [ZDNet] — “TV Everywhere is looking like it’s getting stuck at home. Comcast’s Xfinity TV app, which the cable giant promised would bring live programming and video on-demand choices to iPads and Android tablets later this year, has run afoul of cable networks that don’t think Comcast has the right to deliver its shows to these new devices.”

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• Comcast, NBC round up Hill support [Politico]
• More Legislators Push for Comcast/NBCU [Broadcast and Cable] — “Add seven more congressfolk to the list of those who have written the FCC to ask it to approve the Comcast/NBCU deal expeditiously.”
• FCC May Force Comcast to Unbundle Modems [Light Reading] — As part of NBC deal regulatory concessions.
• Comcast cuts cost of entry-level cable package 25 percent [Inquirer]
• Comcast, library offering digital glimpse of JFK [Boston Globe]
• Voices Weigh in as FCC Nears Vote on Comcast-NBC Universal Venture [Comcast blog] — David L. Cohen writes
• Comcast-NBC merger expected to have net neutrality conditions [Post Tech: Washington Post]

WORTH NOTING

• Comcast’s Gilford Jumps To ABC As SVP, Digital Media [paidContent]
• The Buzz from CES 2011 – Trends to Watch [Comcast blog] — Perspective on the major Las Vegas event.

Submissions open for mobile art exhibits

A local organization dedicated to the intersection of technology and arts is hosting an open call for submissions.

But it may surprise you to learn that your work—if chosen—won’t be geared for display in a gallery.

Instead, the host, Breadboard, a venture sponsored by the University City Science Center, plans to share the works through several mobile interfaces.

It’s virtual public art exhibit, which we covered in October, is opening for new submissions. Folks can submit 3D Layar files that are geographically mapped. When a user comes across a piece in the city, they’re able to view the work using the free Layer app for iPhone and Android devices.

Second, a new program being put together by Breadboard with partner Center for Mobilities Research and Policy, DIS•LOCATIONS, questions our mobile life and our social connection to it using under-used store fronts in a familiar area of the city: along Market and Chestnut between 8th and 12th streets. Folks will be able to interact with video installations and window overhauls at by scanning mobile QR codes to download additional artistic content. We dig it.

Deadlines begin the second week of February. Virtual Art submissions are capped on the 12th, while DIS•LOCATIONS submissions will be taken until the 14th.

We could take it upon ourselves to enter, but it would just be embarrassing.

Startup Roundup: Philly’s Android tablet at CES

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

Stream TV Networks Inc., located on Chestnut Street, made a splash before CES last week with its Android tablet offering. PhillyTechNews reports that the company’s founders are also in charge of Zero Technologies, which has investment connections. In related news, Blue Bell’s MaaS360 hosted a webinar on Android and the enterprise last week, part of a series.

Andrei Pandre, a writer of data visulization news, writes in-depth about a Microsoft staffer, Donald Farmer, making a move to locally headquartered QlikTech. He’s not relocating, but will work for the company’s Washington offices. Farmer says he was looking to work for a more agile company.

E-commerce provider GSI Commerce acquired Columbus-based analytics firm ClearSaleing early this week, according to Direct Marketing News. The deal will provide GSI clients with better metrics to measure the success of advertising campaigns.

Read more

Blake Jennelle: I grow incrementally if I stay and in a much bigger way if I go

This is Exit Interview, a weekly interview series with those who have moved out of Philly. We hear a lot of chatter about Philadelphia’s brain drain, particularly from our technology community. We’ve read the reports and heard the studies, but we wanted to hear from the people who have actually left. Why’d they go, would they stay, will they come back? If you or someone you know left Philly for whatever reason, we want to hear from you. Contact us.

Second in our series is Blake Jennelle, founder of Philly Startup Leaders and MyDunkTank. Technically Philly caught up with Jennelle via email to ask him why he moved and if he’d ever come back. Answers edited for length.

When did you actually leave? And to where?

I moved to New York City three weeks ago, just before Christmas. I hope Santa got my gift forwarding notice. If not, Merry Christmas to the whomever is taking over my apartment.

What are the primary reasons you left for your new location? Was there a specific event or moment that you realized you had to/wanted to leave?

It was a feeling more than anything specific. I had been spending a couple of days each week in New York for about six months. It was partly because my cowgirl lives there and partly to meet with clients for my charity fundraising startup, MyDunkTank.

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Notehall on Philly perception: ‘To be honest, generally, it’s not very good’

This is Exit Interview, a weekly interview series with someone who has left Philadelphia, perhaps for another country or region or even just out of city limits and often taking talent, business and jobs with them. If you or someone you know left Philly for whatever reason, we want to hear from you. Contact us.

In the DreamIT Ventures incubation community, it was big news when the team behind Notehall, an online marketplace for college study materials, decided in August 2009 to forgo its West Coast roots and stay in Philadelphia. By their first national TV appearance that October, they had remade a Manayunk rowhome into a quirky Web 2.0 office.

“DreamIT worked. We’re staying in Philadelphia,” Notehall Co-Founder Justin Miller said in summer 2009. Their team spoke about being embraced by the Philly startup community and exploring a new, big East Coast city.

By this May, a year after first coming to Philly, they had moved to San Francisco.

The core of this growing company still thinks fondly on this city, but we spoke to the company’s marketing officer DJ Stephan about moving on and what they remember best.

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SCVNGR raises $15 million

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.

MUST READS

DreamIt grad SCVNGR continues its path to world domination, netting $15 from an English venture capital firm. According to the Inky’s Joey D, that puts the market value of the company in the mid-tens of millions. The new round makes the company, which also received investment from Google, the undisputed king of Dreamit alumni.

Read more