When it comes to Philadelphia there’s a lot to brag about. So much, in fact, that it’s often hard to keep track.
To help maximize your bragging time, we’ve created this handy flowchart. Whether you are talking to a CEO, John Street or your plumber, we’ve got you covered.
(click for the larger document)
Note: This flowchart originally appeared in the Philly Tech Week print supplement.
Excited, Philadelphia? Tonight we celebrate Philadelphia’s technology community at our Signature Event, where there will be an open bar, delicious food and a keynote from Rich Negrin, Managing Director of the City Of Philadelphia, about the future of online transparency and technology-infused good government initiatives in city government.
Attending will be all of Philly Tech Week’s sponsors, event organizers and Technically Philly community members, making it the largest and most diverse gathering of the city’s technology community. It’s not too late to get your tickets at Ticketleap.
Also happening today: an all-star web developer panel at Comcast Interactive Media and a showcase of the best of Philly’s green technology.
After the jump, get a list of every PTW event today. For the entire schedule, head on over to http://PhillyTechWeek.com/events and be sure to follow @PhillyTechWeek on Twitter.
The sold out 2011 Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference will finish up later this afternoon, but not before mobile took its stage.
The conference, a locally-organized, two-day conference for high-level enterprise software development discussion and now in its sixth year, features tracks on various focuses, from infrastructure and languages to agility and frameworks. And, yes, mobile.
Last year, too, mobile was already a feature, but, says Tracey Welson-Rossman, a co-organizer of the event, the level of interest in mobile has intensified even faster than she expected. Welson-Rossman, who is the director of sales for Chariot Solutions, the Fort Washington consulting firm that organizes ETE, and a Philly Startup Leaders board member, says mobile’s growth has mirrored the success of the conference itself.
“When I talk to our panelists and speakers, they are sticking around to actually sit in on other sessions because most conferences don’t have the diversity that we’ve seen happen here,” she says, adding that presenters aren’t paid but are increasingly motivated by the reputation of ETE and those in attendance.
With only three full days left to go of the inaugural Philly Tech Week, if you’re not already up and at ‘em for the second day of Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise, we’re expecting you to hit your third wind at about 12:00 p.m., just in time for Happy Cog’s panel on nonprofit web design challenges and innovation.
The Philly Robotics Expo is an all-afternoon event, and tonight, don’t miss the Made In Philly Software Showcase at IndyHall and the Chip Music Showcase. You can do it all, peoples.
After the jump, get a list of every PTW event today. For the entire schedule, head on over to http://PhillyTechWeek.com/events and be sure to follow @PhillyTechWeek on Twitter.
Philly Tech Week magazine: Pick up in select retailers and at PTW events.
Check out Philly Tech Week events here.
Mike Worth says his deja vu moment came in March, at the Game Developers Conference in California.
“When you went down the opening flight of steps, there was a huge banner, 80 feet wide, that said ‘INVEST IN CANADA,” says Worth.
All Worth saw was what could have been for Philadelphia.
At the same conference in 2009, Worth and other Philadelphia developers had the idea to put Philadelphia on that giant banner. Along with a handful of other local video game developers and business owners, Worth help co-found the Video game Growth Initiative in 2009 to help Philadelphia leverage tax incentives and other benefits to help lore large video game studios to Philadelphia.
Back then, the motivation stemmed from attending GDC in 2009.
After all, Philadelphia is home to the only Ivy League graduate-level video game development program in the country at Penn, has a cheap cost of living compared to other video game industry cities like Boston and San Francisco and is sandwiched oh-so-perfectly between the European and West Coast time zones.
However, two years after VGI was first presented its ideas as a PowerPoint to state and city officials, the city’s video game community has decided to matters into their own hands.
“I was so focused on getting a studio to move here and hire me, then we thought: ‘why not build a studio and hire yourself?” says Worth.
Along with CEO Leo Tranchitella, Chief Creative Officer Brandon Van Slyke, and CTO Albert Vazquez, Worth has founded Play Eternal, Philadelphia’s first “AAA” studio designed to produce high-budget games for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and the PC. Currently the studio is beta-testing its first demo that it hopes leads to a publishing deal that would allow the company to hire more than 20 employees.
Along with Center City-based game studio Burst Online and a handful of smaller, independent shops, VGI Philly hopes that having studios grow organically is the best way to attract outside attention to Philadelphia.
And it’s already working. Armed with two announcements from Burst Online and Play Eternal at this year’s GDC, Worth says that he was constantly being approached by Philly expats asking how they can help put Philly on the map.
“We haven’t had that homerun of getting a [large studio like] Activision to move here,” he says, “so we’re focusing on getting us all on base.” he says.
Nineteen technology leaders that attended a breakfast for the cover shoot of the 2011 Philly Tech Week Program & Magazine. Their full names and titles below.
Philly Tech Week Signature Event and Cocktail Reception Details: Rich Negrin will speak about good government and technology, and we’ll feature programming on collaboration.
When: Fri., April 29, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Where: WHYY, 150 N. 6th Street, Old City
Price: $20 (Open bar and light refreshments; Tickets close morning of the event)
Gathering 19 leaders of Philadelphia’s technology community wasn’t all about a photoshoot, bagels and coffee. It would have been a shame to let them slip out of the room with only a cover photo to show for it.
Instead, we took the rare gathering as an opportunity to hear about the focus of Philly Tech Week: collaboration.
No one could have created a week of programming like Tech Week alone. We relied heavily on the impactful organizations and individuals that make this city’s tech community great.
So we turned to those often well-known leaders to see what collaboration means to them. And we hope it’ll mean more of it.
Thoughts from those leaders, after the jump.
Read more
Donate laptops to Nonprofit Technology Resources during Philly Tech Week and beyond.
Nonprofit Technology Resources, which refurbishes computers, offers training and workforce development for low-income Philadelphians, is hosting a laptop donation drive during Philly Tech Week.
NTR is accepting laptops with at least a Pentium 4 processer, which includes just about any laptop purchased since 2001. Donations to the nonprofit are tax deductible and all laptops are wiped clean of any remaining personal data, information or files. NTR can accommodate large donations from established groups and organizations.
There is greater interest and need for laptop donations to connect lower-income Philadelphians than ever, says NTR founder Stan Pokras, as computing moves away from the desktop.
While the nonprofit is located at 1524 Brandywine Street in the Spring Garden neighborhood, laptop donations can be brought to the remaining Philly Tech Week lunchtime series events at WHYY from 12-1 p.m. today, tomorrow and Friday. If you are interested in donating otherwise, contact us or NTR. Find all PTW events listed here.
In March, Technically Philly reported on NTR budget concerns, which are on-going.
[Full Disclosure: NTR is a former TP advertiser]
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Mmy Moon.
We’re nearly half way through tech week, but don’t expect the fun to slow down. Today, the Science Leadership Academy opens its doors and reveals its secrets, RJD2 and 215 magazine talk music and the Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise Conference kicks off.
After the jump, get a list of every PTW event today. For the entire schedule, head on over to http://PhillyTechWeek.com/events and be sure to follow @PhillyTechWeek on Twitter.
A rendering of the common area facade, facing West on Howard St.
The principles of collaboration and shared place that helped launch Old City coworking space Independents Hall are planned to be used in a new co-housing venture in Kensington, announced one of the founder’s at a Philly Tech Week event.
Junto: Rethinking Shelter Philly Tech Week event
How technology will shape the ways and where we live was the focus of a Philly Tech Week installment of the Junto, an informal conversation around a subject put together by web development shop P’unk Ave.
At the event, Alex Hillman, with his Indy Hall co-founder and P’unk Ave chief Geoff DiMasi, fittingly announced their co-housing partnership with Postgreen.
Though an open conversation among two dozen mostly 20 and 30-somethings sitting on the ground, DiMasi moderated something of a panel on the subject, featuring three relevant thought leaders on a couch: architecture and design Brian Phillips, Postgreen co-founder Nic Darling and ‘extreme minimalist’ Andrew Hyde.
Some take aways:
Indy Hall and Postgreem Homes, the sustainably-minded development company noted for its 100k House project, will build a multi-residency unit on a currently unused lot on the 1700-block of Howard Street near Front Street in East Kensington. Planned for six independent units of 500-600 square feet, the structure will feature 2,500 square feet of common space, like the one visualized above, that will be a place for collaboration.
“This is about bringing the ideas behind coworking and continuing to introduce them to new people, in new ways and in new environments,” says Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman. He announced the initiative publicly with his co-founder Geoff DiMasi at Monday night’s Junto on Rethinking Shelter, a Philly Tech Week event.
Find more details here. Currently, the coalition is seeking those interested in renting, buying, investing and getting involved otherwise. If interested, get connected here.
Though units will be available for purchase in a condominium-like style, Indy Hall plans to own at least one unit for short-term rentals to feature the flow of individuals that its coworking space features.
Details are still being configured but, like other Postgreen projects, this will have a sustainable focus and Postgreen and Indy Hall will have some longer-term partnership. The initial residents will be ‘cultivated,’ says Hillman, who is one confirmed resident, though “the goal is not for us to design and build this in a bubble.”
“We want to be a part of building a broader community,” Hillman says. “We think this is a great way to do this now and more in the future.”
Mat Schaffer says that back in 2005, Ruby on Rails, then a new, open-source web developer framework, had everything he was looking for.
Rails Bootcamp Workshop: Been meaning to try Rails? Not sure where to start? This is the class for you. We’ll start by going over the basics about rails, help you get it installed, and work with you on creating your first views and models.
When: Fri., April 29, 12-4 p.m.
Where: 101 West Elm Street, Conshohocken
Price: $50
“I think Ruby on Rails strikes the best balance of ease of getting started and ease of maintenance. There are a lot of other frameworks. Others lean a little heavy on getting started, like PHP, or on maintainability once it has launched, like Java,” he says.
Ruby, the language itself, was developed in Japan by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, but it wasn’t until David Heinemeier Hansson, partner at 37Signals, developed Rails, the framework for developing web apps, that the application took off in the West, Schaffer says.
Six years later, Schaffer has been doing full-time professional work with the framework since March of last year with his company Mashion. Schaffer is also a primary organizer at Philly.RB, a meetup group dedicated to the language and framework. The group meets on the second Tuesday of every month at Drexel, and also has a weekly hack night on Mondays. He’s in discussions with the University of Pennsylvania about creating a 1-credit course for students to learn the framework, which is growing in popularity.
So, why should web developers make the jump?
Read more
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