What problems can we solve during Random Hacks of Kindness this weekend?

This weekend, June 4-5, Random Hacks of Kindness will bring together hackers, developers, coders and designers to build at Drexel University, as we told you last month. RSVP here.

This Friday night, at Indy Hall, we want you all to come grab a (free) beer and talk about what we can accomplish — whether you have any development background or not. Free reservation here.

The international weekend hackathon is targeted for practical open source solutions to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation challenges and here in Philadelphia we’re using the recently unveiled resource OpenDataPhilly.org as inspiration. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is co-organizing Random Hacks with Drexel PhD student Michael Brennan.]

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SeventySix, Comcast Interactive Capital change names

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.

DEFINITE READS

Comcast Interactive Capital has been renamed “Comcast Ventures” in the wake of the cable giant’s merger with NBCUniversal. NBC’s Peacock Equity Fund will be rolled into the new fund.

Safeguard Scientifics continues its winning streak with its third exit in the past six months as parter company Advanced BioHealing has been acquired by Shire for $750 million in straight cash homey. According to the press release Safeguard looks to receive $140 million from the transaction.

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Event Highlights: May 31 – June 4, 2011

Happy Memorial Day Philadelphia.

We hope you are lucky enough to take this day off and enjoy doing summer things. However, your Technically Philly event highlights never take a week off as there are always amazing tech events happening in our fair city. This week, Technically Philly is especially excited to co-sponsoring Random Hacks of Kindness, a weekend-long hackathon at Drexel University.

Elsewhere: Gamers gather and the Philly WordPress Meetup digs in to 3.2.

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Friday Q & A: Rob Weber of AgileSwitch on the benefits of a lean startup

After nearly a half-dozen startups, Rob Weber is looking to keep things simple.

A founder of local angel investment group Robin Hood Ventures, Weber’s latest venture alongside longtime business partner Albert Charpentier is AgileSwitch, a company  that manufactures electronic components that help green technologies such as wind turbines convert wind to electricity.

The initial production units, which measure four inches by five inches, cost an average of $100.

“Four dollar gasoline does a lot to increase the interest in solar panel and wind turbine,” he says.

However, despite the fact that Weber once founded an angel investing group, Weber is placing an emphasis of keeping AgileSwitch lean. Last month, the company accepted $50,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Parters as its only outside funding.

“People see that we are two guys that have done this before, that we have some credibility,” says Weber adding that the company is utilizing former employees and contacts from past ventures to quickly get a prototype to market.

We chatted with Weber about having a serial partner, the dangers of accepting too much funding and his adventures with 3D body scanners.

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‘Global Water Industry Honor Roll’ features two Philly companies: Links

• Navy, economic development groups sign pact [PhillyBurbs.com] — “The U.S. Navy has formed a partnership with three business development groups to foster collaboration with small businesses, educational institutions and nonprofit groups and increase energy-related developments at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.”
• Q&A with Mark Alan Hughes [Flying Kite] The Penn State Professor leading the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster, also located at the Navy Yard
• Two Philly Firms Named to Global Water Industry Honor Roll [Keystone Edge] — BlackGold Biofuels and NovaThermal Energy were named to the Top 50 Water Companies list
• ‘Blogger tax’ goes before council [Metro] — We’ll have more details next week
• Philadelphia Water Department to adopt water infrastructure capital planning software [Water World]
• Philadelphia’s Greatest And Most Anticipated Food Website Coming Soon [Phoodie] — “Tacodelphia“
• Many could be interested in Cubist [Business Journal]

Angel Interviews: Ehud Israel and the “funding gap” at Drexel University

Introducing Angel Interviews, a series dedicated to debunking the assumption that entrepreneurs need to look outside of Philadelphia for angel and early stage investment. Every so often we’ll interview a local angel and ask him or her about investment criteria and how to get in contact. If you’re an angel investor that deals primarily with technology companies or you have any suggestions about how we can improve this series drop us a line.

Ehud Israel wasted no time admitting that he was new to angel investing.

The 43-year-old is one of the mentors at Drexel’s Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship, a business incubator that caters exclusively to the Drexel University community, and it was in that role that he decided to invest in one of the Center’s companies: Async Interview.

“There’s a gap in our support [at the Center] of the students in respect to funding, so I’ve been trying to fill that gap,” says Israel. “It just so happens that, as a mentor, I’m in the ground floor at these ideas.”

Now in an operational role at as Async’s CFO and CTO, Israel has also invested in one other company and is keeping his ears open for other deals, though he says he is not actively pursuing companies.

We ask Israel what he looks for in a company, how to get started as an angel investor and the reason for the misperceptions about Philadelphia’s angel community.

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What if a tweet cost your nonprofit $18,000 in Comcast funding?: 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 yanks funds for nonprofit after tweet about FCC Baker’s jump [Post Tech: Washington Post] — Seattle nonprofit Reel Grrls tweeted in opposition to the hire of former FCC chair Meredith Attwell Baker, which prompted a Comcast flack to threaten the organization’s funding, a stance that was then reversed by the company. Now the nonprofit has said it had decided to not take any Comcast funding anyway because the instance had ‘raised too many concerns.’ The funding in question was $18,000.
• Dick Ebersol Resigns From NBC Sports [New York Times] — “Dick Ebersol, who had defined NBC’s formidable Olympic presence since the mid-1990s and who was the last of the high-profile TV sports impresarios, resigned abruptly on Thursday after negotiations on a four-year contract collapsed. ” Ebersol profile by LA Times here.
• As New Owner of NBC Universal, Can Comcast Merge the Corporate with the Creative? [Knowledge@Wharton]

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Steve Tang testifies on life sciences importance to U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

University City Science Center CEO Steve Tang today highlighted the importance of the life sciences as an economic driver during his testimony at a hearing of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.

PRESS RELEASE [PDF]: During his remarks, Tang described the history and mission of the Science Center, the nation’s oldest and largest urban research park, and its contributions to the Greater Philadelphia economy. “More than 350 companies have passed through our doors since we were founded in 1963.The 93 that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region account for over $9 billion of sales and 15,000 current direct jobs. These jobs pay an average of $89,000 per year—a remarkable figure, especially in today’s economy,” he explained.

Yet, he noted, “The life sciences industry does more than create well-paying jobs. Scientists and researchers are dramatically improving treatments, therapeutics and ultimately patient care and quality of life.”

Tang pointed to the Science Center’s innovative QED Proof of Concept funding program, which pulls technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace by pairing scientific researchers with experienced business advisors, as an example of regional collaboration. “At the Science Center, we firmly believe that our multi-institutional QED program is a unique and model ‘public-private partnership’ that can be replicated across the nation to help promising ventures cross the ‘Valley of Death’ in funding,” he said. MORE [PDF]

Tang also expressed his support for the proposed tax credit-based Life Sciences Jobs and Investment Act, a measure also supported by Pennsylvania Bio.

To watch his testimony, go here, where he is introduced at 34:40 into the video.

Earlier this month, the Science Center announced that Tang had been named to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s new Innovation Advisory Board, which also includes Natalia Olson-Urtecho of Center City based business development firm EG.

Old City creative and business groups crowd the Trust Venue

Updated lead organization: May 26, 2011 @ 1:30 p.m.

Following the Old City Creative Corridor conversation is one about growing stakeholders.

After digital media agency Maiden Media launched earlier this year the group to retain and grow the neighborhood’s reputation as a creative cluster, the number of those involved has grown rapidly, says Maiden PR lead Dan Schwartz.

At this month’s meeting at the Trust Venue, more than 100 people came together to discuss emphasizing the neighborhood’s ‘artistic personality.’ The next meeting will be held Wednesday June 15.

Updated: Though it served as the Creative Corridor’s monthly meeting, the event was called ‘The Urban Adventure’ and was organized by the Old City Business Collective, a three-year-old group of neighborhood business owners.

The May panel-styled forum featured Philadelphia’s Chief Cultural Officer and Director of the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy Gary Steuer, DesignPhiladelphia Founder and Executive Director Hilary Jay, Center City District Marketing Vice President Michelle Shannon  and Susan Miller Davis, a public art consultant and former Director of the city Redevelopment Authority’s Public Art Program, moderated by design journalist Caroline Tiger.

This from Schwartz: “The audience was full of students, business owners, musicians, artists, application developers, graphic artists, web developers, writers, architects and more. All of whom came to the meeting to learn about art-driven community transformations. Topics ranged from successful design districts, to the development of neighborhoods like Northern Liberties, to branding Old City to encouraging businesses to work together through projects and events.”

Beyond talk, a spread of food was provided by neighborhood restaurants like Race Street Cafe, Dinardo’s Famous Crabs and Cafe Ole, paired with drinks from Neri Wine Cellars and Triumph Brewing, and ice cream from Franklin Fountain.

More information here.

Philly Tech Week 2012 will be April 23-28, 2012, last week of April

Yo Philadelphia technology community,

Remember the first ever Philly Tech Week, which featured 65 events across industry and organization throughout the city the last week of April? Well, that happened with just a couple months notice. What would we be able to do with a full year?

Here’s the opportunity.

Philly Tech Week 2012, an open calendar of events celebrating technology and innovation across the region, will be happening April 23-28, 2012, the last week of April 2012.

Your calls to action:

• Dream up the coolest events, biggest announcements and boldest ways to show off that Philadelphia has one of the world’s most vibrant technology and innovation communities. Tell us how to bring Philly Tech Week to a new level.
• Think about how your business, organization, group or, yes, you can help support this week and the humble technology news site that puts it together. (A revised sponsorship one-pager will find the light of day later this summer).
• Be prepared for more growth because — we know this is going to shock you — the technology community here is growing and can have as big an impact as you can make yourself.

Keep doing wonderful things to make Philadelphia better and follow @PhillyTechWeek and @TechnicallyPHL for additional updates.