‘Flash mob’ firsthand perspective, Philly repped at last space shuttle launch and more: Links

• Domelight lives in spirit on Twitter [Daily News] — The People Paper notes @Domelights
• Philadelphia Resident One of 150 Selected to Attend NASA Tweetup for Last Space Shuttle Launch  [Geekadelphia] As we’ve told you, today starts the big day for Shareef Jackson
• My DuckDuckGo Twitter ad by the numbers [Gabriel Weinberg's blog] Interesting insight from the founder of Valley Forge-based search engine Duck Duck Go.
• Seriously. It’s not a “Philly Problem”. [Dangerously Awesome] Indy Hall Co-founder Alex Hillman on the ‘lack of talent’ in tech in Philly
• Mayor Nutter Relaunches PhillyStat—the City’s Performance Management Program [City press release]
•  ”Flash mob” fall-out: A multiple-perspective account of the North Philly roving mob attack  [A.V. Club] Reports say this attack, which broke the leg of A.V. Club editor Emily Guendelsberger, was a good old fashioned mob, not having been brought on by social media or text messaging or the like, so questions of the ‘flash mob’ phrase have come into play.

Barack Obama raises $1.2 million at Chestnut Hill fundraiser held by David L. Cohen: Comcast 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 weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

DEFINITE READS

• Obama and Romney converge on Philadelphia for competing bouts of fund-raising [Inquirer] — For Obama, includes campaign held in the Chestnut Hill home of Comcast EVP David L. Cohen, which raised at least $1.2 million, according to the Washington Post.
• Comcast has to sit on its hands while Hulu drama plays out [LA Times: Company Town] — “Imagine owning a big chunk of a company and having no say in its operations or future.That’s the position Comcast Corp. finds itself in with regard to Hulu, the online video site that consists primarily of content from its owners…”

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Free Comcast XFINITY WiFi through July

Here’s some summer goodwill.

Comcast is offering XFINITY WiFi service for free to anyone during the month of July. Users will be able to log on for two complimentary 60-minute sessions in the city or at the Jersey shore.

Be sure to check out available locations here, and don’t forget: if you’re an XFinity Internet subscriber, WiFi access is always free.

[h/t Philadelphia Business Journal]

The hand-painted production cycle of mobile game Catball Eats It All

The concept of Catball Eats It All, a developing new mobile game with ties to Philly, is simple.

Your goal is to eat everything in sight. The more you eat, the bigger you get. And the bigger you are, the more you’re able to eat.

There’s not a lot innovative about that.

The members of the development team Broken Compass Studios, coordinated by Project Manager Jeff Hsu, were inspired by games like Katamari Damacy, where players collect objects on a sticky ball that gets bigger and bigger, and Super Mario Galaxy, where the player inhabits small orbiting worlds instead of recognizable two-dimensional Mario levels.

But where Catball is unique is in its art direction.

The concept art and mockups created for this in-progress development are all hand-painted, which gives the game a feeling of unpolished yet sophisticated perfectionism.

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Drexel ditches suite deal for Microsoft Office

Drexel University announced to students late last month that it will no longer be providing licenses for the popular Microsoft Office suite to its students at no cost.

According to the student-run newspaper The Triangle, Drexel’s Chief Information Officer John Bielec is pointing students to free alternatives like Google Docs and Open Office.

As noted in the article, it’s not unusual for colleges to stray from the expensive offer, which would have cost the school more than $1 million to renew for three years, Bielec said.

Students do get access to Office 365, which is Microsoft’s cloud-based document processing suite that it hopes can compete with solutions like Google Docs.

Startup Roundup: There’s the talent

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 a weekly email newsletter by clicking here and selecting the Startup Roundup button or follow Startup Roundup’s RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

MUST READS

After last week’s Inky report on a lack software development talent in the city, we’re hearing some back-and-forth.

A chat with Monetate spokesperson Stephen Cobb yesterday morning came with surprise about the grim report. Check out CEO David Brussin’s VentureBeat column about doing business outside of the Valley, he said. As Brussin put it:

But if you’ve started your company somewhere else – such as Philadelphia, where there is a thriving local VC community, a good supply of talent from good schools, and mentors accessible through social networks – then your chances of success are a lot better than they were five years ago.

But, the talent’s in the city, some say, not the ‘burbs. Monetate’s Cobb says that no one’s ever turned them down because of the train ride. But he agreed that there’s a divide between the mentors that have emerged in the surburbs and the younger city startups.

Alex Hillman, Co-founder of Indy Hall, is feeling out his place in it all, too: “I want to put the focus on bringing people who could love Philadelphia together with people who already do.” So, with that, the organization has announced Indy Study Hall, an initiative to bring students into the mix and address the college retention issue.

Heck, DreamIt and Ben Franklin Technology Partners are doing their best on the company retention side after announcing DreamIt Plus last week. Hillman’s got thoughts on that, too.

So, who’s going to address that suburb and city divide? Maybe that’s a mission of the Startup Leaders fishbowl in October.

Moral of the story, this morning? Moves are being made. Take a deep breath, kid.

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Philly Startup Leaders asks community for direction

Facing two major leadership changes in less than one year, Philly Startup Leaders is looking for a new path.

This morning, PSL Co-founder and Chair Chris Cera published a call to action to help shape the organization’s future, reminding its members and the community-at-large of the group’s history, manifesto and values. In September, the board asks interested parties to attend a fishbowl event intended to examine the organization itself.

It should be a healthy experience. The organization lost Founder Blake Jennelle to New York in January, and recently, Jameson Detweiler — who was voted to President after Jennelle’s departure — has taken his startup LaunchRock to the Bay Area.

As Cera puts it:

It’s time to put PSL in the “Fishbowl” and brainstorm about how our organization can continue to provide value to the Philadelphia startup ecosystem. What is our role? Who will provide the leadership necessary to keep PSL thriving? What fresh content will PSL deliver to the community? We need your input and insights.

A regular Startup Leaders event, the fishbowl has traditionally brought together a group to examine business problems that an entrepreneur is facing. Now, the board hopes it can bring answers to what’s next at PSL.

Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings: update from U.S. Dept. of Energy project [VIDEO]

Original plans for the GPIC Navy Yard headquarters. Yes, there will be a roof.

Nearly a year since plans were first announced for a federally-funded, $129 million energy efficiency research initiative at the Navy Yard,  action is beginning to take root.

The Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster for Energy Efficient Buildings, a consortium of efficiency-minded institutions led by Penn State University, is charged with, through this initial five-year phase, developing strategies to better retrofit buildings toward energy efficiency.

That includes technology, methods and workforce, says Christine Knapp, who is handling public and client outreach for GPIC. It’s a national pilot project headquartered in what the City of Philadelphia hopes to make a hub of innovation.

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Robotics reaches Philadelphia students at all levels

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

Without raising the alarm of an artificial intelligence-fueled planet takeover, robots are everywhere in Philadelphia.

The Transformers franchise, which has grossed over $1.5 billion to date, is set to release its third installment this summer.  YouTube is inundated with videos of robots doing everything from walking to playing the violin. Honda is set to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its humanoid robot Asimo this fall.

Philadelphia is quietly becoming a hub for the continually exploding robotics industry, especially in the robotics research and education fields.

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Safeguard nets $145 million in Advanced BioHealing sale

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.

Thanks to the holiday it has been a slow news week here at the VC roundup. In no particular order:

As we reported on Friday, DreamIt Ventures has teamed with Ben Franklin Technology Partners to provide bridge financing to graduating startups to keep them in the Philadelphia area. Maybe that’s why they can now afford a cleaning crew.

First Round Capital has been busy (even for them). The firm has is among those to invest over $30 million in social-focused browser RockMelt’s Series B round. Conshohocken-based First Round portfolio company Click Equations also exited this month. Philly Tech News has a write up so detailed that even Josh Kopelman is suspicious. We told you about the busy week in early June.

Remember when we told you about Advanced BioHealing exiting to Shire for $750 million? Well Safeguard revealed last week that it netted $145.4 million from the sale. Look out Friday for a Q and A with Safeguard CEO Peter Boni. We ask him what it feels like to have four (!!!) exits in the past six months.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners is a founding member of the International Commercialization Forum which just released its first report this week.