3rd Ward Philadelphia: Brooklyn coworking space expanding summer 2012 to 1227 N Fourth Street in Kensington

Brooklyn coworking space 3rd Ward is launching in Kensington at 1227 N. Fourth Street, just above Girard Avenue, the organization’s Development Director Mindy Koopmans told Technically Philly. It is planned to open in summer 2012.

3rd Ward, named for the municipal legislative division in which its headquarters sits, opened in Brooklyn in September 2005. 3rd Ward Philadelphia will, confusingly enough, be in Philadelphia’s 18th ward. This city’s 3rd ward is in West Philly. This new coworking space would be within walking distance of the cohousing project from Independents Hall.

Philebrity first posted locally on the move, though Technically Philly has now confirmed the address. Metro followed up further with more details here. The New York Times arts blog also covered the news here. Join the coworking space’s mailing list here.

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Friday Q&A: Bob Moul, CEO of Dell Boomi

After five heads-down years at the helm of Berwyn-based Boomi, CEO Bob Moul says it was time to be more active within the Philadelphia community.

“I feel like it’s incumbent on us to give back to the community to give back what we learned,” he says. “I feel like a rising tide will raise all boats.”

Since Boomi’s November 2nd, 2010 acquisition by Dell, Moul’s name has popped up on panels and advisory boards all around the city. At a time when most leaders take a long-overdue vacation, Moul has joined the board of Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures, become a regular at entrepreneurial events around the city and is organizing a cloud computing event for PACT.

“We’re trying to avoid death by Powerpoint and be more West Coast-y,” says Moul of the conference, which will feature author Nick Carr as a keynote speaker. “We’re doing it downtown and not in the ‘burbs at World Cafe Live.”

Meanwhile, he is still helping to lead Boomi’s transition from an independent company to becoming the vanguard of Dell’s new cloud solutions strategy.

We sat down with Moul to discuss his busy schedule and the bear hugs he gave out when Boomi’s sale to Dell became final.

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Solar States signs with Renogy Solar, will retrofit Finanta with solar panels

Renogy employees in Wuxi, China working on solar panels in September 2011. Renogy and Kensington-based Solar States are partnering on a Philadelphia project.

Updated: corrected the location of Renogy Solar.

Solar States, the Kensington-based commercial solar power provider, has signed a supply contract with Renogy Solar, a major solar panel manufacturer based in Baton Rouge, LA with major facilities in China, according to a press release.

Solar States will install 30kW of solar panels on the rooftop of Finanta, a financial educating and community lending group also in Kensington at 2nd and Thompson streets. The installation, which will begin in November, will support 100 percent of the building’s energy needs, said Solar States spokesman John Steele.

The agreement also makes Solar States the East Coast distributor for Renogy.

In shoring up the deal, Solar States founder Micah Gold-Markel visited the Renogy facilities in Wuxi, China, touring the facility and writing about the experience and sharing photos of the facility.

The announcement comes on the heels of the controversy surrounding the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a Caifornia solar manufacturer that had received U.S. government support. Gold-Markel wrote about what he calls the misrepresentation of the situation here.

Groupon launches loyalty program in Philly to keep merchants happier: Links

• Now it’s time to have a party [Yikestopia] — Fishtown web dev firm Yikes Inc. is hosting an open house next Friday to check out its recently completed LEED-certified rehab on Girard Avenue, featuring Michael Nutter. Read our coverage here.
• Welcome to N3rd Street [Dangerously Awesome] — Alex Hillman thinks his section of Old City has something interesting brewing
• Groupon Rolls Out Loyalty Program to Try to Make Merchants Happier [All Things Digital] — Launching in Chicago and Philadelphia this month, notes Philly Tech News
• Kids Dungeon Adventure: An RPG for the Little Ones, Made Just Outside of Philly  [Geekadelphia]

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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:

Newsworks — NewsWorks is the online home of WHYY News and its growing network of journalism partners. This public media service covers the Philadelphia region, Delaware and South Jersey, with a focus on regional issues, neighborhoods, health and science, and arts.

Morgan Lewis — Morgan Lewis provides comprehensive transactional, litigation, labor and employment, regulatory, and intellectual property legal services to clients of all sizes—from global Fortune 100 companies to just-conceived startups—across all major industries.

Alteva — Reduce your total cost of telecom ownership and improve employee efficiency and customer satisfaction with Alteva’s cloud-based Voice over IP phone systems and services.

Colin M. Lenton Photography – Philadelphia Photographer Colin Lenton specializes in portraits of interesting people in interesting places. His work takes him around the country for clients that include Deloitte, Kiplinger’s and Technically Media. He also owns a rental photo studio that is available for multiple purposes.

Reed Technology — Reed Technology’s Web Archiving Service is a litigation protection, web compliance and e-discovery solution for all your online assets.

The University City Science Center — The Science Center has officially opened Quorum, a central gathering space to enable the entrepreneurship and innovation communities to meet, share and learn.

Splat Productions — Splat Productions provides smart, brand-centric website design and internet marketing services to privileged clients in the Philadelphia region and beyond.

Your Local Security — Providing affordable home security systems in Philadelphia. Top of the line equipment and monitoring services from ADT keep your home and family safe.

Caffeine Fish — Caffeine Fish develops iOS apps including Trainboard and PhillySubway and offers consulting in the Philadelphia area.

MOGO Media — MOGO Media provides best-of-class training for designers and developers through world-wide conferences and seminars. The organization will host a Dreamweaver seminar on December 15 in Philadelphia.

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.

Michael Nutter answers resident questions on NBC 10 Ask the Mayor program [VIDEO]

In a unique town hall of sorts befitting of the times, Mayor Nutter answered resident questions by way of email, Twitter and Facebook put to him on NBC 10 this week, as we reported, during its Ask the Mayor program.

NBC 10 has since posted video of the entire hour-long event. Watch the first of five segments below and the rest of the segments here:

Eyes on the Street: new PlanPhilly blog on design, development and the built environment of Philadelphia launches

PlanPhilly, the built environment news site, has launched Eyes on the Street, a blog to serve as an extension of its coverage and aimed at offering shorter and more accessible coverage for casual readers.

Visit the blog at EyesOnTheStreet.com. Read the PlanPhilly announcement here.

PlanPhilly, funded largely by the William Penn Foundation and housed at the University of Pennsylvania’s civic action outpost PennPraxis, was launched in 2006 by former Inquirer Jersey editor Matt Golas, who has reigned since then as the site’s managing editor, and then PennPraxis staff Harris Steinberg and Michael Greenle.

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Apps for Communities: contest to make local information more usable closes Oct. 3

An update from Code for America on a national project around civic apps:

Apps for Communities challenges developers and designers with creating apps that improve daily life in cities by making local public information more personalized, usable, and actionable. Led by the FCC and the Knight Foundation, the apps contest is has had over 45 submissions so far, and the deadline is approaching: October 3!

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Comcast, Verizon Pay TV to be added to Xbox Live: 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 email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates

• Microsoft Is Said to Add Comcast, Verizon Pay TV to Xbox Live [Bloomberg]
• Comcast Testing Theme-Based Cable Packages In CT; A National First For Choice? [Hartford Courant] — Flood of interest around whether this could move to the always often requested a la carte model, which would make winners and losers of many channels.
• Comcast Working on iPad TV Streaming Service Called AnyPlay [Mac Rumors] — H/T PTN
• Comcast: Not Just Bigger — Better [Multichannel News] — Named the news site’s 2011 Operator of the year
• NBCUniversal Names Emilio Romano President of Telemundo [Hollywood Reporter]
• Comcast forms telecom towers unit  [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “Comcast Corp.’s venture-capital unit said Wednesday it has formed a new portfolio company to develop, own and run telecommunications towers throughout the United States.CTI Towers Inc. is based outside Boston in Franklin, Mass.,”
• A tour of the ultimate techie home, courtesy of Comcast [Philadelphia Business Journal] — A technology decked out Haverford mansion in partnership with Philadelphia magazine’s Design Home

The Gamut launches, powers TEDxPhilly

Roz Duffy and Monica Marziani want to help you.

The duo has just gone public with The Gamut: a mix of a web design shop, marketing agency and event planning company.

“If you take what Monica does and what I do, we have the full-scale experience,” says Duffy.

After a stint at I-Site as an interactive designer Marziani wanted to try her hand at freelancing. Silmutanously, Duffy said her career of alternating between large corporate employers and small design shops made her want to run her own business.

Both South Philly residents, the duo began working together on freelance projects before making it official.

According to Duffy, the company has had a handful of clients this year including TechCrunch Disrupt startup DealBird and will be the driving force behind the upcoming TedxPhilly.

Mostly operating from Marziani’s dining room table the company is considering full-time office space and hopes to eventually grow beyond two people.

TEDxPhilly

TEDxPhilly has 14 confirmed speakers thus far. Last year’s TEDxPhilly (coverage here) featured 16 speakers. Among those currently confirmed:

• Youngjin Yoo -  Director of Center for Design+Innovation, Temple University
• Stanford Thompson & Play On, Philly! - Founding Director, Play On, Philly! (spoke last year)
• Jennifer Pahlka -  Founder & Executive Director, Code for America
• Yael Lehmann – Executive Director, The Food Trust
• Zane Booker  - Founder, Smoke, Lilies and Jade Arts Initiative