Mobile App Forum and Bootcamp stars open gov, HTML5 and the future of mobile

City Councilman Bill Green gives the opening address at the 2011 Mobile Apps Forum and Bootcamp

Mobile strategy and penetration are already shaping government, business and content delivery, say a slew of presenters at the 2011 Mobile App Forum and Bootcamp held this afternoon at Temple University.

Organized by Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic in partnership with two Temple Fox School initiatives, the event was opened by at-large City Councilman Bill Green, who focused on his pet issue: IT-focused municipal government efficiencies. Interspersed with networking sessions in the cavernous, sunlit top-floor conference room of the Fox School’s Alter Hall, Green was followed by two panel discussions on the direction of mobile and related roundtables.

[Full Disclosure: Technically Philly was a media sponsor.]

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Business Privilege Tax reform passes City Council

City Council chambers. Photo by Albert Yee.

The tax reform legislation that promises relief for small businesses and businesses that do sales outside of Philadelphia has been passed by City Council.

Introduced by Councilpersons Bill Green and Maria Quiñones Sánchez, the Business Privilege Tax reform was passed unanimously today, after making its way last week through the council’s Committee on Finance.

From the press release:

“For three years, we have been working to further the goals of tax fairness; leveling the playing field for local businesses, including manufacturers; small business tax relief; and generating economic growth by removing some tax-related disincentives to locating and expanding a business in the City,” Councilwoman Sánchez explained.

Councilman Green continued: “City Council is sending a clear message that the City of Philadelphia is open for business. This legislation levels the playing field for businesses that sell goods. It is a large first step in the right direction. This bill will save existing jobs and create new jobs.”

Some of our previous coverage of the tax issue and the proposed legislation:

• Maria Quiñones Sanchez: Q&A with councilwoman on tax reform, digital divide and redistricting [VIDEO]
• Councilman Jim Kenney on tax policy amid a recession
• ‘Blogger tax:’ bill creating business privilege license exemption for ‘hobbies’ faces City Council vote [VIDEO]
• Nutter to Chamber: experiment with city biz taxes, retain tech firms
• David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President, talks Comcast, taxes and startups
• How do we retain technology startups in Philadelphia? [VIDEO]
• How to open a business in the City of Philadelphia, or 15 reasons people move to the suburbs
• Megan Wendell: “I felt that Philadelphia taxes were significantly holding back” our business

Green’s Chief of Staff Sophie Bryan tells Technically Philly that she’s “absolutely confident” that Mayor Nutter will sign the bill. The Nutter administration was a close partner in the bill’s working group. The Chamber of Commerce, an opponent of early versions on the bill, said it was ‘thrilled,’ in a report posted on its website.

After the jump, details of the bill from the release.

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Android Alliance October meetup features Green Life Software, Squiggles and others

Android developers Jason Cox and Corey Leigh Latislaw speak at the October Android Alliance meetup last week.

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

The Android developer scene in Philadelphia may be smaller than others, but it’s a community willing to share ideas and tips with one another.

This was the case with Android Alliance’s latest event at the Comcast Center last week. The Android Alliance, led in part by Corey Leigh Latislaw, is a group that focuses on convening local Android developers, who see it as a platform to compete with Apple’s iOS, organizers say.

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Comcast increased third quarter profits, met with Occupy Philly protestors [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.

• Outspent 60:1, Longmont Kicks Comcast’s Assets [Fighting the Next Good Fight] — Oakland-based broadband strategist Craig Settles focuses his eyes on a small city lobbying battle over broadband choice in Longmont, Colo., in which Comcast lost out.
• Nine Occupy Philly protesters arrested at Comcast Center [Technically Philly]
• Comcast Rises on Cable; Film Helps Time Warner [New York Times] — “Increases in high-speed Internet customers and advertising sales at NBCUniversal’s trove of profitable cable networks helped increase third-quarter profits at the Comcast Corporation, the company said Wednesday. ” More from the Philadelphia Business Journal here and Philly Tech News here.
• NBCUniversal to Invest Millions to Enhance Local News at 10 NBC TV Stations [Hollywood Reporter] — This Includes WCAU in Philadelphia.

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Nine #OccupyPhilly protestors arrested in Comcast Center, at least one more nearby [STORIFY]

Occupy Philly demonstrators marched to the Comcast Center lobby early this afternoon, protesting ‘corporate personhood.’

Inside, nine associated with the protests linked arms and took to a good, old-fashioned sit-in. Slowly, they were arrested and removed. We collected the coverage, including our own, in the below Storify, put in chronological order. At least one other demonstrator was arrested.

Find the Storify roundup below.

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Just ship it: The story of Dan Shipper and DomainPolish

Dan Shipper

It’s one of the cornerstones of Internet-age entrepreneurs: build quickly, iterate even faster and if it all doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to scrap it.

Taking that to heart, Dan Shipper, a University of Pennsylvania Sophomore from Princeton, decided that his 2011 would be all about building (and scrapping) as many products as possible.

“I just really wanted to get good at taking ideas from conception to reality. I released like 15 apps in six months. Some of them did well and some of them completely failed,” says Shipper.

The projects ranged from Wheremyfriends.be a Facebook-friend mapper he developed with friend and Wharton student Wesley Zhao that got some press in Mashable to GrimTweeper a site that helps you clean up your “follow” list on Twitter.

However, it was a service called DomainPolish that ended up making him pull an all-nighter.

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iFractal: culture-first Old City consulting firm to launch new HR product RapidFire

The iFractal team meets over lunch in early spring.

Updated: Frank Roche and Sarah Chambers are not married as previously reported.

In 2004, Frank Roche and Sarah Chambers left a hum drum human resources consulting company to start iFractal, their own consulting gig chasing the same industry.

They thought they could do it better, company lore goes. They also thought they could have a lot more fun doing it.

Seven years later, the company’s team of 15 employees creates custom software for human resources departments, often writing internal systems for large-scale companies — like Comcast, Miller Coors, Motorola, Dupont, Sears, Campbell’s and others — to deal with day-to-day HR duties as well as with big changes happening to companies. iFractal calls itself an HR “SWAT team,” creating custom solutions that range from communications to software development.

Success achieved, they haven’t forgotten the fun.

Located just north of Market on Third Street, the entire company sits down together weekly for meals in a loft office full of dozens of live plants.

It’s not strange for Roche and Chambers to ask everyone to stop working—to go get ice cream.

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Startup Roundup: ElectNext wins Judges’ Choice Award at Web 2.0 Expo

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

ElectNext took home the Judges’ Choice Award from the Web2.0 Expo in New York. Listen to the judges’ evaluation here. The Daily Kos also named the platform one of five campaigns and election startups to watch.

Is venture capital even worth it? A BusinessWeek point-counterpoint article reminds people that not even 1 percent of startups receive outside funding. But capital is crucial in helping companies scale, says counterpoint. [via InnovationDaily]

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Poptent: videographer social network with Conshohocken office expands, is hiring [VIDEO]

For those who gauge startup success by ‘traction,’ Mark Schoneveld says Poptent might be the region’s biggest web 2.0 success story.

Poptent, which hosts contests for brands for its community of video creators to make viral marketing videos, has continued to grow since launching in 2007, welcoming new users and bigger companies. It is hiring in Conshohocken, including engineers and social media savvy community leaders, and, adds Poptent Director of Community Schoneveld, the company has reached a positive cash flow, is now up to 40,000 registered users and is about to cross $3 million in creator payouts.

“What we started doing was totally experimental. Brands were getting used to crowd sourcing and giving up control,” said Schoneveld. “We’ve been at the forefront of crowdsourcing for years and now we’re taking it new places.”

The company takes a fee from big brands — like Southwest Airlines, Netflix, Anheuser Busch, Quiznos and others — and negotiates a rate for commercial video production, putting the bid out to its open community or specific members.

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Mark Group HeatSeeker vehicle surveys 1,000 Philadelphia homes for heat loss in an hour [VIDEO]

Mayor Michael Nutter and Mark Group U.S. CEO Jeff Bartos launch 'the Heat Seeker' outside the Andrew Jackson Public School in South Philadelphia

A home heat-loss, thermal imaging tool fashioned to a specially equipped van started patrolling Philadelphia last week.

Dubbed the HeatSeeker and the first of its kind in the country, the patented technology, which can evaluate and geo-code 1,000 thermal images in an hour, is something of a signature of the Mark Group, the British energy efficiency company that launched its U.S. headquarters at the Navy Yard in October 2010. The vehicle is a clever lead generation device for the company.

“As the region braces for the colder fall and winter temperatures, residents face increased energy costs to heat their homes,” said in a press release Mark Group President and CEO Jeff Bartos, who kicked off the vehicle’s work in Philadelphia at a ceremony with Mayor Nutter. We look forward to sharing this technology throughout the Delaware Valley so residents can be empowered to take control of their homes’ energy efficiency and reduce their monthly energy spend.”

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