Picketers outside proposed Apple Store on Walnut

Picketers outside 1607 Walnut Street. Photo taken by Hughe Dillon.

Laborers’ union members are picketing the Apple Store-to-be at 1607 Walnut Street, according to the above camera photo from Philadelphia’s paparazzi legend Hugh Dillon.

“[The picketers are] against owners of [those] prepping the [building] for the Apple lease,” reports Dillon. “They [are] using non-union workers. They stress it’s not against Apple, as Apple is using union workers.”

In December we reported that this, the first official Apple store to be located in the city, was hiring.

City Council bill would make IT permanent part of city government

Councilman Bill Green and five members of City Council have co-sponsored legisilation that would create a permanent Charter position for a Chief Information Officer and would consolidate all of the city’s Information Technology resources under the Division of Technology.

The legislation would require the CIO to report directly to the Mayor and to create an annual IT strategic plan that includes productivity enhancements to help the city utilize paperless services. It also gives the CIO more oversight over city department technology appropriations.

“When they wrote the Charter in 1952, no one imagined there could be a paperless system,” Green told Technically Philly during a telephone interview this morning. “[The legislation would] make investment in and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government.”

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Brower Propulsion Labs fictitious aerospace company launching real expedition

This story first appeared in Philadelphia City Paper and is reprinted here with permission. Read it online or pick up an issue at newstands until Wed., Feb. 10.

The first mission of Brower Propulsion Labs, a New York-based aerospace company, was to launch into orbit the ashes of a deceased astronaut who became a drunk after his mission to the moon was canceled. Except, the story is a ruse. The laboratory — manned by only one employee — did launch a rocket, but it was a performance meant to dramatically retire a space suit hand-sewn by artist Steven Brower, a painter, product prototyper and space geek.

“The fictional story is more believable than the research I had to do to make the suit in the first place,” he says.

Reality is subjective throughout Brower’s fictional corporation, conjured to explain his diverse creations to the art world. For instance, he says, a painting could come from the advertising department, an electronic gadget from engineering. It’s as serious as it is silly.

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Avencia and Common Cause PA partner on Our Philadelphia, tracking city campaign contributions

The Web was always supposed to be democratic. But for all the good government oversight resources online, local politics often fail to attract the spotlight of transparency.

After Hallwatch went under, Philadelphians were left without a resource for hard data about their elected officials.

It’s an issue that certainly interests nonprofit, non-partisan citizens’ lobby organization Common Cause PA. Enough so that the organization has harnessed legislative data API Cicero, the brainchild of Callowhill GIS development company Avencia, to launch Our Philadelphia. The Web site explores “the role of money in local politics and allow users to investigate these issues for themselves.”

Made possible by the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the site shines the light on local campaign contributions for city legislators. Users can create custom RSS feeds, search by address, as powered by Cicero, and track information and content relevant to other keyword searches.

So, for example, a Frankford resident might find it entirely peculiar that the top contributor to the campaign of his city Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez is energy drink manufacturer Cintron Beverage, to the tune of $21,500.

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Montgomery County publishes public safety emergencies online

Montgomery County's Department of Public Safety publishes emergency incidents online in several formats including a Google Map mashup.

The Montgomery County Department of Public Safety is using its Web site to post up-to-the-minute details of dispatched emergency calls, like fire, EMS and traffic incidents, garnering some attention from national government tech glossy Government Technology.

Along with a map of incidents (pictured), an RSS feed of activity, and a live audio feed of the department’s EMS and fire scanners, the department even offers a mobile version of the incident list.

According to department officials, the site was developed to reduce incoming calls from media inquiring about incidents. The site has “dramatically reduced” the number of calls, the publication reports, from 50 to 100 calls to sometimes two calls per day. The site gets 60,000 hits per month, officials say.

News to us is that Philadelphia’s police, fire and EMS audio feeds are also available online.

Report: Atlantic City government IT outsourcing “inefficient, ineffective”

Atlantic City doesn’t have a single city employee overseeing its IT infrastructure, resulting in “inefficient, ineffective and unsecure processes,” according to a report by the New Jersey state comptroller [PDF].

Since 2006, the city has outsourced its IT functions to Newark’s New Jersey Institute of Technology, paying $2.47 million over 4 years for services covering the city’s networked PCs, servers and desktop support, GovTech reports. The comptroller recommends that hiring two IT staff members could allow “substantial savings and a full-time dedicated staff available on a daily basis to serve all City departments.”

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Twitter tracking Local Trends in Philadelphia, 14 other cities

What was trending in Philadelphia Thursday night on Twitter. Click to enlarge.

Tracking the dominant conversations in Philadelphia’s Twitter communities has gotten quite a bit easier.

As the microblogging rock star announced on its company blog this week, in addition to tracking what phrases, words and hashtags are being most frequently used worldwide at a given time on Twitter, the trends can now be localized to 15 cities, including Philadelphia, or one of six countries.

This gives you the option to see while, yes, last night the top trending item in Philadelphia was stimulating conversation over the meme ‘I’m not the type to…,” the worldwide conversation trended more to “Best Sex songs.”

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AT&T improves Montco 3G coverage with new cell site

AT&T's Montgomery County cellular coverage before the upgrades announced Thursday

AT&T Wireless customers in Montgomery County, rejoice.

The network has announced that it has installed a new 3G cell site that should improve high-speed coverage in Ambler, Fort Washington and Upper Dublin Township, according to a press release. Commuters trekking down Routes 309 and 152 should notice the upgrades as well.

The installation is the latest of six tower upgrades in the county. AT&T says it invested $775 million into infrastructure improvements in Pennsylvania from 2006 to 2008. Though the company makes mention of high-speed HSPA 7.2 technology, available in newer devices like the iPhone 3G, the upgrade still isn’t available in the region. Expect it later this year or in 2011, the company says.

Will Philadelphia be included in Fast Company’s city startup series?

A handful of organizations and individuals may be responsible for drumming up some much deserved praise for Philly’s startup scene.

Since business mag Fast Company began running a five-part series about cities where entrepreneurs should consider starting companies, several folks have been proactive in getting Philly on that list.

Venture capitalist and AsktheVC publisher Brad Feld predicts that Fast Company will feature Philly in a next batch of coverage, having already made introductions for the magazine here in Philadelphia, according to a follow-up blog post written by Philly Startup Leaders co-founder Blake Jennelle,

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Quonix Networks to expand to second location

Quonix Networks, a colocation data center located at 24th and Locust, will be expanding to a second location in Wilmington, Delaware.

The company currently services over 120 mostly local companies from its current location, but is looking to entice larger Fortune 100 companies by taking the trip down I-95.

“We want to compete with some of the larger data centers out there,” says founder John Von Essen, adding that the company needed a second facility to increase redundancy in case of disaster. Von Essen says the new digs will have room for 60 server racks cabinets costing Quonix between $175,000 and $200,000, which is a long way from the company’s humble beginnings in 2003.

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