Five months after Comcast was mandated by a federal agency to institute a sweeping program to substantially improve Internet adoption rates for low income families, only 463 Philadelphia families have activated the service in the cable giant’s hometown, where more than 150,000 families are eligible.

A screen capture of the Internet Essentials report showing activations in top regions.

An internal report on Comcast’s Internet Essentials program issued last week shows 41,000 total activations across the U.S. from Aug. 16 to Dec. 22. The program, which launched in September, resulted from a mandate by the Federal Communications Commission as part of the company’s deal to acquire NBC.

Yet in Philadelphia, where 41 percent of citizens do not have access to the Internet at home — according to a 2008 report from the Knight Foundation — advocates are concerned about the program’s progress, and some experts say that a lack of support by the School District of Philadelphia is slowing its potential.

Because Internet Essentials provides discounted Internet access to families of students who qualify for free lunch at schools, the program appears to be seeing more success in cities where there is more school district buy-in, says the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition‘s Arun Prabhakaran, who is Director of Government and Strategic Partnerships. [Prabhakaran wrote about poverty and the digital divide here in October.]

In the Chicago region, for instance, where the Mayor Rahm Emmanual controls the school system, the Internet Essentials program saw more than 5,000 activations during the same period [pictured above].

“The mayor does not control the school system in Philadelphia,” Prabhakaran says. “When the school district is run by the School Reform Commission, and the SRC doesn’t necessarily report to the Mayor, you’re not getting that kind of system push.”

The School District of Philadelphia did not return a request for comment.

The Urban Affairs Coalition is working with the City of Philadelphia under the $25 million Freedom Rings Partnership funded by broadband stimulus grants intended to improve digital adoption in the city. The coalition advertises Internet Essentials to its constituents, but it does not not receive funding from Comcast.

Words from a local advocacy group that fights for low-income families were more critical of Comcast. Action United, which was formed in the state by former members of PA ACORN, last week called the Comcast program a “gimmick without real substance.”

“The simple fact is that there are too many hoops and obstacles still for anyone to believe that this program will address in any serious way the digital divide as it exists in low income cities across America,” the group said in a statement.

“Especially because this is Comcast’s home town, it’s kind of embarrassing,” says an Action United organization program director Elly Porter-Webb.

Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas pointed to the program’s significant progress across the U.S.

“This is a new program, but the digital divide has been around for a decade. We’re still really facing the challenges of relevancy and digital literacy. A lot of Americans don’t know what the Internet can do for them and why they should have it in their homes,” he said in a telephone interview last week.

Action United presented a nine-point proposal to Comcast in an early January meeting, before staging a protest in front of the Comcast Center later in the month, after Porter-Webb says the company failed to address those points.

The group proposed that Comcast institute specific goals and metrics for the program, a more active outreach strategy and a look at long-term viability for the program.

Comcast has so far committed to run the program for a total of three years, but Porter-Webb is worried that at its current rate, Philadelphia’s results will not add up to substantial change. “It’s only a three-year program and after first five months, we are a sixth of the way there,” she says.

Along with the report, Comcast announced several changes to the program last week, including expanding eligibility to students who receive reduced-price school lunch, which the company says makes 300,000 more households eligible across the country. It is also implementing a streamlined, instant approval process for students who attend schools with a high percentage of free school lunch provisions, which could help more easily connect Philadelphia citizens, Prabhakaran says.

The company also plans to increase bandwidth speeds for Internet Essentials customers, provide bulk purchasing for community partners, and expand its training efforts. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski praised the changes in a statement issued last week.

“We’ve met with nonprofit partners and listened to all kinds of feedback from them, our customers and elected officials, and more. We’ve made a number of changes to the program from the initial launch,” Douglas says.

“We can’t solve the digital divide all by ourselves. We need as many other providers and community partners to get involved to help connect more Americans,” he says.

Porter-Webb hopes to see that the metrics match the message.

“Their take is that ‘we’re the biggest, most comprehensive program that’s ever happened,’” Porter-Webb says.

“We acknowledge that, and that’s great, but let’s make it real. Let’s really do this.”

The artistic headquarters of AppRenaissance, at 309 Cherry Street in Old City Philadelphia, which new CEO Bob Moul describes as representative of mobile.

Bob Moul says his 50s are going to be his best decade yet.

Today, Moul, who led Berwyn-based Boomi to a Dell exit, announces he has become chairman and CEO of AppRenaissance, a year-old Old City mobile development shop. The 48-year-old, who left Boomi after transitioning the acquisition and diving into the local entrepreneurship scene on way to volunteering to lead Philly Startup Leaders, has major plans for what is now a five-person startup.

“The goal is to IPO or otherwise make a really big technology story here,” Moul told Technically Philly on Super Bowl Sunday. “I want to build a major, permanent software company in Philadelphia.”

Moul is proving to be a convenient poster child for a technology community seeking big name players in a city that is still shaking its post-industrial rust. At a Chamber of Commerce luncheon this afternoon, Mayor Nutter is due to speak about, among other successes in local technology, Moul and his interest in building business in Philadelphia proper.

Bob Moul

Though a suburban resident and frequent defender of regional connectivity, Moul says his whirlwind tour through the Philadelphia tech scene has made him realize the importance of building up a central hub.

“You can look at all the different industries that Philadelphia used to have and how that connected to what the region became,” said Moul. “This is a digital rebirth.”

With recent news of a possible First Round Capital move here, the on-going question continues of whether it’s truly in the cards for Philadelphia to build up a truly dense collection of technology businesses or if the broad region might continue to keep it too diffuse for a change in impact and perception.

“There’s a richer source of talent in the city [than suburbs], it’s a much more vibrant community to build a company. That is good for everyone in this region,” Moul said. “Maybe saying the reputation for technology here is blossoming is overstating it, but it’s sprouting or budding… and big stories help move that forward.”

Moul is joining AppRenaissance at an earlier stage than he joined Boomi by almost every measure. The company was already a half decade old with 18 employees when Moul joined Boomi in 2005. By contrast, AppRenaissance isn’t yet a toddler, with just five employees, though it also has a board that gives it roots in Silicon Valley and India.

Old City is an ideal location for his new venture, says Moul.

“Mobile is a hugely creative endeavor. Of all the different applications and platforms, mobile above all else is about the intersection of art and ingenuity and technology and science,” Moul said. “We want to run more of a studio than an app firm, and Old City has that artistic spirit.”

At the surface, AppRenaissance, which presented a 2011 Philadelphia Geek Award, may seem like a cookie cutter app shop that builds mobile tools and does related contract work. But, Moul says the differentiation can come in shared infrastructure, developing products for scale and, as he adds, “focusing on the hand-crafted nature that Philadelphia was once known for.”

Moul is joining Scott Wasserman, the company’s CTO and founder, and bringing a top notch growth resume. Before Boomi, Moul was president of education solutions powerhouse SCT leading to its own acquisition by SunGard in 2003. Prior to that, he spent nearly 20 years at EDS, including stints overseeing efforts in Hong Kong and Australia.

But, now, has Moul missed the window of getting in on the basement floor of the mobile scale that was among the buzz words of choice in 2011? He says it’s still the beginning of the movement.

“Even though mobile has been around for a while and we know it’s big, I think it’s early in how we’re going to see it penetrate in how we work and play,” Moul said. “There’s loads of talent around mobile here, so I feel like if we coalesce, we can build a major mobile software company that can impact the market and the region in a really big way.”

“The team at AppRenaissance wants me to take that journey.”

An excerpt from the Readyforce job listing (click to enlarge).

According to a job posting on ReadyForce.com First Round Capital is openly considering a move to Philadelphia. The job post is searching for an executive assistant and notifies the applicant that “the firm is contemplating a move to the city of Philadelphia in the next year.”

The Conshohocken-based venture capital firm is one of the most respected and active early stage investors in the nation and occasionally invests in local businesses. Philly-born portfolio companies past and present include Invite Media, Solve Media, ClickEquations, Monetate and Packlate. Currently the firm also has offices in San Francisco and New York City.

Various sources have approached Technically Philly suspecting a First Round move. However, in an email to Technically Philly in October, Managing Partner Josh Kopleman would only confirm that the firm’s current lease is up in late 2012.

If First Round moves to the city, it would be a big win for the growing effort of centralizing the city’s venture capital resources. A common refrain from local entrepreneurs is that many companies are started within city limits yet most Philadelphia venture capital firms are located in suburbs like Wayne and Conshohocken.

First Round Capital portfolio company Packlate is also likely to move from Conshokocken to Center City. When we asked founder Steve Barsh about the move in December, he said that top technology talent typically wants to live in urban areas like Philadelphia. Also aligning with the trend is RJ Metrics. The company made lots of noise after its funding about doubling down on Philadelphia.

(Thanks to Tim for the tip)

AirTime, founded by Penn students Dan Shipper and Patrick Leahy, is hoping to revolutionize the way we look at e-mail signatures by enabling companies to update company-wide email signatures on the fly.

As Leahy told Technically Philly last week, the duo is obsessed with creating small, nimble businesses that are profitable from day one and require no outside investment to start. Leahy and Shipper have been hacking and testing on the product for months between classes and during late night coding sessions.

AirTime allows companies to insert a single line of code (another obsession of Leahy’s) and then have a universally controlled advertisement as an email signature. The company-wide email signatures can be modified after emails are sent. So when a company launches a new product, every email ever sent with AirTime enables users to change to the new messaging. Users can also target email advertisements based on location or platform, so when you open the McDonalds newsletter on your mobile device, an advertisement could automatically direct you to the nearest restaurant.

AirTime then enables companies to measure analytics such as views and conversions from the advertisement (below).

A screenshot or AitTime's dashboard

Dan Shipper

Patrick Leahy

Shipper, you may remember, was behind DomainPolish, a company he created as side project. The website feedback platform quickly gained steam, resulting in a sleepless but profitable weekend for the Penn sophomore. Leahy previously launched Penn Free Food a service that automatically scans university listservs for mentions of events with free food on campus.

The duo have been working on AirTime, originally called “EyeRedux” for months, and the company has already received buzz on Hacker News and has signed up 63 users.

Organizers are now accepting nominations for the 2012 PA Tech Awards across a handful of categories that we’d like to see Philadelphia sweep.

Now’s your change to vie for the winning spot as:

• Outstanding Leadership in Technology
• Technology Educator of the Year
• Technology Provider of the Year
• Best Application of Technology
• Public Service Innovation
• Technology Product of the Year
• Growth Company of the Year
• Technology Company of the Year

Also being awarded will be the People’s Choice Award, which will go to the company or organization with the most online votes.

The awards are hosted by TechQuest, a Harrisburg-based lobbyist group that works to protect the technology industry in legislation, according to the organization’s website. Ceremonies will take place Friday, March 30, 2012 at Whitaker Center in Harrisburg.

A list of last year’s winners showcases a number of companies from Central and West Pennsylvania. Nominations close on February 1.

The message on Zivtech.com, an Old City design firm

Billed as the largest online protest in history, there is a local spin to the SOPA Strike, aimed at keeping the heat on controversial legislation aimed at curbing online piracy. Critics say the legislation is too broadly written, as to allow limitation of any social web tool that allows the sharing of intellectual property — think Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

Today, a call for a ‘blackout’ has led to major websites like Google and Wikipedia to limit their functionality or site look to convey what could be lost if the federal legislation moves forward. Several Philadelphia companies have joined the fray, the day of a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill, even though President Obama has said he would veto the bill in its current form.

See other ways local companies are protesting today, including what might be the funniest strike of them all.

Message on Azavea.com

Today, when users visit the website of GIS firm tweeted:

After tweeted:

Message on CipherPrime.com

Message on TheMightyEngine.com

From the release:

DreamIt Israel provides up to five Israeli startups access to the U.S. and other global markets as well as mentorship, guidance, a stipend of up to $25,000, and access to early stage capital.   DreamIt Israel is a 4-month accelerator program followed by 2 months of workspace. The first month will take place in Israel beginning on April 15. Participating companies will spend the next three months in New York City working alongside companies in the DreamIt NYC 2012 program, which runs from May 14 through August 17, 2012.

Companies will split time between the 67th Ward and Israel. As of now there are no plans to further expand the incubator, however we still have our eye on Austin.

1650 Arch Street

Suddenly 1650 Arch Street is an anchor of the Philadelphia tech community.

The building, wedged steps away from the Comcast Center, is home to two of Philadelphia’s newest collaborative spaces: SeedPhilly and Green Village Philadelphia. SeedPhilly, the startup incubation space, is still ordering furniture and filling out its suite, but their neighbors at Green Village have been open for just over a month and a half.

The space, focused on incubating “triple bottom line” businesses, opened on December 1st and is already housing six companies with space for six more. The goal: to help Philadelphia’s thriving social entrepreneurship community finally have a space to call their own. The city already boasts organizations like Good Company Ventures, Murex Investments and B-Corp and its reputation nationally as a place of socially-minded entrepreneurship continues to grow.

Executive Director Zoe Selzer

“There are a lot of scattered resources and I’m hearing that its difficult to access them,” says Green Village Philadelphia executive director Zoe Selzer. ”Just knowing where to go for different things, you often have to go stumbling around.”

Green Village hopes to solve that problem by offering cheap office space (Each desk is $275/month) to companies as well as programs and classes to help pre-revenue companies mature with the help of a mentor. The non-profit does not take an equity stake in the companies it houses and only has a full-time staff of one with a six person board of directors.

The organization has existed for seven years and originally had ambitions for an entire “green village,” a complete city block dedicated to sustainability. Shortly after Selzer came on board two years ago the group instead decided a single space was a more practical place to start.

After the jump, see the full list of the companies housed at Green Village:

OneTwoSee - Creates television companion programming for mobile devices.
Urban Ecoforms – Makers of green roofs, walls and landscaping.
Wash Cycle Laundry – The company transports laundry to eco friendly facilities by bicycle.
FBH – The Agency – The group behind Philly Fashion Week, just moved in this week.
AgileSwitch – The company develops technology hat manufactures electronic components that help green technologies such as wind turbines convert wind to electricity. Read our previous coverage of the company here.
Shenandoah Studios – The Philadelphia offices of video game development company with a UK presence.

A quick scan of the 55 recently announced Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia finalists for 2012 (listed below) reveals a rainbow of ideas aiming for the edge of arts and technology in Philadelphia.

As Technically Philly has reported previously, the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia is in year two of a three-year, $9 million initiative from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The initiative is designed “to draw the best and most innovative ideas out of local organizations and individuals seeking to transform the community through the arts.“

Grantees are expected to receive matching grants from other funders to impact the arts in Philadelphia. The contest was open to anyone with an answer to the question: “What’s your best idea for the arts in Philadelphia?”

A review panel says these 55 are the strongest from Philadelphia, due to be further slimmed down and finalized before being funded.

The 55 concepts, submitted by a diverse array of applicants, touch all aspects of the creative Philadelphia economy.

Tech-related ideas ranged from enhancements that re-envision the performance arts — the Iron Age Theatre proposed a project that gives patrons access to a series of live-streamed, mini movies throughout the city by scanning QR codes on their cellphones — to unusual twists on public spaces. David Clayton, who heads Curating and Programs at Breadboard and describes himself as something of a Renaissance man, offered up a plan to build a floating artists’ workstation on the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.

The Hacktory, a crew of hackers dedicated to bridging the digital divide who snagged a Best of Philly award for “Best Adult Classes” in 2011, proposed gathering “a corps of interactive artist teachers who will share their knowledge and expertise in programming and engineering with Philadelphia artists.”

In its first year, the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia funded 36 projects out of 1,752 contestants. This year, the Arts Challenge began accepting submissions in October and closed the contest on October 31, 2011. Out of 1,267 applicants, the Knight Foundation has narrowed the field to 55 before announcing awards in the spring.

Check out all 55 ideas below. Which ideas would you like to see transform the Philly arts scene?

Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia 2012 Finalists

Artists and Musicians of Latin America

To cultivate new audiences for Latin Jazz by presenting “pop-up” performances of local artists using a portable stage

Arden Theatre Company

To diversify artistic offerings by presenting theater performances alongside the dozens of gallery events during Old City’s monthly First Fridays

Art Sanctuary

To celebrate two art forms that use the human voice to tell profound stories by creating a “Hip H’Opera” using the stories of urban life

Asian Arts Initiative
To provide everyday artistic experiences in Chinatown and South Philadelphia by creating site-specific works for nontraditional places like restaurants, storefronts and public plazas

Bearded Ladies Cabaret
To attract new audiences to theater – and use the medium as a way to explore politics, gender, sexuality and identity – through a series of original, late night cabarets

Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra
To showcase diverse cultures by transforming a symphonic “pops” concert into a celebration of world music

Brandywine Workshop
To celebrate the 40^th anniversary of this printmaking institution by commissioning 10 emerging and established artists to create prints

Campus Philly
To foster a lifelong appreciation of the arts by offering free or discounted admission to venues and performances for college students

Catzie Vilayphonh
To promote storytelling within the Lao-American community through a writing, performing and filmmaking workshop

Center City District

To help transform historic Dilworth Plaza by commissioning internationally recognized sculptor Janet Echelman to create an artwork inspired by the site’s historic association with water and steam

Center City Opera Theater
To attract more Hispanics to the opera by launching a Spanish-language opera festival featuring a new piece by a Philadelphia-based Hispanic composer

Center for Emerging Visual Artists
To bring visual art to a wider audience by placing locally produced art in public advertising spaces in the same neighborhood where the piece was produced

Chestnut Hill Friends Meetinghouse Project
To spark dialogue about contemporary art by incorporating the work of internationally acclaimed light artist James Turrell into a new Quaker meetinghouse that is open to all

Community Cultural Exchange
To bring the South Street business district together through music and culture by introducing family-friendly street performances to the area

COSACOSA art at large
To transform overgrown and abandoned spaces into “sacred” art parks for the community by engaging residents to create visual and sound gardens in the Niceville-Tioga neighborhood

Crane Arts
To raise the international profile of local artists by organizing an artist and exhibition exchange between Crane Arts and London’s V22 Collection

David Clayton
To help residents fully experience the city’s two main waterways by creating a floating workstation along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers where artists can interpret and explore the surroundings

Delaware River Waterfront Corporation
To use world rhythms – from cowbells to congas, beat-boxing to Bhangra – to learn about cultures at an interactive music and dance festival

Erica Hawthorne
To give a boost to local artists by creating a mini grant program to help cover their costs with awards ranging from $50 to $1,000

Fleisher Art Memorial
To engage the community in hands-on art making by expanding the reach of a mobile studio where participants create projects inspired by their neighborhoods

Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund
To help transform neighborhoods by turning blacktop lots into art-laden skate parks

Geoffrey Johnson
To foster appreciation for public art by covering publicly displayed statues in the city for a month – and then unveiling them with fan fare at a festival

GoKash Productions
To promote original plays through a free theater festival dedicated to the contemporary African-American experience

Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation
To engage new audiences in the visual arts by launching With Art Philadelphia, a two-year joint marketing program that includes late-night happenings for younger audiences at local museums

Iron Age Theatre
To create new performing arts experiences through a series of live-streamed, mini movies that patrons can watch throughout the city by scanning QR codes on their cellphones

Katarina Dudas
To develop the next generation of visual artists by pairing children with local artists to create site-specific environmental art in the Kensington community

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
To engage new audiences in the performing arts by creating a residency program in the Kimmel Center’s black box theater for innovative and emerging art groups

Little Berlin
To help transform the East Kensington neighborhood by turning an empty lot into an event space for musicians, art fairs and children’s workshops

Moore College of Art & Design
To introduce the work of local visual artists and filmmakers to a wider audience by establishing an urban drive-in movie theater on the Parkway

Music Row Philadelphia
To support emerging musicians and create a destination for live music by fostering the growth of music venues along Girard Avenue

Musicopia
To empower and inspire Philadelphia’s youth by providing them with weekly drumming lessons and performing opportunities

Norris Square Neighborhood Project
To preserve local Latino culture in North Philadelphia by creating a sound booth to record stories that will be featured in podcasts

Orchestra 2001
To celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by presenting a new concerto based on the civil rights leader’s life and featuring local performers

Partners for Sacred Places
To expand the capacity of the city’s theater community by providing a new space for theater designers and visual artists at a decommissioned church

Philadelphia Art Alliance
To re-imagine public space and civic life by organizing an all-night, free arts festival based on the Nuit Blanche/Bring to Light events in Paris, New York, Miami and other cities

Philadelphia Photo Arts Center
To encourage broader audience participation in the city’s visual arts by expanding “Philly Photo Day,” where the community is invited to take and submit a picture that is ultimately used in an exhibition

Philadelphia Theatre Company
To use the theater as a way to examine the United States’ education system with a work that actor/journalist Anna Deavere Smith will create during a two-year residency

Philadelphia Youth Media Collaborative
To support the emerging creative underground in Philadelphia by establishing a festival that highlights the next generation of filmmakers, visual artists, musicians and performers

Phillyjazz.org

To foster the development of local jazz artists by formalizing mentor relationships between established and younger musicians, where the elders teach life lessons, and emerging artists offer tips on using new media

RAIR, Inc.
To create awareness about sustainability through art and design by establishing a yearlong series of projects that allow local artists to experiment with recycled materials

Scribe Video Center
To explore the city’s relationship to mass transit by publicly displaying multiple digital video works in high traffic public sites

Sean Stoops
To support an innovative form of 3D storytelling by creating a series of outdoor video art events screened on local buildings

Sharon Torello
To engage younger audiences in classical music through the creation of a group with membership benefits that include discount ticketing and unique social gatherings

Sojourner Ahebee
To further cultural understanding by facilitating youth-led poetry workshops for Liberian teenage girls in Philadelphia and Liberia

Swim Pony Performing Arts
To weave the arts into the community by presenting revamped versions of plays in non-traditional spaces, including Eastern State Penitentiary and the Land Conservancy of Elkins Park

The Brothers Network
To introduce more diverse audiences to the performing arts by creating a multidisciplinary festival that features black male choreographers, filmmakers, actors, writers and composers

The Clay Studio
To explore the relevance of handmade ceramic objects in the 21^st century by providing a handmade mug to people leaving coffee shops with disposable cups and encouraging them to post about their experiences on the Web

The Crossing
To introduce a wider audience to contemporary chamber music by establishing a series of new works designed specifically for a nontraditional venue – the recently restored Crane Arts’ Icebox

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
To create a new sculpture series by artist Daniel Arsham at the museum that will debut along with a live performance and explore the boundaries between the galleries and theater

The Hacktory
To promote the use of technology in the arts by developing a corps of interactive artist teachers who will share their knowledge and expertise in programming and engineering with Philadelphia artists

The University of the Arts
To promote economic stability for the city’s cultural community by offering support to emerging creative businesses with pre-seed funding, mentorships programs and workshops

The Village of Arts and Humanities
To develop young people’s awareness of the city’s vibrant cultural scene through interactive scavenger hunts led by local artists

The Wilma Theater
To enhance training for local actors by creating a series of master classes

University City District
To establish a new outlet for public art that showcases temporary installations to the city’s tens of thousands of daily commuters

Vic Reznik
To help promote the city’s cinematic identity by commissioning emerging filmmakers from Philadelphia to produce shorts for a new, local film festival

The Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano reports that the Philadelphia Media Network will welcome Cloudmine, ElectNext and SnipSnap as the three companies to be housed at the first Project Liberty incubator.

As we’ve reported, the incubator was one of the initial promises of then incoming CEO Greg Osberg in 2010. Philadelphia Network began accepting applications in October of 2011.

All three of the companies were in DreamIt’s Fall 2011 Philadelphia class will join PMN in its new Eighth and Market offices, and be offered Drexel interns. The incubator takes no equity in the companies, the only requirement is an agreement to develop products using PMN entities. For now, the incubator is slated for a 3:45pm ribbon cutting today on the fifth floor of 400 N. Broad, and there will be an open house next week there.

All three of the companies have obvious applications to the media industry:

SnipSnap – Led by former Gannett newspaper chain employee Ted Mann, SnipSnap helps users organize their coupons using an iPhone app. The newspaper industry still heavily relies on revenue from coupon placement and advertising inserts, the company says.

ElectNext – At several events this year, Founder Keya Dannenbaum said ElectNext, which we’ve covered extensively, would try and make widgets for media companies to augment election coverage. Fun Fact, ElectNext has been part of five incubators: BetaSpring, GoodCompany Ventures, DreamIt Ventures, Wharton’s VIP program and now Project Liberty.

CloudMine – The other half of Project Liberty, an Android tablet pre-loaded with the Inquirer, is a perfect testing ground for CloudMine’s mobile development platform.