Technically Philly and Start Philly to partner around content and more

The virtuous are the collaborative ones.

After announcing our one-year birthday here at Technically Philly and following for the past few months the insightful and experienced content coming from the entrepreneurs at Start Philly, our two organizations have decided to form a bit of a working relationship.

We met last week inside a Sansom Street restaurant and got familiar over drafts of Yards and comped whiskey. By the end of the night, we had an understanding.

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Temple interns to report on city technology issues

You just might see some new bylines pop up here at Technically Philly in the coming months.

Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will be among the first. They come to us as interns from Temple University’s journalism capstone class, the Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, which features a neighborhood-focused newsroom that publishes to the Philadelphia Neighborhoods news site. Thusly, Leposa and Pass will be chasing down stories on Philadelphia technology issues and those working to remedy them.

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Our City of Philadelphia logo design contest winner: Sara DeMarco

Click to enlarge

It turns out the Liberty Bell doesn’t have to be lame.

After the city’s new logo — featuring that cracked ringer — was blasted and we issued a challenge for submissions that were better, we didn’t expect much to come the way of Independence Mall’s most famous attraction.

But more than one of the submissions did, including the eventual winner: Sara DeMarco, as voted on by you in comments and tweets. As depicted above, she submitted how an array of citywide departments could get their own design, while conforming to a general theme. (We’ll be drinking to Sara at our meetup tomorrow)

Great thanks to all our submissions, particularly our two other finalists, RJ White with ‘the Richardson Dilworth‘ and Larry West with ‘Birthplace.’

Below, we remind Sara what she won and again share her example of how the mayor’s office stationary might look like with her design.

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City of Philadelphia design contest submissions

Many of you joined in the criticism over the city’s new logo.

We figured that if it was that bad, our community could put together in five days of a holiday week a slew of better choices. So we challenged you. Others put out the word until last night, when we closed the door.

We at Technically Philly narrowed down the submissions to what we’re calling our top three.  Now it’s up to you by way of a day’s voting.

We’ll count each tweet and comment as a vote. By 5 p.m., we’ll close the polls, as it were, and hire an overpriced accounting firm to audit the tally. Or just count ourselves. Oh, and we absolutely encourage politicking.

Wednesday morning, we’ll announce the winner.

Thanks to everyone who submitted! We hope you’ll see more of these contests — with better prizes to boot. For now, check out the three finalists below and let us know which is your favorite.

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Submit your logos for the City of Philadelphia

We asked, many of you responded so we now offer up the challenge.

Corporate branding Web site Brand New called a new design for the City of Philadelphia one of the year’s worst.

In the spirit of the new year and because we know you don’t want to do any real work this week, we put an open call out to the designers and developers and tinkerers and artists in our community. Make a designer’s design for the City of Philadelphia.

Submit your ideas for a logo that would better suit the City of Philadelphia — yes, it can be sarcastic or heartfelt. It can even include the Liberty Bell or a cheesesteak if you think they sum Philly up well … and you can endure the taunts of your peers. We’re thinking standard display images, but we won’t begin to limit you, the audience. If it fits in an e-mail or can be linked to, we want to see them.

All submissions need to be sent to info [at] technicallyphilly.com [files or links] by the final whistle of this Sunday’s 4:15 p.m. Eagles last regular season game, against those bastard Cowboys.

The best design — to be decided by an incredibly complex algorithm that combines RTing, commenting and how surly reporter Brian James Kirk feels that morning — will win an incredibly disappointing prize package featuring the following:

• Pride in winning TP’s first hastily thrown together contest (maybe we’ll even design you a button… maybe)
• One cold, tasty local beer purchased and served to you by the TP staff at our next meetup, to be announced shortly
• A promise that we’ll submit your idea to the appropriate persons at City Hall… if they would only take us off hold.

Digital Philadelphia: what it is, what it means and what’s standing in the way

Before Friday, the City of Philadelphia, specifically its division of technology, will submit a proposal to the federal government, asking for a big slice of at least $4.6 billion set aside for municipal broadband development.

When city chief technology officer Allan Frank first announced his bold plan for a $100 million 10-year strategy, we were surprised no other news organization in this the fourth largest media market in the country seemed to care. And as it turns out, Allan Frank has corrected us: that $100 million is just for the internal IT overhaul alone. Oh, the things you find out when you hit the streets.

So, we’d like to introduce a large package on Frank’s Digital Philadelphia plan. Go and explore just what your city government is spending so much time pursuing.

Follow this link for the full report, or continue reading about the project after the jump.

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Job opening: Commission-based, ad-sales rep for Technically Philly

Here’s the next step in creating a sustainable news product to cover the technology and innovation communities of Philadelphia.

A month after announcing we would begin to slowly investigate opportunities to monetize Technically Philly so we can grow our coverage and create a solid foothold in the country’s fourth largest media market, we are seeking a talented, aggressive ad-sales representative to lead our push for profitability.

See our media kit online here.

While that push will likely begin with advertising, we have no intentions of depending on a profit-model that is now greatly diminished. Instead, we ask that the candidate be interested in exploring alternative revenue streams, in addition to display ads.
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Technically Philly makes brief appearance on Fox 29

After the School District of Philadelphia said in a statement to Technically Philly yesterday that it was investigating how one of its computer peripherals ended up in a landfill in Ghana, Fox 29 reports that the City Controller’s office is also looking into the issue.

John Atwater added good reporting to our piece from yesterday concerning the district’s e-waste. Most importantly, and as we suspected though couldn’t confirm, Atwater reports that Regentech, the district’s current technology recycler, wasn’t on the job in 2004, when the shipment that ended up in Ghana appears to have left Philadelphia.

As we tweeted last night, TP reporter Christopher Wink appeared in Fox’s 10 p.m. newscast, discussing with Atwater details of the story. To see the station’s coverage, follow the jump.

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Technically Philly will soon be introducing advertising, other monetization strategies

For four months, we’ve been writing, reporting and researching dutifully the technology and innovation communities in and around Philadelphia.

We want to do more.

To appease our devotion for transparency, we want to be the bearer of the news that in order to continue to grow our coverage, we will now begin pursuing monetization. We’ll continue sharing disclosures and conflicts should they arise and hope you’ll approach us with any concerns you may have.

This is no hobby of ours.

We are three professionally-trained and seriously-driven young journalists who want to develop a sustainable and impactful news coverage source for you, your city and this region.

We’re doing it already. When Google CEO and Princeton University-graduate Eric Schmidt gave the commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania, we asked the question and got his answer about the possibilities he thought Philly had to become a tech corridor. No other news source in this city of 1.5 million people reported when Philadelphia CIO Allan Frank pledged to work with Refresh Philly to reinvigorate Philadelphia’s connection to technology.

We’ll chase big city news when it affects our readers, on the Web or otherwise. Philadelphia Inquirer Publisher Brian Tierney told Fox 29 yesterday that the third-oldest newspaper in the country is going to add a paid content model to its Web site, but, of course, we told you about that three days earlier on Friday.

We want to be able to devote the time to make sure that coverage continues and only expands. We’ll need resources to do that.

So consider this the official declaration of the monetization of Technically Philly — something we hope to do slowly and judiciously to ensure we never deleteriously affect our maturing brand or turn off our growing readership. Still, sometime soon, you should begin to see advertisements, and we want to invite you to participate, as other profit strategies come online.

See our media kit here. For rates and further advertising information, contact us at advertising@technicallyphilly.com.

If you have any thoughts, let us hear them in the comments. Any more sensitive thoughts can be sent our way here.