OPA Data Liberator: the hackathon project that fills in where city property records leave off [VIDEO]

Hackathon team OPA Data Liberator

Coders and journalists need to hang out more. It’s becoming something of a mission here at Technically Philly.

On Saturday, at the Open Gov Hackathon presented by Tropo, as a part of the third annual BarCamp NewsInnovation, former Inquirer City Hall reporter and current freelancer Patrick Kerkstra walked into the TV Studio at Temple University’s Annenberg Hall.

In the chilly, cement-floored room, Kerkstra presented a simple problem to a handful of developers there early for the hackathon. On the website of the city’s Office of Property Assessment (the reconstituted Board of Revision of Taxes), the search function is limited to specific address and doesn’t extend to names.

So, say, a small-time property developer wanted neighborhood approval for a zoning variance at a newly purchased property. Until Kerkstra inspired a pack of hackers, there was no easy, online way for concerned neighbors to find out other properties that property developer owned.

Now there is. Visit the OPA Data Liberator.

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Philly Tech Week update: WHYY headquarters, civic hackathon and more

Philly Tech Week is starting to focus in on impact. Today we have four big announcements for the April 25-30 week of events.

HEADQUARTERS: WHYY, the region’s public media organization based in Old City, will be the official headquarters for Philly Tech Week, offering up its beautiful, modern Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons.

Working with TEDx, Barcamp Philly and Refresh Philly event planner and community builder Roz Duffy, WHYY will play host to a brown bag lunchtime speaker series that week, in addition to our Friday night signature event, which will serve as the week’s highlight. More details to come there.

CIVIC HACKING: In other exciting news, as part of the third annual national BarCamp NewsInnovation, held Saturday, April 30 at Temple University, we’ll also be hosting the Open Gov Hackathon organized by Tropo. Coders, designers and developers will be creating civic-minded tools, largely using newly shared government data. We want the hacker crew and journalists to work together to create projects that will be utilized and have the best chance to make impact. It’s a good fit with our Transparencity coverage. Find out more on the BCNI blog here, and expect more to be finalized soon.

GETTING THE WORD OUT: We’re also proud to announce that we’re working with Grid magazine publisher Red Flag Media to land the first Philly Tech Week print supplement on the streets that week, which will feature the week’s calendar, but also fresh content on our community and sponsor shout outs. That’s in addition to that hot Philly Tech Week website from the Jarv.us development team in Northern Liberties and the forthcoming Philly Tech Week app from Alkali Media.

NEW PARTNERS: New sponsors include the City of Philadelphia Commerce Department, Chariot Solutions, Reed Technology, the University City Science Center and Tropo, and new event organizers include Wharton, First Round Capital, the Philadelphia Science Festival from the Franklin Institute, Indy Hall, the African American Chamber of Commerce and more. Many, many more conversations are still alive.

Check out our Sponsorship one pager and Event organizer guide to become a part.

Expect lots more events, partners and details soon. Clear your calendar for April 25-30 and get involved!

BarCamp NewsInnovation is this Saturday

Just as passionate as we are about Philly’s tech scene, we’re downright crazy about local journalism. Heightening our awareness of the city’s news ecosystem is a recently released report by J-Lab that recommends that the William Penn Foundation allocate money to support local public affairs reporting.

That’s why we have organized the second annual BarCamp NewsInnovation, a chance for anyone interested in news to gather and talk about the innovative things they are doing at Temple’s Annenberg Hall this Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Just like BarCamp Philly, this event is FREE.

This year, representatives (see full attendee list) from newspapers around the country, journalism startups and academics have signed up and we’d like to invite our community as well. At the very least to show some Philly pride, but hopefully to help add some fresh voices in the discussion around news and technology.

We hope to see you there!

Event Highlights for April 19-25, 2010

Ah we long for the the good ol’ days Philadelphia.

You know, the days when Lower Marion only spied on one child, McNabb was still an Eagle and the Phillies were awesome. Wait, the Phillies are still awesome? Then we’re alright then.

In between watching Roy Halladay and enjoying this great weather, there are lots of events on our calendar that Technically Philly recommends you attend. You know, on the days when number 34 ain’t pitching.

This week: The Empowerment Group is going all out with nearly a dozen events that are sure to satisfy your entrepreneurial itch, Refresh Philly reveals the secrets behind one of the largest e-commerce sites the earth has ever seen and we shamelessly self-promote BarCamp NewsInnovation, the event that will solve all the media’s woes in six hours. Or at least spur we journalist-types to share some interesting ideas.

Ready? Jump.

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BCNIPhilly Roundup

A week ago today, Technically Philly co-sponsored its first event, BarCamp NewsInnovation Philadelphia.

We were all glad to see members of the Philadelphia community out, and we thank those of you who volunteered your time to help keep the event running smoothly. To see the world’s reaction to the event, head on over to the official BCNI Philly page for a running list of all of the blog posts, photos and videos.

Technically Philly presented on starting a community-based niche news site and offered tips on how attendees could start their own. We talk about why we love Philebrity, why being part of the community you cover is important, and our plans to make this our day job.

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Shameless plug: BCNI Philly is this Saturday

This Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Temple University, the entire TP crew along with 150 of our closest friends will be tackling a problem that is very near and dear to our hearts: the current state of news and journalism.

The journalism industry has had numerous conferences and back door CEO meetings, but some of us think its time to try something different, thus BarCamp NewsInnovation was born. Many of us have been yelling at the TV over bias, decrying the lack of certain stories going uncovered in our local paper and wondering how the media industry can fully (and profitably) embrace the Web.

So we’ll be taking the BarCamp format so popular for tech events and applying it to news. Journalists, media types, bloggers, techies, programmers, designers, executives, students and anyone else who is interested will be converging at Temple University for 8 hours of news talk. Like our beloved BarCamp Philly, anyone can make a presentation, as long as its about news. We hope thins brings some frank, unconventional talk to an industry that needs it.

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Events highlights for the week of April 20 – April 26, 2009

We’re extremely excited about our event calendar this week. It’s got everything from design, to web hosting basics, to news innovation. We couldn’t ask for more. Except that you get out there and support the community by attending one of these swell opportunities.

All week, the Empowerment Group‘s Entrepreneurship Week is chocked-full of great opportunities to learn about starting or super-powering your business. Be sure to read our highlights of the week-long event.

Philadelphia Standards Organization has three top-notch designers talking clean design and Web standards, and PANMA is hosting a discussion on the state of Web hosting in 2009, all on Tuesday. Thursday’s Junto is all culture, as several prominent artists, educators and organizations will discuss art criticism’s past, present and future.

Finally on Saturday, Technically Philly helps host its first event, BarCamp NewsInnovation Philadelphia. We hope all techies—journalistic or not—will join us to help change the news industry.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.
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