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.

The OPA Data Liberator showing 35 properties owned by Drew Demarco near Germantown and LaSalle University. This is an example of the application using someone with one of the larger totals of owned properties in the still incomplete database from the Office of Property Assessment. While some have criticized Demarco on Philadelphia Speaks, this should not be seen as anything more than an example of the application's utility. Click to visit the application.

This very project was called for by Independents Hall co-founder Geoff DiMasi during a February panel discussion on the open data movement, though he expressed dismay at the hurdles to get it done. Like, namely city support. So we should be clear that the OPA, nor any other city agency, endorses this project. It was done by a handful of hobbyist hackers, and to be sure, the project isn’t done.

The search functionality is still a little rough, and the design might leave something to be desired, but there it is. What’s more, of the city’s 560,000 properties, the web application is still, at the moment, downloading and adding ones, hovering around 300,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.

But here’s an example of how a technology community can take data by sheer will.

OPA property details are not openly shared in a downloadable, usable format, says Tim Wisniewski, hobbyist open government enthusiast and Executive Director of the Frankford Special Services District. However, their project has opened up a dialogue with the OPA, which could change course and release its data more freely.

“We certainly are in favor of anything that increases the level of transparency both in terms of our mission and the data available through this department,” Michael Piper, an OPA deputy administrator, wrote Technically Philly in an email. “I am forwarding [these] suggestions to our IT manager in hopes of revisiting this topic.”

If OPA follows through, a regularly updated API of property records would be an ideal addition to OpenDataPhilly.org, unveiled last week, says Wisniewski, who handled the Data Liberator’s back-end PHP. He is currently hosting the tool, but expressed interest in finding its own domain if it grew popular.

To start, the group was given a list of properties, from an anonymous supporter of the project, which they imported into a MySQL database. Then, the group created a Ruby script that scrapes the data from the OPA Property Search site, and puts it into the MySQL database.

Wisniewski was joined by Adam Hinz, Joanne Cheng, Mjumbe Poe and others on the project. Tropo open government developer Mark Headd helped lead the hackathon.

Though natural privacy concerns arise, Wisniewski said an OPA representative seemed to suggest this type of searchability does not breech any legal limitations.

Versioning is available on GitHub here.

Below, watch Headd and Poe discuss the project and compare the struggle for data with when data is available, resulting in a project like the Philadelphia Mural Guide that Poe also assisted on.

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!

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!

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.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more.

Monday, April 19th – Refresh Philly’s April event is at a new time, and looks like it was worth the wait. Jared Spool spent some time researching the ins and outs of Amazon.com’s ugly but super-effective design and will offer some advice based on his findings at National Mechanics on Monday. The event is held along with PhillyCHI. 6 p.m. Old City. INFO. [view more events]

All Week – Okay, we’re cheating a bit here as the Empowerment Group’s Entrepreneurship Week is really a series of events. From the launch party on Monday to the morning workshops there’s a lot to digest. Be sure to go to our event calendar and click the downwards arrow to filter for entrepreneur events. All week. All over the place. INFO. [view more events]

Saturday, April 24th – Just like last year, Technically Philly is gathering together media junkies from all over the East Coast to discuss ways to innovate the news. Representatives from big media brands like the New York Times, Philly.com and Gannet have registered as well as news startups. Even if you’re not a journalist, come and tell us all why the media sucks. 9 a.m. Temple University. RSVP. [view more events]

If you have an event that you think we should be listing, email us or fill out our submission form for best results. We promise that no submission falls in to the contact form netherworld.

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.

Roxbury News kindly video taped most of our session:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Party Three
• Part Four

Technically Philly also received love from a few other sources:

• Our very own Christopher Wink was interviewed about new vs. old media — CUNY’s full post on the event, including a ridiculous photo of Chris.
• Karl Martino mentions Technically Philly was his favorite session
• The Courier Post summarizes our presentation

Oh yeah, and we trended (click below):

And we promise, this is the last of our shameless plugs about BarCamp.

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.

Initially when I made the pitch to wrestle the national event from, *ahem*, lesser cities, I said that Philadelphia’s thriving tech scene was one reason to have it here. Since then, we’ve started this blog and it has only reaffirmed our belief, and we would love to see some of our readers stopped on by.

Set to attend are media execs, reporters and editors  from the Inky, Philly.com, Washington Post, GateHouse Media, Fox News, LA Times, McClatchy, Associated Press and more. I’d guess that all of these companies will be looking for some fresh thinking that I think TP’s readership can provide. So I ask you to take the Broad Street Line up to Temple for a few hours, and maybe you can help us save the news industry … or, at the very least, have a good time at the afterparty at National Mechanics.

See you there!

(And, if you cant make it, follow #BCNIPhilly on Twitter)

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.

Tuesday, April 21: PhillyCHI‘s lecture with Bill Buxton is long sold out, but maybe you know someone who can sneak you in the back door; it looks like it’ll be a killer evening, considering the dude’s got a resume that would kill 20 trees if it was printed.

Luckily, Philadelphia Standards Organization is holding its “3×3: Design Edition,” lecture series. Happy Cog, Razorfish and Electronic Ink will all be talking Web design and whatever else is on their creative minds. Mmmm mmm tasty Web design. 6:00 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

And if you’re still not hype on what to do, Philadelphia Area New Media Association (PANMA) is demystifying Web hosting—by breaking down cloud systems, rich-media content delivery, and all that stuff we leave to our (exceptionally talented) Web monkey. 6:30 p.m. Center City West. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, April 23: Junto-goers this month will discuss the past, present and future of art criticism. Representatives of UArts, the Philadelphia Art Blog, Vox Populi, and more—in collectivity admirable positions and with enviable talents—will discuss with the audience where Philly’s art discourse stands. “Can we transcend the magazine/blog?” the invitation asks. Go for it. Just don’t forget about us when you’re big and famous, mmmkay? 6:30 p.m. Center City West. Details. [view more events]

Saturday April 25: We hope you’ll join us for Technically Philly’s first sponsored event, BarCamp NewsInnovation Philadelphia. BCNI Philadelphia is the national conference of a countrywide effort to reinvent the news industry. This isn’t for journalists by journalists. Coders: tell us what’s wrong with news websites. Designers: make fun of news Flash applications. Media lovers: tell us you’re sick of hearing about the dreary state of the news industry. We’d love to see as many forward-thinking techies there as possible. Here at TP, we have lots to say about the state of all-things media, which we’ll save for our fourth beer at the kick-ass after party at National Mechanics in Old City. We sincerely hope to see you there. All day. Temple University. RSVP. [view more events]

Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.