Biggest tech community stories we covered in 2009

Happy New Year, folks.

It’s been an exciting year for us. Though we’ll be celebrating our first birthday in February, we’ve had a chance to take part in Philadelphia’s vibrant technology community for 10 months. We’ve seen the amazing things that this community offered in 2009. Coming up on our 500th published story about this community, we’re proud to be a part of it. And we’re ecstatic to see what lie ahead.

No, Technically Philly has not started its own Mummer troupe. We do, however, want to ring in the new year by taking a look back at our top stories of 2009. Our month-by-month perspective, after the jump.

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BarCamp indicates that Philly is ready for next step. But will it happen?

BarCamp's organizers address attendees in the morning. Photo credit: Flickr user MonkoPhoto

In what was an uncharacteristically warm Saturday for mid-November, roughly 250 BarCamp Philly attendees shuffled their way into an auditorium on the 16th floor of 211 South Broad Street in Center City, Philadelphia.

Standing before the packed room complete with attendees spilling out into the hallways, organizers J.P. Toto, Roz Duffy and Kelani Nichole took the microphone to kick off the event they had spent months tirelessly organizing.

“How many people are not from Philly?” asked Toto. Roughly 15 percent of the hands in the packed auditorium went up (most of whom turned out to be from Florida) to the sound of impressed whistles and nods of approval.

Toto continued: “How many people have never been to a BarCamp before?” Slightly less than half of the room raised their hands validating on what many had suspected previously: The Philadelphia tech scene is growing.

But with that growth comes a fresh set of issues for the city’s techies to tackle.

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Event Highlights for November 9 – 15, 2009

Good morning Philadelphia, I have excellent news for you: SEPTA has returned to work.

And just in time, as this week contains lots of events worth spending your hard earned tokens for.

First, meet up with The Innovator’s Club in the burbs to chat social media. The group promises the presentation will be mixed with some humor. But honestly, every time I hear a grown man say the word “tweet” I snicker a little.

Then, hop on over the Ben Frankline Bridge for the NJ and Philly Tech November meetup in a Cherry Hill bar possibly owned by Hillary Swank.

And lastly, get some sleep Friday night because Saturday is the all day party/un-conference that is BarCamp Philadelphia.

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

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Friday Q & A: J.P. Toto and Roz Duffy of BarCamp Philly

The schedule board from last year's BarCamp Philly. Photo courtesy of Roz Duffy.

Last November, 180 people awoke on a Saturday afternoon and gathered at the University of the Arts to attend a conference. Except not one person had the slightest clue about how the day was to transpire. There was no plan, there was no agenda. Just a blank bulletin board and a stack of index cards.

By the end of the day, BarCamp’s schedule board was filled with subjects ranging from “How to make your own business cards” to “Rethinking the EDU.”

Since last year’s BarCamp Philly, HealthCamp, HigherEdCamp and our own BarCamp NewsInnovation have since popped up, and the monthly Refresh Philly event even has roots in BarCamp.

This year, organizers J.P. Toto, co-founder of Collegeville-based Cognis IT, and Roz Duffy, Web developer at Comcast Interactive Media, are back for round two, this time with Kelani Nichole, a Web designer at M. They hope to beat last year’s attendance while attracting attendees from other cities.

“I want it to be a bigger draw and to be well-established. I would love BarCamp Philly to be an industry standard,” says Duffy.

We spoke with Toto and Duffy about what will be different at this year’s BarCamp, what first-time presenters should know and the story behind BeerCamp.

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