Inquirer business columnist Joseph N. DiStefano on Philly tech [Friday Q&A]

With the pressure of updating a daily news blog in addition to his regular column in the Philadelphia Inquirer, columnist Joseph N. DiStefano says that the biggest change over the last few years in the newspaper offices at 400 N. Broad is acceleration.

“It’s a lot easier to get a hold of key documents and get answers to a lot of basic questions online,” says DiStefano, who pens the Inky’s PhillyDeals column.

“But reporting is reporting. News is information that someone else wants to suppress.”

DiStefano has the gruff exterior one might expect of a veteran newspaper columnist who writes hard news about regional business.

“I used to tell CEOs that if you’re indicted, I will cheerfully write that story on page one. Not to celebrate indictment, but because we have the space there,” he says. “It’s an adversarial role.”

Since 2007, DiStefano’s distinct attitude has been on display in that column, which covers a broad range of business topics, including development and real estate, finance and Philadelphia’s technology community.

DiStefano, who grew up on the Main Line, has been in the reporting business since 1988, when he was looking for a steady line of work after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in economics and U.S. history.

He’s gone on to report finance at Bloomberg and in 2005, published Comcasted, about Comcast’s cable strategy, all while he and his wife were raising six kids.

After the jump, we ask to borrow DiStefano’s crib notes for business and technology reporting in Philadelphia.

Read more

Broadband for business: varied needs, many providers

Before the second Independents Hall location opened in 2009, volunteers installed cable for Internet services. Credit: Alex Hillman

Updated, Sept. 2, 2011: Added Cogent clarification and fixed typos.

Consumers hear a lot more about competition for residential services, but Internet service providers are equally focused on the fight for the business market in Philadelphia.

While residential customers generally get one-size-fits-all service from ISPs, business customers have wide array of needs and many companies to choose from.

“Probably one of the most competitive parts of the industry is services for businesses, it’s very profitable for different companies,” says Lee Gierczynski, Verizon spokesman.

Residential ISPs are successful because of their wide availability. Verizon and Comcast are forced to cast a wide net across the entire city, in part because they are legally required to do so, and in part because it’s the only way to make such a network profitable.

In the commercial sector, ISPs only have to respond to market forces. In Philadelphia the market includes everything from small one-user firms to large universities providing service for thousands. All of them have a variety of needs for bandwidth, but they all need service that is reliable and within their budget. All of them face a variety of interesting issues with getting service in Philadelphia.

Read more

Friday Q&A: Entrepreneurs Forum rebuilt to connect with startups, veterans

Dan Ross is proud to say that some Philly companies have done well during the past year in what many economists say is the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

And he’s got proof.

On Wednesday, 100 companies in the Philadelphia region were awarded at the Entrepreneurs Forum of Greater Philadelphia‘s Philly 100. It wasn’t an arbitrary designation; these are companies that were able to meet the contest’s stringent restrictions: real growth in sales and revenue figures year-over-year, among others.

“We know of a number of award programs, top 25s or top 50s, they were not able to fill their quota. The good news is that we were able to achieve our top 100 with some great firms,” Ross said in a telephone interview early this week.

Of course, the gains are modest, but they’re gains, found by companies that are staying current and nimble in concerning times.

“We don’t see some of the hugely dramatic numbers that we’ve seen across the board, but they’re growing. They’re making it through the economic times and continuing to thrive and grow employment.”

Since retiring, Ross has been steering the Forum as Executive Director for six years, volunteering 20 to 30 hours a week to help young businesses connect with veterans. The service — which is funded by business sponsors and the Forum’s monthly events — is offered free of cost.

Like the businesses it recognizes, the Forum, too, has refocused its efforts to stay current. After a series of focus groups, it has launched its fiscal 2011 event series, “True North,” which focuses on young, early-stage businesses and high-growth late-stage companies. And it’s now offering an “experts on-demand” advice service that any entrepreneur can take advantage of.

After the jump, Ross talks about the Philly 100 winners, the region’s information technology growth, and about the Forum’s newly found strategy.

Read more

Devine + Powers marketing firm launches social media arm

Jeff Gibbard remembers Friendster.

Except, when the social network launched in 2003, Gibbard wasn’t thinking about how valuable it could be to a business trying to reach customers.

He just knew it was going to be big. That thought never left his mind as he jumped to MySpace and later Facebook — which just last week passed an epic 500 million user milestone — always head of the curve.

“I saw the power that the Web has at connecting people, reconnecting with someone or connecting with someone you met recently,” he says. “Prior to these technologies, we didn’t have that.”

Read more

Mobile, frameworks, focus of 2010 Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise

More than 100 folks packed the room for the "Refactoring legacy applications for SOA using Spring Technologies" session led by Oleg Zhurakousky.

On Thursday, about 450 software developers, IT managers and business executives from around the world ventured to Old City for Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise, a locally-organized, two-day conference for high-level enterprise software development discussion.

Patrons packed the Society Hill Sheraton’s outdoor patio, breaking from sessions—comprised of mobile, frameworks, agile development, management, infrastructure and languages tracks—talking and fielding phone calls beneath the stunning pink blossoms of Cherry trees. The hotel offered more space than last year’s conference, held in Conshohocken.

Read more

Will Philadelphia be included in Fast Company’s city startup series?

A handful of organizations and individuals may be responsible for drumming up some much deserved praise for Philly’s startup scene.

Since business mag Fast Company began running a five-part series about cities where entrepreneurs should consider starting companies, several folks have been proactive in getting Philly on that list.

Venture capitalist and AsktheVC publisher Brad Feld predicts that Fast Company will feature Philly in a next batch of coverage, having already made introductions for the magazine here in Philadelphia, according to a follow-up blog post written by Philly Startup Leaders co-founder Blake Jennelle,

Read more