Nutter proposes “unprecedented” $120 million IT budget, moves toward paperless

Mayor Nutter has announced plans to significantly invest in city information technology and pursue paperless government efficiencies in an attempt to improve tech infrastructure, cut costs and streamline city services.

“We may not be completely paperless, but we will use less paper,” Nutter said in his budget address to City Council this morning before a packed crowed that filled the historic Council chamber’s floor and balcony seating.

If City Council approves the budget, Nutter says that an “unprecedented” investment in city technology will provide $120 million to improve IT over the next five years, including $25 million in FY11.

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Friday Q&A: Councilman Bill Green talks technology and Philly Charter

Early this week, Councilman Bill Green and five members of City Council introduced legislation that would change Philadelphia’s Charter to include a permanent Chief Information Officer.

As we reported, the bill would continue consolidation of the city’s Information Technology resources and it would require that the CIO develop annually a 5-year technology strategy, among other changes.

We spoke with Green on Monday to put into perspective the reason for the legislation—and whether or not the bill represents concern for current Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank’s leadership. Green’s answers, after the jump.

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City Council bill would make IT permanent part of city government

Councilman Bill Green and five members of City Council have co-sponsored legisilation that would create a permanent Charter position for a Chief Information Officer and would consolidate all of the city’s Information Technology resources under the Division of Technology.

The legislation would require the CIO to report directly to the Mayor and to create an annual IT strategic plan that includes productivity enhancements to help the city utilize paperless services. It also gives the CIO more oversight over city department technology appropriations.

“When they wrote the Charter in 1952, no one imagined there could be a paperless system,” Green told Technically Philly during a telephone interview this morning. “[The legislation would] make investment in and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government.”

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Philadelphia Police Department to begin enforcing vehicular cell phone ban Tuesday

Tomorrow is dooms-day for motorists and bicyclists who chose to use cellular phone devices while driving.

The Philadelphia police department will begin enforcing legislation passed in April that requires drivers to utilize hands-free devices when making calls and sending text messages, according to a press release issued by Councilman Bill Green’s office this afternoon.

Violators will be subject to fines between $75 and $300 under the Philadelphia code, not Pennsylvania’s Motor Vehicle Code.

The cell phone legislation, introduced by City Councilmembers Green and Greenlee and Rizzo, was unanimously passed by Council in April, as we reported. The law was signed by Mayor Nutter on April 29.

Friday Q&A: Kelly Lee, Innovation Philadelphia President & CEO

Updated 9/11/09, 2:15 p.m.: Clarified summit tracks, noted “no frills” package clarification, and updated Philly panelists.

If it wasn’t for the first Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit in June 2006, Innovation Philadelphia may not have found it’s niche in the creative industries.

President and CEO Kelly Lee says that it was the attendees of the inaugural event, hosted three years ago, who inspired the economic development organization to shift focus from the broad spectrum of technology-based businesses to creative ones—art, design, web development, and others, in place of biotech and life sciences.

This year, Lee is spearheading the second of the summits, the well-marketed and polished 2009 Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit, which happens next month, October 5 to 6 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is a panelist for GCECS2009, "Creating a Culture of Entrepreneurial Journalism" on Oct. 6]

The summit focuses on economics, entrepreneurship, workforce, technologies and sustainability, five interdependent tracks that Lee says make up the creative economy and that cities and regions need to have a strategy for.

There are dozens of workshops, panels, roundtables and presentations that include innovators and leaders from across the globe and the Philly region, like keynotes from author Elizabeth Gilbert, entrepreneur Peter Shankman, game guru Jane McGonigal and global economic developer Randall Kempner.

From flyer to Web design, packed-schedule to text message update technology, there’s little doubt that the nonprofit has invested quite a bit in this year’s summit. The organization has even launched a series of glossy, high-def videos on the conference website this week that features local entrepreneurs and policy-makers who will attend. It certainly doesn’t appear that Innovation Philadelphia is taking GCECS2009 lightly.

But critics aren’t taking their words lightly, either, including high-profile members of our business and technology communities.

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City CTO and community to publicly discuss broadband policy at One Web Day kick-off

Nothing says civic duty like a town hall meeting. Now it’s Philly tech’s turn.

City Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank and a handful of influential members of Philadelphia’s technology community will hold a public panel this month to discuss broadband policy, Digital Philadelphia and the city’s technology future.

The September 22 panel, hailed as One Web Day Philly’s inaugural event, marks the first public discussion concerning Digital Philadelphia since Frank reached out to members of technology community earlier this year.

“With all the energy that’s gone into broadband expansion over the last few months because of the stimulus grant,” One Web Day Philly organizer Gwen Shaffer says, “we need to think about how we’re going to build on that momentum, and make sure there’s public input.”

Discussion will surround a pivotal question that Frank has been meek to respond to: If Philadelphia doesn’t receive federal broadband stimulus money, how will the city realize the Division of Technology’s Digital Philadelphia vision and the Nutter administration’s promise to expand Internet access in Philadelphia?

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Councilman Green hosts alley field trip for dumpster RFID legislation

Councilman Bill Green shows an RFID tag and reader that could be used to enforce dumpster laws.

Technology can be a dirty business.

Councilman Bill Green, dressed in a pressed pinstripe suit and flip-up sunglasses, led reporters on a field trip this afternoon to an illegally fenced-in block of Center City that hides 30 unregistered dumpsters, he says.

The councilman was there to demonstrate a solution to tracking those dumpsters—Radio-frequency identification or RFID medallions that will help the city regulate unlicensed and unlawful containers. Green introduced legislation in February that would require that trash containers are fitted with the UHF chipset.

There are currently about 5,700 dumpsters registered with the city that generate $261,480 in licensing fees. With new legislation, Green hopes that the city could collect more than $2 million in fees. Additionally, Green hopes to cash in on uncollected citations. As of 2008, the city is owed a half million dollars from containers that violated dumpster laws.

As a dozen members of construction crews watched a crowd surround Green on the 1600 block of Ionic Street, between Chestnut and Sansom streets, he pointed a handheld device at a small, business-card sized medallion attached to a graffiti-covered dumpster overflowing with broken-down cardboard boxes.

“Simply aim the gun, shoot it, and it brings up information on who owns [the dumpster],” he yelled into microphones over a cacophony of noise caused by nearby work.

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City Council cell phone ban attacked elsewhere in state, could cost city $90M

All of that ended quickly.

Last week, we reported City Council created quite a buzz by unanimously passing legislation that would have made illegal the use of mobile devices while driving — unless using hands-free technology. That has some fuming.

PennDOT has called the bill  a violation of the state Motor Vehicle Code, saying cell-phone use legality cannot vary county to county, according to the Daily News.

On Monday, the state House approved legislation which included a provision that would withhold state funds from municipalities that were not in compliance with that vehicle code, according to a press release from the office of Rep. Dick Geist of Altoona, who introduced the provision.

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BREAKING: City Council unanimously approves cell phone driving ban

1:07 p.m. 4/17/09, Update amended: Thanks Tom!

Oh man, are we glad to be transit riders today.

Philadelphia City Council has unanimously passed legislation that could make it illegal to use cell phones while driving motor vehicles, Technically Philly reports.

Citizens would be required to use hands-free headsets or other devices behind the wheel, according to a press release from councilmembers Bill Green, Bill Greenlee and Frank Rizzo.

“The passage of this legislation should send a very clear message: drivers need to put down their cell phones and pay attention to the road,” Councilman Bill Greenlee said in the statement. “Dialing a phone number or sending a text message while driving will no longer be tolerated in the City of Philadelphia.”

For the bill to be made into law, Mayor Michael Nutter will have to sign it, which he plans on doing, said administration spokesman Luke Butler. When he will hasn’t been established, but the city charter dictates the mayor has to sign or veto legislation within 10 days, Butler said.

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