City of Philadelphia to offer tax breaks to tech companies

Tech companies in Philadelphia might finally see some long-awaited light at the end of the tax tunnel.

Mayor Michael Nutter has announced tax breaks for technology, design and video game firms that would hopefully encourage more companies to set up shop in the city.

As the Metro reported this morning, under the new tax policy, tech sector businesses would not be taxed for services sold outside of Philadelphia, which could pave the way for tax overhauls for all city businesses. The news follows Nutter’s address to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce last week outlining the need to experiment with the city’s tax structure.

Videogame Growth Initiative organizer Mike Worth, who’s helped lead a grass roots effort to lobby City Hall on tech tax issues, as we’ve reported, tells Metro that the incentives might help convince his game development studio Space Whale Studios to move downtown.

Two City Council members want to sue Twitter, Facebook over flash mob

Councilman Frank DiCicco

Councilmembers Frank DiCicco and James F. Kenney are seeking the possibility of suing social media sites like Twitter or Facebook if they indeed played a role in Tuesday’s Market East flash mob, as CNET reported this week.

The councilmen requested permission from Mayor Michael Nutter to take legal action to force a mechanism to stop events like the flash mob of this week.

On Tuesday, roughly 150 teens may have used text messaging and social media sites to coordinate a chaotic rampage from the Gallery mall throughout Market Street, pushing, kicking and vandalizing their way toward the Macy’s near City Hall and an inevitable snowball fight.

No serious injuries were reported, though 16 arrests were made, according to the Inquirer.

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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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Avencia and Common Cause PA partner on Our Philadelphia, tracking city campaign contributions

The Web was always supposed to be democratic. But for all the good government oversight resources online, local politics often fail to attract the spotlight of transparency.

After Hallwatch went under, Philadelphians were left without a resource for hard data about their elected officials.

It’s an issue that certainly interests nonprofit, non-partisan citizens’ lobby organization Common Cause PA. Enough so that the organization has harnessed legislative data API Cicero, the brainchild of Callowhill GIS development company Avencia, to launch Our Philadelphia. The Web site explores “the role of money in local politics and allow users to investigate these issues for themselves.”

Made possible by the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the site shines the light on local campaign contributions for city legislators. Users can create custom RSS feeds, search by address, as powered by Cicero, and track information and content relevant to other keyword searches.

So, for example, a Frankford resident might find it entirely peculiar that the top contributor to the campaign of his city Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez is energy drink manufacturer Cintron Beverage, to the tune of $21,500.

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Pennsylvania receives $2.2 million for broadband data collection

A $2.2 million federal grant for broadband data and mapping in Pennsylvania will help the state's broadband vision, outlined in a report here by the Rendell Administration (PDF).

A federal grant will fund research into the digital divide and ways to solve it in Pennsylvania.

The National Telecommunication and Information Administration announced Tuesday that Pennsylvania has been awarded a two-year, $1.7 million grant to collection data about broadband adoption, MuniWireless reports. An additional $500,000 will be used for planning a broadband strategy in the state, bringing the total award to $2.2 million.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, which will handle the funds, was not immediately available for comment.

The NTIA has awarded $97 million to 51 grantees so far and will likely wrap up the remaining grants this quarter. The grants—which will be awarded to each state, the District of Columbia and five territories— are a part of the Obama administration’s strategy to improve broadband adoption in the U.S.

More than $300 million was set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to collect data to better assist the NTIA in distributing $7.2 billion to improve broadband infrastructure, create public computers centers and promote sustainable broadband adoption.

The City of Philadelphia requested $35 million in the NTIA’s first round of broadband investment, as we reported in September. The NTIA has not yet announced which projects will receive funding.

Update on passing of Carole I. Smith, Mayor’s Commission on Technology director

Details on the memorial services for and a scholarship fund on behalf of Carole I. Smith, the executive director of the Mayor’s Commission on Technology who died last Monday, have been announced.

Smith, 67, passed from complications related to pancreatic cancer. She is survived by her daughter Narissa Wallace, who is married with two children.

Supporters can celebrate Smith’s life at a memorial service to be held at 10 a.m. Sat. Jan 23 inside the Community College of Philadelphia’s Bonnell Building auditorium on 17th Street between Callowhill and Spring Garden streets. The internment will be private.

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Carole I. Smith, Mayor’s Commission on Technology director, 67

This has been updated here.

Carole I. Smith, a radio personality, columnist, entrepreneur and educator who advised the city on technology policy, passed Monday evening, a friend told Technically Philly today. She was 67.

Educated at Yale University, Occidental College and Temple University, according to an archived biography, Smith was most recently the executive director of the Mayor’s Commision on Technology, hosting a monthly Web cast and weekly radio show in that capacity.

Comment from her family or the mayor’s office was not immediately available. This story will be updated as information comes in. Cause of death was not disclosed.

On Wednesdays on 900 AM WURD, Smith hosted Carole’s Technology Corner, discussing mostly national gadget and trend stories with various guests from the region and beyond.

Our City of Philadelphia logo design contest winner: Sara DeMarco

Click to enlarge

It turns out the Liberty Bell doesn’t have to be lame.

After the city’s new logo — featuring that cracked ringer — was blasted and we issued a challenge for submissions that were better, we didn’t expect much to come the way of Independence Mall’s most famous attraction.

But more than one of the submissions did, including the eventual winner: Sara DeMarco, as voted on by you in comments and tweets. As depicted above, she submitted how an array of citywide departments could get their own design, while conforming to a general theme. (We’ll be drinking to Sara at our meetup tomorrow)

Great thanks to all our submissions, particularly our two other finalists, RJ White with ‘the Richardson Dilworth‘ and Larry West with ‘Birthplace.’

Below, we remind Sara what she won and again share her example of how the mayor’s office stationary might look like with her design.

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City of Philadelphia design contest submissions

Many of you joined in the criticism over the city’s new logo.

We figured that if it was that bad, our community could put together in five days of a holiday week a slew of better choices. So we challenged you. Others put out the word until last night, when we closed the door.

We at Technically Philly narrowed down the submissions to what we’re calling our top three.  Now it’s up to you by way of a day’s voting.

We’ll count each tweet and comment as a vote. By 5 p.m., we’ll close the polls, as it were, and hire an overpriced accounting firm to audit the tally. Or just count ourselves. Oh, and we absolutely encourage politicking.

Wednesday morning, we’ll announce the winner.

Thanks to everyone who submitted! We hope you’ll see more of these contests — with better prizes to boot. For now, check out the three finalists below and let us know which is your favorite.

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