MUST READ

• The Washington Post reports that today the FCC begins its new strategy for regulating broadband, not long after losing its case for Comcast in a D.C. Circuit Court suggesting the agency doesn’t have the authority to enforce its net neutrality regulations.
• Daily News gossip columnist Dan Gross reports that Oprah Winfrey was at the Comcast Center in undisclosed talks.
• Broadcasting and Cable reports that there is still push back from some in Congress on the proposed advancement of ethnic programming by a merged Comcast-NBC Universal, seeking more diverse TV choices.

WORTH BROWSING

• Philly Tech News reports on Cablevision’s $1.3 billion purchase of cable system Bresnan, of which Comcast owns a third.
• Light Reading reports that Comcast may be preparing to deploy a technology called switched digital video. H/T Philly Tech News

GIVE A GLANCE

• Multichannel News reports that Comcast is moving forward with previously reported plans to shut down the London, Ontario office of interactive TV development firm TVWorks and consolidating work at Radnor, Pa. and Mill Valley, Calif. offices.
• Multichannel News reports that senior vice president and general manager of video and entertainment services Derek Harrar has stepped down.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST

Edited: Corrected time of BFTP.

Hope you weren’t trying to get any work done in these weeks before the holidays.

Our event calendar is as packed it has ever been, chock full of events for every kind of techie. Whether you want to brush up on your Python or throw down with your fellow new media heads, you have no excuse for driving straight home after work.

Start off the week at the home of our new Comcast overlords, taking in Chris Bartlett of Gay History Wiki, whom we’ve covered in the past, at this month’s Refresh Philly. Then, hold off until Thursday and take the day off to better familiarize yourself with Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ application process. When you are done plotting the next great Philadelphia business, head on over to PANMA’s holiday party to spend your future riches.

Monday, December 7th – Though they ignored our requests to rename the group F5 Philly, we suggest heading to Refresh anyway to help recent Technically Not Tech subject and Ignite Philly presenter Chris Bartlett move his Gay History Wiki project along. Be sure to ask him if he can turn away all of his adoring fans after Chris Wink’s City Paper cover story about the project. 6:00 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, December 10th – If you have even had the inkling to start your own tech company, take off of work and head up to Fort Washington. The kind folks at Ben Franklin Technology Partners are offering free educations sessions on the group’s application process. Just take our career advice: don’t tell the boss where you are going. 9:30 a.m. Fort Washington. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, December 10th – When an event uses phrases like “free beer” and “free candy” we don’t think you need us to tell you to consider PANMA’s holiday party. The new media club is partnering with other organizations and urges you to register. Though if the Fuzion Grill and Social Club does end up violating some sort of fire code, you can bet it will be ALL over Twitter. 6 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

On weeks like these, picking the event highlights is like picking our favorite child. There’s something to attend every day of the week ranging from the 8Static chip party to Bloblive. But in the cage match that is TP’s event highlights, many events enter, only four can leave leave.

This week: Refresh Philly hosts representatives from GRID magazine (Full Disclosure: Brian James Kirk and Chris Wink have both written for GRID), Philly Build Guild reconvenes under its wide-open format, Philly Startup Leaders encourages entrepreneurial group therapy and Parking Day annexes local parking spaces.

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

Monday, September 14th: On Monday, the Refresh crew will convene in the Comcast Center to discuss a topic that is very near and dear to our hearts: magazine journalism. Two staffers from GRID, Philadelphia’s sustainability magazine, will be present and talking about GRID’s future as well as offering a look behind the scenes. The mag will come looking for help with their Web presence. Hey GRID, we’ll help you out with the whole online thing if you donate some printing presses to TP. Deal? 6 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, September 15th: Submitted via our new event submission form, Philly Build Guild aims to gather designers, developers and other creative types for a no-agenda meeting. The group is set to gather at the Nodding Head Brewery to “Have a pint. Have 3 pints. Meet someone new. Complain about Microsoft.” Head on out, and if they ask why you didn’t attend last month, you can blame it on having to reinstall Vista. 6:30 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wedndesday, September 16th: When normal people hit a rut, they usually go buy a sports car or go on vacation. Philly Startup Leaders use a fishbowl. PSL’s Fishbowl series invites entrepreneurs to discuss a business hurdle they face while asking the community for help and guidance. Wednesday’s version will be moderated by Ryan Alexander, Founder of igotaguy.com and will be held at 211 South Broad, close enough to the Center City Borders that liberal arts majors like us can pick up a few business books so we can seem like we know what we’re doing. 7 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Friday, September 17th: At the end of the week, city residents will take part in the best plan to piss off moterists since Bike Philly: Parking Day. The idea, started in San Fransisco, is to “reclaim” a metered parking space to be used as a de facto public park to help bring attention our focus on the automobile and the lack of green public space in urban America. You can be sure that this will make a special edition of “Parking Wars.” All Day. Entire City. RSVP. [view more events]

PhillyCHI chair Dave Cooksey and human-computer interaction PhD holder Kellie Rae Carter open Refresh Philly session before city CIO Allan Frank takes the stage.

The Nutter administration will invest $100 million during the next four years in city technology, according to plans unveiled tonight by Philadelphia Chief Information Officer Allan Frank.

How they will is far less clear.

Frank unveiled his vision for a Digital Philadelphia Monday evening in front of a crowd of more than 75 members of the Refresh Philly design and developer community, as rain mist drifted past wall-length windows on the 45th floor of the Comcast Center.

The CIO hopes to employ a strategy that would procure federal broadband stimulus dollars to fund a longterm initiative overhauling the city’s technology infrastructure and its Phila.gov Web site.

“I basically want to blow the damn thing up,” he said to members as they clapped in support.

Frank said he’ll be open to input from the Philadelphia tech community leading up to a rough deadline to submit a proposal for federal stimulus dollars on August 15.

The city will hold large stakeholder meetings in June with city agencies, venture capitalists, education and health care institutions and business leaders in the Philadelphia technology community, he said.

Frank included few details but offered hypothetical scenarios of his vision, including a high tech enterprise zone, a government-underwritten broadband network to bridge the digital divide, and Web mashups that would give users access to city archives housing historic photographs, property records, and more.

Earlier, PhillyCHI chair Dave Cooksey and human-computer interaction PhD holder Kellie Rae Carter opened the session—focused on user experience and ways in which to improve Philadelphia—with a lecture detailing how governments have retooled vital services though complex design trials.

On three projector screens positioned in the room, Cooksy and Carter showed slides that detailed Philadelphia’s budget shortfalls, which Frank played off of later as gray skies cleared and lights dotted the North Philadelphia skyline.

“I look up North Broad Street and I see a textile industry that doesn’t exist anymore. I see the cycle of life. This is just how it happens,” he said, peering over glasses perched on the tip of his nose.

“When I look up there I think about Big Jobs. An opportunity to really think about building and fostering a new economy.”

Frank called the technology plan a “tremendous opportunity,” given current economic conditions, mayoral support and burgeoning technology community.

“What I’ve got is the best burning platform I could have,” he said, shaking both his fists emphatically.

Frank asked the crowed how to connect with citizens in the electronic age, sharing plans to continue embracing trending social media platforms like Twitter, and fielded questions from the largely digitally connected audience.

He deflected questions about city’s stance on open source technologies, Web site user experience testing and mobile device adoption.

“We need your help,” he told the crowd.

“Sign on with me for the Digital Philadelphia vision. You can define this.”

Staff writer Christopher Wink contributed to this report.

One particular company in our region garners more news coverage than any other by far: Comcast, of course.

It isn’t the region’s largest employer, nor is it even the biggest or most profitable. It just makes a lot more noise. While we cover some of it and hope to do more, a lot of that noise isn’t worth much more than a sentence or two. But much of it is worth following, and we bet many of you readers would like to, so we’re going to sort everything you need to know.

This is the Comcast Roundup, what may or may not become a regular department of ours (we don’t make promises we can’t keep, except to our illegitimate children).

• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that the Comcast Center, the tallest building in Center City, has garnered another distinction — the tallest LEED-certified building in the country.

Read more on the company’s continued battles with Verizon, NFL Network, how Comcast might be defending your right to not pay more for heavy Internet use and more.

• The New York Times reports that Time Warner Cable backed down from a plan to impose new fees on heavy users of its Internet service but that the debate over the price of Internet use isn’t done. But not everyone buys the need to charge more for heavier Internet users. “All of our economics are based on engineering for the peak hour,” said Tony Werner, the chief technical officer of Comcast. “Just because someone consumes more data doesn’t mean they drive more cost.”
• Frank Eliason of @comcastcares invites you to Comcast Cares day this Saturday. Oooh, free tour.
• The Courier Post reports that the telecommunications war between Comcast and Verizon is growing. Where are the hottest battlegrounds outside Philly? Dirty Jersey!
• The Inquirer reports that 13 regional companies are on this year’s Fortune 500 including, yup, the “ever-ballooning telecommunications giant,” Comcast.
• PC World reports that Comcast TV is coming to your laptop — for paid subscribers, of course.
• Corporate blog Comcast Cares featured an interview by Scott “BlankBaby” McNulty with Comcast founder Ralph Roberts.
• “The” USA Today reports that some say this dispute between Comcast and the NFL Network that we reported on won’t be resolved for “months.”
• A press release on Verizon’s expansion of its remote DVR management service for FiOS TV customers.

We’d like to share the best Comcast comment — seen anywhere online — of the week, so if you see one, tweet us @technicallyphl or contact us.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.