Soapy by Griffin Boyce: SOPA legislation is shelved for now, but University City developer has work-around for later

University City developer Griffin Boyce built Soapy, a SOPA work-around browser plugin.

Before the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) blackout took hold last week, Griffin Boyce, a University City-based web developer, thought up a more practical way to protest a piece of legislation that many believe would amount to censorship — create some software to work around it.

In less than three hours, the self-taught Boyce built Soapy, a web browser plug-in that would allow a user to see a website blocked under SOPA by automatically redirecting the user to the site’s IP address. Designed to be easy to use and open source, the software is free, can be downloaded by anyone and has caught attention nationally.

Download it here.

The idea, Boyce explained to Technically Philly, was to build and publish the software as soon as possible before a Senate vote on SOPA’s sister bill, Protect IP Act (PIPA), originally scheduled for tomorrow, knowing that if the bill passed, distribution of Soapy would be illegal. Though the legislation has been shelved for now, the issue will likely be heard again.

“With Soapy,” Boyce said, “you’re popping the censorship bubble, and slipping past information blocks.”

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Temple and Mobile Monday host mobile app development forum Thursday following $700k grant

Later this week, developers, entrepreneurs and investors will meet to talk about the future of mobile app development in light of a notable Temple University grant that is focused on just that.
 
Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, the local event organization focused on mobile issues — which has been ramping up its attention to app development as of late — will kick-off the 2011 Mobile Application Forum and Bootcamp this Thursday afternoon. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly is a media sponsor of this event].

“[Mobile Monday] has always been very business focused. We’re aiming to get wider and encompass the development community and the app ecosystem,” says Chuck Sacco, Mobile Monday’s president and chair.

“Our aim is to help any businesses that are trying to make decisions about mobile. What should they be doing? Where should they invest resources?”

To coordinate, the organization is working closely with Fox School of Business early-stage venture forum program Mid-Atlantic Diamond Ventures and Temple’s new Urban Apps and Maps Studio, the $700,000 grant project we covered last month.

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Disaster Mapper, Philly SNAP star at Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia [VIDEO]

One half of the teams at Random Hacks of Kindness Philadlephia, held June 4-5, 2011. Photo by by Philip Neuffer

The first Philadelphia Random Hacks of Kindness featured six teams working on at least that many projects, including three that were awarded special recognition by judges this weekend.

The weekend-long hackathon focused on climate change and disaster relief management was held at Drexel University and organized by Drexel computer science PhD student Mike Brennan, partnered with Technically Philly. After a kickoff reception at Indy Hall, as many as 50 coders, designers and subject matter experts arrived Saturday morning at Drexel’s computer science building on JFK Boulevard. Photos of the event here.

[Full disclosure: Technically Philly co-organized Random Hacks and this reporter was an event judge.]

Find the three featured hacks and other projects built during the weekend, in addition to getting a video tour of the end of Saturday’s hacking.

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