Following quiet structural changes at the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the oft-criticized state-run agency announced today a transparency-driven social media campaign.

After news this month of staff sensitivity training and staff restructuring around customer service, the PPA will launch outreach efforts through Facebook, Twitter, QR codes and other tools.

Find the PPA on Twitter @PhilaParking and on Facebook here.

Tossing out an estimated 1.7 million tickets a year and forking over $99.6 million to the city and school district, according to a press release, hasn’t always earned the love of residents and visitors alike. The agency is famously the subject of the A&E reality show ‘Parking Wars,’ suggesting a divide between parkers and enforcers.

“While solving problems and addressing customer issues will be a major thrust, we will also use Facebook and Twitter to keep the public informed about parking emergencies during inclement weather – special holiday parking
discounts – parking at the airport during holiday rushes, as well as residential parking issues in our neighborhoods,” PPA Executive Director Vince Fenerty said in a press release. “Facebook and Twitter will help us better educate the public about parking regulations in the city, as well as our signage.”

The PPA strategy has been led by ChatterBlast Media, a Center City-based social media consulting firm. Evan Urbania and Matt Ray of Chatterblast worked with new PPA Customer Service Director Sue Cornell to develop the communications plan, according to the press release.

“The PPA will utilize online tools and social media platforms to allow users to get the information they need quickly and have access to support using new technologies and tools,” said Urbania.

Urbania says the technical components include:

• “A highly customized Facebook page with easy to access links and frequently used resources on the PPA website and throughout the web.”
• “A customer support system called Get Satisfaction integrated into Facebook, which allows for community-based support and access to PPA resources for questions, problems and praise.”
• “Involver applications integrated into Facebook to allow for interactive promotions, information sharing and a professional backend to manage everything.”
• “A blog added to the current PPA website to share informational resources and content quickly with the online customer community.”
• “A team-based channel management solution called Spredfast which allows for internal and external team members to schedule content, respond to issues and track progress from one dashboard.”

“We’re moving forward and using the latest online communications tools and strategies to encourage interaction with our customers and improve our overall customer service,” said Customer Service Director Cornell

DEFINITE READS

• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on that city vying for ‘middle-market’ technology firms, while some chase investment on the west coast and others fail. H/T Philly Tech News
• The Inquirer reports on the oenophile vending machine movement, in which wine kiosks are making their way from Harrisburg to Philadelphia. Philly Tech News reports that Oracle has given the Pennsylvania Liquor Control board a retail excellence award.
• The University City Review reports that the first 55,000 energy efficient LED traffic light bulbs are being installed as part of a $14.1 million stimulus grant. H/T Plan Philly

Below, finding a kidney on Facebook, Curt Schilling will take his video games and move to Rhode Island and more.

MIGHT BE OF INTEREST

• The Post Gazette also reports on a woman who found a kidney donor by posting a request on Facebook.
• Philadelphia social worker and Phawker contributor Jeff Deeney writes for the Daily Beast on the Delaware County man who is accused of stalking his wife by way of GPS.
• Geekadelphia has a Q&A with the two founders of XIPWire, the Fitler Square-based text-to-pay service.

GIVE A GLANCE

• Venture Beat reports that former Phillies star Curt Schilling’s online game firm 38 Studios is considering a $75M loan incentive to move from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.
• paidContent reports that LancasterOnline in central Pennsylvania is launching a ‘metered out-of-town’ access program for reading obituaries.
• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that its editor Bernie Dagenais is leaving to become president and CEO of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce.
• Geekadelphia covers 8bit musician Joey Mariano and his hacking a new sequencer, NES and Gameboy together with his electric guitar.

• Our best read article of the week: Junebug online dating site hunts users to test their game-changing algorithms

Every Friday morning, we make sure you didn t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

As the Rhode Island-native was graduating high school and transitioning to life as a student at Wharton, he saw all of his high school teachers had begun to friend him on Facebook.

“I thought it was kind of awkward, I wasn’t sure how much of my college life I wanted to share with them,” he says.

He then sought out to build a more closed social network for college students, eventually fine-tuning the idea as a closed online calendar for students. By his first semester of Penn, Rodrigues raised $200,000 from friends and family before raising a second round of $500,000 this month.

So how does a college freshman have an extensive enough rolodoex to raise two rounds of funding before he can buy a beer and before signing more than five major customers?

Dorm Noise CEO Jay Rodrigues

“A lot of it was shit luck,” says Rodrigues. For example, the father of one of his childhood friends is his current advisor Dominick Stirpe, who put Rodrigues in contact with his current development team. Another source of connections is his dad, who owns a textile business, that introduced Rodrigues to his legal help.

“It’s just building relationships and being a good friend,” he says. “I hate the term networking.”

The angel money was well spent, as DormNoise has signed up four colleges and says there are partnerships ready to close.

DormNoise’s calendar system allows schools to disseminate information in one click, saving the mass email. Students can then export the data to their calendar system of choice and choose who sees what data. You know, like the way Facebook used to be.

Rodrigues said that many college report seeing an uptick in student attendance at campus events after implementing the calendar (see the site’s demo video).

The friend and family money put some strain on the Wharton junior some of which went away when, on May 5th, he raised an additional $500,000 from DN Ventures and PRESENT e-Learning Systems.

Rodrigues says he plans on expanding the business to help sign on more schools and improve platform, but intended to keep his team remotely based. And, despite the new round, he plans on staying in his dorm room at Chestnut Hall, and living, well, like a college student.

“Thursday night you can find me at Drinker’s West every week,” he says.

Union fans cheer at the MLS SupeDraft, which was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Those trying to bring Google Fiber to Philadelphia ought to learn a lesson from the Sons of Ben, the supporters club of the Philadelphia Union.

Before the soccer team was even announced, the “Sons of Ben” invented chants and songs and happily sung them at Washington’s and New York’s MLS games. Their passion helped to convince Major League Soccer to award the city a new franchise, beating St. Louis, among other cities.

After a rough start in week one, the team is preparing to play its first ever home game tomorrow at Lincoln Financial Field before eventually moving in to its new stadium, PPL Park, in Chester.

Since the team’s name and logos were announced in May 2009, the organization has made a priority to nurture its already vibrant fan base, taking an active role in using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. Between the two platforms, the team has over 30,000 followers, more than enough to fill its new stadium in Chester.

We exchanged emails with Judah Levine, the man behind the team’s social media outreach to ask what tools he uses, who he admires in the social media space and why we should go to tomorrow’s home game.

What is your exact role with the union, do you only handle social media?

I manage Philadelphia Union’s digital strategy as part of our overall marketing strategy, including philadelphiaunion.com, our Facebook page and our Twitter account. We’re also looking at a few strategic ways to utilize additional digital platforms to provide the best possible online experience for our fans.

Generally speaking, we’re more concerned with making the content we do offer as engaging as possible, rather than offering dozens of social media options without keeping them fresh and relevant. Quality over quantity.

Judah Levine

Did you look to any other sports teams or businesses for inspiration?

We’re constantly surveying other professional sports teams for inspiration, but I wouldn’t say any one team or business in particular has dictated our strategy. With the rapidly evolving nature of social media and the digital world, it’d be naïve and arrogant to think that we’re the only ones coming up with fresh ideas.

It’s our responsibility to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, but at the same time we need to make sure that they’re adding value before using them as a means of communicating with our fans.

What is the ROI on all this social media work? (Can you trace increased sales to your efforts etc.)

Without discussing specific numbers, our digital inventory is heavily incorporated into our broader sales strategy. The main difference between our website and others not directly associated with a professional sports team is that our digital sales strategy is wrapped under a larger umbrella.

By that, I mean we don’t sell advertising space on a one-off basis. Instead, digital inventory is accounted for and valued within larger sponsorship partnerships. Providing partners with an integrated marketing platform essentially creates a “sum is greater than the parts” effect. Our partners are able to align their brands strongly and cohesively with our brand, which enables them to truly create a connection with our fans.

What tools do you use?

Well, my Electromatic Typewriter Model 03 really comes in handy. Just kidding.

We use a customized Content Management System (CMS) on our current site, although Major League Soccer’s new digital platform uses Drupal as its CMS. We’ll be switching our site over to the League’s new digital platform in the near future, which among other things will offer even more fresh content as well as enhanced presentation of videos and photos.

Do you work with the Sons of Ben for online outreach?

We’re in communication with the Sons of Ben frequently and are always looking for ways to co-promote events. Since they’re a very tech-savvy bunch, online ends up being a great forum to do so. We greatly appreciate all of their support and consider them the best supporters group in MLS.

For our readers who may not be into soccer (but are in to social media), what would you say to convince them that tomorrow’s Union game will be a good time?

I’d only say that the atmosphere at a soccer game is unlike any other major sport and it’s an experience everyone should have at least once in their life.

There are definite parallels between a soccer match and social media. Social media is all about making connections, whether they be with people, information or other forms of content. Similarly, soccer is very much a fan participation sport. Our supporters will actively engage in the experience of going to a game by standing, singing and chanting, which in turn creates strong connections amongst fans and between fans and the club.

Try it once and then decide if it’s worth coming back, but my advice would be at least try it once. I have a feeling you’ll not only come back, but come back with a few of your friends.

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings you an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia s technology community. See others here.

Welcome to the VC Round-up, where we’ll parse through venture capital news related to Philadelphia-based private equity firms and the companies they fund. Subscribe to the roundup as an email newsletter. If you have any VC-related news to pass along to us, please drop us a line.

DEFINITE READS

GoodCompany Ventures is kicking off a handful of events up and down the east coast to discuss the social good of entrepreneurship and to raise awareness about the fund’s 2010 incubator. First up: The 67th Ward. The panel will be moderated by Fred Wilson, founder of Union Square Ventures and well-read VC blogger. The fund promises Technically Philly that a Philly event is in the works, but for now we’ll be at the NYC edition. So if you managed to snag tickets, be sure to say hello.

Tengion, a Quaker BioVentures backed company is raising money for an IPO.

ETF Ventures has changed its name to SeventySix Capital. Presumably because of the company’s West Conshohocken location right off of the Schuylkill Expressway. Or, as another theory suggests, they’re big basketball fans.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Voices of Central PA laments the cutbacks in Small Business Development Centers with a nod to the impact of Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

Philly Startup Leaders founder and former TicketLeap employee Blake Jennelle thinks it’s kind of messed up that the Angel Venture Fair didn’t use locally-based TicketLeap, instead opting for the service’s biggest competitor: Eventbrite. “Maybe Event Brite is TicketLeap’s biggest competitor for a reason?” writes event director Valerie Gaydos in the Facebook argument. Ouch.

GIVE A GLANCE

Tomorrow is the deadline for DreamIt Ventures’ #DreamItPitch contest. The incubator will give $1400 on the best pitch contained in a tweet. Somewhere, 17-year-old Sean Blanda is crying over the fact that he had to work a month-and-a-half at Burger King for that kind of cash.

First Round has redesigned its homepage to contain a “lifestream” of company activity. It’s only a matter of time before the company will begin sending you Farmville spam. In other news: DreamIt also recently received a facelift.

Safeguard Scientifics will be announcing its earnings on March 11. Be sure to ask your block captain for your VC earnings party kit.

First Round’s Howard Morgan is on This Week in Startups, a podcast hosted by Mahalo CEO and general tech loudmouth Jason Calacanis.

The VC Roundup will deliver Philadelphia private equity news hot and fresh every Tuesday morning.

It’s been a pretty standard affair for local news, recently.

Find someone “addicted” to social media�someone who is on sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter at work, perhaps utilizing it too much, too, by way of mobile phone. Then, seek an expert. Maybe a psychiatrist who’s work lately has perhaps included folks who are addicted to social media, though none claim to have evidence of an increase in these kinds of people and none specifically recognize of any of these types of patients in their clientele.

So far, NBC10 and 6ABC have covered the topic, overindulging in the mostly evidence-less theory to pandaemonium-like proportion.

And somewhere in the middle of it all�and very prominently placed in both news reports�is Nnamdi Osuagwu, local writer and owner of publishing platform Ice Cream Melts who recently penned a fictional book called Facebook Addiction.

That Osuagwu’s book is fictional is an important designation. His work is only partly based on fact�he’s pulled stories from the New York Daily News that are social media-related and turned them into fictional accounts of how social networking has severely effected their lives; ending some relationships and affecting their jobs.

“Social Networking has many benefits, but some people take it to the extreme. My goal was to create a fictional world where that extreme was pushed to the limit and makes the reader question their social networking usage,” Osuagwu told Technically Philly in an email.

Below, watch 6ABC’s Erin O’Hearn’s report on social media addiction. Story continues below…

Osuagwu has even fictionally started Social Networking Anonymous, based on the well-known alcoholics anonymous program. But in the real world, that is, a world that revolves around fact, the club is only a marketing vehicle for the book, which Nnamdi has confirmed with Technically Philly.

This isn’t the first time that the idea of social media addiction has been used as a marketing tool for business. Sony, which satirizes the topic with its viral campaign Social Media Addicts Anonymous, even got play in NBC’s report. Except, the local network virtually fails to inform the viewer that the clip of SMAA that is cut into the report was a promotional campaign to sell Sony Vaio computers.

There’s been a fair amount of research Internet addiction, but as for reports specific to social media, little is available. A recent CNN story follows a similar arc as the local stories: anecdotal evidence with facts and figures absent.

So why is it, then, that NBC and ABC’s reports barely gloss over that this evidence is lacking and that these groups, like Osuagwu’s and SMAA, are fictional? We’ll leave that question up to you.

Is social media addiction real? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Below, compare Sony’s Social Media Addicts Association viral advertisement with NBC10′s Tracy Davidson’s news report on social media addiction that mentioned the group, but not that SMMA is a campaign to sell Sony Vaio computers..

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.

“It is disheartening; to say the least, that these youth so casually disrespected our residents, businesses, customers, visitors, and our police department,” the letter said. “While they certainly owe this city an apology and deserve to be punished under the fullest extent of the law, we believe that social media outlets should also bear some of the blame.”

This issue has happened in Philadelphia before, including a ruckus on South Broad Street in June.

CNET makes the point: “On one hand, suing Facebook in this case is like suing the phone company if telephone calls were used to plot a bank robbery. It’s not the responsibility of a social network with 400 million members around the world to monitor conversations between mischievous high schoolers…”

But it’s happened before, and authorities haven’t found the tools to combat them. Maybe they should partner with a certain Camden startup Drakontas.

No word yet from the Nutter administration or if the councilmen will otherwise move froward with the legislation.

So, Saturday at 12:01 a.m., the social network finally made “vanity URLs” publicly available so instead of http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=823408803, you could be facebook.com/awesomeTPreader. Below are some local names that could have been yours at around 12:06 a.m.:

1. /thephiladelphiainquirer

2. /indyhall

3. /benfranklin

4. /mayornutter

5. /firstroundcapital

6. /metssuck

7. /authurkade

8. /PhillyVC

9. /JimmyRollins

In which we link out to the tech news from Philly and elsewhere (when it matters) that slips through the cracks and make it way fun.

Because that�s what we do best.

• The Bulletin, no seriously, the Bulletin reports on why it would make a lot more sense if the hub of the country’s technology community was Philadelphia, not the Silicon Valley.

• NBC10 reports that the Great Wall of China is as much as 1,000 miles longer than originally thought. The Four Corners landmark, which long offered tourists the chance to be in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah all at the same time was some 2.5 miles off. In both cases, technology proved time-trusted cartography techniques were off, which makes us think maybe Northeast Philadelphia never needed to secede; the maps got it wrong, it was never part of the city.
• The Philly Ad Club reports a Delaware company is helping Wawa brand its best-known items on Facebook. If you send me a hoagie that I can’t eat, I’m pissed. Now that’s a convenience store on its tech — they recently got AT&T on all its IT.
• Bloomberg News reports that Oracle will buy Sun for $7.4 billion. That may not sound like local news, but try to follow this: The Oracle move was seen as chance to garner control over Java, and considering that’s at the heart of its enterprise software products, it means bad news for IBM and SAP, which has Newton Square, Delaware County offices. Rumors are a-blustering that IBM and SAP could hook up, which would, yes, make BI MAPS, cartography for the curious.
• Metro reports that SEPTA is planning on adding its train schedules to Google transit. File that in better late than never.
• The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Lawrenceville, N.J.-based Edison Venture Fund has sent $5.6 million in follow-on venture financing to Health Market Science, a King of Prussia company that keeps a database of health care provider information. That makes $17 million of total funding that has exchanged hands.
• AdExchanger.com has a Q&A with InviteMedia CEO Nathanial Turner, and no, they were not on fire this time.
• The Inquirer reports that Center City ain’t getting beaten down as badly as the rest of the country. It might help that the Center City district is following through with a host of projects, as the Philadelphia Business Journal reports. Inqy Business columnist Mike Armstrong was all over Economy League reports on how Philly citywide is faring in the recession.

Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Shop Talk: Philly’s Venture Capital market with PWC and DreamIT

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn�t miss anything if you spent the week with tweeted:

It’s going to be that anthem you hear over and over again this summer, and the artist behind it happens to have grown up in Bucks County, a half hour Regional Rail ride into Center City.

Like a growing collection of young artists, Asher Roth, the artist behind “I Love College,” found his path to a major label album by way of MySpace. But it seems likely he’ll see more than Internet fame.

I helped profile Asher Roth on the cover of today’s Philadelphia Weekly, but during our interview last month, we also spoke about the role social media have had on launching his career.

Roth just might be the first genuine star to have not only been discovered via a social network but also stapled his career prospects to social media.

He is regularly pushing next Monday’s release of his debut album “Under the Bread Aisle,” to his 20,000 followers on Twitter. He’s on the basics like Facebook and Flickr.

And, of course, you can follow his growth on YouTube.

Watch him rhyming before his record deal. There was the time he first met fellow SRC label mate Akon last May. He drove around with Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley, who makes an appearance on Asher’s album, and had dinner with Ludacris in July. When his first mainstream media came on Late Night with Carson Daly in November.

“The street is the street… but that’s changing,” says Steve Rifkind, the founder of SRC, the label Asher is on, a division of Universal. “It’s also wherever the college street is, and, also, the street’s on the Internet now.”

But, for Roth, it started with MySpace.

“It was everything. I was promoting without promoting. I wasn’t going to open mic nights telling people to go to my MySpace… I didn’t have to,” says Roth, a native of Morrisville and graduate of Pennsbury High School. “I didn’t realize the power that MySpace is now.”

In fall 2006, Atlanta-based manager Scooter Braun received a MySpace friend request from Roth.

�I took one look, saw a white boy in a hoodie, and I said �What the fuck?�� Braun says. The music was good enough, Braun says, but he liked Asher�s rhymes. �He wasn�t comfortable in his own skin. I was interested, but not sold.�

At that point, Roth had 112 MySpace friends and just 64 Facebook fans. Now those numbers are more than 65,000 and nearly 33,000 respectively.

“I think at the end of the day, all these resources on the Internet, you might meet someone, you know, on Twitter. All of these have value because at the end of the day, it only takes that one phone call,” Braun says. “Whether that person finds you on MySpace or YouTube or Twitter or wherever, they end up finding you. Take advantage of all those resources because it only takes that one eyeball of the millions that are online.”

Braun called a number listed on Roth’s MySpace profile and, weeks later, they met in Atlanta. Weeks after that, a deal was inked and the next great social media star was born, but Braun takes issue with Roth being called a MySpace star. If anything, he says, Roth should be called a blog star.

�The way Asher has broke in, no one has done it before. No one has broken in on the blogs and gone gold in five weeks,� Braun says. “The distribution line in my marketing plan was the blog. Nah rights, the 2DopeBoyz, the illRoots, the SOHHs, even the one time he was on Perez Hilton. The blogs are where people are turning for their information. They are the mixtapes and the magazines combined. And they�re really a distribution tool.”

Now, he’s showing up everywhere, from MTV to the Wall Street Journal.

“It would be foolish not to really use the Internet now. That’s where everybody is,” Roth says. “The CD that’s about to drop is huge for the blogs. If this album is extremely successful, it’s going to show that the power is back with the people.”

“You don’t have to go to the radio anymore.”

Below, watch Asher talk to Grind.TV about how the Internet helped give him the megaphone he has today.

And on those ties to Philadelphia? Well, he has them whether he knows it or not, as you can see from a nice rhyme he gave BET’s Rap City with Center City in the background.