SOPA Strike: how local Philadelphia tech organizations are protesting the federal legislation

The message on Zivtech.com, an Old City design firm

Billed as the largest online protest in history, there is a local spin to the SOPA Strike, aimed at keeping the heat on controversial legislation aimed at curbing online piracy. Critics say the legislation is too broadly written, as to allow limitation of any social web tool that allows the sharing of intellectual property — think Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

Today, a call for a ‘blackout’ has led to major websites like Google and Wikipedia to limit their functionality or site look to convey what could be lost if the federal legislation moves forward. Several Philadelphia companies have joined the fray, the day of a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the bill, even though President Obama has said he would veto the bill in its current form.

See other ways local companies are protesting today, including what might be the funniest strike of them all.

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Going Postal: Penn GIS student Evan Kalish creates community around U.S. Postal Service, an early innovator

Evan Kalish

For much of its 220 year history, the U.S. Postal Service was something of a technology company: speeding communication and commerce through innovation, says postal geek Evan Kalish.

Today, in batch machines that can process 40,000 pieces of mail per hour, some 95 percent of handwritten addresses are properly dispatched by OCR technology, the 25 year old student in Penn’s master of urban spatial analytics program.

“[The machines work] from the ZIP code first, then to the address and select the proper street from the limited number of options available, tagging them with the bar codes that you can see on the bottom of first-class letters you receive. Human operators resolve the rest of the addresses remotely,” said Kalish, who lives in University City. “With Delivery Point Sequencing, another machine properly sort the mail for dozens of carriers in proper delivery order, based on their routes, with just two passes of the mail through the system.”

From today to the first ‘fully automated post office‘ back to the pneumatic mail tubes of the past, Kalish, a native of Queens, N.Y., has discovered new corners of the world’s original modern national postal system while writing his popular Going Postal blog, which has been profiled by Time magazine, the Washington Post, BBC and NPR.

All the stories use young Kalish as something of a juxtaposition for growing news of inevitable cutbacks at the U.S. Postal Service. While no doubt an important issue to Kalish, he says the best he can do is grow interest in what remains an impressive organization.

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‘Firewall:’ the anti-SOPA music video from meme maker Leah Kauffman

The Internet craze calling out against the Stop Online Piracy Act has perhaps slowed the progress of the House bill that has been described as pitting old media against new.

But the conversation continues.

Locally, Philly.com entertainment editor and songwriter Leah Kauffman, who skyrocketed to national awareness on the back of a 2007 viral video detailing a crush on presidential candidate Barack Obama, has taken up the cause. She wrote, performed and helped produce ‘Firewall,’ a love song for the Internet, played dutifully by Geekadelphia co-founder Eric Smith behind a cardboard computer monitor.

Reggie Love: Obama aide and former Duke basketball star going full-time at Wharton

Reggie Love and Barack Obama. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times

Reggie Love, the presidential aide to Barack Obama and former Duke University basketball star, will be leaving the White House to attend full-time Wharton.

Read the profile on the New York Times here.

Some local columnists are excited about his having more presence in University City.

Sunlight Foundation to lead ‘Super Committee’ online transparency protest at Sen. Toomey Center City offices [VIDEO]

The Sunlight Foundation will be ‘haunting’ Sen. Pat Toomey’s Center City offices Monday morning.

Protesting what it calls a lack of transparency around the federal deficit reducing ‘Super Committee,’ the D.C. based good government organization is sending representatives and volunteers to a dozen committee members across the country.

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Drupaldelphia offers low cost conference for open source CMS this Friday

Updated, July 27, 8:06 a.m.: Co-organizer Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg informs us that though it was rebranded, the conference has been rebranded as Drupadelphia as of last year, the event has been taking place for four years.

As is often the case with software releases, outside of the immediate community of users, there was little fanfare about the latest release of Drupal, which came out in January.

But last year at Drupaldelphia, Philly’s first conference dedicated to the increasingly popular open source content management system, it was making its way into the conversation among the 140 attendees.

Presenters — plucked from local Drupal web development shops like Rock River Star and Zivtech, who together organized the event — were gearing up for the release. After all, it promised improved usability in its user interface and more. And for content management systems, ease of use has become paramount.

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White House Honors Unsung Open Data App Developers: Gov Tech

From Government Technology:

A motley group of 16 “open data geeks,” several of humble beginnings, accepted surprise invitations to the White House for national recognition at the Champions of Change event on June 10. The gathering aimed to demonstrate the diverse potential of Web apps utilizing data sets made available by federal, state and local agencies.

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Steve Tang testifies on life sciences importance to U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee

University City Science Center CEO Steve Tang today highlighted the importance of the life sciences as an economic driver during his testimony at a hearing of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.

PRESS RELEASE [PDF]: During his remarks, Tang described the history and mission of the Science Center, the nation’s oldest and largest urban research park, and its contributions to the Greater Philadelphia economy. “More than 350 companies have passed through our doors since we were founded in 1963.The 93 that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region account for over $9 billion of sales and 15,000 current direct jobs. These jobs pay an average of $89,000 per year—a remarkable figure, especially in today’s economy,” he explained.

Yet, he noted, “The life sciences industry does more than create well-paying jobs. Scientists and researchers are dramatically improving treatments, therapeutics and ultimately patient care and quality of life.”

Tang pointed to the Science Center’s innovative QED Proof of Concept funding program, which pulls technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace by pairing scientific researchers with experienced business advisors, as an example of regional collaboration. “At the Science Center, we firmly believe that our multi-institutional QED program is a unique and model ‘public-private partnership’ that can be replicated across the nation to help promising ventures cross the ‘Valley of Death’ in funding,” he said. MORE [PDF]

Tang also expressed his support for the proposed tax credit-based Life Sciences Jobs and Investment Act, a measure also supported by Pennsylvania Bio.

To watch his testimony, go here, where he is introduced at 34:40 into the video.

Earlier this month, the Science Center announced that Tang had been named to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s new Innovation Advisory Board, which also includes Natalia Olson-Urtecho of Center City based business development firm EG.

Two Penn alumni are U.S. Presidential hopefuls: Links

• Two Penn alumni to choose from for President? [Philly Tech News] — Notes Wharton grad Donald Trump and Penn alumnus Jon Huntsman are both said to be U.S. President hopefuls
• Now Pitching for Philadelphia… The Philliebot! [PC Mag] — Get more details on the robot that threw the opening pitch at a Phillies game this week.
• In related baseball news, Philly.com has released its first iPad app, Philly Pro Baseball 2011, which features articles, columns, blogs, schedules and stats and videos and photo galleries, and live play-by-play during games.
• Recession didn’t dampen Center City District’s outlook [PhillyInc: Inquirer] — On the State of Center City from the Center City District
• Planning Commission says state law extends zoning relief for the 1,500-foot American Commerce Center [PlanPhilly] — The years-long battle over what would be Center City’s tallest building
• Philadelphia’s cuts less than expected under federal budget deal [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Philly open-source prize: Geek treasure [Philly Deals: Inquirer] — On Monetate event that’s part of Philly Tech Week
• University City Science Center gets U.S. grant for concept program [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Survey finds Phila. among the best at clueing in investors [PhillyInc: Inquirer] — Noted of 12 among 75 big cities that go above and beyond standard support for those who own city bonds.
• Welcome to the New Geekadelphia: V4.0 [Geekadelphia] — Redesign of the popular geek blog

White House releases IT Dashboard as open source code – O’Reilly Radar

With news of the federal open gov initiatives going dark, the already established technology is being released publicly:

The White House has released the software code for its IT Dashboard and TechStat toolkit. The initiative was coordinated through Civic Commons, a code-sharing project incubated within Code for America that helps governments share technology for the public good, with support from OpenPlans. Civic Commons staff worked with REI Systems, the contractor that originally built the IT Dashboard for the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to prepare the code for release under an open source license. That work included a security audit, documentation, and a licensing review of the software’s components.

via White House releases IT Dashboard as open source code – O’Reilly Radar.