• Exclusive: New Google+ Study Reveals Minimal Social Activity, Weak User Engagement [Fast Company] “Larry Page recently called Google+ the company’s “social spine.” If that’s the case, then Google‘s backbone might be much weaker than Page has been letting on, at least according to a new report from RJ Metrics. This week, the data analytics firm provided Fast Company with exclusive new insights on Google+. The findings paint a very poor picture of the search giant’s social network–a picture of waning interest, weak user engagement, and minimal social activity. Google calls the study flawed–we’ll explain why in a second–and has boasted that more than 170 million people have “upgraded” to the network. RJ Metrics’ report, on the other hand, is yet another indicator that Google+ might indeed just be a “virtual ghost town,” as some have argued.”
• Piercing insight: Man wears future on his wrist [Daily News] “When did technology go too far? Was it the Flowbee that pushed the edge? Did George Lucas invent some 5-D laser beam that replaced our memories with “Star Wars”? Or was it the guy from Gloucester County, N.J., who punched a few holes in his wrist last month and inserted some magnets so that he could hold his iPod Nano without some ugly-looking strap getting in the way? Yes, Earth, Dave Hurban did that to himself and it worked, and he has sharp metal objects and more elaborate plans in the works.”

• Introducing Denver’s Beautiful Streets [Place Matters Blog/Code for America tumblr] “We saw an opportunity to take an experiment done in Philadelphia and apply it in Denver ahead of our summer hackathonto generate a test case for simple engagement methods and generate a large amount of data.”
• Why a 2500-seat theater dropped Ticketmaster, hired TicketLeap [Philly Deals] “Last year the group used Ticketmaster to sell seats. “But this year we recommended TicketLeap,” of Philadelphia, to operator Mount Productions, said Dan Mita, project manager for O’Neill. Brian O’Neill himself suggested the switch (and no, he’s not an investor.) Why? “Ticketmaster’s markup is 3 to 4 percent of the ticket price,” in some cases; “TicketLeap fixes it at a flat rate,” $2 or $4, for tickets ranging R$30 up to $100, Mita told me. “It’s cheaper for us, easier for the consumer.”
• Together Turning the Page, in 3 Acts [Dangerously Awesome] “With the decision to grow Indy Hall comes the difficult decision to end my time on the Wildbit team. It goes without saying that there’s been nothing but support and love from the Wildbit team as we made the decision for me to transition away from my daily role on the team.  We will continue collaborating on ThinkStrapped, though, and I’m looking forward to meeting the founders and teams of the 10 companies we recruit early this summer.”
• Philadelphia is a hotbed of robotic frames that help paralysis victims walk [Inquirer]
• SEER Interactive is Phila.’s only Inner City 100 firm [Philly.com]
• Scientist was cheated out of recognition, book says [Inquirer]
• Bentley Acquires InspectTech [Citybizlist]
• Dell Boomi Wins 2012 CODiE Award for “Best Web Services Solution” [Dell Boomi]
• With protesters nearby, Corbett sticks to message for Phila. Chamber [Inquirer]
• News from SAP’s SAPPHIRE NOW 5/16/2012: SAP demos huge HANA setup; launching QlikTech-like product? [Philly Tech News] — A wrap up of SAP news
• The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School Appoints Michael Conti as Interim CEO [Citybizlist]
• Growing e-commerce firm O3 World hiring, moving to Fishtown [Flying Kite]
• Qspex Technologies, with James Grootegoed on Board, Closes $1 Million Offering [Citybizlist]
• USciences to Sign MOU with Korea’s Far East University [USciences]
• Neat Wins Technology Company of the Year Award [Neat]

Mashable covers DreamIt graduate ElectNext, the OKCupid for political candidates (which recently hired a Code for America fellow):

The idea is simple: First, users are asked to pick three issues that are most important to them. Choices include immigration, abortion, foreign policy and nine other categories. Next, users have to answer at least 10 additional questions to find their political matches — the more questions answered, the more accurate the results.

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• Two Phila. institutions, $2M in science grants [Philadelphia Business Journal] “The University of Pennsylvania and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will each get grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah’s office announced.”
• Philly Startup: Interview With The Student Founder Of Neo-Cover [Nibletz] “So what’s a neo-cover? Well the idea is so damn basic you’ll be asking yourself why didn’t I think of that? Well the reason you didn’t think of that or I didn’t think of that is because 22 year old Jake Frey did. Neo-Cover is a magnetic light switch wall plate.”
• Leading Payroll Provider Acquires Online Employee Scheduling Solution To Expand Service Offering [PR Web] “PrimePay, LLC, a leading provider of payroll, tax, HR and benefit services announced it has acquired ReadySetWork, a provider of online and mobile employee scheduling services. ReadySetWork gives employers a paperless solution to help them create, communicate and manage employee work schedules online and make time critical decisions. ReadySetWork was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.”

• Eyes on the Street: Online bike registration pilot program launched in South Philly [PlanPhilly] “The South of South Neighborhood Association (SOSNA) safety bommittee, Bicycle Coalition and 17th Police District have teamed up to pilot the new online bike registry for the neighborhoods within Lombard and Moore streets and Broad Street and the Schuylkill River. Residents can now fill in the online registration form and within two weeks of doing so visit the 17th Police District to have a designated serial number etched into their bicycles.”
• StartFast Venture Accelerator Announces Startup Teams for Summer 2012 [MartketWatch] Mozzo Analytics holds down the Philadelphia representation with a cofounder from the area.
• Brooks Brothers Partners with Monetate to Increase Ecommerce Conversion Rates [PR Web/SF Gate]
• First Round Capital Closes Fund IV [Citybizlist]
• myYearbook parent Quepasa reports solid growth in first full quarter of combined operations [Philly Tech News]
• NextDocs Wins Emerging Technology Company of the Year at PACT Enterprise Awards [Business Wire]
• InterDigital Announces New $100 Million Stock Repurchase Authorization [Business Wire]
• InterDigital promotes CFO, names new one [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Fifty Organizations in 18 Countries Using QlikView Through Change Their World Grant Program [Business Wire]
• Cloud Reality: Improving Efficiency & Scaling in the Cloud Environment With TechinMotionPhilly [Geekadelphia]

• Is Philadelphia in Decline? New Report Shows a City with Marked Challenges [The Daily Beast] “The city’s unemployment rate is 10.5 percent, significantly higher than the country’s average. Its real-estate market has dropped substantially every year since 2005. And its K-12 enrollment has slowly receded, as more students turn to charter schools than ones run by the public district, but with fewer students in the city overall. Violent crimes have increased over the past few years, and the poverty rate—one of every four people—is now among the highest of the country’s.” The story was answered by an op-ed from former Inquirer city hall reporter Patrick Kerkstra.
• Local group to buy Phila. Media Network for $55 million [Philadelphia Inquirer] Later in the week, the New York Times and other outlets reported that Bill Marrimow, former Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer from 2006-2010 will return as Editor under the new leadership.
• Hack Philly: Deadline Extended to April 9th [Hack Philly] “Hack is an open call for technology-based projects. We are asking for a range of works: From 2D to 3D works, applications, wearable’s, installation, objects, and performances.” Hack will take place during Philly Tech Week.
• Ten States Where Green Jobs Thrive  [24/7 Wall St.] Philadelphia is number 8. “Green job growth in Pennsylvania is slower than the national average growth of clean economy jobs. Public mass transit is the largest green segment for employment in the state, employing nearly 25,000 people.”
• Philadelphia: Texting While Walking Is No Joke [NPR] “Philadelphia has installed a pilot lane for distracted pedestrians. The first of its kind in the world, the lane was installed on a city sidewalk just in time for April Fools Day. The lane will be up all week as a creative campaign to raise awareness on pedestrian safety. “
• Philly gets a credit upgrade — still, only Detroit has a worse rating [The Naked City: City Paper]
• Should an Eco Brand Put Money Before Mission? [Inc.]
• His mission: To rid Philly of ‘bandit’ signs [Daily News] — Using a website to crowd source solutions

• NextFab Studio Expanding to New Location on Washington Avenue  [Geekadelphia] “NextFab Studio is expanding with a new facility at 2025 Washington Avenue in the Southwest Center City area this summer.” NextFab plans larger studio, cafe at 2025 Washington [Philly.com] Joe DiStefano covers the expansion, too.
• Bill Green won’t give up on dream of all electronic governance [Metro] “Councilman Bill Green laid out yet another broad vision for the way City Hall operates: this time with legislation introduced Thursday pertaining to the city’s information infrastructure “Basically, the bills require any transaction inside or outside the city to be able to be conducted in an electronic format and for every field and department to have an electronic database that is searchable,” he said Thursday.”
• PhillyDeals: Sunoco’s demise a ‘Gothic tale’ 100 years in the making [Philly.com] “So the “virtual liquidation” of Sunoco – the closing of its historic Marcus Hook refinery, and the planned sale or shutdown of the Philadelphia oil complex it assembled from departed firms – has been especially sad, said Waitneight, Sunoco’s ex-treasurer. But he can’t say he didn’t see it coming: “This is a Gothic tale that spans more than 100 years.”" Philly.com also has the story. Citybizlist has video.
• Why the interest in illegal cell-phone jammers? [CNN Tech]  “Philadelphia TV station NBC10 reported on a man who admitted to using a cell-phone jammer during his bus commute to shut down fellow passengers when they were talking loudly.”

• Technology Is in Bloom with the New Philly Flower Show App [Geekadelphia]
• The Franklin Institute Develops Young Philadelphia Scientists with Launch of 4-Year STEM Scholars Program [BusinessWire]
• Gamers Hope Philly Gets Its Due in Colonial-Era Video ACIII [Curbed: Philadelphia] “The company promises it’ll bring “Colonial America to life.” Redditors are hoping Philadelphia will play a big part…So far we know that Valley Forge will be included, and that Ben Franklin will play a role.”
• Art Hackathon @ Hive76: Two Days of Mad Hacking & Crafting [Geekadelphia] Taking place at Hive 76 at 915 Spring Garden (Suite 519) on March 10th and 11th from 3 to 7pm.
• Industry Veteran Casabona to Spearhead NJ’s First Tech Accelerator [Philadelphia Tech News]  “TechLaunch, funded by a partnership between the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) and private equity and founded by tech industry veteran and angel investor Mario Casabona.”
• Connotate Acquires Fetch Technologies [citybizlist] “Connotate, Inc. (www.connotate.com), a provider of solutions that help organizations monitor and collect data and content from the Web, today announced that it has acquired Fetch Technologies, the leader in making Web data accessible and useful for the enterprise.”
• Birchmere Ventures Reports 8.8% Stake in NuPathe [citybizlist] “The Pittsburgh, Pa.-based money manager, founded in 1996, said it owned 1.30 million shares in the Conshohocken-based specialty pharmaceutical company.”
• Philly’s What Say Co. Release Horse eLooks, Inspired By Horse eBooks [Geekadelphia] “To commemorate this delightful robotic denizen of the twitter-verse, local shirt purveyors, What Say Co. are featuring three shirts to commemorate some of the more ridiculous things that have been spouted out by Horse Ebooks”
• Exclusive: Google looking to unload Motorola’s TV set-top box business [NY Post] “Google is looking to unload the set-top box business it will inherit from Motorola Mobility even before it closes on the $12.5 billion acquisition…” Motorola’s set-top box business is based in Horsham, reminds Philly Tech News.
• School Laptop Scandal Teaches Valuable Lessons [Government Technology] “Lower Merion School District outside Philadelphia made headlines after a high school student’s family sued in February 2010. The lawsuit alleged that IT employees employed by the school district remotely controlled the built-in webcam on a loaner laptop and surreptitiously took screenshots of the student in his home.”
• GPIC Year 1 Highlights  [GPIC Hub]
• Bentley Systems’ Second Annual Corporate Update Conference Call: Big theme is China [Philadelphia Tech News]
• Geek of the Week: Scott Wasserman, Founder of appRenaissance [Geekadelphia]
• This CEO Chose A Tiny Startup Over High-Paying Executive Jobs [SAI: Enterprise] Former SAP America CEO and current QlikTech board member Paul Wahl joins Causata as CEO
• BuySide Partners breaks off from A-Frame to focus on large DoD opportunity [Philadelphia Tech News]
• Scala Introduces Advanced Analytics that Helps Retailers be Bold with Big Data to Boost Sales [PR Web]
• Itaas brings icueTV into its fold [CED Magazine] icueTV is based in Cherry Hill.
• Local Man Selling Epic Collection of 7,500 Comics [Video] [Geekadelphia]

• Penn Professor Shows Tiny Flying Robots Playing Musical Instruments at TED (Video/Business Insider via San Francisco Chronicle)

Grocery shopping at SEPTA stations? [Eyes on the Street: Plan Philly] — “Peapod, an online shopping service linked up with Giant, is now offering commuters the opportunity to browse virtual supermarket store shelves on a SEPTA station billboard.”

New Philly Startup Leaders president: ‘We are way closer to cracking the code than people think’ [Flying Kite] — Bob Moul gives his state of the organization

Phila. police now have 24-hour real-time surveillance center [PoliceOne.com]

Code for America fellows [Government Technology]

• Megatouch, with regional offices as we’ve recently covered, has released a brand new game for the iPad called “Nerdy Birds Social.”
• SEER Interactive Named 2012 Inner City 100 Winner [CityBiz List]
• City’s managing director turns loss of dad, daughter into mission to make others’ lives better [Daily News] — More on Rich Negrin, whom we covered last year.
• Ahead of the Science Festival, the Franklin Institute has released a series of videos about some concepts that touch on technology, including augmented reality, which was introduced by, we’re told, the daughter of Nonprofit Technology Resources founder Stan Pokras. Watch it below.

• Organizers tell us that the deadline for nominations for the PA Tech Awards, which we covered last month, has been extended to midnight tonight. Vote Philly!
• Spot the most defibrillators in Philly, win $10K! [SciStarter -- An interview with Penn Prof. Raina Merchant, who is behind the effort we covered
• Hedger pausing on print [New York Post] — Randy Smith, who owns nearly a third of the company that publishes Philly.com and the newspapers, is trying to sell, reports the paper. More from Poynter.
• SAP will add 500 jobs in Newtown [Delaware County Daily Times]
• AstraZeneca to cut 7,300 more jobs amid fourth-quarter profit drop [Inquirer]

• Dell Forms Software Group, Names Former CA CEO as Head [PC World] — With Berwyn’s Boomi division playing a role
• Sunoco CEO Elsenhans to step down [Philadelphia Business Journal] — Lynn Eisenhans
• Philly fuse maker chooses Bucks over North Carolina [PhillyDeals:Inquirer] — Action Manufacturing is moving 175 jobs out of North Philadelphia to a new Bucks County spot
• A Geek’s Guide to First Friday & Second Saturday: February 2012  [Geekadelphia]
• Quantum Leap’s tweet counter picks up more buzz [Delaware Online] — Newark, Del.-based analytics company
• “Jackpot Internet Cafe” will offer high-end computers and software, as well as sweepstakes games [PlanPhilly] — A Fishtown business that has concerned residents compromises and pitches itself as a more of an internet cafe.
• #visitUS: Help Curate a Philly Foursquare List, Get Philly a City Badge [Geekadelphia]
• Apostrophe just got easier [P'unk Ave newsletter] — More from the South Philly web firm’s CMS
• Drew Bacon’s Poppler: The Geekiest Guitar in Philadelphia [Geekadelphia] — Video below.

• A look at Cipher Prime’s ‘Splice’ [Inquirer] — Geekadelphia’s Eric Smith pens a column
• New Jersey man turns campaign stint into software success [Inquier] — “Together they spent 20-hour days devising a social-media tool – a “game-changer,” the nonpartisan New Organizing Institute has called it – that maximized efforts by the campaign’s field offices and led to the prodigious get-out-the-vote initiative that proved key to Obama’s success.” On NationalField from Aharon Wasserman.
• Open Question to our Readers [Hive76]

• InterDigital shares could retreat after no deal emerges [Inquirer:PhillyInc] Meetings with Google and Apple around its 19,500 patents drove stock prices up. More from Peter Key here.
• Rick Nucci as Dell Boomi General Manager [Philly Tech News] — Noting the transition from Bob Moul who left the company after the exit to Dell
• Philly Gamification Start-Up Hiring Dozen Employees [FINS] — More on Hoopla Software from Philly Tech News here.
• Liquid Acquires Premier Video Production Capabilities [Liquid Interactive]
• SAP Roundup [Philly Tech News] — Among other items, PTN hits some SAP North America news coverage
• Philly Gets Curbed [PlanPhilly] — From potential competitor and more from NewsWorks on the story Technically Philly broke here of the real estate blog network adding a Philly outpost.
• Code for America’s Jennifer Pahlka talks networked cities at TEDx [PlanPhilly] — Video below.

[Disclosures: InterDigital has been a Philly Tech Week sponsor in the past.]

An op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle caught our eye:

With surprisingly little fanfare and even more surprising bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a crowd-funding bill this month that would allow startup companies to sell securities by way of social networking and crowd-funding websites.

In essence, crowd-funding affords the public at large the opportunity to provide small amounts of incremental funding to entrepreneurial companies. Think of it as charitable giving for startups, although the return comes not in peace of mind or a tax deduction but in the form of equity in the company.

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Patrick K. FitzGerald is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and MBA lecturer on entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business.