Copyright City of Philadelphia. Photograph by Mitchell Leff.

Since we launched a year-and-a-half ago, we’ve not only watched, but followed as closely as we could City of Philadelphia technology policy.

Even in our short tenure covering all that is involved — like municipal information technology, government transparency, citywide broadband network infrastructure, economic policy and much, much more — we’ve been witness to a city intent on finding new ways of utilizing technology and finding better ways of connecting with citizens.

Throughout, we’ve heard repeatedly from leaders that Mayor Michael Nutter understands the value of technology in city government and he is intent on involving Philadelphia’s technology community.

Though we write about these initiatives weekly, nothing was more of a reminder of the Mayor’s commitment to technology than when Nutter announced a $120 million capital investment in the Division of Technology during the pageantry of his budget address to City Council in March.

And with his support, DOT has been steered in a new direction, a Chief Technology Officer appointed to the mayoral cabinet, pilot programs created to attract technology businesses and broadband stimulus dollars and gigabit broadband chased.

So, we had to get the man on the phone to talk tech. Yesterday, we spoke with Mayor Nutter about government transparency, Philadelphia’s tax structure, and about his call to action to Philadelphia’s technology community. Our Q&A with Philadelphia’s Mayor after the jump.

Copyright City of Philadelphia. Photograph by Mitchell Leff.

All of our 15,000 readers are smart technologists and business leaders in Philadelphia who know intricately the world of technology. They’re here because they love the city. What can these folks—all these great software developers interested and active in open source and community—do to help you? What’s your call to action for Philadelphia’s technology community?

City government at an unprecedented level will be making upwards of $120 million in IT investment over the next few years. Some of that transformation has already started with the upcoming capital budget.

We were making investments, changes and upgrades almost from the time we arrived two-and-a-half years ago. We look at this from a historical perspective. The first real computer was created right here in Philadelphia—the ENIAC. Philadelphia has been a leader in technology and computing systems for a long period of time. We use that as an inspiration, a platform to take ourselves to the next level.

While making the investment, having an actively engaged IT community is very important. We start with premise that we don’t necessary know everything or have all the answers and we want to rely on this community for ideas.

Making the investment is good business. It can make Philadelphia government more productive and we think that Philadelphia technology is important to many of the challenges we will face.

You campaigned three years ago on being the transparent, good government candidate. There’s an increasing conversation about the Web being a tool for creating better government transparency. Where have the two come together during the course of your administration? Have you felt that your administration has achieved that transparency using technology or on the Web?

I believe we have. I’d like to mention to readers, even before I was elected mayor, when I was a member of City Council, I pushed through legislation that all professional service contracts be placed on the city’s website. Before that, there was no central place where all those contracts were. Now there is—all those contracts are now up. We provide a ton of information on the city’s website and various department websites. We want people to know what’s going on in city government. It helps ensure that openess and transparency, which are crucial to well-run government.

You changed the role of Chief Technology Officer to a cabinet level position. What is the biggest change to your administration’s agenda because of that organizational shift? Or more simply, what do you and city CTO Allan Frank talk about?

Having the Chief Technology Officer in the cabinet raises not only the level of importance of the Division of Technology but also allows us to hear about challenges, problems and successes much earlier on in the process. Allan [Frank] works directly with department heads — the managing director, deputy mayor, chief of staff — on a regular basis. They can identify challenges and get answers much quicker, raise these issues and have a dialogue that goes back and forth. We talk about his ideas and proposals and what his needs are, what his challenges are and if we’re not getting coordination. Day-to-day, he’s in charge of his shop and he has a responsibility and authority to run his shop. Making the shift to consolidate IT folks in one division was a big issue and I was actively involved to make that change.

What’s one technology initiative you’d most like to pursue in the remainder of your first term?

There are too many things to focus on and to do, and I’m reluctant to pick one because they are all very important. In this business, you can’t focus on one thing. An overall goal is to significantly upgrade the technology system. Virtually every agency needs some assistance to help them do their job and they all need significant support from DOT. In many instances this will help us deliver services better, quicker or cheaper. It helps us to save money.

One of the things I’m focused on is the public computer center project which has direct impact out in the community; 77 sites that will have enhanced or newly created services which will work with some of our high-risk populations. People need access to the ‘net. We need to make sure as a city government that we’re providing some of those opportunities. While we’re making sure that our own internal infrastructure works well, we want to enhance services that real Philadelphians can utilize and improve their lives as a result of the network we’ve created.

Philadelphia’s tax structure is constantly on the minds of entrepreneurs in our local creative economy. The process to rollback the city’s business privledge tax and wage tax was started, but was halted because of the economy. What are other initiatives that your administration has developed or hopes to develop to aide these small businesses?

In my budget address, I announced two pilot programs. One is market-based sourcing, doing a pilot related to firms engaged with computer systems design and related services. We’re changing some of the tax regulations based on location of the customer rather than the work that was performed. These companies can be anywhere, so we’re trying to level the playing field. Now, [taxes are] only related to work they do in Philadelphia, not for the work that’s done outside. The second is single sales factor apportionment. Related again to the allocation formula for taxes on organizations involved in research and development in physical engineering and life sciences. We base calculations only on Philadelphia sales as opposed to on sales, property and payroll, which puts them on the same page as firms that are located outside of the city. These allow us captailize on some of the other great assets that Philadelphia has that some other locations may not have.

We host meetups with small business owners in Philadelphia who are creating white collar jobs. At one of the events recently, we debated with a few asking whether or not it’s good enough to have a business in the region, or if there’s some cache to being in the city. All that said, in the beginning of your term, you were very boisterous about being pro-region. Is it true that having business in the region is enough, or as Mayor is there a goal to retain talent in the city?

My job as mayor is to increase business in Philadelphia first and foremost. I actively and aggressively promote business retention and retraction. But if for some reason a company can’t make the decision to be in Philadelphia, my second position is that at least they are in the region. A company that is based in Montgomery County is still benefiting the region and a Philadelphian still has a chance at getting that position. My primary focus is on increasing the total number of businesses in the borders of Philadelphia, but I do understand that we might not be able to get every firm.

It was reported there was a fake Mayor Nutter Twitter account. What would it take to make that real?

[Laughing] I did hear about fake account. The city has a Twitter account, but it’s certainly something I’m taking a look at.

Well, we can promise 15,000 followers if you jump on board tomorrow.

I’ll factor that into consideration.

Mayor Michael Nutter has announced tax breaks for technology, design and video game firms that would hopefully encourage more companies to set up shop in the city.

As the Metro reported this morning, under the new tax policy, tech sector businesses would not be taxed for services sold outside of Philadelphia, which could pave the way for tax overhauls for all city businesses. The news follows Nutter’s address to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce last week outlining the need to experiment with the city’s tax structure.

Videogame Growth Initiative organizer Mike Worth, who’s helped lead a grass roots effort to lobby City Hall on tech tax issues, as we’ve reported, tells Metro that the incentives might help convince his game development studio Space Whale Studios to move downtown.

Comcast Exec. VP David Cohen, after introducing Mayor Michael Nutter. Photo by Rikard Larma for Metro

Life sciences, engineering, computer system design firms and the video game industry were among the members of the region’s creative economies whose fates were addressed during Mayor Michael Nutter’s address to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce this week.

Those mentions, in addition to the rest of his speech, focused on the economy, noting that job creation is a top priority of the coming year and outlining an experimentation with the city’s tax structure. He also warned of another tight budget and tough economic year.

“When I took office one of my top priorities was to transform the way that city government interacts with business, to encourage investment and development, rather than chase it away,” Nutter said. “Now, with many Philadelphians out of work and small businesses struggling to survive, creating jobs and encouraging investment is no longer one of my top priorities, it is my top priority.”

Below, listen to Nutter’s speech.

The glimpse of his March 4 budget address to city council suggested it wouldn’t be until 2012 at earliest that he would again begin lowering taxes in Philadelphia, as the Metro reported, but he unveiled intentions for experimentation in the city’s often criticized tax structure.

Nutter’s administration will try new policies devoted to retaining “research-and-development firms and the growing video-gaming software industry,” as the Inquirer first reported. The city’s Video Game Initiative has been pushing on legislators to attract the growing sector, as covered by Technically Philly.

Nutter discussed exploring limiting taxing IT companies on only services provided to clients within Philadelphia, keeping them competitive in other jurisdictions.

Additionally, as the Philadelphia Business Journal highlighted, the mayor’s speech discussed how to keep healthy the city’s life sciences footprint:

Research-and-development firms in engineering and life sciences will have the net income portion of their business privilege tax payment based solely on sales. The current formula is based 50 percent on sales, 25 percent on payroll and 25 percent on property. Tax reform advocates argue that basing part of the tax on payroll and property encourages businesses to move both out of the city.

The mayor also highlighted an initiative to offer more business development tools and information sources online, focused here and elsewhere on the new and continuously developing “portal.” To the point of government transparency, Nutter pledged an online tracking method for the city’s Licenses and Inspections department.

Watch 6ABC’s coverage below.

Early this week, Councilman Bill Green and five members of City Council introduced legislation that would change Philadelphia’s Charter to include a permanent Chief Information Officer.

As we reported, the bill would continue consolidation of the city’s Information Technology resources and it would require that the CIO develop annually a 5-year technology strategy, among other changes.

We spoke with Green on Monday to put into perspective the reason for the legislation and whether or not the bill represents concern for current Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank’s leadership. Green’s answers, after the jump.

Councilman Bill Green

This emphasis on reforming technology in city government – and ultimately, cutting city expenses by going paperless – has been your plan since your campaign [PDF]. What does this legislation mean for those ends?

Essentially, I’m trying to put in place a permanent structure that will make investment in technology and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government. I think Nutter has a great guy in [Chief Technology Officer Allan] Frank. I’d like to look at 5-year planning, with a specific emphasis on paperless government and improving efficiency of the workforce. Ultimately, my goal is to save $200 million a year, once the concept and plan are fully implemented. That will take 5 to 8 years.

What specifically does the bill bring to the city’s technology strategy?

We should constantly plan ahead, look at what’s available, look at how private industry does it, and make a long range plan as we implement technology. Specifically, [the Chief Information Officer] would have to submit a 5-year plan] to the Mayor and City Council a week after the budget address, so there can be consistency in planning with respect to technology. The plan must include productivity enhancements and how we’re going to eventually go paperless. In 1952 when they wrote the [Home Rule Charter [PDF]], no one imagined there would be a paperless system. Many other cities are doing a permanent CIO by ordinance, but we can’t do that here because of the Charter.

What do you think is the most important value of having the CIO create an annual technology plan?

If you force all future administrations to put together a 5-year plan, someone’s going to be thoughtful about it. You cant do long-term investments and you can’t achieve productivity increases unless you lay out something for the long-range.

How does this legislation differ from the executive order last year placing then CIO Allan Frank in the role of CTO on the Mayor’s cabinet?

It differs because [the CIO would] report to the Mayor, not Managing Director. It also moves all the employees into a single department with one budget. I understand why they chose to do the executive order, but department heads aren’t giving up their IT portion of budget easily.

Do you think CTO Allan Frank been as affective as he can be?

I’m not at all concerned with Frank, but I’d like to see us start implementing things. It’s been two years into the administration and we haven’t made any serious technology implementations. The sooner we invest the dollars, the sooner we’ll have the savings. The Mayor mayor could [appoint] another CTO, but I certainly would expect that he would choose Allan Frank.

The legislation would require the CIO to report directly to the Mayor and to create an annual IT strategic plan that includes productivity enhancements to help the city utilize paperless services. It also gives the CIO more oversight over city department technology appropriations.

“When they wrote the Charter in 1952, no one imagined there could be a paperless system,” Green told Technically Philly during a telephone interview this morning. “[The legislation would] make investment in and continual upgrade of our technology a permanent part of city government.”

Last July, Mayor Nutter issued an executive order to reorganize the city’s Division of Technology, placing then CIO Allan Frank in charge of the city’s entire IT system, including 520 employees. The new role, Chief Technology Officer, placed Frank on the mayoral cabinent.

Though Green backs the work Frank has been doing as CTO, he says he’d like to see some changes. Department heads aren’t easily giving up the IT portion of their budgets, he says, a problem his legislation could solve. Green says that it is paramount that the city starts addressing tech issues like these immediately. “It’s been two years into the administration and we haven’t made any serious technology implementations,” he says.

If the bill—backed by Councilmembers Blondell Reynolds Brown, Curtis Jones, Jr., Jack Kelly, W. Wilson Goode, Jr. and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez—passes Council and the ballot referundum is approved by voters on May 18, the legisilation would immediately go into effect.

Green expects that Nutter would appoint Frank to the CIO position should the legislation pass.

Philly Rocket Man Allan Frank has gone from Philadelphia’s chief information officer to chief technology officer and the staff he oversees has more than tripled to 520.

The reorganization of the city’s Division of Technology comes with Mayor Michael Nutter’s ninth executive order of the year, as reported by Marcia Gelbert on the Inquirer’s Heard in the Hall city government blog.

Sure doesn’t seem like the city wanted anyone to know about it though.

No press release or media advisory was dispatched or placed on the mayor office’s sleek Web site for which your tax dollars paid. Frank wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The details are below.

In addition to changing Frank’s mayoral cabinet position title — and forcing the printing of a few thousand new business cards — the move will likely be heralded for centralizing the city’s entire IT system, from equipment to personnel. Because the servers, hardware and technical staff from all 33 city departments will now be housed under Frank’s technology division, an additional 360 more workers will ultimately report to the self-proclaimed Rocket Man, who started his job last September.

The Division of Technology’s predecessor Office of Information Services was launched in 1993, and Nutter rebranded it the DOT last year. Frank, who has gotten buzz for a vaguely detailed and broadly designed Digital Philadelphia, was brought into the city government after 35 years in the private sector.

Frank tweets as Philly Rocket Man for the city and, uhm, for some reason has a personal Twitter account that seems to have no difference whatsoever in content.

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.

The state budget deadline came and, like every other year of Gov. Ed Rendell’s tenure, it went by without a completed plan.

This year, though, the fight has something to do with the state collecting $3.5 billion less in taxes than it anticipated. So everyone’s feeling the pinch. Even, it seemed, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the state-funded, startup investment company that we reported could see a $10 million, 60 percent budget cut or more — and then others did too.

But the Inquirer’s Joe DiStefano thoughroghly researched the report, suggesting that the report BFTP pointed to in its defense was less than square — a report from the Pennsylvania Economy League that showed BFTP bringing in $3.50 for every $1 invested in it.

“That’s not real,” DiStefano wrote. “The authors [of the report] estimated, and extrapolated, and multipliered, using what the Economy League’s Rich Stein told me were “quasi-experimental” techniques.

According to his article, the state put $50.7 million into BFTP this year, a total Rendell wants to cut to $35 million the coming fiscal year. The original Senate Republican budget put it nearer to $20 million.

Little question remains whether BFTP has done good, but much debate, DiStefano clearly shows, can be had on if it’s done enough to avoid one of the largest state budget tightenings in recent memory.

After the jump, Michael Nutter is not on Twitter, a biomedical firm brings jobs to Philly and six other tech and innovation links you need in your life right now, including our most read story of the week.

Ordered by an incredibly complex algorithm rendering importance:

• Inquirer City Hall blog Heard in the Hall reports that Philadelphia’s city administration is noticeably absent from the nation’s Twitter obsession. They also add that the Michael Nutter on Twitter ain’t really Mayor Michael Nutter, but an impostor.
• The New York Times BITS blog reports that the government of the 67th ward has invited software developers to develop applications to let Internet users navigate large data collections, like inspections and events. It’s about transparency and innovation. Yo, Allan Frank, why didn’t this happen in Philadelphia first [PING!]?
• ZDNet shares an interview with Navid Safabakhsh, a principal at San Francisco and Center City-based interactive web development agency Freshout, on his firm’s use of open source, collaboration and other technologies to help companies better use the Web to connect to customers.
• The Business Journal reports that biomedical firm EResearch Technology said late Monday it is moving a 30-person customer care team to its new headquarters on Market West, Center City. With a city that may have finally begun to halt its plummeting population, even small job additions are bright spots.
• The Financial Times reports that Microsoft is putting Internet ad agency Razorfish, with Center City offices, up for sale.  via CNET
• The Associated Press reports that the worst may be over — at least for the U.S. tech market.
• The AP also reports on the surprise reversal from the Chinese government on PCs with built-in search filters.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: SEPTA opens Google Transit data to third-party developers

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

Read about what's going on here after the jump.

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. See others here.

Philadelphians are the highest taxed people in the United States. So says eminent Philadelphia Daily News legacy columnist John Baer.

That’s enough to crack any red-blooded American’s Liberty Bell.

In a column, Baer was railing against Mayor Nutter’s calls to Harrisburg for legislative authority to hike the city’s sales tax from seven to eight percent. The story actually has a good dialogue in the comments section, too — a rarity for Philly.com.

The topic came up elsewhere this week.

Joe Distefano, the Inquirer’s top bearded business columnist, wrote an absolute must read on Nutter’s stalling of and his administration’s subsequent rethinking of continuing the move to “eradicating”the city’s two-pronged business privilege tax.

By no account should you think this is strictly a Philly problem these days.

Fast Eddie Rendell said this past week that if he was forced to push for a hike in the state’s income tax, he would vie for it to return to its normal state three years later, according to reporting from foxy Inquirer state capital correspondent Angela “It’s Greek” Couloumbis.

After the jump, why ET is with a Philly cop above, why 600 people paid $500 to be in Delaware and more than five other itches you need scratched, including our best read story of the week.

In order of importance for your ease.

• Our friends at Keystone Edge report on the honoree distinction two Pennsylvania tourism sites won at last week’s Webby Awards. Don’t forget bluecadet, which one a people’s award.
• Philly Tech News reports that three regional firms were named to CIO.com’s recent CIO 100, which honors companies that are creating business through technology innovation. Not one of the three are based within Philly’s 135 square miles. PTN keeps the good times rolling by reporting that the Milken Institute, which recently called Philadelphia the second best life sciences region in the country, ranked the Illadelph 11th in its High Tech Rankings, though there’s some question to that meaning.
• The Inquirer had a front page story on First Tuesday in November, a small Galloway, N.J.-based voter-tracking company that offers real-time Election Day updates. Dude in their photo is wearing a Yankees hat, though.
• You may have heard a collective yelp of excitement from their readers when Geekadelphia reported that Kevin Werbach, an assistant professor over at the University of Pennsylvania, will be giving a talk entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in World of Warcraft at tomorrow’s Philly Pecha Kucha event Geekadelphia also reports this week on a young woman who, well, they interview a young woman who goes around Philadelphia and takes photos of herself wearing an ET mask. That’s her standing with some confident Philadelphia police officer in the above photo. And, really, these are the stories that would be lost if newspapers went bankrupt and we didn’t have the Geekadelphia crew.
• Inqy columnist Distefano also reports that 600 hundred guests are said to have paid nearly $500 to attend Early Stage East 2009, a venture capital conference this week. It happened in Wilmington, Del. where happiness is made. [Full Disclosure: Sean Blanda loves Delaware.] That ain’t the only exclusive tech event afoot. The Business Journal reports that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will be the keynote speaker at the “client summit” to be held in King of Prussia later this month by e-commerce and interactive marketing services provider GSI Commerce.
• Contentinople reports on Philly.com’s move to use Brightcove to manage its video produced for the site. The move could come with an increase in video content, which reportedly could be a move toward the site’s still publicly undetailed plan for an online content model, which — though Contentinople didn’t make note — we first reported.

• Our Most Trafficked Story of the Week: Shop Talk: Obama Girl’s Leah Kauffman on Phrequency.com redesign

Every Friday morning we make sure you didn’t miss anything with Friday Tech Links.

They’re going to incubate profitable good works.

That’s much the angle of GoodCompany Ventures, which opened its Philadelphia Naval Yard Business Center offices with a ribbon-cutting ceremony highlighted by appearances from Mayor Michael Nutter and Chuck Lacy, a former president of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, yesterday.

All the startups they take in will be for-profit and looking to make a difference or two.

Yesterday, the incubator was also welcoming its inaugural 2009 class of “social entrepreneurs,” including the following: Cyrus-XP, which focuses on advancing the management and delivery of healthcare; CalendarFly, a single source scheduling solution for families (for a test drive, use “student for username and password), and VolunteerBIG.com, a philanthropic social network that was gunning for grant money earlier this year.

GoodCompany aims to provide guidance and support to those for-profit startups that want to tackle large, unmet social needs. Like others, the incubator will offer those accepted training, mentoring, administrative and other pro-bono services. The new effort is co-founded by Resources for Human Development, a social finance firm and Murex Investments, an equity fund backed by leading financial institutions — both of which are based (barely) in Tioga — in addition to other business support.

At yesterday’s event, Lacy, the former Ben & Jerry’s president who is now president of the Vermont-based social capital firm Barred Rock Fund, addressed the attendees, as did Stephen Goodman, a partner at law firm Morgan Lewis, according to a press release from the incubator.

GoodCompany is sponsored by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, the Center City love child of the city and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce that promotes economic developing in town, Trellist Marketing, the Wilmington, Del. Web marketer and the Wharton School of Business.

Why? Because we love you. Not to mention we’re hoping to check out of here by noon, planning to feed off of leftovers in days to come, and reveling in the relaxation that comes with a four-day work week.

That said, we can’t stress enough that you drop in on one of Philadelphia’s many tech events this week. Not next week when you will be backbreakingly re-entrenched at work. No siree. We’re talking about this week, when you are truly appreciating the humidity and the slowed pace of life for the very first and last time this summer and will end up feeling guilty for not getting out there while you can.

We’re anxious to see how the The New Voice of Business kick-off party will go, what, with Mayor Nutter dropping in for the festivities. We’re as skeptical as the next guy about Philadelphia actually becoming the greenest city in America, but hell, let’s let loose Tuesday.

Speaking of letting loose, let’s drop your WordPress into fourth gear and truly get it pumping on the search engine internerds. SEO Grail has blog and new media consultant Michael Klusek to talk about how to mod the heck out of that out-of-box blogging experience. 409, baby.

And last, to echo our love of all things grilled, Philly Startup Leaders is organizing a committee to help plan its first-ever BBQ. Pass the Heinz and a sesame-seed level fund. Holy, we did not just say that. Technically Philly out. Hit the jump for more details.

All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.

Tuesday, May 26: The New Voice of Business champions economic, social and environmental sustainability in business and says that the “old voice” ain’t talkin’ loud enough. Join New Voice founder Eliot Hoffman Tuesday evening for a free kick-off event featuring Mayor Michael Nutter at the Academy of Natural Sciences. 6 p.m. Center City. RSVP. [view more events]

Tuesday, May 26: SEO Grail is back Tuesday to help the bloggers amongst us get with that Google. Blog and new media consultant Michael Klusek will super-charge SEO-ready blogs with some search turbo. 6 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]

Wednesday, May 27: Philadelpia Linux May Meetup gathers together the city’s Linux users Wednesday night to ask a vital question: “What are we gonna do about all those damn Apple kids?” We kid, we kid. But seriously, we like what we’ve seen lately. Now, to convince the rest of the world that there’s just something sexy about the command line—one meetup at a time. 7:00 p.m. Fairmount. RSVP. [view more events]

Thursday, May 28: You’ll be kicking yourself when you turn down seconds on a juicy, grilled burger today and someone else swipes the last one. Have a second lease on Memorial Day by helping plan Philly Startup Leaders‘ BBQ Thursday evening. They wanna throw a serious BBQ bash this summer and want your input. Leave the grill at home, but our guess is no one’s going to turn down leftover deviled eggs. Mmm-Mmmm.6:00 p.m. Center City West. RSVP. [view more events]

Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.