MyHeartMap Challenge launches contest and mobile app to crowdsource map of Philly defibrillators

Automated external defibrillators are life-saving devices located in buildings and public spaces like fire extinguishers across the country. But no one really knows where they are in any broader way.

With the MyHeartMap Challenge, launching this week, a team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania is hoping to crowdsource the location of every AED in Philadelphia and raise awareness about the tools, as Technically Philly previously reported.

Here’s how the challenge will work: interested participants should register at the MyHeartMap site and download the contest app to a smartphone. If you find an AED, take a picture of it. The app will geotag the photo for the Penn researchers who plan to use the information to create a database and comprehensive map of all the AED’s stashed throughout Philadelphia county.

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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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NetTuesday, Corzo Center and more [Event Highlights]

Happy New Year, Philadelphia. Our resolution? To keep covering the people that make the Philadelphia technology community amazing. Before we get to the tech events, don’t forget that today is the NHL Winter Classic at Citizen’s Bank Park. The game starts at three, so we suggest you take a very long lunch.

Events this week: a meta meetup, crowd-sourcing social media and get help with your business.

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Ilya Zhitomirskiy, 22, Diaspora* co-founder and Lower Merion high grad, dies in apparent suicide, services Sunday

Center City memorial services are scheduled Sunday for Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the co-founder of the much-hyped Facebook killer Diaspora*.

Coverage by the New York Times and Gawker recount the unsettling possibility that the apparent suicide could have been precipitated by, at least in part, the hype around the more secure, community-driven social network that had thus far failed to have any real traction. Though Zhitomirskiy’s death happened in San Francisco, the Inquirer dutifully reminds us that the Moscow-born New York University dropout spent part of his childhood in Lower Merion and graduated from that high school.

Officially, suicide and other details have not been confirmed, though multiple reports are pointing in that direction.

As the Inquirer reports: “The memorial service for Zhitomirskiy will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, November 20, at the First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street.”

City Director of Communications Desiree Peterkin Bell on social media strategy [Friday Q&A]

Photos courtesy of the City of Philadelphia. Photo Credits: Mitchell Leff

It’s been a year since the City of Philadelphia hired Desiree Peterkin Bell as Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships.

In that time, we’ve seen a more proactive approach to social media across Philadelphia city agencies, and even outside of it, like this week’s announcement that the Philadelphia Parking Authority would pursue an aggressive social media strategy.

When Technically Philly interviewed Mayor Michael Nutter last fall, social media was barely a blip on his radar.

Since Peterkin Bell took the helm of the office and began pushing the City toward social media engagement, Mayor Nutter has taken to Twitter, growing from 300 followers a year ago to more than 18,000.

That count doesn’t yet match the brand of Newark Mayor Corey Booker, Peterkin Bell’s employer from 2006 to Fall 2010, who has engaged 1.1 million followers. But it’s a far cry from the city’s once inept social media strategy, which only a year ago was blindly sharing press releases typed out in all-caps, a strategy much satirized by Philly’s tech community.

Though her early career impact will likely be attributed to her social media chops, don’t call Peterkin Bell — who earns a $150,000 salary from the City and lives in a home on South Broad Street, the Avenue of the Arts — platform dependent. In New York City, she worked under Mayor Bloomberg as Senior Director of Government Affairs for the New York’s marketing development corporation, working with brands like General Motors and Universal Studios to sell city assets for marketing purposes. She now uses that experience to persuade national media organizations to recognize Philadelphia’s assets as a continually growing and prosperous city.

At the heart of her role, she’s coordinating a centralized communications strategy that includes interface with national media, the city’s public access television channel, and making sure that no matter the citizen and no matter the message, the city is working to reach them.

After the jump, Peterkin Bell shares her experience in New York and Newark, the extent of her role as Communications Director, and where she think the city’s communications strategy is headed.

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Philadelphia Parking Authority launches social media campaign to bolster responsiveness, transparency and customer relations

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.”

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‘Google Offers’ launches in Philly, to compete with Groupon, Living Social

Google Offers, a competitor for Groupon and Living Social from the search engine giant, has launched in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh today, according to a press release.

The move puts Google Offers in 15 cities with plans for 25 more in coming months. The initiative beta launched in Portland, Oregon in June.

The first offer in Philadelphia — to be found at  google.com/offers — is for the Marathon Grill. Future offerings include ones for Southwest staple turned Old City cheesesteak shop Campo’s.

This is Not a Cheesesteak: new Tumblr follows the worst cheesesteak variations

From Tumblr user anacrisi, and referenced on This is Not a Cheesesteak.

Cheesesteaks don’t have to be just another cliche we’re saddled with, says Michaelangelo Ilagan.

The SAP web designer and Geekadelphia contributor is embracing the 80-year-old native hoagie variation by chronicling how far, wide and wrongly it has spread. Meet This is Not a Cheesesteak, a Tumblr that Ilagan is curating to collect new takes on the steak sandwich standard that he considers an insult to our roots.

“Unlike Rocky, we’re not revering something fictional. @visitphilly called it ‘Cheesesteak Pride’ when they tweeted a link to my Tumblr,” said Ilagan, 27, who goes by Mikey Il. “Let’s make that a thing. The cheesesteak is 100 percent real and absolutely delicious when done right.”

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Podcamp Philly 2011 broadens focus, podcasting joined by more online media

Podcamp Philly registration table seen above. Photo by Theresa Regan.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

Online media beyond podcasting played a large role Saturday at the fifth annual Podcamp Philly, held in the Tuttleman Learning Center at Temple University.

“[The event] started out being focused toward podcasting and video podcasting and has really grown to encompass everything from blogging to social media tools,” Linda Whitney Hoffman, the director of operations for Podcamp Philly said. “It’s about teaching people to share information, not just online media.”

Graphic design, content strategy, business basics and the social media giants all were discussed in multiple sessions, among other topics that don’t directly touch podcasting.

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Michael Nutter answers resident questions on NBC 10 Ask the Mayor program [VIDEO]

In a unique town hall of sorts befitting of the times, Mayor Nutter answered resident questions by way of email, Twitter and Facebook put to him on NBC 10 this week, as we reported, during its Ask the Mayor program.

NBC 10 has since posted video of the entire hour-long event. Watch the first of five segments below and the rest of the segments here: