Philly gets stimulus money for computer labs

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the funds.

According to MuniWireless.com, Philadelphia has received federal stimulus money to help establish or expand local computer centers. Eleven other cities will also claim a chunk of the $3.7 million allocated.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced over $63 million in grants that aim to expand the reach of broadband across the nation. Earlier this month, the president praised the work of the FCC as it unveils its national broadband plan.

As covered in Technically Philly’s Digital Philadelphia package, the city has been gunning for federal money for nearly a year. The city along with the community have also been building a case to receive Google’s experimental gigabit line.

Hat tip to Craig Settles for sending this our way.

Technically Not Tech: Media Mobilizing Project closes grant, looks forward

Media Mobilizing Project founding member Todd Wolfson is interested in the role that media and communications can play in helping build movements to end poverty.

He hasn’t been the only one.

In 2007, MMP was awarded a $150,000 grant from the Knight News Foundation. With that money, the media organization has been helping other organizations use journalism to further their cause.

Since then, Wolfson and his team have helped create a network of 10 groups, like the Philadelphia Student Union, Pennsylvania Head Start Association, Casino-Free Philadelphia, Taxi Workers Alliance of PA and other service sector unions.

MMP’s aim is straight forward enough: teach the basics of new media concepts in order to help those groups get the good word out.

The grant helped MMP maintain a staff, create six six-week workshops to train organization leaders in Web, video and basic computer skills and purchase equipment and computers for each group’s respective community.

Now, Media Mobilizing is shifting gears.
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Interstate 95 to see $74 million in highway technology improvements

One of the nation’s largest technology initiatives aimed at curbing traffic and pollution is coming to Philadelphia, according to a report from Stateline.org.

And we have plenty of traffic on I-95, which is said to handle more than 120,000 vehicles per day — as if that number had any meaning to you whatsoever.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, or PennDOT to friends, is gearing up for a $74 million undertaking that would equip 72 miles of I-95 corridor in and around Philly with intelligent transportation system installations.

The project is part of more than $257 million in cash from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which PennDOT plans to spend in Philadelphia’s five-county region, according to a department press release.

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City CIO’s $100 million Digital Philadelphia vision

PhillyCHI chair Dave Cooksey and human-computer interaction PhD holder Kellie Rae Carter open Refresh Philly session before city CIO Allan Frank takes the stage.

The Nutter administration will invest $100 million during the next four years in city technology, according to plans unveiled tonight by Philadelphia Chief Information Officer Allan Frank.

How they will is far less clear.

Frank unveiled his vision for a Digital Philadelphia Monday evening in front of a crowd of more than 75 members of the Refresh Philly design and developer community, as rain mist drifted past wall-length windows on the 45th floor of the Comcast Center.

The CIO hopes to employ a strategy that would procure federal broadband stimulus dollars to fund a longterm initiative overhauling the city’s technology infrastructure and its Phila.gov Web site.

“I basically want to blow the damn thing up,” he said to members as they clapped in support.

Frank said he’ll be open to input from the Philadelphia tech community leading up to a rough deadline to submit a proposal for federal stimulus dollars on August 15.

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Rendell unveils Web site to track stimulus spending

A graph on recovery.pa.gov breaks down how stimulus funds will be spent in Pennsylvania.

On Wednesday, Governor Ed Rendell announced plans to ensure accountability for the distribution of $16 billion that Pennsylvania will receive from the federal economic stimulus package. Gov. Rendell unveiled a new Web site to track how funds are spent, recovery.pa.gov, and said he would appoint a Chief Accountability Officer to oversee the process.

“The Web site we’re unveiling today provides a window to this process for everyone to see. The public will be able to track how every dime is spent and for what project and where. We’re committed to making this an open process for everyone,” Rendell said in a press release.

According to the release, citizens will be able to track expenditures that will be updated quarterly and provide input on how funds are invested. A sample template on the Web site shows that individual projects will be tracked by county, and provide details such as completion status, location, project schedule, dollar value of contracts, contractors, and the number of jobs created and saved. The site will be linked to Pennsylvania’s accounting system.

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Stimulus: $20b for U.S. health IT; $101m for PA energy, $25m for PA school tech

Last Sunday we outlined Philadelphia’s “shovel-ready” tech proposals that could potentially be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and although it is still unclear what funds Philly will receive, we’re beginning to have a better picture since President Obama signed the bill.

Last week, The Morning Call reported that $101 million will be afforded to alternative energy investments through the state’s energy program. Some of that could go toward Philly’s proposals of installing 3,000 LED lamps in signalized intersections that could save the city $1 million per year in energy costs. It could also be funneled into plans for a Residential Solar Energy loan fund.

There’s good news for Health Camp Philadelphia, who followed up on our proposal post with hopes that electronic medical records could become a reality for medical institutions throughout the city. According to Modern Healthcare, $19.2 billion has been earmarked in the bill for health information technology. Gov. Ed Rendell spoke at the National Governors Association’s annual winter meeting on Saturday, and expressed support for long-term datelined provisions, such as the switch to electronic records. Some health care systems, like Albert Einstein in Philadelphia, have made in-roads on their own for an electronic switch, as we reported.

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