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Tag Archives: The Skorpion Show

Ten Philadelphia tech organizations that should have Wikipedia entries but don’t

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Look, this is down right embarrassing.

Earlier this month we retweeted Viddler founder Rob Sandie. He was self-promoting, but damn it if we didn’t agree with him. Why didn’t the growing video-hosting service have a Wikipedia entry? Now that Google News has begun to link to the Web’s largest community-edited encyclopedia, it’s clear it’s bypassed mainstream and shot straight to influential.

So, it’s become something of shorthand for the importance of a subject, person or organization. But, as we found, Philadelphia generally and its technology and innovation communities specifically are dismally represented in the Web 2.0 powerhouse.

When someone answered Sandie’s call to create a Viddler Wikipedia page, it was deleted because, as one Wiki editor wrote, the article was “about a web site, blog, online forum, webcomic, podcast, or similar web content that didn’t assert the importance or significance of its subject.”

Sounds like a call to make clear the Philadelphia technology scene is significant. Below, we share our list of 10 members of our community that don’t have Wikipedia entries, but should, including Viddler.

We respect the mission of Wikipedia, so don’t consider this spam posting. Rather, we think our community is very underserved by the online encyclopedia. This, my friends, is basic stuff we need to get down. Who’s stepping up?


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Friday Tech Links: City election day results online, Skorpion Show redo and More

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Technically Philly friends The Skorpion Show get love from the Daily News. Photo by DAVID MAIALETTI for the Daily News.

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.

  • OK, first the Daily News reports this morning that the city would not continue its freshly rolled out policy of allowing access to online election-day voting results. By noon, KYW reported that Michael Nutter was sufficiently embarrassed by Philadelphia’s primitive take on Web access that the money was found to keep it going — something about $30,000 for hosting. Hell, we’ll do it for $300 and hot pretzels.

Brian Tierney talks about the Web, libraries get faster online and five other tech stories you should read — including our most trafficked post of the week.


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North Philly YouTube stars unhappy with PW exposure

Makael Mclendon (left) and Kevin Simmons are The Skorpion Show

Makael Mclendon (left) and Kevin Simmons are The Skorpion Show

There’s a funny thing about this whole “new media” thing that journalists can’t stop talking about. Now, story subjects can answer back.

Such is the case with Joel Mathis’s profile of North Philly-based The Skorpion Show for the publication’s “Queer Issue.” The day after the article ran, Skorpian’s Keven Simmons shared his distaste with 9,000 of the show’s subscribers.

“Now I know how those reality stars feel … this will never happen again,” he said.

The Skorpion Show is a DIY talk show where Kevin Simmons and Makael Mclendon, better known as Skorpion and Makael, chat about everything from celebrities to relationship issues to music reviews. Each video typically features the hosts sitting side-by-side chatting into their Logitech webcam.

Each episode averages around 4,000 views, which when stretched over 185 videos, adds up. Two of the duo’s videos have broken the one-million viewer mark.

After the story was published, The Skorpion Show uploaded two videos pertaining to the PW story. Follow after the jump to hear their beef.
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