Drexel uses Twitter to notify accepted students, build commuity

If you went to college, it is likely you know what it’s like to anxiously check the mailbox everyday, waiting for your college acceptance letter.

However the rite of passage is about to be added to the list of things Twitter could change forever.

At Drexel, the school has begun using the microblogging tool to not only follow up on students who have shown interest in the university, but @DrexelAdmission will even notify them of their acceptance (Disclaimer: as you can see in the tweet, my brother was the inspiration for this post.)

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Twitter tracking Local Trends in Philadelphia, 14 other cities

What was trending in Philadelphia Thursday night on Twitter. Click to enlarge.

Tracking the dominant conversations in Philadelphia’s Twitter communities has gotten quite a bit easier.

As the microblogging rock star announced on its company blog this week, in addition to tracking what phrases, words and hashtags are being most frequently used worldwide at a given time on Twitter, the trends can now be localized to 15 cities, including Philadelphia, or one of six countries.

This gives you the option to see while, yes, last night the top trending item in Philadelphia was stimulating conversation over the meme ‘I’m not the type to…,” the worldwide conversation trended more to “Best Sex songs.”

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TNT: PhindMe gets social with Everywhereigo

PhindMe Mobile has been preaching mobile for years, ever since it entered into Drexel’s Lebow College of Business competition.

First, the company focused on text-based marketing before unrolling Everywhereigo, the company’s mobile CMS. Now, PhindMe is looking to become the premier vendor for social media-focused mobile Web sites. A buzzword packed space that CMO Jon Cooper says is currently unoccupied.

“[Social] follows the evolution of mobile from being a simple utility,” Cooper says.

To stake its claim as the go-to social media experts in the mobile sphere, the company has just released Social Media Hub, a series of features for its mobile CMS that allow users to easily incorporate social media content in their mobile Web site. And, if all goes well, the company will be one of the next great mobile platforms for businesses.

“Social media is the fundamental thing we want to be good at,” Cooper says.

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Comcast Roundup: Brian Roberts at Web 2.0 Summit, latest on NBC deal and More

The Phillies are returning to the World Series, and, amid all the wild celebration, Thursday morning’s Comcast Roundup still must be done. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts made a big splash with his presence at San Francisco’s Web 2.0 Summit this week.

• CNET reports that his opening talk at the summit focused on casting Comcast in the same entrepreneurial spirit for which the Bay Area is known.
• Tech Crunch reports that Roberts said the company’s use of Twitter and other social media has changed their entire culture.
• Silicon Alley Insider reports that Roberts characterized net neutrality as “a solution seeking a problem.”

After the jump, continued coverage of a possible purchase of NBC, On Demand Online by year’s end more than a dozen other Comcast stories of note.

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Friday Tech Links: Nicole Brewer gets 20 questions, Daring Fireball gets praise and More

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.

Nicole Brewer has to at least be in the running for Philadelphia’s technology community it girl. We sure love her.

The former Miss Pennsylvania is the city’s first “digital TV journalist,” as a Web-based correspondent for the CW Philly, and, Hell, she managed to make a story out of Geekadelphia, so she has to have something figured out.

Now, here’s a chance to get a little insight on Brewer, as the Philadelphia Examiner asks her 20 questions, though the most interesting answer is that she chooses Metro over the Inqy and the Daily News (and, ugh, the 67th ward comes up twice).

After the jump, John Gruber called Apple king, an Inqy tweeter bails and four other stories, including our best read piece of the week.

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Event highlights for the week of August 10 – August 16, 2009

If you’re looking to hire or looking to get hired, this week’s event highlights are for you.

There’s a small handful of events dedicated to small businesses and job-seeking IT professionals. There’s even a small business insights meeting, one normally a tad outside our normal coverage, but hosted by a tech business leader.

Wednesday, Discovery Tech owner Todd Royer will lead the lunch to help small business owners find their next great hire. Thursday, the Delaware County Web Technology Meetup Group will help the unemployed, underemployed, and wannabe fun-employed find that next job.

It’s certainly a week to put down the beer at that social meetup and get professional. Winter’s coming fast, folks. It’s time to start storing those nuts, if you catch my drift.

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.

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CoTweet heading to Bay Area after $1.1 million round, rumors of Twitter “acquisition target”

After announcing $1.1 million in venture capital investments, once Central Pennsylvania-based CoTweet is moving to San Francisco, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company, which develops a web-based application for Twitter that allows businesses to assign multiple team members to control commercial accounts, received funding from West Conshohocken-based First Round Capital and a handful of other non-Philly firms. [Full Disclosure: Technically Philly uses CoTweet for forward-dated Twitter posts]

According to two job openings recently added to the company’s internal job board, the company is headed for the SoMa neighborhood of downtown San Francisco, an area well-known for its roots in the dot com boom.

CoTweet executives are in the process of packing their bags, according to several messages posted to Twitter from company co-founders.

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Shop Talk: Philadelphia’s venture capital community on Twitter

Image courtesy of millionclues.com

If you have ever shown a friend or relative Twitter, you were probably met with a response along the lines of, “Why would I ever want to use this?”

Mostly, it’s hard to quantify the usefulness of a tool such as Twitter, but the startup and venture capital research Web site Chubbybrain has given it their best shot by asking the question: Do VCs who use Twitter invest in more startups?

The report is an interesting look at how venture capital firms use Twitter while judging its effectiveness. But, as expected, the report focuses mostly on VCs in California, Boston and New York. That got us thinking, what local VC’s are on Twitter?
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Events highlights for the week of June 22 – June 28, 2009

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking, “I wish I could design a map using Twitter that was a good user experience and utilized Google Book Search.”

Well Technically Philly reader, you’re in luck! Our fair city has a diverse slate of events this week that will make your strange hypothetical dream a reality in no time.

Get started after work on Tuesday and join the pun-loving OpenStreetMap enthusiasts over at the Prohibition Tap Room for “Mappy Hour.” Although, you shouldn’t have too much to drink, as it is awfully hard to chart the trails in Fairmount Park when you can’t walk straight.

PhillyCHI (which is not a box score for the upcoming Phillies-Cubs series) is getting together Wednesday to listen to Kyle Soucy, their former chair, talk usability testing. This is the first time in weeks that the group has held an event in city limits, so you best take El out to University City if you have been meaning to catch PhillyCHI in action.

On Thursday, you can either continue the usability theme with the UX Book Club meeting over at P’unk Ave, or you can head to Center City for the June Philly Tweetup.

Round out the week on Friday as University City continues its Google obsession with a meeting about how Google Books and Google Scholar affect librarians. Librarians, whatever you decide, please leave the card catalog alone. That thing is awesome.

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.
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Events highlights for the week of June 8 – June 14, 2009

The city must have a case of “omgz it’s nice out now” as our event calendar is heavy on monthly meetups and light on, well, everything else.

That makes this week a good time to catch up on those groups and events that you have been meaning to get around to, but haven’t had the chance.

We hate to break it to you, but Monday this week is a empty void on our calendar giving you no excuse to take off today. Tuesday, however, be sure to make it out to The Federal Reserve Bank for some practical talk on social media with the Entrepreneurs Forum.

Continue the social media trend the next night out in the burbs, with a seminar on how to make money using Twitter. Then, make like Washington on Thursday and venture on over to Swanky Bubbles in Cherry Hill for the growing NJ and Philly Tech meetup.

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.
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