Pa. Attorney General Tom Corbett subpoenas Twitter to unveil critics

Tom Corbett for election coverage 2008. Christine Baker, The Patriot-News

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, who won Tuesday’s primary to become the Commonwealth’s Republican candidate for governor, has subpoenaed Twitter for a Grand Jury, in which the company will be compelled to “testify and give evidence regarding alleged violations of the laws of Pennsylvania, ” reports Tech Crunch.

The subpoena calls for Twitter to release “any and all subscriber information” of those managing two accounts – @bfbarbie and @CasaBlancaPA – who Tech Crunch reports “have been anonymously criticizing the man on the popular micro-sharing service.

Wired reports that the @CasaBlancaPA user, who writes under the pen name Signor Ferrari, will challenge the subpoena under First Amendment rights. The @bfbarbie seems to have declared the same.

Examples of the critical tweets can be seen here and here.

Corbett’s call comes three months after two Philadelphia City Councilmen intimated their intentions to sue Twitter and Facebook over their alleged role in a chaotic Market East flash mob. Neither Frank DiCicco nor James Kenney followed through on the threat.

Friday Q&A: Judah Levine of the Philadelphia Union

Union fans cheer at the MLS SupeDraft, which was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Those trying to bring Google Fiber to Philadelphia ought to learn a lesson from the Sons of Ben, the supporters club of the Philadelphia Union.

Before the soccer team was even announced, the “Sons of Ben” invented chants and songs and happily sung them at Washington’s and New York’s MLS games. Their passion helped to convince Major League Soccer to award the city a new franchise, beating St. Louis, among other cities.

After a rough start in week one, the team is preparing to play its first ever home game tomorrow at Lincoln Financial Field before eventually moving in to its new stadium, PPL Park, in Chester.

Since the team’s name and logos were announced in May 2009, the organization has made a priority to nurture its already vibrant fan base, taking an active role in using social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. Between the two platforms, the team has over 30,000 followers, more than enough to fill its new stadium in Chester.

We exchanged emails with Judah Levine, the man behind the team’s social media outreach to ask what tools he uses, who he admires in the social media space and why we should go to tomorrow’s home game.

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Ten most followed Philadelphia Twitter users

Roots drummer Questlove is Philadelphia's most followed Twitter user as of March 2010. Graph courtesy of TwitterCounter.com.

It’s tough to say just what it all means, but there’s some fascination with Twitter follower counts.

It’s a metric of some kind. Not quite popularity or power or purpose. Influence, yes, though many a spam account accrues tens of thousands of followers. So, take that as our warning. Twitter follower counts don’t necessarily mean jack, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

So we took a quick spin to meet who was out there representing Philadelphia in Twitter conversations. Who are the 10 most followed Twitter users listing Philadelphia as their home?

Below, you find out.

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Event Highlights for March 22-28, 2010

Philadelphia in the spring time: the sun, the birds OHMYGOD ITS A FLASH MOB.

Social media has been getting a bad rap lately thanks to Twitter-organized mobs, but that shouldn’t stop you from attending our social media-heavy event schedule this week.

First, learn about the intricacy of social media law, then take advantage of our wonderful weather of late by searching around Old City for charity. Lastly, spend an easy Sunday morning learning how to install Linux.

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Drexel uses Twitter to notify accepted students, build community

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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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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South Philly’s Stoya: adult film it girl on DOS, social media and leaving Philadelphia

Adult film star and tech head Stoya in a South Philly cafe. Photo by Neal Santos. See more of his work at NealSantos.com.

It could be her, standing in the low light of a trendy South Philadelphia coffee shop.

There are maybe 10 people — drinking tea and working on laptops — most of whom are cute, pale-faced women with dark hair and a look. One arrived promptly at 4 p.m. and happened to be the biggest young thing in the entirety of mainstream adult film.

She was introduced as South Philly’s Stoya by CityPaper last November, but with more than six years of this city behind her and the heart of a profitable and exhausting porn career ahead of her, Stoya is leaving Philadelphia.

And she’s taking her Twitter account, T-Mobile G1 phone and MacBook Air with her. But the “Goth Girl Next Door,” who has catapulted to among the top names at porn powerhouse Digital Playground, says she isn’t a nerd — she was just raised one.

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