Friday Q&A: Dave Konopka of HigherEdCamp

Edit: corrected date.

Continuing in BarCamp Philly’s success, HigherEd is the latest in a long line of BarCamps that included HealthCamp and Technically Philly’s own BarCamp News Innovation. On June 6 at The University of Pennsylvania’s Huntsman Hall, HigherEdCamp will gather members of a large group of local universities to help foster collaboration between the typically fractured academic community, especially when it comes to technology.

Technically Philly sat down with Dave Konopka, a Web developer at the University of Penn and one of the event’s organizers. Konopka believes highly in Philadelphia’s role as a college town, and believes like many, that the technology industry is key to the city’s innovation.

We ask him why should the tech community should be interested in this event, how he got the usually rigid world of academia to support him and how he believes tech nerds can take advantage of our vast university system.
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Google CEO Eric Schmidt weighs in on Philly’s tech future

Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks to press at a media event at Penn Monday afternoon. Credit: Rikard Larma/Metro Philadelphia

Google’s Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt thinks Philly has what it takes to be a hub for technology.

Schmidt was prompted by a question from Technically Philly at a press event following Penn’s 253rd Commencement Monday afternoon where he gave the ceremonial address.

“To have a tech renaissance, you need universities, which you have here. You need good engineering programs like [Penn and Drexel]. You need a vibrant youth culture and a diverse culture. I think you have all of that criteria here,” he said.

“It’s not a suburban phenomenon. It’s an urban phenomenon. Young people want to live in urban culture.”

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If you spot Google’s CEO on the Blue Line Monday, what would you ask him?

Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt will deliver Penn's commencement address Monday.

Penn students have their fingers crossed that the clouds won’t break Monday morning.

“The temp sounds perfect, but please no rain!” said one tweet.

At least, that’s one impression left by a student on an official Twitter account dedicated to the University of Pennsylvania’s 253rd Commencement ceremony where Google CEO Eric Schmidt is scheduled to speak.

Technically Philly would love to peak at Schmidt’s prepared speech, as Google has been the center of allegations that it has a monopoly on Internet search and advertising. We’re especially interested since the Obama administration took a harder stance on monopolies when it peeled back a Bush-era antitrust policy, the Inquirer reported on Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal noted yesterday that Google may be unstoppable.

Still, it’s hard to argue that the company isn’t innovative. Just yesterday it unveiled a host of new search features. Not to mention that a few hours of Google down time sent the Twitter-verse screaming in protest.

As news-gatherers, and not news commentators, that’s where the conversation ends for Technically Philly. Instead, we pose a question to you, our readers.

If you happen to run into Schmidt – albeit with great surprise – on the Blue Line on Monday, what would you ask him?

Will GMail ever be out of beta? Have you ever rode the official Google zip line into the office? Or maybe you would ask a more hard-hitting question about those monopoly allegations. Maybe something completely off the charts.

What would you ask? We’d love to hear about it in our comments.

RJMetrics mining business database information

At least two Ivy League kids graduated in 2006, took fat-salaried jobs at the same New York City equity firm and returned to Philadelphia to reach fame and fortune by mining data for the nation’s small businesses.

The story continues still.

Today is the public opening of RJMetrics, a business intelligence dashboard and brainchild of a pair of 25-year-olds with regional ties: Robert J. Moore and Jake Stein. They want to help small and medium-sized businesses that collect data about their customers better use that information to chart user behavior.

And like any good idea, it came to them while they should have been doing something else.

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NIR Diagnostic wins Wharton Business Plan Competition

Chris Schaeffer of Realistic Eye gives his elevator pitch. The company ended up placing third.

Edit: added RIMS video.

The main event was over already, but the eight hopefuls gunning for the Wharton Business Plan Competition had a chance to bag an extra $3,000 by convincing the dinner audience that they were deserving of the People’s Choice Award.

Each company sent a representative to the steps in the basement of Wharton’s Huntsman Hall to plead their case to roughly 100 attendees who may or may not have been taking advantage of the free food. Approaches ranged from the youthful, energetic charisma of StealthRowing’s Daniel Harbuck (covered earlier this week by TP) to the frank nature of Cuddlebot’s owner, who told the crowd, “we’d love your cash.” After the pitches were finished, the judges huddled to decide the grand prize winner as the audience members dropped ballots in a silver box carried around by the organizers sporting yellow ribbons.

Hours later, NIR Diagnostic came out of the four-round competition $23,000 richer, bagging the $20,000 grand prize as well as the $3,000 people’s choice award. The company is developing a wound diagnostic device that would bump accuracy up to an estimated 85 percent from 50 percent.

After the jump we summarize and comment on each company’s elevator pitch and tell you which one is most likely to lead to a Terminator-like future.
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Technically Not Tech: StealthRowing indoor rowing training

Twenty-four year old Daniel Harbuck agrees that necessity is the mother of invention.

Almost a decade ago, as a young high school rower, the University of Penn Wharton undergrad tried to convince friends to trudge through 10 feet of snow to help him train on Salt Lake in Utah, where he grew up. They wouldn’t.

Instead, he had a friend—”a football player, a big guy”—hold a boat in place in an indoor community pool.

“We were right next to 65-year-old ladies doing water aerobics,” Harbuck says. “It was a nice idea that clearly needed a lot of work.”

It was the first iteration of StealthRowing—a device the business student is developing that enables rowing athletes to experience on-the-water training while indoors.

Essentially, a row boat cockpit is anchored to the edge of a pool, enabling rowers to practice balance and teamwork. The stationary design allows them to be tied down in a pool—but not locked in—to train in any weather.

The technology is the first to offer rowing synchronization and balance training in an indoor setting. During interviews with 1,050 clubs affiliated with USRowing, 82 percent expressed interest in the project and purchase intent, he says.

“Those who know rowing understand the need for this,” he says.

Last week, Harbuck won $5,000 from University of Pennsylvania’s Weiss Tech House for the idea. That’s in addition to $10,000 won with a Wharton Venture Award last year. On Wednesday, he hopes to win $20,000 more in Wharton’s Business Plan Competition.

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Technically Not Tech: How Happier.com will make itself money and you, well, happier

They offer a path to happiness, for five bucks.

Based on research from a noted University of Pennsylvania psychologist and coordinated by a team of three telecommuters in various Philadelphia neighborhoods, Happier.com is on the forefront of positive psychology and research dissemination.

Last week, the site rolled out a Freemium-style revenue strategy to its 20,000 users — a $4.99 monthly subscriber charge for full access to the site..

“The best researchers get up everyday trying to figure out how to get a grant, write a paper, be seen to fund their work,” said Andrew Rosenthal, a co-founder. “We get up everyday building tools for people to use this research.”

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Penn and Academic Earth part of open source education movement

Two giants in higher education’s growing open source movement seem to be circling.

At the end of January, the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Liberal and Professional Studies opened its Open Learning Commons, just about when Academic Earth launched itself.

Academic Earth, of course, is the growing aggregator of academic lectures that is creating a controversial stir in higher education. A stir not chronicled in write ups by Slate or Likehacker or by TechCrunch, though I mentioned it in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly.

“A lot of universities were excited at first [by Academic Earth], but now take issue with a for-profit.” said Jennifer Maden a Penn program implementation manager. “It’s going to depend on the licensing.”

That might get dicey because Richard Ludlow, CEO and founder of Academic Earth has suggested his hopes to enter into the college-heavy Philadelphia market.

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Penn researchers say they now can detect Alzheimer’s at earliest stage

Fighting Alzheimer’s may get easier because of research from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine.

Researchers there have announced that they have validated a test capable of confirming the incurable, degenerative disease at its earliest stages, increasing the opportunity to find methods to slow or eventually stop the effects, according to a university press release.

The test measures cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of  amyloid beta42 peptide and tau protein, two of the disease’s trademarks.

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