Pricing on Benjamin's Desk coworking options.

A Juicy Couture and an upscale nail salon wouldn’t seem to be likely building mates for a soon-to-be coworking space, but a trio in Rittenhouse say they are in the process of building Benjamin’s Desk into just that sort of space.

Michael and Jennifer Maher and their co-founder Mike Goldstein have plans to offer 32 open desks, three private offices and six permanent desks to both short-term and longer-term members across a variety of industries looking for office space in Center City starting this April.

Unlike other Philly-based coworking spaces — like, most prominently, Indy Hall — the Mahers and Goldstein hope Benjamin’s Desk will differentiate itself by offering a more corporate environment that includes a range of business services, including tactical business consulting, mail services and private phone lines.

“We look at ourselves as a hybrid,” said Michael, an active duty Naval Officer, adding that he expects to house a mix of tech startups and independent service providers who want the flexibility and collaboration of coworking but a more traditional workplace setting.

Naval Officer Lt. Michael Maher overlooking his plans for renovating the 7th floor of 1701 Walnut Street.

Cape May natives both, Michael, 29, and his wife Jennifer, an attorney at Pepper Hamilton in Center City, came here looking to be entrepreneurs. Among a host of other ventures he boasts, Michael says the two own a screen printing business called Express Custom Apparel, as well as another company that plans to produce corn-hole tournaments down the shore and equity in an Atlantic City web design firm.

The idea for Benjamin’s Desk came about in January 2010 when Michael was combing through an article on coworking. Also a business school student at Villanova’s Center City campus, Michael began researching the market for a professional, multi-industry coworking space in Center City. As he tells it, when his projections seemed to check out, he and his wife, who live in Rittenhouse, started looking for real estate and settled on 1701 Walnut Street about a year ago. Negotiations and plans have been on the go since.

Right now, however, the space on the 7th floor of the Allman Building at 17th and Walnut streets is empty and dated, facing a $150,000 remodeling, Maher said. Below, watch a short walk through of the space that is scheduled for a large-scale renovation.

“Center City is growing, from a resident’s standpoint and a jobs standpoint,” Michael said. “More people are living here. More people are working here.”

Benjamin’s Desk seeks to be “Philadelphia’s premier shared office and coworking space for professionals,” Michael is quick to say, but with so many projects in the works it will be interesting to see whether the Mahers and Goldstein can foster a professional community that offers value in a market with a growing array of colocation options.

• Soapy: an even better anti-SOPA browser plugin [boingboing] — From West Philly’s Griffin Boyce
• NextFab Studio is expanding from University City to a second location on Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia, NakedPhilly reports.
• Mayor Nutter Opens New Computer Center [City of Philadelphia] — in Frankford through Philly Rising program
• Former FM ‘pirate’ works to change rules [Inquirer] — an FCC win for Prometheus Radio
• The Final Buzzer [Philly Sports Daily] — the nearly year-and-a-half old daily local sports site is closing its doors
• A City Is A Startup: The Rise Of The Mayor-Entrepreneur [Tech Crunch] –No direct Philly mention

• Digital signage company Scala has partnered with Isabella Products to provide a USB stick with WiFi and 3G technologies to allow content to be displayed on any digital display using the wireless device.
• iMany Inc., the Center City company focused on pricing incentive and contract lifecycle management, has rebranded as Revitas.
• A social-network constitution [Inquirer] — an op-ed. Full Disclosure: this reporter led a panel discussion with the op-ed’s author on its subject
• Hackathon: PAFA Installation [Hive76] — tomorrow 10am-2pm
• Neat Company announced in a press release that it’s introducing cloud and mobile services at CES 2012 to compliment its line of scanning hardware and software. Customers will be able to share documents across a cloud network and also capture receipts using iOS and Android devices.
• Meeting management tool StarCite was acquired by San Diego’s Active Network for $57 million, as reported by a number of outlets, including PhillyInc and the Philadelphia Business Journal.
• An IT training center opened in Malvern this week called TECHbiz Learning, which was opened in Philadelphia and in New York City by IT consultant Micro Strategies Inc.. TECHBiz provides monthly lectures for technical teams and management teams.
• At the Philadelphia Home Show, energy efficiency evaluation company Mark Group held a musical to get its message out. See it below.

Members of Indy Hall all seem to agree that what makes the Old City coworking space so great is, to summarize, themselves. That’s the takeaway from “IndyViews,” a rough cut of Indy Hall member interviews conducted as part of an introspective analysis of its impact.

An earlier draft of the report was released in July, without the video accompaniment, which is the first step in a new effort by the four-year-old coworking scene to brand its impact. More on that effort will be announced next month, said Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman.

“The people here are the best around,” said freelance designer Johnny Bilotta, who is also one half of the “Two Guys on Beer” podcast. “The people that come here and stay here and contribute to it, they’re second to none in Philadelphia as far as I’m concerned.”

From the beginning, co-founders Hillman and Geoff DiMasi have made great pains to stress that Indy Hall is less a building and more, to use their feel-good word of choice, “a community,” which they say is a testament to their growing success.

Cliff Stevens, serial entrepreneur and CEO of startup Lokadot, called Indy Hall a “people platform” and, based on this series of nearly a dozen interviews, his description is apt.

Check out the early video, produced by Real Arts Media, above to hear more about what members say makes Indy Hall a hotbed for all kinds of creative-types, technology and otherwise, in Old City.

As you might guess, most teenagers in Philadelphia are, quite simply, not violent, flash mobbing ne’er-do-wells.

Like their counterparts elsewhere, they’re students, who like clothes and sports and friends. And they care a lot about how others see them.

So it might make sense that when organizers of the University Community Collaborative of Philadelphia, a youth leadership nonprofit housed at Temple University, were looking for a new outlet for the nearly 15-year-old group that its students wanted to create a news program to fight negative perceptions of themselves.

Not enough positive youth voices are being heard above the din of violent exceptions, the group argues.

Meet What’s POPPYN, a quarterly, half-hour online news show about teenage issues in Philadelphia: produced, starring and featuring the group’s participants. This month, the show’s sixth episode launched, focusing on global issues and how local kids are getting involved, and shorter segments are being produced every couple weeks.

“We highlight how young people are positively contributing to their schools, communities and organizations and their voices on local and national issues,” said Natalia Smirnov, the initiative’s media productions and communications manager. “Ultimately, we hope that POPPYN helps to change the perception of young people in the city as criminals, drop-outs, violent flash mobbers, poorly educated.”

Founded in 1997 by Temple political science professor Barbara Ferman, UCCP began as a community-based research project, adding youth programming in 2001 and beginning to focus on leadership development in 2006 and has done a lot of work to connect young leaders.

This year, with a small grant from the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development, Poppyn started with four college-aged young people who had been involved in past UCCP programming, said Smirnov.

“The original team had been frustrated with representations of youth in the media and wanted to create their own positive alternative,” Smirnov said. Each episode is created, produced and starring six to 10 young people, including students from public and charter schools and a smattering of college volunteers, many of whom have been involved with UCCP programming for years. The group, which finds its members through its own programming, is often seeking other interested young people.

No one involved in the project had TV production experience, but rather took an interested group of young people and found partnerships, including strong support from PhillyCAM, said Smirnov.

Smirnov offered a few ideas to help support their cause:

• Submit comments on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter: “It means a lot to our youth producers to to know that the show is being watched and liked and would be great to get some more public feedback.”
• Pitch ideas: Organizations that are supporting youth-led projects and activities can pitch their stories to us on whatspoppyn AT gmail.com.
• Host a screening: “We’re looking for teachers to host screenings in their classrooms,” said Smirnov. “We’ll come and do a workshop for free with them. We also had a lot of fun covering a Philly public school graduation last year — we did South Philly High School — and are looking for schools that want to have their school’s graduation featured on POPPYN.”
• Offer expertise: If you have background in video production or in dissemination, get involved by emailing whatspoppyn AT gmail.com.

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• Pair sue Comcast-Spectacor over $2M finder’s fee in 76ers sale, say they brought in buyer [Associated Press via Washington Post] -  “Two sports executives have sued former Philadelphia 76ers owner Comcast-Spectacor seeking a $2 million finder’s fee over the team’s October sale.”
• Cable Providers to Offer ‘HBO Go’ Service [New York Times] — Comcast had offered to its customers earlier in the year, followed now Time Warner Cable and Cablevision
• Comcast exec named to bank board: Angelakis to remain at cabler while serving Federal Reserve [Chicago Tribune] — Comcast CFO Michael Angelakis

• A Nickname and Dream Come True [Comcast Voices corporate blog] — Essay from a young Comcast Digital Connectors graduate
• Equity Research on Netflix Inc. and Comcast Corporation — Internet Subscription Service Providers Dealing With Greater Competition [MarketWatch Press Release]
• Subdued Christmas in Center City [Hidden City] — Grading Center City’s Christmas decorations, complimenting the Comcast Center
• Urban League receives $20K Comcast grant [Commercial Appeal] — In Memphis
• The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Electronic Arts, Time Warner Cable, Apple, Comcast and Verizon Communication  [Sacremento Bee]
• Comcast Donates to Help Youth [The Shopper Online]
• Comcast Adds Tengler to Channel Team [Channel Partners] — “Cary Tengler has joined the new channel management team at Comcast Business Class”
• What More Same Day as DVD Releases Mean for Xfinity [Comcast Voices corporate blog] — Watch video below.

The Internet craze calling out against the Stop Online Piracy Act has perhaps slowed the progress of the House bill that has been described as pitting old media against new.

But the conversation continues.

Locally, Philly.com entertainment editor and songwriter Leah Kauffman, who skyrocketed to national awareness on the back of a 2007 viral video detailing a crush on presidential candidate Barack Obama, has taken up the cause. She wrote, performed and helped produce ‘Firewall,’ a love song for the Internet, played dutifully by Geekadelphia co-founder Eric Smith behind a cardboard computer monitor.

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• Comcast to start selling Verizon mobile early 2012 [Reuters]
• Comcast execs: Verizon deal to bring the ‘quadruple play’ [Digital Trends] — “Late last week, Verizon Wireless signed a deal to purchase 122 spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, for $3.6 billion. As part of the deal, which awaits approval from the Federal Communications Commission, the Comcast will now be able to sell Verizon Wireless service as part of their communications packages.”
• More on Comcast-Verizon deal [Philly Tech News] Good roundup of other voice on the deal, which is being billed as having the potential for as big an impact as any other in the industry.
• Comcast CFO: NBC Universal integration continues to go ‘really well’ [Hollywood Reporter] — Says Michael Angelakis 10 months after the deal closed. H/T PTN

• How Comcast’s Xfinity has earned nearly 1 million Facebook fans [Lost Remote]
• NBC 10 to partner with WHYY in one of four new Comcast pledged local news initiatives [Technically Philly]
• Time Warner Cable and Comcast make push into home security [Company Town: Los Angeles Times]
• Apple email users in U.S. not receiving Comcast, Roadrunner messages [Apple Insider]
• Comcast Celebrates the Grand Opening of the Spanish-Language Center of Excellence [Comcast blog]
• Comcast elevates cable systems chief Neil Smit [Company Town: Los Angeles Times] — “Comcast Corp. elevated Neil Smit to chief executive of the company’s revenue engine: Comcast Cable Communications.”
• Chamber picks Comcast’s Cohen for William Penn Award [PhillyInc: Inquirer] — The Chamber of Commerce honoring its chairman of the board David L. Cohen.
• Dump Comcast! This Cable Company is Providing Better Portfolio Service [Investor Place] — Recommend for purchasing Cablevision instead, arguing that Comcast isn’t getting the better side of the Verizon deal.
• Universal Studios Hollywood Plans ‘Harry Potter’ Attractions [Bloomberg]
• Pennsylvania Ballet Flash Dance @ Comcast Center  [Geekadelphia]

City Controller Alan Butkovitz and his office are good at finding the lede.

The elected official charged with auditing city government and council spending continues to make news by highlighting the most egregious examples of waste, fraud and mismanagement.

Like yesterday’s announcement that half a billion dollars of taxpayer money is being managed by outdated, unsupported technology from 1996 in the city’s procurement department. Or an October audit that showed, among  other shortcomings in the city’s often criticized Sheriff’s office, that its less-than-stellar website had apparently cost $2.9 million over five years. (Yesterday, a sheriff’s employee was charged with a scam that bilked the city out of $400,000, ahead of state Rep. Jewell Williams taking office in January.)

In his second term since first being elected to the position in 2005 following a 15 year tenure in the state House of Representatives, Butkovitz, 59, seems to enjoy the gig. He is serious and detailed, eager to discuss the 400-page audit report on the Sheriff’s office one recent November afternoon, with a tuft of his gray hair falling toward his cheek in a sunny corner office of the Municipal Services Building in Center City.

Butkovitz, a resident of Castor Gardens in the Northeast,, has not been without his critics. In his 2009 Controller campaign against a younger, more progressive tax advocate, Brett Mandel portrayed Butkovitz as a machine politician who focused less on auditing each city agency as the City Home Rule Charter [PDF] requires and more on bigger, headline-grabbing and politically-strategic investigations.

Still, with increasing frequency, Butkovitz’s claims of waste, fraud and mismanagement at the city level involve technology: IT infrastructure, agency software and the shortcomings of it all.

Below, Technically Philly talks tech, taxes and hackathons with the West Philly native and graduate of Overbrook High School and Temple University.

Edited for length and clarity.

Why is technology so frequently a subject of your recent reports?

There are always failures to reach agency goals because computer systems are inadequate. And they require multimillion dollar upgrades and the people are not able to be adaptive to it. Technology is a solution and so when it’s so behind, it causes problems everywhere. In the Sheriff’s Office case, it’s always an excuse for why the city doesn’t know what’s going on.

Nearly every municipality talks about being behind on technology. Are your expectations realistic for city IT?

I think a more major problem is that city personnel are not in a position to implement new technologies even when they are brought in.

Why not?

On the whole, city personnel are not familiar wtih these systems, and they want to do the way they’ve always done things. …We had that problem with 311, which is in part an issue that city goals were greater than capacity. The investment in the hardware and software is not made what is made in other cities and not enough to reach those goals set.

The city’s had a major deferred maintance problems for decades. So you see it in the Parks and Rec facilities with, you know, an injurious piece of metal sticking out and, yes, you see it with technology, in that they’re always just patching.

But is that just a reality of under-funded city budgets? Can the expectations be met?

Sure, PGW has done fine with goals [for IT]. If there’s leadership and mid-level management committed to changes, they get it done.

It bumps up against other priorites, like no tax increases, bad economy, no cuts in fire houses, no cuts in  libraries, and [technology] becomes one of those easy places to cut.

We also had this problem with rescue squad dispatch. …We wanted them to implement tele-nursing and other triage methods — by the fire department’s own admission, half of their calls are not emergencies. Because that can mean people that are in mortal danger are not getting service and someone with a minor ailment is, all sorts of procedures to improve priority should be implemented. [The city is] finally installing GPS devices in rescue squads because they go from one end of the city to the other, so it’s a good idea to not get lost — they’re not like police districts. The other thing is the need for ID software like police to find the origin of a cell phone call.

There is a company in Princeton [MONOC] we visited that have much more ability than that. They can, for example, identify nuisance calls: they do a check of chronic callers on certain days and times and can do diversion methods for those. There are things out there to show what is possible to do. And here, there’s a system that is decades behind that. — And the software behind the Princeton company is just $1 million. It’s not an expensive package.

What is the best example on return of investment for technology upgrades at the city?

We have an enormous unpaid tax, unpaid bill problem. And the technology the city has doesn’t allow them to track down delinquents when people move, for example. This is a city that has about $400 million in accounts receivable and taxes, unpaid bills of all kinds. We’ve done reports that when L&I does a demolition for imminently dangerous building, they don’t send bills out [to those building owners].

You don’t need to get to internal efficiencies [for ROI], there are standard accounts receivables that are owed to the city as a business that are just water down the drain because of the inadequacy of the technology of the city.

What’s the most egregious example of city waste because of technology?

Those accounts receiveable.

Why? What’s step one to improve that. Technology or workforce?

It’s technology and then updating workforce.

You know, [Illinois Sen.Everett] Dirksen in the 1960s used to say that if you take a billion here and billion there, soon it adds up to real money. So first of all, a half a billion dollars in accounts receiveable is real money. So it would be worth fixing, if it was just recovering the money, but it also has this impact of…. if no one is paying your bill [to the city], if you’re not doing a good job of collecting from this person, why should I care? So it perpetuates itself.

You just released a big report on waste in the sheriff’s office. What’s an example?

They charged for maintaining a website for five years $2.9 million years [laughs]… And it’s not very good.

So what’s the conspiracy? Was it a lack of understanding or real fraud?

It was organized as an insider operations so it’s highly suspect.

The private vendor happened to be the best friend and campaign manager [of criticized and embattled outgoing Sheriff John D. Green, who Butkovitz had said 'disgraced' the office]. So there was no internal control, no system to control them. Anything that came through got paid. They had free reign. Any bill that came in would get paid. We never found a contract that authorized any payment for websites. So they charged $2.9 million over a time for something that market rates could have kept to thousands of dollars.

They then turned around and they were advertising that if you wanted to bid on a sheriff’s auction, you had to send them $75 and they’d do it, rather than having anything online. They were getting paid from both ends. In a very sophisticated way, the Sheriff’s office was using their computer system to make outrageous profit.

And then they turned around and said ‘The reason we can’t figure out where $50 million belongs is because there’s a lousy computer system.” [laughs]

The sheriff’s internal computer system was so outdated, they couldn’t keep track of the money coming in from sheriff’s sales. If this was posted as a contract opportunity, in an era where technology costs are always lowering, is there some company somewhere in the world that could actually track where the money went? …I think so.

How did you first find these high costs?

The red flag that initially drew us into this was that the majority of accounting changes [in the Sheriff's office system] were cash adjustments, and it turns out the explanation for that was that the routine fees, repetitive fees they had to pay [for normal services] could not be accommodated in their system [audit p. 52]. Those were standaed fees that needed to be paid, but their outdated system couldn’t handle that, so they had to make adjustments for something that was so basic, it needed to be built into the system.

…That started [the deeper audit].

So there was a conspiracy?

There’s no indicating that anyone from the sheriff’s office was going to be rigorous with this vendor [for the website build]. [laughs] …That’s as far as I should go.

The Sheriff’s office is a great example of the potential for open data. The tech community in Philadelphia has a lot of developers who are interested in hobby projects that make a civic difference. They want city data to make government more transparency and efficient. Have you pushed for more of that?

It sounds like a great idea, and it’s the first I’m hearing of it.

You should come to a hackathon. We’re co-sponsoring one this weekend.

I’d like that… We have done things like we had a $500 cash prize that only went for few months [asking for suggestions from city employees about improving government efficiency in January 2007 and other times].

I also think of [newly elected incoming City Commissioner] Stephanie Singer and her [Election data] project, built something that can allow people to track real time information, district by district. So in the Taubenberg/David Oh [City Council] race, you were able to see that even when on Election night, Taubenberger was winning, you would be able to see that many precincts in [Councilwoman] Marian Tasco‘s area hadn’t reported, which were supposed to go to Oh. So it can help with fighting voter fraud, it’s not just idle curiosity.

With new blood in City Commissioner roles running Elections by way of Singer and Al Schmidt, who ran against you for City Controller in 2009, do you expect improved transparency, as they’ve promised?

Well, they could certainly accomplish a lot, but the problem has never been a lack of high hopes in Philadelphia. There have been a lot of high hopes in recent years. It’s more a question of implementation. I will give Stephanie credit because she built her own website years ago when the city said it couldn’t be done, so she deserves credit for implementation. …In Philadelphia, it can be harder to make good on high hopes [than in other places.]

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an email subscription for our weekly Comcast roundup or other news updates.

• Comcast Tangled in Discrimination Suit [BET] — “Several of the company’s black employees in Chicago say that they were required to install defective and insect-infested equipment in customers’ homes. ” More from the Chicago Tribune here. Officially, the company denies the allegations.
• Key NBC executive Marc Graboff to leave the network [Company Town: LA Times] — “Marc Graboff, president of NBC’s West Coast business operations and the TV network’s longtime consigliere, is leaving the company” after diminishing role, following Comcast’s takeover.
• Q&A: How Comcast is adjusting to our changing TV habits [GeekWire] — “Interview with Tom Blaxland, senior director of product management for Comcast Interactive Media” says Philly Tech News
• Comcast gives CFO Angelakis new contract, title [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “Michael J. Angelakis that promotes him from executive vice president and chief financial officer to vice chairman and CFO.”

• Comcast goes full-footprint with Dory gateway [CED Magazine]
• NBC News announces changes to technology, social media staff [Poynter]
• Please Turn On Your Cell Phone: Comcast’s Fandango Embraces Mobile Movie Tickets [Mashable]
• ‘Tis The Season for Another Comcast Rate Hike
  Comcast Rings in New Year With Significant Increases [Broadband Reports]
• Comcast Gets Ready for CCAP [Light Reading Cable] — H/T Philly Tech News
• Comcast’s metro E service easy as 1, 2, 3 [CED Magazine]
• In the Know: Is weather radar broken promise from Comcast?  [NaplesNews.com] — People in Southwest Florida want their weather channel back
• Watch a Sneak Preview of “The Comcast Holiday Spectacular 2011″ [Comcast blog] — Video below

• AppLabs founder Reddi back on startup scene in Phila.  [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Urban Outfitters Losing Investors With Failing Fashions [Bloomberg]
• Geek of the Week: Adam Schmidt of Drink Philly & Nation [Geekadelphia] — We told you about the nightlife blog’s expansion to other markets here.
• Peapod now delivering noms in Philadelphia [Geekadelphia] — Online grocery shopping by way of Giant, have supplies delivered to your home.
• CITY OF PHILADELPHIA TO COLLECT DELINQUENT TAXES FROM PENSIONERS [City of Philadelphia blog]
• QlikTech holds its first Analyst Day in New York [Philly Tech News] — “Radnor-based QlikTech, the rapidly growing Business Intelligence software vendor that went public in the summer of 2010, went to New York this past Thursday to hold what it called its first annual “Analyst Day” for people in the financial community who follow the company”

• Hive76 Open House at NextFab Studio — A very Hacking Wintertime [Hive76 blog]
• New Jersey OKs $60M in tax loss/credit sales for tech [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “The New Jersey Economic Development Authority    (EDA) approved 75 emerging biotechnology and technology companies — only a handful of which are based in South Jersey — for the state’s innovative Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer Program.”
• Gov. Chris Christie to address N.J. biotech industry conference [Philadelphia Business Journal] — “BioNJ, the trade association for New Jersey’s biotechnology industry, has secured Gov. Chris Christie to address attendees at the association’s 2012 annual dinner meeting and awards program.”
• Microsoft Inner Circle Windows Phone Party @ RAW Sushi & Sake Lounge [Recap & Photos]  [Geekadelphia]
• Center City: Housing Authority makes $7 million on auction [Plan Philly] — The first of two auctions, highlighted by this map.
• Instagram Meets the Street: Mike Smith & Casey Catelli’s Wheatpaste Art [Geekadelphia]
• Nanotechnology funds available to Pa. universities [Philadelphia Business Journal]
• Philadelphia Media Network goes Saxotech for 400-seat deployment [News and Tech] — Insider tech to integrate print and digital operations
• [Press release] Local online magazine and media source PhillyHealthWatch.com has partnered with CBSPhilly.com to provide original content and video at www.cbsphilly.com/phillyhealthwatch. Presented by PHW host and co-founder Tiffany Bucciarelli, CBSPhilly.com’s new PhillyHealthWatch page will feature topical stories, practical tips and educational demonstrations relating to health, wellness and fitness in the Philadelphia area.”
• Philadelphia Police Commissioner Speaks to Young Professionals [Chamber of Commerce] — Watch video of Commissioner Charles Ramsey below