Solve Media: releases new pre-roll advertising insurance, gives viewers choice, makes advertisers happy [VIDEO]

Using psychology to win at advertising isn’t a new strategy, but Center City-based advertising startup Solve Media has devised a way to put internet users in a psychological pickle that forces them to decide between enduring an ad or typing a slogan into a CAPTCHA box.

The new product, Pre-Roll Insurance, launched earlier this week and it seems like it will make advertisers happy no matter what viewers do.

Based on the CAPTCHA TYPE-IN advertising product which helped put Solve Media on the map from its launch in September 2010, the pre-roll video advertising feature replaces the usual “skip ad” button that shows up a few seconds into a video internet ad with a text box. To ditch the ad and get to the content, the user has to type the company’s slogan into the text box. The advertiser feels as though he got his money’s worth because a potential customer engaged with his branding message. The internet user, however, has to decide whether to sit through an entire advertisement or type in a potentially irritating slogan.

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GoodCompany Group: Green Village incubator launches, announces partnership with GoodCompany Ventures [VIDEO]

The launch of the Green Village Philadelphia sustainable business incubator was practically a surprise party — without any of the awkward entrances.

In truth, the surprise wasn’t a complete shock since more than a few people seemed to know that Green Village, which Technically Philly first visited in January, and GoodCompany Ventures, the three-year-old bootcamp-style accelerator for social enterprises, were planning to announce their partnership at the event.

Green Village board co-chair Joe Guagliardo, executive director Zoe Selzer and Garrett Melby, CEO and cofounder of GoodCompany Ventures, told a group of about 50 people, including Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger, that the new, combined company would be called the GoodCompany Group.

“We believe that we’re creating what will be one of the most comprehensive programs for sustainable businesses and responsible entrepreneurs in the country and we hope in the world,” said Guagliardo. “We want Philadelphia to be the center of all this.”

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5 reforms in Philly tax policy that every freelancer and small business owner should know [VIDEO]

Tilahun Afessa, the Director for Policy, Planning and Outreach for the Revenue Department of the City of Philadelphia, discussing coming changes in the local tax code, during a session at first-floor storefront in the Indy Hall building.

Talk the specifics of tax reform legislation long enough, and things will probably get confusing. So, attendees of an informational session on the impact of new city tax policy legislation had a lot to process from text-packed slides.

Councilman Bill Green, who co-sponsored one half of the bills and is making this a core tenet of his outspoken plans to run for mayor in 2015, was on-hand to try to make things a little simpler.

“This is really good news,” Green said at the event Tuesday night, hosted by the city’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. “And if we work hard, we’re going to have more of an impact in the future.”

More specifically, of 90,000 licensed businesses in Philadelphia, fully 30,000 would be fully exempt from city business privilege taxes when the reform is fully implemented by 2016, said Green chief of staff Sophie Bryan. That future seems well-timed for a politician of a high pedigree.

The new policy, which passed committee in October and was approved by Council and the mayor in November, will have a series of steps toward full-implementation, scheduled for 2016, right when Green seems to expect to be settling into his new role of city chief executive.

Below, find video of Green talking about the tax reform legislation, presentation slides detailing the changes and five of the biggest reforms you should know about.

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Phila. police now have 24-hour real-time surveillance center [LINKS]

Grocery shopping at SEPTA stations? [Eyes on the Street: Plan Philly] — “Peapod, an online shopping service linked up with Giant, is now offering commuters the opportunity to browse virtual supermarket store shelves on a SEPTA station billboard.”

New Philly Startup Leaders president: ‘We are way closer to cracking the code than people think’ [Flying Kite] — Bob Moul gives his state of the organization

Phila. police now have 24-hour real-time surveillance center [PoliceOne.com]

Code for America fellows [Government Technology]

Hacks/Hackers meetup features Philly.com data-driven project demos from local hackathons [VIDEO]

Rose Ciotta, Senior Editor for Digital/Print Projects for the Inquirer, speaks at last night's Hacks/Hackers.

When journalists talk about data, they do it with the sort of sparkle in their eye that comes from finding a new way to tell a tough story. When civic-oriented programmers talk about journalism the sentiment, oddly, seems roughly the same.

At least that was the feeling in the air at the soon-to-be vacant Inquirer building as a crew of Inquirer and Daily News journalists and a few local programmers presented on how they’d manipulated data for the civic good at the second Philadelphia Hacks/Hackers meetup, dubbed Data and Demos.

“I hope that people have a greater awareness of the possibilities of technology and data to enhance and support great journalism,” said Hacks/Hackers organizer and Public School Notebook web editor Erika Owens. “It was great to have people who have been doing different types of “computer-assisted” reporting come together and learn from and share with one another.”

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Code for America fellows hint at project plans, including civic toolkit wiki [VIDEO]

Code for America fellows present at an event held at the Storefront for Urban Innovation, held by Next American City.

Before flying back to Code for America headquarters in San Francisco Saturday, the three 2012 Philadelphia fellows hinted at what they plan to build for the rest of the year.

The informal remarks from 2012 fellows Michelle Lee, Liz Hunt and Alex Yule came in front of a small crowd of fewer than 20 at the so-called Storefront of Urban Innovation, a still-being-renovated rowhome on the 2800-block of Girard Avenue that is serving as the new headquarters of the Next American City civic action nonprofit.

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RedSnake Philly 2012: 10 presenters bring Ruby and Python knowledge to second annual event [VIDEO]

RedSnake Philly beer from Mike DeLaurentis. Photo courtesy of Pam Selle.

For the second time, RedSnake Philly brought evangelists of both Python and Ruby together on Tuesday evening at Liberty Two in Center City.

Technically Philly previewed the event here.

Ten local programmers gave ten minute lightning presentations on projects done using either Python or Ruby to a crowd of other programmers and technologists. Presentation topics ranged from how to use Python to predict the alcohol percentage of home brewed beer to the pros and cons of Ruby for newbies to a 16-year study of Ira Glass’s — NPR’s “This American Life” — distinctive accent using Python.

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How Philadelphia police try to crowdsource safety [Links]

• Social Media in Law Enforcement [Social Media Today] — A write up on how @PhillyPolice are crowdsourcing safety, an effort we have covered before here.
• #FedValentines [Economix: New York Times] — Earlier this month, you may have seen the meme celebrating Valentine’s Day with economist friendly puns — you should know it began with Wharton’s own Justin Wolfers. More from Wall Street Journal.
• Brewerytown community center’s computer lab goes underused [Philadelphia Neighborhoods]

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Sustainability Workshop school welcomes Code for America fellows, other local tech community members [VIDEO]

Eight members of the Philadelphia technology community visited the Philadelphia Sustainability Workshop school at the Navy Yard Thursday.

Cofounder of Defined Clarity Bruce Marable, founder of Little Giant Media Tayyib Smith, Manager of Civic Innovation and Participation in the Office of Philadelphia Mayor Jeff Friedman and two generations of Code for America fellows — Mjumbe Poe and Aaron Ogle from 2011 and Michelle Lee, Liz Hunt, and Alex Yule from 2012 — talked to the students about the paths they took to find careers in the tech world.

In its first year, the experimental school, founded in part by former West Philly High School teacher Simon Hauger as Technically Philly has reported, is project based, allowing its 29 first students to follow a field of their own choosing, with structure from three staff teachers.

[Full Disclosure: Technically Philly organized the event in partnering with the school.]

After a brief tour of the school, Marable, Smith, Poe, Ogle, Friedman, Lee, Hunt and Yule introduced themselves to the students.

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Northbroadband Design Challenge: urban farming network and viral couponing tool pitched at Temple event [VIDEO]

The 7th floor of the Fox School of Business at Temple University during Thursday's Northbroadband Design Challenge to kickoff its inciteXchange.

Temple business students walked their portion of North Philadelphia last week looking for inspiration.

Sixteen cross-disciplinary groups, including MBA students and undergraduates, were charged with sustainable solutions to impact Temple and its adjacent neighborhoods for the better. It was the second Northbroadband Design Challenge, as part of the school’s Design Week first held last year by its new Center for Design and Innovation.

Following a compressed bit of field research, their groups spent Thursday developing clear pitches to be judged by a tech-focused crew of judges. Many of the of the 16 projects involved technology as tools for solutions, including the second place idea that could be best described as a viral couponing tool.

Some components of the ideas will be developed, either by the students or by being pitched to interested technologists at upcoming hackathons, said organizer Youngjin Yoo.

The business school again organized its inciteXchange, a one-day conference around urban innovation held Friday to close out the week. Below, see the presentations by the top three winners and the address Mayor Nutter gave the more than 100 students, faculty and judges.

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