Gov Fresh Awards 2011: Philly runner-up as City of the Year, wins in four categories

The City of Philadelphia was named a runner-up as City of the Year and was represented in several other categories by other initiatives in the 2011 Gov Fresh Awards, celebrating open government initiatives.

The honors, offered by the three-year-old online news site, followed an outpouring of support in online voting and final decisions by a panel of judges. The City of Philadelphia, which had almost double the number of online votes of second place New York City, lost to the 67th ward after judging and was tied in a runner-up slot with Chicago.

Local data catalog OpenDataPhilly.org won in two categories — Best Government/Citizen Collaboration and Best Open Data Platform — the Code for America team-built ReRoute.It won Best Transit App and the recently unveiled Sheltr.org won Best Social Services App. Runner-up nods were given to ElectNext for Best Civic Startup and Septa.mobi, built by the Devnuts crew.

Updated: As noted in the comments, also the Azavea-built DistrictBuilder tool was a runner-up for the Best Use of Open Source.

Philadelphia vying for ‘City of the Year’ for open gov efforts in 2011 GovFresh Awards

The City of Philadelphia and its residents have been nominated in a variety of categories in the 2011 GovFresh Awards, organized by an two-year-old open government news site of the same name.

As of publishing, Philadelphia is battling with New York City to be named City of the Year, and a variety of city organizations and efforts are mentioned in nearly each of the 20 categories. Both Azavea and ElectNext are nominated in Best Civic Startup. OpenDataPhilly.org is mentioned in multiple categories, including the Best Open Data Platform and the Best Government/Citizen Collaboration.

With a quick email sign up, users are given 10 votes for each category, though they’re allowed just three votes for each option. Voting ends next week, when a judging component will begin.

Philadelphia 2011 primary election endorsement roundup

The 3,500 Philadelphia voting machines being tested. Photo courtesy of KYW

Technically Philly is not endorsing any candidates for today’s primary election, but it just feels like our civic duty to remind you of this election.

To do so, here’s a roundup of some other relevant endorsements and perspectives worth giving a look before you hit the polling place today.

• Inquirer Editorial: Pa. Primary endorsements
• DN Editorial: The Philadelphia Daily News endorsements in the May 17 primary
• Ten Things You Need to Know Before Primary Day on Tuesday [Metropolis]
• An Annotated Guide to the May Primary [Metropolis] You can also read about the ‘bullet ballot’ here.
• As always the Committee of Seventy at Seventy.org or  1-866-OUR-VOTE begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-866-OUR-VOTE end_of_the_skype_highlightingis a great resource for elections.
• City Paper’s 2011 Ultimate Primary Poll! — A Poll Dadddy showing where some of its readers stand
• GPCC PennPAC Recommends Slate of Candidates for Council [Chamber of Commerce] — Recommends Council candidates and features video here.
• Three Council Candidates Who Will Fight Corporate Power: Cohen, Hornstein and Paulmier [Young Philly Politics]
• Philadelphia Voting Machines Pass Inspection, Even If All Ballot Names Don’t [CBS]

10 ugliest websites in Philadelphia — voter’s choice awards

We’re not one to question the look, feel and design of online presences, but sometimes it’s fun to let other people.

So, over the past couple weeks, we sought your opinion for the ugliest websites in Philadelphia.

South-Philly.com

Our nominator says: part of an empire of bad templates from a quick hit web design firm in town, as noted by other suggestions. Visit here.

As submitted privately.

WMD Hotsauce

Our nominator told us: “Actually had a convo w owner, “You don’t like my logo? I designed it myself!”" Visit here

As suggested by Danya Henninger.

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Hispanic community’s distance from the web will affect voting Nov. 2: Guest Post

Hispanic voters and their use of the web will both have an impact on Tuesday's election, says Tek Lado magazine Editor Liz Spikol.

This is a guest post by Liz Spikol, Editor of bilingual Tek Lado magazine, as part of our Guest Contributor Week. Want to have an op-ed or feature you’ve written to appear on TP, now or in the future? Drop us a line.

One way you can tell it’s election time: Latinos are in the news.

President Obama is reaching out, first by highlighting Latino kids at the White House’s first science fair, and then—one day later—revealing a broad plan to encourage educational achievement among Latino children. He’s also suggested, in ways big and small, that voting on Nov. 2nd should be a priority for the Hispanic community.

He’s not wrong to push for those votes, particularly in such a hotly contested battle.

CBS News reports that in some states, the battles may be decided by Latinos —and Latinos tend to vote Democratic. The country’s fastest growing minority has a lot of power, and Obama knows it.
Right now about 19 million Latinos nationally are eligible to vote.

There are implications on both sides of the aisle for Latinos, and to understand where each party stands can be of significant value when pulling a lever behind that flimsy blue curtain.

Understanding that those 19 million voters don’t necessarily vote in lockstep, how Latinos get their information about each party — on the web or through mobile devices — can be just as crucial to that understanding.

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