Diversity : Innovation + Job News

Leadership Philadelphia's drive to stay current starts with connections

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, January 31, 2012

How does a 50 plus year old organization stay current with the latest trends? That's the challenge for Leadership Philadelphia, which has been around since the late 1950s.

Liz Dow, President and CEO, says the key is connecting the old guard with up and coming business leaders in Philadelphia. In 2012, Dow is bringing people like Geoff DiMasi of Indy Hall and P'unk Avenue and Michelle Freeman of YIP (and Flying Kite) into the fold, with plans for both to come speak at Leadership Philadelphia's Sunday Breakfast Club.

"It's our mission to mobilize and connect professionals," says Dow, with offerings like the Core Program and the Executive Program, which aim to train and provide networking for Philly's business community. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Leadership Philadelphia launched the Connector Project, with the stated mission to identify under-the-radar leaders, study them in order to teach others to connect, and celebrate their success.

At the end of 2011, Leadership Philadelphia announced the nomination of 76 creative connectors, which Dow terms "a funky wonderful group of entrepreneurial arts people who are trusted members of the community."

There's also the Pay It Forward program, in which participants are given money to hand to someone else and then report back. The stories are now pouring in.

Fairmount Park Art Association's Executive Director Penny Balkin Bach writes that she "matched the $50 and sent it to Creative Connector Stanford Thompson at Play On, Philly to buy 100 reeds for the kids playing wind instruments." Irene Hannan, a Senior Vice President at Citizens Bank, donated the money to a single mom she found through Project HOME to use for her children’s Christmas gifts.

Leadership Philadelphia also launched This I Believe, which formed the basis for a national radio series produced out of WHYY and airing on NPR's All Things Considered and Weekend Edition Sunday.

Recruiting for Leadership Philadelphia's Core Program begins in March 2012, The Executive Program, now underway, concludes in June.

Source: Liz Dow, Leadership Philadelphia
Writer: Sue Spolan

Collegeville's GigiK helps beat the system with KOP-based Free Court Dockets

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, January 31, 2012

He has a big, long, hard to pronounce name, so Gigi Kizhakkechethipuzha generally goes by the moniker Gigi K in Philadelphia entrepreneurial circles. Kizhakkechethipuzha's website Free Court Dockets is, he says, the only place online to get a federal case docket for free. The site, with a brand new design, will relaunch on or before February 14.

Otherwise, attorneys and legal researchers must use the Public Access to Court Records (PACER) Case Records locator system, which is about to raise prices 25 percent, from $.08 to .10 per page, starting in April 2012.

Kizhakkechethipuzha explains that while researchers have been charged per page for US District Civil or Criminal, US Bankruptcy, US Appellate, US Federal Claims, or US International Trade records since 2005, 14 universities were exempt until 2009, when even that avenue was closed.

According to an article in Ars Technica, "PACER locks public documents behind a paywall, lacks a reasonable search engine, and has an interface that's inscrutable to non-lawyers."

While activist Carl Malamud and Senator Joe Lieberman fought for the public's right to access to the documents, the paywall remains, and the search function remains a hurdle for lay audiences. Two large firms, LexisNexis and Westlaw, offer a more user friendly interface, but that ease comes at a premium price.

The King of Prussia startup Free Court Dockets has a different pricing structure, explains Kizhakkechethipuzha. The cost of obtaining the records will be covered by advertising revenue on the site and user donations.

Kizhakkechethipuzha, who lives in Collegeville, originally got into legal information services via inspiration delivered nearly to his front door. His neighbor, an attorney, was explaining how court scheduling orders often got mixed up, and a lawsuit could result from a missed court date. Kizhakkechethipuzha developed Docket Digest, which was an automated system to download and extract court dates to keep attorney calendars straight. While Docket Digest is no longer in existence, Free Court Dockets grew out of it.

Kizhakkechethipuzha, whose office is in King of Prussia, also operates several other startups, including Courtport, for legal research, Gami LLC, which offers outsourced business processes and applications (Kizhakkechethipuzha works with developers based in India), and Talentoid, an online job recruitment resource.

Source: Gigi Kizhakkechethipuzha, Free Court Dockets
Writer: Sue Spolan

DreamIt startup accelerator in Israel to be first-of-its-kind hybrid program

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, January 24, 2012

It is now time to look toward the land of milk and honey for the latest in tech. "Israel is famous for its technology innovation, though many companies have difficulty expanding into the US and global markets," says Mitchell Golner, Managing Partner of DreamIt Israel, the latest expansion of the Philadelphia based startup accelerator. After adding a New York City program in 2011, DreamIt Ventures goes global in 2012.

On January 17, applications opened up for Israeli entrepreneurs. Noelle McHugh, DreamIt's office manager, says companies have already started applying, and DreamIt expects to choose five Israeli startups to accompany 10 US-based entrepreneurs this summer in Manhattan.

Golner, who has been living in Israel, says DreamIt has been interested in developing a program in the Israel market for a while. "We are focused on helping Israeli startups expand in the US and in global markets. We will consider a wide array of companies that can fit the lean startup model. Most are in the Internet and mobile space and include B2B an B2C businesses." According to Golner, the new program is a hybrid and the first of its kind in Israel. DreamIt Israel will be based in the environs of Tel Aviv. A specific location has not yet been announced.

Companies will spend one month in Israel and then travel to the US to spend three months in New York. "After the NYC program, when the companies return to Israel, they are offered a workspace for up to 2 months," adds Golner. "The curriculum, coaching, community, and other fundamental aspects of the DreamIt program are consistent across the Israeli program and the NYC program, with specific curriculum elements for the Israeli startups in the first month."

The deadline to apply to the program is early March. The Israel program begins April 15, and participants start the New York segment on May 14, returning home in mid August. There will be two demo days for the overseas participants: one in New York and one back home. The Israel program wraps up in October.

Source: Mitchell Golner, Noelle McHugh, DreamIt Ventures
Writer: Sue Spolan

Disaster plan: Philly startup Near-Miss Management is a guaranteed hit

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, January 24, 2012

It would be incredibly useful to predict disasters before they happen. That's the goal of Near-Miss Management, a new company co-founded by Ulku Oktem and Ankur Pariyani, who met at the University of Pennsylvania, where Oktem taught and Pariyani received his PhD.

Suppose the BP Gulf oil spill could have been prevented. Or the disaster in Bhopal. Oktem and Pariyani have created the remarkable, patent pending, Dynamic Risk Predictor Suite, comprised of three software programs and four add-ons that are able to predict major problems before they happen, saving billions of dollars annually.

"It's an area I started to work on more than 10 years ago," recalls Oktem, who is a senior research fellow at the Wharton School in the Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. "We started out focusing on personal near misses." For example, if a worker slips, but doesn't fall down, that's considered a near miss and an indicator of future problems.

Oktem says the science of close calls has been gaining momentum. It was her work with the chemical industry that sparked an interest in practical applications of a problem that was previously in the realm of academic theory. "Near misses are a leading indicator of accidents," says Oktem. If you look back at unfolding events in the aftermath, adds Pariyani, there will always be several near misses leading up to any major accident.

The software suite Near-Miss Management has developed is designed initially to address issues in the chemical industry, and will easily apply to a wide range of businesses, including airlines, pharmaceuticals, energy, defense, finance and insurance.

"We expect that once our software is running in a few plants, it will catch on very fast," says Oktem, who cites an annual loss of about $10 billion in the chemical industry due to accidents and unexpected shutdowns. "People who are responsible for risk management of chemical plants are a close knit group. The key is getting the first few companies, and we expect to do that this year."

The bootstrapped Near-Miss Management, based in Center City, includes three on the management team and five programmers. Near-Miss Management will demonstrate its software tomorrow at the upcoming Philly Tech Meetup at the Quorum of the University City Science Center.

Source: Ulku Oktem, Ankur Pariyani, Near-Miss Management
Writer: Sue Spolan

Zaahah! Collaborative search launches with South Jersey angel backing

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Zaahah is a new collaborative search and online desktop that combines beauty and brains. James Sisneros, who created the recently launched site under the aegis of his company startUP Productions LLC, has just raised seed funding from a group of independent angel investors from South Jersey. The undisclosed sum will carry the startup for the next six months, according to Sisneros, who begins seeking a Series A round this week.

Sisneros came up with the idea for Zaahah while taking an executive course at Wharton. The platform takes social search one step further. First, Zaahah allows users to separate work, personal and academic profiles, rather than lump them all into one massive favorites bin.

But the real genius of Zaahah is in the networking. When search results are returned, Zaahah lets users know who else is searching on the same topic. Users can communicate in a completely firewalled manner. Each user has an anonymous Zaahah email address. This functionality will be particularly helpful for researchers at different academic institutions or companies.

"It will eliminate redundant effort," explains Sisneros. "If we are in different offices searching on the same problem, we will see that." Students across the country will be able to connect on shared topics. Zaahah also allows users to chat in real time as well as store search criteria, annotated results and related documents in the cloud.

Sisneros has teamed up with Edventure Partners to launch Zaahah through colleges and universities nationwide. "There are classes at 12 universities who will market Zaahah for the semester. They're responsible for market research and public campaigns. A team of 300 people is doing the marketing for me." Sisneros has a four year exclusive agreement with Edventures, which will be marketing his search engine at 66 universities over the next two years. Zaahah now employs three developers and two marketing specialists, all on a full time contract basis.

Zaahah, which can also be accessed via browser plug-in, does not look like any other search engine out there. As opposed to a blank slate, the landing page is filled with attractive images that correspond to popular search terms. Ads run down the right side of the page. Sisneros also plans to create a hybrid advertising and discount program for Zaahah users, who will receive eight email offers a month for deals on products and services based on search topics.

Source: James Sisneros, Zaahah
Writer: Sue Spolan

Startup activity gains momentum in 2011

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, December 20, 2011

It's the classic impulse: make lemonade out of economic lemons. 2011 was the year of the startup. When the job market slumped, ingenuity kicked in, and entrepreneurs had places to gather. The Quorum at the University City Science Center opened to provide a common space for entrepreneurs, hosting events like Philly Tech Meetup, which drew increasing crowds to its monthly demos of startups.

Along with the Science Center's continued support of entrepreneurs, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania provided funding for many local companies including AboutOne. BFTP's Navy Yard neighbor GPIC has stepped in to centralize the future of energy efficiency.

Bob Moul, of Dell Boomi, took the helm at Philly Startup Leaders, which is re-tooling its mission while putting together a pair of fruitful Philly Startup Weekends.

DreamIt Ventures 2011 gave a boost to 14 fledgling companies, including frontrunners Cloudmine, ElectNext, SnipSnap, Metalayer, and Spling, all to remain in Philadelphia. Yasmine Mustafa, a past DreamIt participant, and most recently a Philadev Ventures member, recently sold her startup 123LinkIt to national content syndication network Netline.

Writer: Sue Spolan

Life sciences, tech, and food drive job creation as city's unemployment lags behind national average

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Philadelphia's most recent unemployment rates checked in at 10.9%, which is well behind the national average of 8.8%. While the entire tri-state Greater Philadelphia area fared better at 8.4%, 2011 showed plenty of companies that are hiring.

When a company cannot hire employees fast enough, it's got to be NextDocs. The Microsoft SharePoint provider is bringing people in at breakneck speed. Transcend United continues to expand in IT, through mergers, acquisitions and hiring. GPIC is always looking to staff its constituent companies.

Google search challenger DuckDuckGo expanded from a basement operation to offices in Paoli and is seeking employees to fill the new space. VCopious, which provides virtual environments for enterprise, expects to double its staff by the end of next year. GIS expert Azavea continues to expand.

Center City based Cliq is looking for engineers who can assist in the mission to transform social data into social knowledge.

Other growth areas are in life sciences; Greenphire, founded to streamline clinical research, expects to double staff following a Series A round of funding. Echo Therapeutics reported earlier this year it was hiring 25.

Farm to table continues upward. South Jersey based Zone 7 and Chester County's Wyebrook Farm expanded considerably this year. Philly Cow Share, Bennett Compost, and Common Market all thrived this growing season. The Healthy Carts initiative launched to address the problem of food deserts in underserved areas of the city.

Writer: Sue Spolan

Social innovation the focus of separate competitions for women, Jewish entrepreneurs

Monday, December 12, 2011

A 2010 Edelman goodpurpose study found that 86 percent of global consumers believe that business needs to place at least equal weight on society's interests as on business interests. This thinking is at the root of social entrepreneurship, an increasingly used model employed by both non- and for-profit entrepreneurs to build successful and sustainable businesses.

Two local groups are looking to nurture those ideas through separate programs.

The Women for Social Innovation, a giving circle of Women's Way, is taking applications for its Turning Point Prize, a $15,000 annual award given the last three years to an emerging female social entrepreneur living or studying in Greater Philadelphia and who is developing a non-profit venture. Last year's winner, Tracie Gilbert, developed a 10-month community education initiative to help women gain tools necessary to help their pre-teen and teen daughters make healthy and empowered decisions about sexual health.

"The prize winner gains important help in navigating the challenges of establishing a new venture," says Nancy Moses, WSI founder. "It's a win-win, since our members are also enriched by the experience of helping an emerging social entrepreneur."

The application deadline for this year's competition is 5 p.m. on Dec. 28. Information on eligibility, selection criteria and application guidelines available here.

Applications have already closed for another program, the Tribe 12 Social Entrepreneur Fellowship – a group of 22-40 year-old Jewish difference-makers looking to plant the seeds of innovation in Philadelphia. However, the group is always looking to engage potential fellows.

Last year's fellows include Todd Baylson, the manager of planning and policy at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, who aimed to green the land occupied by Jewish religious institutions, and School District of Philadelphia special education teacher Sara Landman, who worked to utilize retired Jewish educators to increase the literacy skills of urban students and their parents. The next group of fellows take over in January.

"The Tribe 12 Social Entrepreneur Fellowship enables innovators on the cutting edge of creativity to work together to launch socially-minded ventures that change the world," Ben Wachstein, Project Director of Tribe 12. "Our Fellows are informal educators and community organizers, nonprofit managers and environmental activists, programmers and artists, biotech visionaries and Israel advocates."

Source: Rachel Dukeman
Writer: Joe Petrucci

Wharton grads create hybrid retail apparel business, hiring to grow national presence

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Stephan Jacob began his Wharton MBA with a specific plan. The day he decided to start Kembrel, an online retailer that now has a brick and mortar presence, was the day he applied to Penn. "For me, those two years were about finding partners I could trust to start a business," says Jacob of Cherif Habib and Aymeric de Hemptinne, Kembrel co-founders and fellow MBA grads. Kembrel recently raised $1 million in startup funding from MentorTech Ventures, Blazer Ventures, and private sources.

Jacob, who grew up in Germany, came to Philadelphia with a degree in computer science from the University of Mannheim. None of the founders was born in the United States.

"I was not at all into fashion," admits Jacob. "Fashion as consumer, yes. But I was more into web and software development. It's been an interesting learning curve, understanding how the industry works in the United States, identifying the supplier network."

Jacob credits Wharton with essentials like connecting Kembrel with advisors and investors, and even the company name, inspired by Wharton's Vice Dean of Student Life, Kembrel Jones, AKA Dean Of Happiness.

The retail operation launched its first beta version in April 2010. "It was a business with a plan, not just a business plan," says Jacob. "We dedicated that summer full time to the business and launched in September of 2010 with the vision of being a marketing platform for consumer brands that reach the college demographic."

With 32,000 online subscribers and 400 members who have signed up for the newly introduced VIP level, Kembrel has a national reach, with a presence on over 2,000 campuses. The greatest activity is at Penn, University of Texas, University of Cincinnati, Northeastern, Harvard, Florida State, Ohio State, and University of Michigan.

Kembrel just opened up a store at 1219 Locust, which is also the company headquarters and fulfillment center. "We've only been open since Nov. 18, and it's interesting to see the cross conversion. It's something we are still experimenting with, how we can create a consistent experience for our customers in store and offline." The ability to stop in and try on clothing alleviates the fit problem with online purchases, Jacob adds.

Jacob agrees that Kembrel must compete with the big brick and mortar players who already have an online presence, but that Kembrel represents more aspiring, less known labels and young designers who are not in national chains.

The company, with five full time employees and under $50,000 in monthly sales, is hiring on the buying and merchandising end, and is now looking into growing its national physical presence.

Source: Stephan Jacob, Kembrel
Writer: Sue Spolan

Temple grad's ad-automating blog tool 123LinkIt acquired by national syndication network

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, November 29, 2011

It is possible to make money in your sleep. Yasmine Mustafa, founder and CEO of 123LinkIt.com, has created such a successful affiliate marketing tool for use on Wordpress blogs that the company has been acquired by Netline Corporation, a national B2B syndication network. Mustafa is now onsite at the company's east coast office in Lansdale, where she is serving as Product Marketing Manager.

123LinkIt automates the advertising process for bloggers. Once you install the Wordpress plug-in, 123LinkIt does the work for you, finding keywords in your blog and creating hyperlinks to places like Amazon and other online retailers.
As a blogger, you don't have to do anything special to make money. There are no ads on the side of your page. There are no annoying pop-ups when the reader rolls over particular words. A 123LinkIt hyperlink looks like any other. The magic is under the hood.

"What's special is it has a tracking code," says Mustafa of the link, which drops a cookie in the reader's browser. "When someone buys the item mentioned in the blog, it lets us know there was a sale involved. We split the commission with the blogger, who gets 85 percent, and we take 15 percent." With over 20,000 dowloads of the 123LinkIt software, those commissions add up.

Mustafa, who grew up in Royersford, Montgomery County and attended Temple University as an entrepreneurship major, was struggling with her own blog readership and advertising revenue when she hit on a winning formula one day, almost by accident. "I wasn't seeing results, so I forgot about it. Usually my posts took hours to write and research, but one day I was on the train, and wrote a silly post on the top 20 entrepreneurial quotes. It blew up. The first day I had 20,000 hits. There was advertising on that post. The next month, I got all these checks from AdSense and Commission Junction and I realized there is something here." Mustafa found the process of creating links to be time consuming, so she came up with the idea of automating the process, enlisting the help of developer John Bunting, who developed the first version of the product.

123LinkIt first targeted mom bloggers, says Mustafa, because they know how to engage their readers and promote their blogs, they write about products, and are not necessarily tech savvy, so an automated plug-in is ideal. The next groups 123LinkIt will target are fashion and technology bloggers. The company is part of Philadev Ventures.

Mustafa is a frequent tweeter, and has hinted at the announcement regarding 123LinkIt's upcoming deal on social media, so stay tuned to her twitter account @myasmine for details in the next few weeks.

Source: Yasmine Mustafa, 123LinkIt
Writer: Sue Spolan

Change By Us launches as virtual, social Post It note for community innovation

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, November 29, 2011

It would be great to stick a Post It note on the front door of City Hall. Philadelphia's new Change By Us initiative, officially launched last week, offers citizens the virtual and social networked version of the Post It experience. The Knight Foundation, one of the project's funders along with The Rockefeller Foundation, also announced that it has thrown $25,000 into the mix, divided in a way to be determined, with the understanding that the funds will help facilitate community generated change in Philadelphia, according to Knight's Donna Frisby-Greenwood.

So far, says Jeff Friedman, Manager of Civic Innovation and Participation in the Mayor's Office, the Change By Us website has attracted 229 users who have generated 234 ideas, from poetic to prosaic. For example: "We've started our own grassroots campaign in Old City named Scoop the Poop Campaign. Our slogan is "No Pile Left Behind," reads one note. While there are many similar ideas having to do with pets and regulation of their behavior, there is also a groundswell of support for better use of community centers and public facilities. "The way the world communicates is changing," remarked Mayor Michael Nutter during the Change By Us press conference. "As social media evolves, the City of Philadelphia is at the forefront." Of the 234 ideas, 32 projects have so far been created on the site.

An important aspect of Change By Us is connecting citizens with resources, and a section of the site, which was developed with the help of the Philadelphia's Code for America fellows, offers one click connections to the East Park Revitalization Alliance, Congreso, and The Center City District, among dozens of others.

The second city in America to adopt Change By Us, Philadelphia is following the blueprint of the recently launched New York City Change By Us program, developed through a $100,000 initial grant, according to Jake Barton, whose group Local Projects created the New York version and acted as consultant for the local initiative. Going forward, Barton announced that the Change By Us platform is open source, freely available to every village, town, city or megalopolis.

The Philadelphia initiative has its own public service announcement, created by PhillyCAM, featuring local leaders like Young Involved Philly's Claire Robertson-Kraft and Department of Parks and Recreation's Mike Deberardinis telling viewers they are listening. Kraft says, "Jeff and I were talking about the priorities of the Change By Us program, and our three choices were smarter, safer and greener." Rather than attempt to choose one of the three, says Robertson, the Change By Us tagline includes all three goals. "There are projects on Change By Us that are similar to ideas generated at State of Young Philly."

Friedman adds that Change By Us can eliminate duplicate efforts. If a community group has improved a park in Northeast Philly, people in South Philly can find out about it, reducing time and sharing resources, he explains. Response leaders, says Friedman, will monitor projects coming in to steer them to the right departments and organizations.

Source: Jeff Friedman, Michael Nutter, City of Philadelphia, Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philly
Writer: Sue Spolan

Open Access Philly: Empowering the intersection of data and community

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Here comes the promise of Mayor Nutter. In less than two years, Jeff Friedman has revolutionized Philadelphia's role in connecting community engagement and technology. On Oct. 28, Friedman, manager of the Mayor's Office of Civic Innovation & Participation, hosted Crowdsourcing at the Intersection, a free all-day Open Access Philly conference.

Speakers at the Science Center's Quorum included crowd pleasers Robert Cheetham, Alex Hillman, Geoff Dimasi, Desiree Peterkin-Bell and Paul Wright, co-leader of the forum and Comcast's project manager for Local Media Development and the new Project Open Voice initiative.

Mayor Michael Nutter, who offered remarks right at the top of the program, announced that Philadelphia's efforts have won a top-10 place on the Public Technology Institute's list of Citizen Engaged Communities. "We are in the customer service business," says Nutter of the city government's outreach strategy, in which open data and constant communication is crucial. During his speech, Nutter tweeted a photograph of the audience to prove his point.

Friedman stated as his broad goal a movement without strict membership rules convened to articulate a shared vision for open access to data. Cheetham's company Azavea, in partnership with NPowerPA, Technically Philly, and The William Penn Foundation, created the Open Data Race, and Cheetham announced winners at the forum.

Out of dozens of contenders, first place went to Public School Notebook, which wants data on where Philadelphia public school students go after 12th grade; in close second place, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia requested information on bike thefts, and third place went to Conservation Pennsylvania for vacant land data. In addition to information, winners receive cash prizes of up to $2,000.

Source: Jeff Friedman, Mayor Michael Nutter, City of Philadelphia; Robert Cheetham, Azavea
Writer: Sue Spolan

Philly Tech Meetup's rapid growth bodes well for region's brightest startups

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, November 01, 2011

In a matter of months, Philly Tech Meetup has grown into a force to be reckoned with. Rohan Mehta, founder and organizer of the monthly event, says he was inspired by New York Tech Meetup, which regularly draws a crowd of a thousand. Judging by the rapid growth of the local Tech Meetup, Philly isn’t too far behind.

According to the PTM website, 233 attended the Oct. 26 evening gathering, held at Quorum inside the University City Science Center. A show of hands indicated that over half were first-timers. PTM already has almost a thousand members in total.

"PTM exists to advance entrepreneurship and innovation in the region," says Mehta. "Our focus is on hosting productive events that engage and inspire. Our goal is to build a sustainable tech ecosystem, and that begins by convening all stakeholders regularly to learn and share."

This month, Lokalty, Spling and Ajungo gave demos in front of a standing room only crowd that was overwhelmingly male, although diverse in age and ethnicity. Of the several hundred in attendance, about a dozen were women.

Lokalty, a cross referenced loyalty program, gave the example of going to a spa, then getting a discount at a nearby coffee shop. While the startup has plenty of competition, it differentiates its offer by allowing users to accumulate universal points. Currently there are seven participating retailers, all in Center City.

Ajungo officially launched at PTM. The initiative mashes up social media with travel; notably, sports fans who follow their teams to away games. Members can connect, post pictures and reviews, and in the future, earn rewards.

DreamIt Ventures company Spling announced it has received a Series A round of funding from a Menlo Park, California VC firm, even though the startup is still in pre-launch. Also social in nature, Spling participants share and discover online media. Founders Billy McFarland and Mac Cordrey say they already have 2,000 users in the closed beta.

Philly Tech Meetup has been the darling of local startups; since February, rapid growth companies including Launchrock, CloudMine, RezScore, Storably, and ElectNext have been among the presenters. There is also a brand new Philly Tech Meetup website.

Mehta also announced the upcoming Tech Arts Beer (TAB) Festival, to take place in Spring 2012, gathering entrepreneurs from all three disciplines. You can sign up for one of the planning committees.

The next Philly Tech Meetup will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at the Quorum. It’s free to attend. Startups that wish to present can apply for a spot on the agenda.

Source: Rohan Mehta, Philly Tech Meetup
Writer: Sue Spolan

Local tech VP appointed to FCC's advisory committee on diversity

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Brigitte Daniel is on her way up, literally. By the time you read this, Daniel will be on a seven-week fact-finding mission through Southeast Asia funded by an Eisenhower Fellowship. But wait, that's not all. Daniel was just appointed to the Federal Communications Commission’s Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age. We'll get back to that tour of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore in a minute.

How about that FCC appointment? Daniel, an attorney and Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems, is one of the youngest appointees to the committee and the only representative from Philadelphia. The committee will meet in Washington, DC to ensure that minorities and low income communities get broadband access. "It's being reframed as a civil rights issue of the 21st century," says Daniel, who adds that increasingly, institutional interactions require internet access. If you want to apply for a job, apply to college, and get social services, you need the web.

Wilco is a family business founded by Will Daniel, Brigitte's father. One of Wilco’s primary missions is to provide low cost, high speed advanced telecommunication services to minorities and underserved communities in the Greater Philadelphia area. “One of the reasons I was appointed to the diversity committee for the FCC was because Wilco served as a catalyst to bring together the various partners and community groups that formed the Philadelphia Freedom Rings Partnership. Freedom Rings is a citywide consortium of educational institutions, municipalities, The City of Philadelphia, and Wilco, which had the goal of providing high speed access to underserved and economically stressed areas."

While Freedom Rings provides free access to participants, Daniel stresses that ultimately, the goal is affordable service. "When you start talking about free, it's hard to be sustainable. Someone will always have to pay for it." Daniel adds that if the service is free it will perceived to have less value. "Our whole point is to make it affordable." To prove that point, Wilco customers can get digital cable, high speed internet and a laptop for under $50 a month. "It's our version of the triple play," says Daniel.

Back to that whirlwind trip to the other side of the globe: Daniel is a 2011 Eisenhower Fellow. The India and Sri Lanka segments of her seven week trip are funded by the fellowship; she added the other destinations in order to gather even more knowledge of emerging technologies and policies for connecting impoverished populations.

Daniel returns in December and begins a two-year term at the FCC while remaining at Wilco. "Whatever we recommend, I hope it's taken to heart. At Wilco, we are on the ground, in the trenches. If the FCC takes our policy recommendations seriously, that's exciting."

Source: Brigitte Daniel, Wilco Electronic Systems
Writer: Sue Spolan

DreamIt-backed data mashup startup Metalayer hiring

Flying Kite Media Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Matthew Griffiths and Jon Gosier dream of clean data. The pair formed Metalayer to sort and visualize any kind of information gleaned from just about any source. The DreamIt Ventures backed company grew out of Gosier's 2007 company Ushahidi, founded in Africa to collect and map eyewitness reports of violence in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election.

Griffiths and Gosier met in Uganda, and although neither is Ugandan, both profess a love for all things African. "We met two years before Metalayer, working to find signal in noise," says Griffiths. "We identified key bits of information in times of crisis." Ushaidi's SwiftRiver project was awarded the 2011 Knight News Challenge.

Both came to the United States this year, where Gosier was raised (Griffiths hails from the UK), and realized that Ushaidi's algorithm could have verticals in other industries, particularly journalism. "Our passion is tools for better data narratives." For example, you might want to mash up a real time Twitter feed with XML, email, and a document you downloaded onto your hard drive. You might be looking for certain keywords.

Once Metalayer gathers data from diverse sources, the user can create infographics or visualize it on a map. Griffiths recalls that the whole process began by going through the motions of research themselves to understand the steps that human brains take. Gosier put together a video to explain the way the application works.

As far as revenue, Gosier says the idea is to package the technology. "We plan to offer the underlying APIs to developers. The application will be available for businesses or individuals to use." One potential revenue source is governments, which could use Metalayer to pre-empt or respond rapidly to uprisings and crises.

Gosier says Metalayer has virtually no competition because the only other companies doing this kind of data mash up are at a very high level, working for the military. "In that landscape, there are a couple of key players at the top."

Metalayer, now in talks with investors, is looking to hire in the area of business development. In addition to being a DreamIt company, Metalayer is also supported by the Comcast Minority Entrepreneur Accelerator Program.

Source: Jon Gosier, Matthew Griffiths, Metalayer
Writer: Sue Spolan