Old City / Society Hill : Innovation + Job News

Jessie Hemmons embraces the city, literally. You've probably walked past this new form of public art and wondered who's behind the colorful knit webs that wrap trees, bike racks, and recently, subway seats on the Market-Frankford Line.

Hemmons is a yarn bomber, a growing network that subverts the old fashioned craft of knitting to put a feminist stamp on underground street art. When she's not riding her bike, Hemmons goes by the handle "ishknits" and spends hours working big needles and skeins of acrylic yarn on public transit. Hemmons, who's also a therapist for families facing drug and alcohol addiction, is not the first person to engage in yarn bombing nationally. The practice originated in Austin, when a failing yarn shop's overstock became fodder for public art. Hemmons says she is the only yarn bomber in Philadelphia, with 30 installations to date, including one commissioned by Urban Outfitters for the company's Navy Yard headquarters. She's also selling knits on etsy.

Consider the masculine spray of graffiti, as opposed to the warm womanly embrace of knitwork. "I am feminizing street art," says Hemmons, who is now entering talks with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. "My whole goal is to empower communities. The ideal yarn bomb would be to wrap an abandoned house." Public knitting is passive intervention, and a way for Hemmons to communicate that someone is paying attention to blighted neighborhoods.

Source: Jessie Hemmons, ishknits
Writer: Sue Spolan

In the spirit of Philly's other well-known celebrations like Beer Week and Restaurant Week, one of the main goals for Philly Tech Week, happening April 25 to 30 in locations across the city, is to have fun. Organized by Technically Philly, the week is meant to connect the many different segments of the Philly technology community, from hackers to Comcast and everyone in between, according to TP co-founder Chris Wink.

At this point, there are about 35 events on the schedule, with more to come. WHYY will serve as headquarters. Wink says the media outlet will host a daily lunchtime speaker series throughout the week, as well as the final big event Friday night. Tech Week coincides with two other major citywide happenings: The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) and The Philadelphia Science Festival. As a result, says Wink, some gatherings will carry all three labels, such as Augmented Reality Check: Seeing The Future Now, looking at the intersection of art, technology and science, to be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on April 26.

Another exciting Tech Week gathering is The Future of Music featuring musician and producer RJD2, coordinated by Tayyib Smith, owner of Little Giant Media, which publishes two.one.five magazine. Smith hopes to draw like minded people actively engaged in creating, promoting and distributing music to envision the role technology will play in the future of music. "I am an analog person who is fronting like I am digital," says Smith, who hopes to get as much out of the discussion as any of the other attendees.

Local firm Azavea, which builds geographic analysis software, happens to be rolling out several projects that same week, and plans to show off the brand new goods. "One is Philly Tree Map," says President and CEO Robert Cheetham, whose goal is to create a crowdsourced urban tree inventory. Two other Azavea projects, Open Data Philly and PhillyHistory.org, will be showcased during Tech Week.

For those who have ever fantasized about going ballistic on your devices, be sure to attend the Office Space Printer Smash, co-sponsored by Nonprofit Technology Resources and The Hacktory. As the title indicates, participants will be encouraged to turn unrecyclable printers into a pile of mangled plastic and metal.

Source: Christopher Wink, Technically Philly, Tayyib Smith, Little Giant Media, Robert Cheetham, Azavea
Writer: Sue Spolan

Flying Bytes is a regularly occurring wrap-up of innovation nuggets from across Greater Philadelphia:

A WEEK OF TECH CELEBRATION
It's a week long celebration of technology innovation, according to Technically Philly's Christopher Wink, one of the organizers of Philly Tech Week, April 25 to 30. "Wharton, University City Science Center, First Round Capital, the Franklin Institute, and Indy Hall are either sponsoring, hosting events or getting involved," says Wink. Check the PTW calendar for panels on Augmented Reality, Switch Philly, and a municipal government data unveiling. The final Friday night signature event will take place at WHYY, which will serve as headquarters for the week. Stay tuned for more.

TIRED OF WINE & CHEESE
LA's biggest underground art show is coming to town. Pancakes & Booze features over 50 of Philly's underground artists, and will take place Friday March 11 at Bookspace, 1113 Frankford Avenue, starting at 8 p.m. and scheduled into the wee hours. Admission is just $5 and covers all the pancakes you can eat plus live body painting. Pancakes & Booze is on national tour, with stops in San Francisco, Nashville, Denver and more. It's worth going just to see Bookspace, a massive former elevator factory converted into a surreal bookstore stacked to the rafters with more than 50,000 titles.

ENTREPRENEUR EXPO 2011
Philly Startup Leaders wants you to show off your stuff at the Entrepreneur Expo 2011. The area's brightest business minds are set to convene at University of the Arts on March 31. Last year's event drew 400 people. PSL is now accepting exhibitor applications from members, and will accept bids from the general public starting March 13. Register to attend this free event at Ticketleap.

LAUNCHROCK @ SXSW
The winner of this year's Startup Weekend Philadelphia plans on giving away $5,000 at SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas March 11-16. LaunchRock is a service that creates a viral "coming soon" page for budding businesses. The entrepreneur who gets the most signups using LaunchRock during SXSW will receive a dollar per sign-up up to $5,000. Results of the competition will be tracked on a 22-foot leaderboard on Sixth Street in Austin.

Source: Technically Philly, Bookspace, Philly Startup Leaders, Launchrock
Writer: Sue Spolan

Philadelphia is a steamy city, and the proof is issuing out of all those vents. This week, Veolia Energy North America announced the completion of the transition that renames Philly's steam loop provider from Trigen to Veolia. The Center City steam loop is a green idea from way back in the late 1800s, when the Edison Electric Light Company (now PECO) realized it could repurpose exhaust steam from its plant at 9th and Sansom Streets to heat the nearby Irving House on Walnut Street. The system grew to a total of 26 miles of underground pipes.

The synergy was such a success that cities around the country adopted the steam loop concept. Currently, 300 Philly buildings utilize Veolia's steam heat. The highest profile building, literally, is the Comcast Center. According to Mike Smedley, Vice President of the Mid-Atlantic Region for Veolia Energy North America, the tower's "utilization of district energy was one factor that contributed to its status as the tallest LEED-certified building in the US."

Why the name change? Smedley says that the Trigen brand name is only known for district energy, while the Veolia name is synonymous with creative environmental solutions. Not only does Veolia supply steam heat, but it's also pretty chill: the company also "built, owns and operates a 7,000-ton chilled water facility for Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital."

Traditionally, says Smedley, the production of heat and power are separate processes that are energy inefficient because a large portion of fuel burned is lost as waste heat. In contrast, Veolia's combined heat and power (CHP) plant recycles waste heat, and converts it into useful thermal energy. By combining the processes using CHP, says Smedley, Veolia can produce thermal and electrical energy using up to 40 percent less fuel than if the two forms of energy were produced separately.

Source: Mike Smedley, Veolia Energy North America
Writer: Sue Spolan

Why aren't you taking your drugs? The age old question is getting new treatment at an upcoming summit of health care professionals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, patients and advocates. On Feb. 24, Wool.labs Cocktail Convention offers a group with often diverging opinions the chance to duke it out over a beer.

The event, Patient Adherence Through the Lens of Social Media in the Healthcare Continuum, will be held at the National Constitution Center, and is co-sponsored by Wool.labs, SmartBrief, and MISI Company. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Michele Bennett is Wool.labs' COO and the moderator of the event, which, she says, is Wool.labs' way "of trying to promote more understanding in patient health care." She says the evening will begin with panelists from a wide range of perspectives, including the dynamic entrepreneur Paul Shiels, managing director of the Ansley Capital Group and a big proponent of using social media to both gather and spread information about health care. He cites Wool.labs' research into what people were saying online about Avandia well before the diabetes drug made headlines for increasing the risk of heart attack.

"It's startling, the level of sophistication that is discernible early on," says Shiels, who adds that Wool.labs' proprietary search engine is better than a focus group or survey based analysis, because it doesn't just go to medical pages, but instead searches every available website in the world to glean information on the relationship between patients and their medications. In fact, he says, quite a bit of Avandia chat was found on a forum for motorcycle enthusiasts.

Joining Shiels on the panel is Dan Zenka, Vice President of Communications for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. In what Zenka terms a "hugely ironic" turn of events, he himself was diagnosed with prostate cancer nearly a year ago, and immediately created the blog My New York Minute, a chronicle of his diagnosis and treatment. The site has racked up 24,000 reads since the first post in April 2010. Other guests include pharmacist Steve Basiago, oncologist Tim Showalter, and health care administrator Elizabeth Beer. Moderator Michele Bennett promises a thought provoking evening and maybe even some controversy.

Source: Michele Bennett, Wool.labs, Paul Shiels, Ansley Capital Group, Dan Zenka, Prostate Cancer Foundation
Writer: Sue Spolan

Who didn't love art class as a kid? Painting, drawing, playing with clay; it was almost like a second recess. A group of artists and education reformers hope to remind the Fishtown community both young and old of the joys of arts education this week as they host Community Arts Fest, a series of hands-on art projects and booths featured at the Crane Arts Building this Sunday. Community Arts Fest  (CAFe) will give the varied artistic leaders of Philadelphia the chance to introduce themselves to one of the city's most creative neighborhoods.

"We're all collectively working together to promote what's available to families because all of these arts groups are fighting over the same little bit of money," says Rachel Zimmerman, Executive Director of visual arts group and CAFe presenter InLiquid. "Hopefully, by expanding awareness, we will get more people involved. There is a ton of stuff happening in Philadelphia geared toward arts education but few people know what's happening."

Along with introducing Fishtown to some fine arts education interests, CAFe will serve as a fundraiser for local youth programs at The Cruz Recreation Center and the new ArtsRising "ArtsZones", which are now being established as hubs of arts and cultural activities for students and their families throughout the Philadelphia area. Collected donations will strengthen existing after-school programs and fund new ones.

"It's not so much an exhibition so much as each group will be leading an activity," says Zimmerman. "The idea is to engage kids but also to engage adults to get them invested in what is happening in the community at large."

Source: Rachel Zimmerman, InLiquid
Writer: John Steele

Where can an interested Philadelphian go to see some of the most cleverly designed buildings in the world? According to the Society of American Registered Architects, the search could take you from China to Chestnut Street as the group honors various design achievements both local and abroad. But you might be better off seeing them all at once as its annual conference, like many of its award recipients, is being held right here in Philadelphia.

"This is a juried awards program so they are looking for something beyond the norm, they're looking for innovation, they're looking for cutting edge design," says organizer and jury chairman John Di Benedetto, who operates his own firm in Jenkintown. "And this year, many of the projects that received awards incorporated a sustainable design feature."

Hosted at the Society Hill Sheraton, the SARA conference boasts a litany of architectural events from a city tour of significant architectural projects to a President's Award Celebration Dinner featuring the Mummers and honoring International Award Winners Denise Scott Brown, Robert Venturi, and the late Louis Kahn of famous Manayunk firm Venturi, Scott Brown. The Philadelphia Jewish History Museum's renovation will also be honored.

"The current challenges in the profession are related to the economy so from a business standpoint, the society tries to serve it's members by seminars and education in terms of how to maintain a practice in a down economy," says Di Benedetto. "From a design standpoint, the current trend is for sustainable design and the society goes out of its way to create a venue for information and education in those areas. Like many other professional organizations, this is a venue to encourage advancements in the profession and in individual practices."

Source: John Di Benedetto, Society of American Registered Architects, Philadelphia Chapter
Writer: John Steele

It's one of life's great mysteries: you can travel to a thousand cities and eat at a hundred fancy restaurants and drink a dozen craft beers at each of the bars along the way. But a meal never tastes as good as one at your favorite neighborhood haunt. And according to Philadelphia's sustainability leaders, this phenomenon is not just good for your appetite, it can be good for your neighborhood and your city as well.

Based on a concept created by the William Penn Foundation, partners from the Sustainable Business Network, Azavea and NPower created Common Space, a new mapping platform that creates a network of neighborhood establishments within a certain walkable, bikeable or busable distance to help residents support local business.

"The really cool thing is, I can map my friend's common space as well as my own," says SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky. "So if I am leaving from my office in Center City and meeting my husband who is coming from our house in West Philadelphia, he could say he is going to bike for 15 minutes and I could say I was going to walk for 20 minutes and Common Space will map the area where we would be able to meet up and map local culture events and businesses in that field."

Partnering with tastemakers like UWISHUNU and Yelp, Common Space shows you the best spots in your transit area, allowing you the most sustainable way possible to hit your next favorite haunt. After their trial run, organizers hope to partner with citywide festivals and cultural events like LiveArts and Philly Beer Week.

"Sustainability was one of the values William Penn outlined, which is why they wanted to partner with us," Krueger-Braneky says. "Because the application does encourage walking, biking, and public transit, it's a way of showing what's going on in the city while encouraging alternative transit."

Source: Leanne Krueger-Braneky, SBN
Writer: John Steele

From the LOVE statue to the Mural Arts Program to Market Street's massive Clothespin, Philadelphia has its share of big, urban art projects. But there is more to creating the next big movement in urban arts than making the largest painting or sculpture. So the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation launched the Knight Arts Challenge, a search looking for urban projects to change the artistic landscape of American cities for the better. Started in Miami, Knight Arts brings it's challenge to Philadelphia this fall.

"We are coming to Philadelphia and it would be presumptuous of us to say that we know just what you need in the arts," says Knight Arts VP Dennis Scholl. "So instead of saying that, we're saying we don't know what Philadelphia's next art idea is and we need you to tell us. It's not about large institutions only getting grants, people who have been in the arts forever only getting grants. It's open to everybody in the community."

After three successful years in Miami, the Knight Arts Challenge has spawned poetry collectives and arts education centers and jazz festivals. Philadelphia's challenge, a three-year, $9 million initiative, will provide new funding for established arts institutions, independent artists, businesses, service organizations and anyone else with a great idea and a plan to execute it. The challenge kicks off October 5 with a cocktail reception, where interested artists can find out how they can contribute to Philadelphia's artistic future.

"Philadelphia has two important things going for it: it has incredible, world-class cultural assets," says Scholl. "But in addition to that, Philadelphia has an incredibly hot, steadily rising art scene, with collectives and up-and-coming performance arts groups. And that is really why we were drawn to Philadelphia, because it's kinda happening, frankly."

Source: Dennis Scholl, Knight Arts
Writer: John Steele

Philadelphians know SEPTA's Market-Frankford El as the Blue Line. But a new pilot program, which stores leftover power from the subway's regenerative braking system in a massive battery, would make the Blue Line a little greener, and provide SEPTA some much-needed capital.

Earlier this month, SEPTA and Conshohocken smart-grid firm Viridity Energy announced receipt of $900,000 from the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority to install a massive storage battery--about the size of a cement truck--at SEPTA's Kensington electrical substation. The current regenerative braking system transmits electricity, collected as trains enter stations, to other electric vehicles. But if no other vehicles are in range, the electricity is lost. The battery, capable of storing up to a megawatt of electricity, would siphon energy to be resold to the power grid. Viridity estimates that this one battery will generate $500,000 a year in clean, green profit. SEPTA has already applied for new funding to install these battery systems at all 33 substations across their service area.

"With this technology, SEPTA can be very strategic with their power; when they are using it, when they are storing it and when they are selling it back into the grid," says Viridity Director of Business Development Laurie Actman. "At peak periods, the grid is willing to pay premium prices for sources of reliable load."

Since 2008, SEPTA has struggled to execute capital improvements to its transit infrastructure. Most recently, a proposed switch to SmartCards has drawn scrutiny from city media and transit bloggers. When Governor Ed Rendell made a play to turn state thoroughfare I-80 into a federal toll road, he promised a chunk of the resulting revenue to SEPTA. Since Rendell's proposal was defeated, SEPTA has been looking for other ways to fund improvements, from fare hikes to advertising on the sides of trains. The battery system technology could be the answer they have been looking for that will finally bring the Philadelphia subway into the 21st century.

"As we all know, SEPTA has always had a constrained budget and not enough money to invest in its infrastructure," says Actman. "For so long, SEPTA's infrastructure, that was built nearly a century ago, has been a liability. We are turning that into an opportunity."

Source: Laurie Actman, Viridity Energy
Writer: John Steele

Studies in recent years have revealed that while Philadelphia welcomes up to 50,000 freshman to its colleges and universities every year, less than half remained in the region after graduation. That statistic, in part, is what motivates Young Involved Philadelphia, a comprehensive network of young professionals and student groups producing advocacy campaigns and social events to make Philly a better place to live.

This week, the group opens the State of Young Philly: Imagining Philly's Future summit, a massive, two-week event hosting over 30 partnering organizations for speeches, roundtable discussions and brainstorming sessions to make Philadelphia a more attractive place for young people. The summit will focus on four key areas--Community Engagement and Volunteerism, Government and Leadership, Business and Entrepreneurship, and Arts and Culture--in an effort to "engage, educate and empower" young Philadelphia.

"For the first time since the '50s, the city is gaining population, and although we don't have the newest census data yet, we would venture a guess that this growth is due partly to an increasingly vibrant youth culture," says YIP board chair Claire Robertson-Kraft.

With speakers as varied as former Mayor John Street and the Mural Arts Program's Jane Golden, the summit hopes to gain a wide-reaching perspective that can be gleaned into an agenda ranking priorities and creating concrete deliverables. This agenda will inform an ongoing blog and will serve as YIP's action plan for the coming year. YIP hopes to make the summit an annual event, creating a constant barometer on youth culture in Philadelphia.

"The most important thing we hope people take away from the event is a sense of empowerment," says Robertson-Kraft. "As young Philadelphians, we should be organizing, demonstrating our ability to contribute to the debate, and doing more to ensure our voices are heard."

Source: Claire Robertson-Kraft, Young Involved Philadelphia
Writer: John Steele