Innovation + Job News

Mummies, baseball and hallucinogens -- these are just a few of the marvels explored in the third annual Philadelphia Science Festival, created by the Franklin Institute. Running April 18 through 28, the festival offers over 100 events throughout the city.

Over the past two years, the Festival has engaged over 120,000 people, including 30,000 students. The hallmark of the fest is promoting "citizen scientists" and all events are interactive. Here are a couple of our picks:

For fans of local fare, Yards is offering Beer Chemistry: Perfect Pairings, a chemistry lesson with a brewmaster’s twist -- and carefully selected food and beer pairings. Elsewhere, Chef Max Hansen of Max Hansen Catering will illustrate the science behind farm-to-table with a four-course meal during The Sustainable Table: A Dinner Experience.

Sustainability seekers should also check out Sweet and Savory: Hives and Honey, a bee expo led by local beekeepers; Urban Farming at Bartram’s Garden, an exploration of agricultural science; and Naturepalooza!, an outdoor Earth Day celebration hosted by the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

Those still awaiting the zombie uprising can watch local taxidermist extraordinaire Beth Beverly -- her accessories fashioned from road kill earned her a spot on AMC’s Immortalized -- demonstrate how to bring the dead back to life with Skinned, Stuffed and Mounted: Taxidermy Exposed. They can also help solve a mystery pandemic at Murder at the Mütter: Outbreak! and learn how to compile forensic evidence while listening to live music from Cornbread Five during Nerd Night: CSI.

Arts and culture lovers will appreciate a multi-media presentation from the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts [PIFA] on Icarus at the Edge of Time, based on the children's physics book of the same name. Breadboard will also open a Cellular/Molecular Exhibit showcasing local bio- and chem-inspired art. Meanwhile, the Science of Jazz will demonstrate sound waves at work using live scores.

And be sure to save room for the Science Carnival, the Science Festival's signature event featuring live science demos outside on the Ben Franklin Parkway.

For more on the festival -- and to check out a full calendar of events -- visit PhilaScienceFestival.org.

Justin Shi, a computer science professor at Temple University, wants to create up to 300 farming jobs in two years. If that weren’t ambitious enough, he plans to do so on Philadelphia's 40,000 vacant lots.

According to Shi, many university students have the will and passion for urban farming, but not the resources and information. GrowShare.net, an online resource he created with four Temple students, helps build the local urban farming economy by providing the essential data.
 
The project was funded by the Knight Foundation and earned runner-up status in Google's international Place API Developer Challenge in Feburary. The site recently launched in alpha and the team plans to incorporate as a nonprofit this summer.
 
By logging onto Growshare.net, users can locate urban farming projects in Google Maps, view crime statistics and assess resources in the surrounding area. They can also log into an auction platform and bid on gardening supplies, equipment and plants from other local farmers.
 
"What can public data do to help solve a problem?" asks Shi. "The Growshare project puts private and public data together in one place."
 
Assets like volunteer labor and knowledge -- which Shi calls "intangible resources" -- are advertised and claimed on the site. He expects to launch a separate currency called "Universal Resource Exchange" to facilitate the trade of volunteer hours.
 
"Those intangible resources have no place for trade," he says. "Growshare allows those intangible resources to be fairly traded on a platform that includes tangible resources."
 
GrowShare was developed through Temple's Computer and Information Systems Department (Shi is associate chair), and received support from the City, The National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates and Code for America of Philadelphia.
 
 "If we quantify the volunteer work and use social networking power and people's goodwill, those vacant lots will be much more effectively utilized," says Shi.
 
Source: Justin Shi, Temple University
Writer: Dana Henry

If the fact-check frenzy of 2012 presidential campaign proved anything, it's that political statements will never again go unscrutinized.
               
Jumping ahead of the content-data curve, ElectNext is launching the Political Baseball Card. The "card" -- a widget that appears at the bottom of online political news articles -- offers three types of information on relevant politicians: biographical facts, legislative record and data on who's financing their campaign. The company has developed relationships with forty of the top national news outlets, including the Economist, the Washington Post, Comcast and NBC. They recently launched the Political Baseball Card on Philly.com, PoliticsPA and PolicyMic.
 
"Data's really become an important part of news coverage," says ElectNext's Dave Zega. "We're leveraging data as a content component -- as a way to really get people data that's relevant and engaging right at the moment they need it."
 
Since launching in 2011, ElectNext has built the country’s largest political data repository by partnering with watchdog organizations including the Sunlight Foundation, the Center for Responsive Politics, GovTrack and Follow the Money.

While these organizations give vital insights into federal policy makers, local politics can be more abstruse. According to Zega, ElectNext works with individual municipalities to gather records on city council members and other politicians. They started in Philly and are in the process of establishing partnerships in New York City. In the coming years, they hope to represent the one hundred largest U.S. cities.
 
ElectNext closed their latest funding round with $1.3 million in investment and seeks a Rails developer. 
 
Source: Dave Zega, ElectNext
Writer: Dana Henry

DreamIt Ventures -- the Philly-based accelerator that helped launch SnipSnap and CloudMine – is tackling a particularly challenging industry: Healthcare. DreamIt Health, which launched April 8, focuses solely on companies in healthcare IT.
 
The accelerator’s first class features ten companies including AirCare, a company developed by VenturePact that helps minimize re-admissions through mobile nursing; Osmosis, a tool that helps clinicians retain vast amounts of knowledge during medical training; and Medilo, a mobile healthcare card that details benefits and eliminates the need for forms.
 
Accelerator programs like DreamIt help validate business assumptions, minimize startup risk and guide businesses to market. With healthcare startups, that process is more complex. Aside from needing to comply with changing regulations, these companies deal with a market that's behind heavy hospital doors -- data is often difficult, if not impossible, to access. DreamIt has addressed these challenges through collaborative partnerships with Penn Medicine, the region's largest provider, and Blue Cross Blue Shield, the largest insurer.

Mentoring for the nascent companies will include time with industry experts who can explain the behind-the-scenes aspects of medical operations. Each company will also receive a a stipend of up to $50,000.
 
"It's about understanding the operational systems and getting access -- potentially to the systems themselves, but also to the experts,” says Karen Griffith Gryga, managing partner at DreamIt. "We provide the payer-provider element as well as access to the operational systems, the data and other resources that are often difficult for these companies to access."
 
Companies also need to navigate conflicting interests between payers and providers. Fortunately, those parties do agree on the need for improved quality of care and tools that enable patient self-management. An app regulating daily nutritional habits, for example, could help individuals treat their diabetes or obesity. The payer and provider also share an interest in big data management systems that can help hospitals treat more people.
 
"Now, more than ever, there is this desire among the different constituents of the healthcare ecosystem to find a way to work together in a much more collaborative fashion," says Griffith Gryga. "Hopefully that will continue."
 
Source: Karen Griffith Gryga, DreamIt Ventures
Writer: Dana Henry

At one point, Philadelphia wasn't a city but a cluster of municipalities and townships. When Joan Decker, commissioner of Philadelphia's Department of Records, started working on PhillyHistory.org -- a location-based search engine for over 100,000 archival photos -- locating historical addresses was a problem.

Azavea, a local company that specializes in the creation of geographic web and mobile software, helped out with the project and quickly realized that this issue -- constantly changing addresses -- is a problem not only in Philly, but in cities around the world.
 
To make historical records more accessible to archives, museums and libraries, Azavea is creating GIS-enabled tools that will solve the address issue. The Temporal Geocoder project will use an open-source platform to collect historical addresses and develop prototype software to geographically tag them. Azavea's proof-of-concept phase -- which will be developed for Philadelphia -- recently received a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation. As the project develops, Azavea plans to hire public history specialists to help with the archives.
 
“We've become accustom to the idea that you can type an address into Google Maps, or some other map based application, and find the location," says Robert Cheetham, founder and president of Azavea. "That's not the case for anything going back more than a few decades. Addresses and intersections have all been changing over the course of the city's history."
 
Cheetham says the Temporal Geocoder could assist with matters related to property, epidemiology and family history. In the grander scheme, the project represents a new frontier for digital searches.
 
"This is a real opportunity to explore what some people call 'old knowledge,'" he says. "We've grown accustomed to Googling something and accepting that that's the sum of human knowledge. In many cases, it's really just a tiny snapshot. There’s an enormously rich trove of experiences and knowledge in the archives all over the world."
 
Source: Robert Cheetham, Azavea
Writer: Dana Henry

Michael Kiley, a local composer and sound installation artist, has seen far too many people moving through the city glued to their mobile devices. In response, Kiley (through his public music project The Mural and The Mint) has teamed up with South Philly web design firm P’unk Ave to develop an app that integrates a sense of place.
 
"I actually think [social media] separates us more," says Kiley. "I was interested in using technology in a way where you don't actually interface with your phone."

The Empty Air: A Rittenhouse Square Sound Walk -- debuting April 5 with an opening party at the Philadelphia Art Alliance -- is a GPS-enabled musical composition that shifts depending on your position within the park. Kiley developed the project using binaural microphones; they're tiny recording devices that fit inside your ear. He used the park's native sounds -- traffic, birds and chatter – as a backbone for the piece. The work was done in collaboration with Miner Street Studios in Fishtown.
 
The Empty Air received grants from The Independence Foundation, Philadelphia Cultural Aliance, and the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum.

This is only the beginning for the project. The Mural and The Mint -- named as a homage to Philly and its signature public art tradtition -- will develop a series of sound walks to attract attention to the city's underserved spaces. Philly’s long-neglected waterfront is next.
 
"It’s kind of a tour," he says. "But unlike other tours in Philly, it's not didactic. My hope is that it changes the way you see a place you know really well."

Source: Michael Kiley, The Mural and The Mint
Writer: Dana Henry

In 2010, when SA VA opened its doors in Center City, the apparel company set a new standard for sustainable production in Philadelphia. Not only were the clothes made from environmentally-conscious fabrics, they were also manufactured -- at fair wages -- directly above the store.

Now Sarah Van Aken, founder and CEO of SA VA, is taking that local ethos national. In February 2012, Van Aken launched a wholesale line that is currently showcased in boutiques in 15 states. To keep up with production, Van Aken has moved her design studio to The Loom in Port Richmond.

The decision to go wholesale is part of Van Aken's efforts to hone her brand. The business -- which got its start selling men's custom shirts and uniforms for high-end restaurant employees -- has been developing lifestyle "collections" for women. After the initial success of the wholesale line, Van Aken reconsidered her business model.

"We used to be able to design a few things and put them in the store," says Van Aken. "I realized there's some traction here and we have the capacity to really be a distinct brand."

To bolster the shift, Van Aken created a board, an advisory board and hired a brand manager and three additional national sales reps. SA VA also contracted six neighborhood sewing companies. According to Van Aken, those moves allow her focus on clothing design.

"It doesn’t matter if it's made in Philadelphia, sustainable, organic or anything if it's not great fashion," she explains.

SA VA's wholesale division recently completed its first round of financing. While staying small is common among sustainably-minded businesses, Van Aken says growth is exactly what the fashion industry needs to bring back high-quality, domestic textile jobs. She credits the Philadelphia Fashion Incubator, Philadelphia Collections and Philadelphia Works Inc for their work locally on that front.

"We used to have a huge industry [in Philadelphia]," she says. "What really became clear to me is that I can actually create more jobs by growing faster and working with other [local] companies that are experts in different areas of manufacturing."

Source: Sarah Van Aken, SA VA
Writer: Dana Henry

When Evan Malone moved NextFab Studio from the University City Science Center to Washington Avenue in late 2012, he left in place several fabrication tools (including a laser-cutter and 3-D printers) and the last two years of NextFab's lease. To reinvent the space, NextFab and Breadboard, who partner on community outreach and artist residency programs, teamed up with  Public Workshop and The Hacktory. The local organizations are developing a combined headquarters and coworking space for tactile projects and education. The partnership, dubbed the Department of Making + Doing (DMD), opens at 3711 Market Street this month.
 
In addition to the high-tech toolage, the space features a full wood shop and electronic workbenches. Initially it will serve as a homebase and workspace for the four partnering organizations, as well as a location for their outreach and educational programming.
 
As schools continue cutting art and music programs, public spaces for tactile learning become critical. "[The school system] is taking away a whole domain of knowledge," says Breadboard's Dan Schimmel. "Essential to understanding these cerebral, book-taught topics is an innate understanding of the physical world."
 
Currently, DMD serves Public Workshop's Building Hero Project, a community design leadership program for young adults. In the fall, DMD plans to offer afterschool programs at the space -- classes will include kinetic sculpture, basic programming and soft circuits (integrating electronics into fabric and clothes). The Hacktory will also host Hardware Freedom Day on April 20.
 
Eventually, DMD hopes to serve the immediate University City neighborhood by offering a space where community projects, such as green infrastructure, can be imagined and built.
 
"It empowers people to believe they have the tools to solve problems," says Michael Darfler of Public Workshop. "We’re coming to this with the attitude that we’re not just talking about how to solve problems, but actually doing it."

The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.
 
Source: Alex Gilliam and Michael Darfler, Public Workshop; Dan Schimmel, Breadboard; Georgia Gutherie and Daniel Bergey, The Hacktory
Writer: Dana Henry

For health care companies completing arduous clinical trials, there's a saying that every day is worth $1 million. Completing the paperwork required to meet regulations and pay doctors can cost pharmaceutical and biotech companies quite a few extra days.
 
CFS Clinical, based in Audubon, Pa., reduces the time and money spent on forms by automating the process. Using internal proprietary software called InSite, CFS reduces "study startup" -- the time spent signing up patients and proving a site's FDA compliance -- by 20 percent. The platform also works with a global banking network to manage payments to physicians, reducing wait time from up to four months to one month.  
 
According to Kevin Williams, VP of Corporate Development, CFS is the first company to focus exclusively on the business and financial management of clinical trials. The niche has proved lucrative. CFS currently works with seven of the top 20 international pharmaceutical companies and this past year the company (founded in 2001) has grown their revenue and employee base by 50 percent. They now have 75 employees and expect to hire 10 to 15 more within the next year. Positions are available in accounting, software development and project management. 
 
CFS continues to innovate. The company recently added a "Business Intelligence" service that shows clients all their InSite transactions. Starting next year, The Sunshine Act mandates healthcare providers disclose all payment information to the federal government.

"The process of actually making payments in the clinical research world is a bit backwards," says Williams. "We make the payments on the pharmaceutical company's behalf, then we aggregate that data and provide it back to them so they can report it."
 
The payments clinical trials make to physicians -- collectively dubbed "clinical grant spend" -- cover recruiting patients, screening patients, conducting trials and collecting clinical data. Williams says this portion accounts for 40 to 60 percent of a trial's entire budget. According to the February 2011 issue of Focus, clinical grant spend leads to $13 billion in worldwide clinical trial spending. By amassing data from thousands of trials, CFS can predict this cost for individual trials.
 
"Trials, in terms of their timelines, are very volatile," says Williams. "They speed up, they slow down, they're behind, they change timelines. That has significant financial impact. We’re basically empowering our clients to control their finances much better."

Source: Kevin Williams, CFS Clinical
Writer: Dana Henry

Last Tuesday, local university research in healthcare technology got a big boost. As a third component in the StartUp PHL portfolio, the University City Science Center's QED Proof-of-Concept program -- which invests exclusively in medical research from Greater Philadelphia’s academic sector -- was awarded a $500,000 loan from Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PICD) Penn Venture Fund program.
 
QED -- the abbreviated Latin phrase Quod Erat Demonstrandum (proven as demonstrated) -- provides grant money and private sector guidance to help promising studies establish early stage proof-of-concept for commercial application, a cumbersome phase of the research-to-product process. Since 2009, the program has awarded $600,000 annually, divided into $200,000 grants for life science projects and $100,000 grants for research in digital healthcare, a growing field where life science meets information technology. 

According to Stephen Tang, President and CEO of the Science Center, university settings are ideal spaces for developing broad-scope medical science, thanks to their insulation from commercial interests. A diagnostic company, for example, might build a device to detect Alzheimer's disease. Meanwhile, a university has the freedom to research the molecular identity of the disease which can inform a range of diagnostics and treatments.
 
"The theory on innovation is you have to have very divergent thinking before you have convergent thinking," says Tang. "It's that very divergent thinking that [the Science Center] is trying to tap into and help to converge on commercial opportunities."
  
Past QED participants -- representing 22 regional institutions including Penn, Drexel and the Wistar Institute -- have gone on to launch promising companies. Vascular Magnetics, producers of a drug delivery apparatus created by Dr. Robert Levy, a professor of pediatric cardiology from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and his QED business advisor Richard Woodward, recently raised $7 million in their first round of financing. UE LifeSciences Inc., a medical device company that commercialized research in breast cancer detection by  Dr. Wan Shih of Drexel's School of Biomedical Engineering, eventually received a $878,422 grant from the Pennsylvania Department Of Health's Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement (CURE) program.
 
While the "Eds and Meds" capital has long been hailed for life science achievements, Tang sees digital healthcare as the next frontier. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, massive amounts of medical records have to be digitized. Furthermore, the bourgeoning field of Genomics -- the science of transcribing an individual's genome to detect genetic disease -- will require terabyte-sized data transfer and manipulation. 
 
Accordingly, the 2012 QED program made awards to mobile healthcare apps developed at Rutgers University. The $500,000 PICD loan -- which is repaid via licensing royalties and revenue from successful projects -- will expand QED within city limits, boosting Philly's role in the health IT industry. 
 
"[Philadelphia] has one of the largest concentrations of healthcare facilities, hospitals and doctors, as well as academic research," says Tang. "We're betting big that that domain will distinguish Philadelphia from other metropolitan areas in the world."

The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.

Source: Stephen Tang, University City Science Center
Writer: Dana Henry

StartUp PHL has announced it's first batch of winners. $6 million will be doled out to promising Philly startups over the next three years. First Round Capital -- recently named StartUp PHL’s seed fund manager; they matched the city's original $3 million output -- will direct the distribution.

Since October when StartUp PHL was first announced, 118 groups applied for a piece of the $500,000 Challenge Fund. The winners were selected based on their potential to increase business operations, create jobs and strengthen existing entrepreneurial networks. According to Luke Butler, chief of staff to the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, the Nutter administration chose winners that reflect the growing diversity of our economic landscape, with a focus on life sciences, technology, creative economy, education and clean energy.
 
Three of the six winning projects affect students: Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP-SEP) in partnership with Campus Philly received $25,000 to help local undergrads find internships in BFTP-SEP invested tech firms; PhillyCore Leaders was granted $15,000 to support education entrepreneurs; and Startup Corps earned $20,000 to put towards their high school entrepreneurship program.
 
"Anything that's about the next generation of entrepreneurs is particularly exciting," says Butler. "One of the overall goals we have for this administration is: How do we create the kind of environment where young people see opportunity in Philadelphia?"
 
Other winners included the Enterprise Center's Center for Culinary Enterprises, VentureF0rth and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, which is creating a comprehensive online directory for regional startup resources.  

While the decision isn't final, the Nutter administration plans to repeat the challenge fund.
 
"Not everyone is out there trying to raise money from VCs," says Butler. "Equally important are the organizations that we have in this city that are providing services and support to companies as they grow. We wouldn't be able to do this if the community weren't so strong already."
 
Source: Luke Butler, Chief of Staff to the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development
Writer: Dana Henry

The Navy Yard is fast becoming a national nexus for energy advancements. In addition to the Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EEB) Hub, the formerly derelict warehouse district has gained Viridity Energy, Oxicool, Pace Controls and the Mark Group in recent years.
 
Now the University City Science Center is bringing Quorum programming (Flying Kite, February 19, 2013) to the Navy Yard from March 14 through January 31, 2014. Per EEB Hub’s request, "Satellite" Quorum will focus on Philly's growing clean energy and energy retrofit sectors.
 
"Flagship Quorum really is a broad program open to entrepreneurs in any part of tech-based innovation," explains Jeanne Mell, the Science Center's Vice President of Marketing Communications. "We're taking the principals we learned with flagship and applying them to a much more targeted sector."
 
At Satellite Quorum, "Coffee and Capital," a gateway to the tech investment community, becomes "Coffee and Counsel," in which a selected leader in energy enterprise fields questions from a small audience of entrepreneurs. The Science Center is also developing programming that addresses sector specific issues such as strategies for approaching building managers. Additionally, the series provides ongoing networking, a key component to startup acceleration.
 
As the first member of  Satellite Quorum's Strategic Partner Alliance,  Clean Tech Open, a national incubator, will help promote programming.  According to Laurie Actman of EEB Hub, the recent passage of Philadelphia's Commercial Energy Benchmarking and Disclosure Act, will give the retrofit sector even more of a boost, increasing the need for industry-specific programming.
 
The University City Science Center has partnered with Flying Kite to showcase innovation in Greater Philadelphia through the "Inventing the Future" series.

Source: Jeanne Mell, Kristen Fitch, The University City Science Center; Laurie Actman, EEB Hub
Writer: Dana Henry

Last summer, while launching the city's Office of New Urban Mechanics [ONUM], Story Bellows and Jeff Friedman met with Philadelphia’s top social impact organizations. This process led to the idea of private-public collaboration with Good Company Group [GCG], a local incubator for environmental and social entrepreneurship.

The resulting concept, the Philadelphia Social Enterprise Partnership [PSEP], provides opportunities for entrepreneurs who want to tackle traditional public sector problems such as storm water management, gun violence and education. This past Wednesday, the group's proposal was one of five (out of 300) awarded $1 million in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge.
 
Two-to-three times per year, a PSEP advisory board will help the mayor’s office identify a key issue -- and the associated costs -- and provide a framework for startup proposals. During each session, ten applicants will access incubation services, data and information from related city departments, and coaching from public sector industry experts.  
 
"It's looking at problems that [city] government has, that drain a lot of resources, and reframing them as market opportunities," says Zoe Selzer, executive director at GCG. "It's not targeting one specific challenge -- it's creating a system that can target a lot of different challenges." 
 
PSEP partners include GCV, ONUM, the Wharton Social Impact Initiative and the Mayor’s Office of Information Technology. The application to the Mayor's Challenge was overseen by Maari Porter, Chief Grants Officer for Philadelphia. According to Selzer, PSEP’s inclusion of non-government leadership was unique among Bloomberg finalists.
 
To refine the concept, the partners worked on government procurement strategies and established the need for pilot contracts (in lieu of grants) to support social startups. They encourage applications from Greater Philadelphia and across the country.
 
"It's a huge validation of the work we’ve been doing," says Selzer. "We really believe this is our opportunity to position Philadelphia as a national hub for social enterprise and as a place where [social] entrepreneurs grow and test their ideas and then spread those ideas around the country and around the world."

Source: Zoe Selzer, Good Company Group; Story Bellows, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics
Writer: Dana Henry

Most know Christine Knapp as a sustainability ambassador via her outreach roles with Penn Future, the Next Great City Intiative, the Passyunk Square Civic Association and, most recently, the Philadelphia Water Department. But during Ignite Philly 11 (held last Thursday at Johnny Brenda's), Knapp gained a new title: karaoke master.

After sharing best practices from her 15 years of experience, Knapp inspired Indy Hall's Alex Hillman and Flying Kite’s Michelle Freeman to join her onstage for a rendition of Journey's "Don’t Stop Believing."
 
Such is the spirit of Ignite Philly, where local leaders put their titles aside to share their passions. Spoken word artist Erica Hawthorne gave a lively pitch for Small But Mighty Arts Grant, her mission to recover the 72 percent of art in Philly that’s gone "missing" due to lack of funding. Brett Hart of the Wooden Boat Factory explained how wood and the Delaware River are transforming the youth of his native Frankford ("This wood is like my life -- it's hard, but I’m trying to shape it into something," a student once told him). Hive76’s Jordan Miller, a Penn scientist, demonstrated how he generates living vascular structures via 3-D printing -- in sugar.
 
Ignite 11 also reflected Philly’s burgeoning love for open data. Mark Headd, the city's chief data officer, opened the evening by making a compelling analogy between Athenian Democracy and urban open data usage, warning that many Philadelphians still can't participate due to the digital divide (a problem he’s addressing with GetYourToga.org). Dave Zega and Jake Wells of ElectNext revealed their method for using data to verify the claims of politicians. Ben Garvey showed Ignite how data can be made visual -- and more digestible. And Stephanie Alarcon, Amy Gutherie and Georgia Gutherie of the Hacktory shared "Hacking the Gender Gap," a database that tracks causal experiences leading to the gender disparity in tech.
 
Other notable speakers included Amanda Feifer-O'Brien, the force behind a local movement to save beneficial micro-organisms via fermentation; Drew Beecher, president of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and leader of a national tree-planting campaign; and Ashvika Dhir, the Pennsbury High School Senior behind CauseHub.com, a meta-blog for teenage change-makers. 
 
Ignite 11 was hosted by P'unk Ave's Geoff DiMasi, Indy Hall's Adam Teterus and Breadboard's David Clayton. They also awarded Girl Develop It Philly -- presenters at Ignite 10 -- $1000 to provide tech class scholarships for 50 local women.
 
Source: Ignite Philly 11
Writer: Dana Henry

When Clean Currents, a wind power company based in Silver Spring, Md., opened a third office at 15th and Walnut Streets, they wanted Philadelphia to know. Last week, they showcased a 20-foot model wind turbine in Rittenhouse Square, Love Park, Manyunk and at the Wachovia Center in South Philly.
 
The "See The Power" campaign incorporated social media contests to build buzz around the availability of locally sourced wind power. According to Gary Skulnik, the company's president and chairman of the board, selling this energy is only the first step.

The company -- which has a second office in Baltimore -- also publishes a bi-weekly newsletter on environmental issues and policy, holds sustainability webinars, campaigns for energy efficiency legislation, gives presentations on environmental issues at local grade schools and holds "green neighborhood challenges" with prizes such as rain barrels and compost bins.
 
"We really view ourselves as a front door to sustainability," says Skulnik. "Once people and businesses sign up with us, we like to help them take additional steps. I think they appreciate an approach that pushes the envelope a little."
 
In two years, Clean Currents has racked up thousands of customers including businesses, schools and embassies. They have over 12,000 e-newsletter subscribers. From 2011 to 2012, their revenues grew 400 percent. They are currently hiring sales reps to round out their five-person Philly office.
 
According to Skulnik, Clean Currents chose their new locale because of an environmentally conscious consumer-base -- he credits the Sustainable Business Network and the Delaware Valley Green Building Council for helping drive the movement. In an era of mass information, sustainability requires more than individual action.
 
"The only way we are going to solve [climate change] is by creating a ground swell of support for solutions," he says. "It’s really vital that we create this sense of community."

Source: Gary Skulnik, Clean Currents
Writer: Dana Henry