My good friend Eric Smith, whose successes in publishing and audience have kept me motivated, wrote some very flattering things in celebration of his own birthday, mostly about how we love to faux battle by way of our respective geek blogs Geekadelphia and Technically Philly. An excerpt:

… Without realizing it, Chris had finally given me the greatest gift of all… playful competition. I love being able to throw a jab at him now and again via Twitter or on the blog. Mocking him when I see the buzzwords flying… I should list that as an interest on my Facebook profile. I’m thrilled when I hear about a local PR firm thinking Chris and I (aka Technically Philly and Geekadelphia) hate each other. When he gave his keynote speech during the first Philly Tech Week, I ruined his moment with a tweet (this was an accident though!). When he received an award at the Geek Awards, he slammed the hell out of Geekadelphia, and I loved it.

But despite the joking around… Chris makes me want to be better at what I do.

Below watch video of my Geek Awards presentation when I had a little fun at Geekadelphia’s expense, though their fans let me hear it.

Moderating a panel on web security, as being aired yesterday on CSPAN 2 Book TV.

The Founding Fathers would have loved and leveraged social media but been fearful of its future implications on privacy and speech issues, said a host of experts at an event on the impact of new communications patterns.

Earlier this month, I moderated a panel on the subject at the National Constitution Center featuring Jennifer Preston, a social media reporter from the New York Times, Kashmir Hill, a web law reporter from Forbes and Lori Andrews, the author of a related book which served as regular fodder for the discussion, which appeared on CSPAN 2, Book TV.

Find background and audio of the entire program on the NCC blog here. Watch the entire hour-long panel discussion on CSPAN here.

Thanks to Stefan Frank for organizing the event and including me. Below, I have a three-minute clip of the final question of the night, in which, after spending the evening speaking about the perils of social media, each panelist reminds us of the power and benefit.

Some takeaways:

• A herculean battle is being balanced between the speech and communication power of the social web against privacy and security concerns.
• There is a gray area between private company and utility — when does presence on a social network become so part of social life that there should be greater scrutiny over privacy than any other service?
• I created this document and circulated it with my fellow panelists before the event.

Near the close of the OpenDataRace, a popularity contest for data sets that affect nonprofit missions, I was asked onto NewsWorks Tonight, the daily, local drive-time news radio show from NPR affiliate WHYY. We recorded the segment last week and it aired Monday.

Read more about the contest here, see the data sets and register to vote here and listen to the NewsWorks segment below.

LISTEN HERE.

I was on the program back in June to talk about the open data movement and other initiatives here. I got some fun comments from friends, like this one.

Find the story online here, and my section here. Go buy a copy.

I was included for being one of three co-founders of local technology news site Technically Philly and being involved in the development of the city’s startup and hacker communities. I was perhaps most pleased that I have so far survived the Philly.com comments, mostly because I have helped build a small for-profit with three full-time employees.

The automatically-generated plaque that a company offered me by email after this news story ran. Though the $169 price tag was a little more than I thought worth it, I was interested in the process and how the newspaper itself didn't offer this.

While I am certainly proud to be included, I am humbled knowing that there are so many other young Philadelphians making great change. There is no way this list of 10 could do that justice. It’s just a highlight of some of us, and I’m proud to be part of it, but I am more than aware of how many others could have been on this list.

For the record, though, I am only 25, not 27. I should also say that I am certainly nervous about being included because of my relatively small contribution at such a young age. I look forward to being involved in much more in the future.

A PDF of the cover here and the article here.

I should also add that my colleague Sean Blanda was also recently included in a young up-incomers list.

White House Urban Entrepreneurship forum Better Together panel, featuring (from left) moderator Kathleen Warner from Startup America; Doug Rand from the White House Office of Science and Technoogy; Sherryl Kulman from the Wharton Program for Social Impact; Prof. Youngjin Yoo from Temple University's Fox School of Business; Jane Vincent from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Dept and, behind the camera, me.

One of seven White House Urban Entrepreneurship forums across the country was hosted at Temple University in Philadelphia Monday, and, in addition to Technically Philly being a media sponsor, I served on one of a dozen panels.

Find the Livestream and Technically Philly coverage of Philadelphia Mayor Nutter’s address here.

I was on a panel called “Better Together: Public-Private Partnerships to Accelerate Urban Entrepreneurship and Startups.”

Unfortunately, our time was truncated due to a late start, so I spoke briefly once and answered one question.

I spoke about Technically Philly involving itself in connecting startups and entrepreneurs with the city, by way of Philly Tech Week, the Open Data Philly initiative and further fostering collaboration in various corners of the region’s technology community.

White House officials are holding these forums, from Newark to New Orleans, to connect and discuss ideas with local business leaders and entrepreneurs. Philadelphia’s forum coincided with a meaningful minority business event. The forum was co-hosted by the White House, The Office of Mayor Nutter, U.S. Departments of Commerce, Energy, Labor, Treasury, Education, and several federal, state, and local agencies.

To promote the amusing book Broetry, which is a collection of poems from the “bro” perspective, Geekadelphia and Quirk Books held a Broetry Slam at National Mechanics, a bar in Old City Philadelphia. Attendees were encouraged to come with a broetry of their own to compete for a crown and a swag bag of great books from Quirk. Not only did I participate, yes, I indeed won. I was awarded a cool collection of books by Quirk Books employee Doogie Horner, a comedian whom I wrote about last month.

It was something of a spoken word. ..Because of that, I apologize to all people who do wonderful, beautiful, artistic things with spoken word. I am well aware that I may have killed the art form.

Indeed this may be an honor of great regard. We’ll see. Organizer Eric Smith swears to me that video of my performance is going to make it to the internets to find out, so for now, just enjoy these clearly powerful words. In my defense, I wrote this an hour before the event. Details of the event by Quirk Books here.

I participated in a Broetry Slam.

1. You think you’ve seen a Bro? Oh no.
2. I’ve seen bros upon Bros — hair up, flip flops down — attacking young women without any self control.
3. I’m not, in practice, a Bro by most standards and lines.
4. But I’ve ridden side saddle with a number of them from time to time.
5. Have you even been to the gym? Gone out to a club? Needed someone to come and disrupt
6. Your trip down the shore, with tidal wave-like calms
7. That group of dudes kicking off the night by pounding some Yaagerbombs.
8. The sight is spectacular, when the bass shakes the ground from that new tricked out Acura
9. They all climb out, with their bravado to sell, heads glistening like if the morning dew wore hair gel
10. These are pack animals, so no need to size them up and think of the cost of that solo hurt.
11. Cool to rage in a moment, if you so much as touch that new pastel colored LaCoste polo shirt
12. But for all this disdain, their numbers they swell and they strain, and the facts remain plain.
13. You may think it insane and feel urged to complain, but, in truth, if you can’t beat them, no need for to cry.
14. I’ll just flip up my collar, toss on these sunglasses, find a team of good women, and give the Bro-life a try.

For Story Shuffle 7, held in a fine rowhome in the Newbold section of South Philadelphia inside a beautiful and eventually stormy night, I told the story of my first hitchhiking experience in South Dakota.

My lesson: trusting in strangers is a great risk that often comes with great reward.

Check out all the stories here. Listen to mine here or by using the player below.

LISTEN HERE

Though I was sure to note during my interview that OpenDataPhilly was built by development shop Azavea, unfortunately that was cut in the tight finalized product.

Listen to the entire show here. Below, listen to my short segment with host Dave Heller.

In addition to OpenDataPhilly.org, Heller asks me about the OPA Data Liberator project and SEPTA’s new TransitView initiative. To be clear, while related in audience and now included in ODP, those projects were not specifically created by using the data catalog’s information.

LISTEN HERE

I was recently interviewed for WHYY on eBay’s acquisition of regional e-commerce powerhouse GSI Commerce, but this was the first time I appeared on the new local radio program, which launched in May.

One half of the teams at Random Hacks of Kindness Philadlephia, held June 4-5, 2011. Photo by by Philip Neuffer for Technically Philly.

This weekend, I spent at least 30 hours in a windowless room of Drexel University for Random Hacks of Kindness Philadelphia, an international globally-minded hackathon brought to Philly by computer science PhD student and West Philly homeowner Mike Brennan.

It was actually a total hoot.

After a cool reception Friday night at co-working space Indy Hall over local and imported beer (for the kickoff of Philly Beer Week), Saturday morning featured a keynote by a local representative of legendary web anonymity tool Tor, brainstorming and team creation.

By the end of the first day, we had six teams working on at least that many projects. Watch below a tour of the teams I gave toward the end of the first day.

Read over at Technically Philly what came out.

From there, the teams built projects, some well into Saturday night, most returning Sunday for more. In addition to organizing the reception and helping with registration, promotion and the like, I was a judge, along with a NASA open data specialist, a representative from consulting firm SecondMuze and the dean of Drexel’s computer science program.

The inaugural Philly Tech Week, made official by City Council, has come and gone.

All told, my fellow Technically Philly co-founders and PTW co-organizers helped bring together 65 events, from more than 50 groups that attracted more than 3,000 people (we’re still tallying) in the first six day-event that we first suggested in the summer, confirmed in November but did get moving until February.

So, as is my custom, I wanted to gather together what happened, the thoughts from others and my take aways so we can do even better next year.

OUTCOMES

• More than 120 people came to WHYY to see the launch of Open Data Philly. The site, developed by Azavea, is a central hub of many of the city’s data sets.
• Councilman Bill Green unveiled his10-point Open Government Philadelphia initiative.
• IDGA showed off 15(!) local video game studios.
• IDGA showed off 15(!) local video game studios.
• During Switch Philly, five local startups demoed their products, all of which found new investor interest
• At BarCamp NewsInnovation, journalists from all over gathered as hackers made use of the datasets on Open Data Philly including OPA Liberator, a site that allows property records to be looked up by name, a feature previously unavailable on the city’s website.
• Put 5,000 Philly Tech Week print supplements into more than 50 retailers in the city
• Latest from the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster was shared
• An open source development prize was offered
• City Managing Director Rich Negrin pledged the 311 mobile app ‘within the next three months.’

Introducing the One Great Idea panel on April 27, 2011 as part of Philly Tech Week, behind me City Councilman Bill Green, Ben Franklin Technology Partners CEO RoseAnn Rosenthal, flanked by Steve Tang and Greg Osberg. Photo by Yusuf Muhammad/Phrequency.com

MEDIA COVERAGE

• Find the half dozen coverage hits specific to the OpenDataPhilly.org unveiling here, other specific event coverage is below.
• Philly Tech Week on tap for this week — Philly Inc.: Inquirer, on the cover of the Inquirer business section Monday morning
• Philly Tech Week starts today –Daily News feature spread
• A Guide To Philly Tech Week — CBS 3, picking out their favorite events, even though there’s no links for anyone to get more details
• Philly open source prize offers geek treasure — Philly Deals: Inquirer, Joe Distefano highlights local firm Monetate offering $5,000 for top open source offering and announcing during PTW
• Geeks ahoy! Tech week begins in Philly — NewsWorks, WHYY
• The geeks get geared up to go at it for Philly Tech Week — Philadelphia Business Journal, on page four of print edition, subscription required online
• Philly Tech Week: a first ever week long celebration of innovation in Philadelphia is set for April 25-30 — uwishunu, the events blog from GPTMC and tweeted here
• Philly Tech Week and us — Azavea blog
• Philly Tech Week promises a printer-smashing good time — Flying Kite event preview
• Philly Tech Week promises a printer-smashing good time — Flying Kite review
• Be Proud Citizens, Philly Tech Week is coming — Tek Lado, Hispanic tech blog highlights
• YIP Update — Young Involved Philadelphia April newsletter
• Geeks Unite! — Philly Post: Phillymag, quick mention that was followed by a little  joke in another post
• One Great Idea press release — Philadelphia Media Network, I covered this event here and spoke there, as documented in photo above.
• Maiden Media presents Social Media boot camp press release –Maiden Media
• Hive76 wrap up of a week’s worth of events –Hive76

Click to enlarge. Find story online

Popular culture blog Geekadelphia previewed a handful of our more geeky events:

• The Hacktory Presents the Office Space Printer Smash
• Indy Hall Beer Pong
• Augmented Reality @ the Art Museum
• Philly Robotics Expo
• Tech Quizzo @ Grey Lodge

Specific Events:

• Rage against the machine — NewsWorks, WHYY on the Printer Smash, with video above
• Connections, travel and family, with business promise — Inquirer print edition on Switch Philly, our startup showcase event, in addition to a smaller online item here.
• Bloggers, others gather — Inquirer preview on BarCamp NewsInnovation in print local section, in addition to a follow up piece after the event here
• Philly Tech Week signature event — Hiv76, the hackerspace wrote out its name on our Twitterfall wall at WHYY using characters, make it out by clicking above and zooming in.
• Philadelphia City Planning Commission planner Alan Urek previewed his leading a lunchtime event on the Philadelphia2035 plan, as can be watched below at around 9:20 in.

Some of my favorite #phillytechweek tweets:

• @phillytechweek this month and #mw2011 last month i have a new sense of drive and feel rejuvenated mentally. @jimshreds
• Live every week like it’s Philly Tech Week! @JPToto
• Such an impressive array of events happening during @phillytechweek http://bit.ly/eYr YES PHILLY IS A GREAT TECH CITY! @gloriabell
• Despite growing up in Philly I left over a decade ago due to a dead tech community. This week proves Philly Tech is alive and kicking ass. @rit
• #PhillyTechWeek, thanks for intro’ing me to some new peeps & ideas & reuniting me with others! @alexbthegirl
• The anticipation for @phillytechweek almost has me shaking. It might also be the coffee. @alexknowshtml
• App by @atogle + @mertonium helps find street art in Philly; for Philly Tech week using the city’s open data catalog http://bit.ly/ivpSbX @timoreilly
• @TechnicallyPHL great conference this week. Philly needed it! @VaughnKing
• Philly WP Happy Hour was a huge success! Met lots of new attendees interested in our group @williamsba
• When was the last time you and your significant other had a meaningful conversation about the concept of data? Thanks #PhillyTechWeek!!! @joshdubin
• @TechnicallyPHL Thanks so much for the NRT post. I was about to recycle my old laptop, but now I’ll donate!  @errrica
• Woo tech conferences #phillytechweek, #wasted @sarahsolfails
• Reading the tweets and wishing I was at #phillytechweek @mertonium
• Every week should be a @PhillyTechWeek @alexknowshtml
• I’d say #phillytechweek was a huge success, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year. @hoyboy
• Loved meeting so many tech savvy people in one room. @RichNegrin
• When you put bodies together in a room, it doesn’t immediately solve anything, but puts things in motion in a powerful way. @KelaniNichole
• Mad props to the boys at @TechnicallyPHL for making it rain awesome all last week. #phillytechweek @mheadd
• A Gchat from Far McKon: “Great job on tech week. I’m excited as I was when I moved here in ’08,” says Far McKon, who moved from Rochester, N.Y.