Though I took part in three of 14 JLab-funded Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Fund projects, first announced here last fall, I led one of them. For Northeast Philadelphia hyperlocal NEast Philly, I helped lead the editorial direction of a project called District 172: the politics of change after state Rep. John Perzel. http://neastphilly.com/john-perzel/ Following the indicted [...]

I have a flask (and a typewriter) on my desk . That desk is in new office space, as announced today. In conjunction with the Technically Philly open data grant project, our Technically Media Inc. parent company has moved into a working office space at Temple University Center City at 1515 Market Street in Philadelphia. [...]

Smart people are making calculated investments in Philadelphia’s journalism community. The local NPR affiliate here is getting attention for its NewsWorks online news campaign. The William Penn Foundation is moving ahead with its mission-orientated drive toward increasing public affairs journalism in the region. New ownership for the Inquirer crew can mean some fresh ideas. Independent [...]

Image of Old City Philadelphia cobblestone courtesy of Flickr user IceNineJon. In the future, this project leads to: Open source platform for other regionally-grouped niche sites to come together. Community-edited profiles of local focus and meaning (i.e. city government lobbyists, community associations presidents and other leaders who might otherwise remain anonymous) A cross-platform tool that [...]

Today is the deadline to put 150 words together that could help change the direction of arts in Philadelphia. The Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia is a three-year, $9 million initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. We’re seeking the best ideas in the arts. We’re investing $9 million, to be matched by [...]

I’m proud to say that I’ll have a small part in three of the fourteen inaugural reporting projects funded by the Philadelphia Enterprise Reporting Fund, as announced Tuesday. Funded by the William Penn Foundation and administered by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, a center of American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C, the [...]

Today, more than a month after we officially launched and longer than a week after being rejected by the primary organization we directed the proposal, we at Technically Philly introduced News Inkubator to our readers. It’s a tweaked, matured and better-branded version of what I first introduced here in October. It’s a business services hub [...]

With an Oct. 15 deadline looming, I’ve had my hand in two submissions requesting funds from the Knight Foundation’s News Challenge program. One I wrote in conjunction with Shannon McDonald, requesting $40,000 to launch a Neighborhood Correspondents program for NEast Philly, a hyperlocal news site for Northeast Philadelphia. The second was a proposal from the [...]

Update: We lost. Grant money in journalism is flowing freely in a tightened economy and a historic juncture in print media. Seems like an opportunity. So, my two partners and I, who founded Technically Philly, applied for the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism, a $10,000 grant to support new ideas in news. See our [...]