A Brief Guide to Philly Tech Scene | Hacker News Reader

A Brief Guide to Philly Tech Scene

williamrfry.com

44 pointsaudace16 comments

Up in Fort Washington, so about 18 miles out of the city, is Feith Systems and Software Inc.

One of the only tech companies in the world certified to sell Records Management software to the DoD (http://jitc.fhu.disa.mil/projects/rma/reg.aspx).

Probably doesn't belong on a list of hip startups and what-not, but notable I think.

So, one of those crappy companies that makes junk that only the US government would be dumb enough to buy?

On the contrary, Feith's public and private sector customers are an intelligent bunch: NASA, IEEE, Netflix, Hitachi, AstraZeneca, Agilent, BAE Systems, etc.

Don Feith is a great guy. He was a gentleman and took time to answer my questions about the business world (and the Unix-y one in particular) in the 80s and 90s. Hope his business is doing well, and if they're hiring I'd definitely give it a look.

This missed the biggest tech company in Philly, Comcast.

Comcast is not a tech company.

rekt

They are in the process of constructing what will be the new tallest building in the city (their headquarters is the current King of Towers here), with the intent that it will become the largest tech campus in the Northeast.

Comcast kinda wants to position Philly as the East Coast's answer to Silicon Valley. They don't have the talent for such vision -- yet -- but they do have an enormous pile of resources and a near-monopoly position in their market, so...

I work there and I'd agree, as a whole, it is not yet a tech company. Many departments are really trying, however.

I'm surprised Alex Hillman isn't mentioned, he is the founder of IndyHall the first coworking space in Philly.

Just included him!

I would love a list like this for other cities:

Seattle, San Diego, New York, Boston, Austin etc.

Thanks this is timely. The next Code{4}Lib (libraries) conf is there in a couple weeks [0], I know this'll be of interest to some colleagues.

[0] http://2016.code4lib.org/

I would include it but it appears as if it's only in PHL for this year? If it's annually in PHL, I'll add it to the guide.

It is not an annual Philly event, just in Philly for 2016.

Philly's Rise Conf: https://rise2015.splashthat.com/ Code for Philly?

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