Last year, Azavea was on the search for a GIS Analyst Intern and a Software Developer Intern.  After receiving a plethora of resumes and meeting with several candidates, we were impressed by Daniel McGlone and Joe Tricarico’s experiences, their passion for GIS, and wonderful personalities. After serving as interns for a few months, both Daniel

Azavea began 2012 with a new face on the team. We welcomed Matthew Delaney as a Software Developer on our Professional Services Team. Matthew graduated from the University of Wolverhampton in the UK with an honors degree in Computer Science in 2002. During that time, Matthew interned for a year in a financial institution and worked in the

Sometimes we craft these “Behind the Scenes” posts to give you an insight into the personal components that make up the Azavea whole.  But no Azavean is an island (though sometimes our two “remote Davids” out in Boston and Minneapolis may feel that way!).  Building great geographic software requires great team players, so for this

It’s September again.  The air is cooler, the sky looks grayer, and the trees we are  documenting feverishly on PhillyTreeMap.org are going to burst into color soon.  It’s also the month when every young software-engineer-to-be packs her or his backpack and trudges bleary-eyed off to school again.  For this month’s newsletter, we thought it pertinent to

Azavea continues to grow and welcomes new faces to the team! Joe Tricarico joined Azavea in August as a Software Developer Intern working on the Cicero team. He is currently pursuing his Bachelors of Science degree in Environmental Planning and Design at Rutgers University. Before joining Azavea, Joe worked for the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority at the

The title is a seemingly innocuous question at first – what purpose do our desks have but to be a repository for our current projects and their supporting materials? Paper clips, envelopes, contracts, notes, magazines and other paraphernalia all pile up depending on what we’re working on that day. Look a bit closer at many

Amy Trahey joined Azavea in July as an Administrative and Marketing Assistant.  Her responsibilities include bookkeeping, marketing and PR, human resources, and office management. Amy received her Associates of Science degree in Business Administration & Marketing from Peirce College this year, and is currently pursuing her Bachelors of Science degree at Peirce as well.  Before coming to Azavea,

Another classic Delaware Valley summer has come to Azavea’s offices in Philadelphia. Amid the sunny days and sticky air, Philly is once again teeming with eager student interns and recent college graduates.  We’re happy to announce three such recent additions to our team on 12th Street. Michael Tedeschi joined Azavea in May as a Web and

Winter was rough this year.  We trudged to work in sleet and snow many mornings.  Frigid temperatures and icy sidewalks prohibited us from enjoying the outdoors and the city we love.  That’s why we’re relieved it’s Spring!  You can smell it in the air – cherry blossoms, charcoal grills, baseball!  It’s here, and we’re excited. 

Claire Connelly joins Azavea as Administrative and Marketing Assistant with over 6 years of office management, administration, and communications experience.  Most recently, she worked at Grid Magazine, a local sustainability publication, where she was Director of Sales and Distribution.  Prior to her position at Grid, she was General Manager at the White Dog Cafe.  Claire

We definitely have our fair share of kitsch here in the City of Brotherly Love — Pat’s and Geno’s, Ride the Ducks, City Tavern, entire stretches of South Street.  The Mummers parade is the largest spectacle of kitsch I’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty fabulous at the same time.  These  local eccentricities give our city

Whether we were toddlers or young adults in the 80′s, we all have fond memories of the gnarly gadgets and tubular fashion of the Decade of Decadence. As you might imagine coming from our crew, the question, “What was your favorite thing to come out of the 80s’?” was answered with Commodore 64, the Kaypro

Bennet Huber, software developer, joins Azavea as a software developer on the HunchLab team.  Bennet recently graduated from The Pennsylvania State University (main campus) in May 2010 with a bachelors in computer science with a minor in mathematics.  He enjoys mathematical analysis and algorithmic problems but has fun coding anything challenging in a variety of

Erik Osheim, software developer, joined Azavea in August. Erik comes to us from Solutions for Progress where he was the Tech Lead.  Solutions for Progress developed The Benefit Bank, an expert system and application framework designed to help people find and apply for public benefits online. Erik was responsible for improving the core platform, electronic

In our last newsletter we introduced you to the volunteer gigs Azavea employees are currently involved in.  This month, we have food on the brain.  As we trek through Philadelphia we’ve been stumbling on some great restaurants (from street vendors to “three-bell” establishments and everything in between).  We have just released CommonSpace,  a tool to

This past June, Inc. Magazine and Winning Workplaces announced the winners and finalists of the 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces competition – the best small and mid-sized places to work in the country. We’re thrilled to announce that Azavea was a finalist in the national list of 40 winners and finalists. And guess what?… one

Rachel Cheetham-Richard, Vice President Rachel’s Volunteer Gig:  Generation Appreciation Philadelphia, a.k.a GenPhilly Rachel spent a tremendous amount of time during her childhood with her paternal grandmother.  “Manou”, as she used to call her. They would go on vacation together, spend weekends together during the school year, go shopping, watch cheesy films, and when Rachel moved

Thank you so much for your support and trust! For the second consecutive year, Azavea made it to the ICIC Inner City 100 List of the fastest growing companies nationwide, at number 28.  And the Philadelphia Inquirer claims that “Azavea puts Philadelphia on the Map“. The Inner City 100 program recognizes successful companies and their

John Semmel, software developer, has a weekly ritual. On Sunday mornings, he listens to NPR’s notorious “Puzzlemaster”, Will Shortz’s weekly word puzzle.  John then promptly puts his mental lexicon to work to figure out next week’s challenge and to submit his answer to the show.  Though his submissions nearly always match the intended answer, he

Azavea has a clearly defined symbiosis with coffee. We have a designated Minister of Coffee, a world-class coffee grinder, and we get selections of coffee from around the world; some of it hand-delivered, and some of it hand-crafted.  However, one of the problems opportunities that I observed with our coffee system was that as coffee

Mike Romankiewicz joins Azavea as a GIS Analyst and will be working at the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) editing parcel data for a web-based stormwater billing system the Azavea Land Records team is building for PWD.  He spent the past year wrapping up his GIS certificate program at Essex County College and working for the

Jeremy Heffner joins Azavea as a Business Development Associate.  Coming to us from the nonprofit technology sector, he will be supporting the marketing and business development teams with writing content for our marketing pieces, managing our web presence, developing product campaigns, and researching trends in the technologies impacting our work.  He most recently worked at

Mary Johnson, GIS/Technical Writer Mary Johnson joins Azavea as our GIS/Technical Writer. She has previously worked in the civil engineering field as a technical writer for municipal GIS and cartography projects. In addition to proposals and other marketing materials, she has written about GIS and digital mapping for various GIS conferences around the country. She

Tom Johnson and John Semmel John Semmel joins Azavea as a Software Developer after many years in the insurance industry where he worked primarily on creating rating and quoting applications. His greatest hits in his previous position with Aetna were an enterprise census collection and analysis tool, as well as an application that enabled business

David Middlecamp with … Monty Python. Really? David Middlecamp recently joined Azavea as a Software Developer. He most recently worked optimizing the management of millions of professional photographs at Collages.net, and before that worked on medical software at Wolters Kluwer. He is excited to contribute to the success of each new project that comes his

Kenny Shepard, Hatef Yamini (with antlers) and Brian Jacobs We would like to introduce you to our three newest staff members. Early on in the life of Azavea we were, for the most part, hiring software developers. Over the past several years our business development, product development, GIS analysis, and marketing/design teams have been steadily

You may have noticed that there happens to be an election going on. Here at Azavea we’re always paying attention to elections across the country and around the world to keep our Cicero Elected Official Lookup as up to date as possible. In honor of the upcoming presidential election and our new election data available

Sample map from MetroPhilaMapper, powered by KaleidocadeTM. Temple University’s MetroPhilaMapper, powered by KaleidocadeTM, provides the public with a powerful tool for learning about and analyzing regional demographic and quality-of-living data. This month’s puzzle will take you on an exploration of the application. Be the first to send in all three correct answers and receive a

Andrew Jennings and Tamara Manik-Perlman, and … Shamu?!! Andrew Jennings joins Azavea as a Software Developer. He will start out assisting our Operations Manager with systems projects and providing quality assurance/software testing for the developers. Andrew spent five years at PENN Medicine‘s office of Development and Alumni Relations, where he rolled out a telecommuting program,

Sean McGinnis and Reed Lauber in Philadelphia (mmm… someone went a bit crazy with Photoshop!) Reed Lauber joins Azavea as a Software Developer and will be working with the ‘Land Records’ team. He has over six years of experience building web-based applications. He recently has worked on a series of products for college Student Employment

Azavea is excited to introduce a brand new search page for Sajara and the addition of 5,000 maps to PhillyHistory.org. In honor of the new maps (and just because we love all things geographical), get your map and street finding skills ready for this month’s puzzle! 1. PhillyHistory.org features a volume of the historical Hexamer

For those of you who are just getting to know us, we are a small, customer-focused, Philadelphia-based company that seeks out interesting and complex web-based software projects. We develop innovative software that uses mapping technologies and geography to solve complex, interesting, and novel problems. We have particular expertise in natural resource planning, economic development, crime

It’s a clue! Cicero maps of our representative voting districts. Try Cicero Live! 1. Azavea is located at 340 N. 12th Street in Philadelphia, PA. Using Cicero, find the United States Democratic Senator who represents the area where Azavea is located. What is the name of that Senator? 2. Using the link included on the

Deborah Sting and Josh Marcus Once again we have some ‘New Staff’ introductions to make! Deb and Josh joined Azavea in October and November. Deborah Sting joins Azavea as a Project Assistant and will be providing support for PhillyHistory.org and assisting with the marketing of Sajara. Prior to joining Azavea, Deb lived in Chicago where

Dana Bauer, Carissa Britain, and Aaron Ogle Azavea welcomes several new additions to our team. We continue to experience unprecedented growth and, in recent months, have opened several positions and met with many exciting candidates. In September we welcomed three new staff members (and we look forward to welcoming some more colleagues in the next

The American Trauma Society’s TRAMAH website uses algorithms developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University to understand and map access to trauma center hospitals across the country. Visit the application and compare the three states with Azavea offices (Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington. 1. In which state does the largest percentage

Auto Portrait at City Hall a few days before Christmas. From Rachel’s collection of daily photographs. Rachel Cheetham-Richard, Vice President and Marketing Director brings a wealth of marketing and business development experience to the Azavea team. Before joining Azavea, she worked at The Wilma Theater as the Director of External Relations where she managed all

Question 1: In addition to our Philadelphia location, Azavea has offices in Seattle, Washington and Burlington, Vermont. Visit the OJJDP SMART application to learn about indicators of juvenile delinquency in those states. Under the ‘Education’ category map the % of 5 to 17 year olds not enrolled in school, 2000 by county in each of

David Zwarg knitting. If you have ever visited Azavea’s office and seen a programmer bolting a phone to the ceiling, creating sculptures out of old business cards and unwound network cable, knitting on the couch or filming epic Tupperware battles, you’ve witnessed a David Zwarg moment. After graduating from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2000

Take a trip through a number of our applications and be the first to answer the questions below to win a $25 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Send your answers to info@azavea.com. Azavea Business Development Manager Megan Heckert grew up in Germantown, and was quite pleased to discover that the Mural Arts Program recently

The world of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and GIS related software design has been growing at a rapid pace. Azavea has recognized the value of introducing talented student programmers to the world of GIS and geographic-based programming and have highly valued the innovative, fresh outlook our talented interns bring to the Azavea team. Kate Ericson

Azavea’s development team constantly relies upon Software Configuration Management (SCM) software to author robust and dependable software. Whether development happens in Philadelphia, Seattle, Vermont or on the road, a copy of Subversion, running off a server in the office maintains logs and copies of code for collaborative, secure, and redundant storage. As all of Azavea’s

In the past two months, Azavea has welcomed four new employees to its Philadelphia office. From left to rightt: Megan Heckert – Business Development Manager, Abby Fretz – Project Assistant, Chip Hitchens – Operations and Project Manager, and Rachel Cheetham-Richard – Vice President and Marketing Director. Featured Employee Megan Heckert Megan Heckert, our Business Development

Azavea’s development team is always technically savvy when it comes to communication and organization, which is why we decided to use a wiki to respond to the myriad of challenges of organizing large amounts of information in a group setting. The development team at Azavea uses the wiki software (dokuwiki, available for download from http://www.splitbrain.org/projects/dokuwiki

On November 2, 2006 Azavea will be hosting an early evening Open House from 5:30 – 8:30 pm.  We invite you to join us in celebration of our newly expanded office space, some exciting projects we’re working on, and to meet our staff