Events highlights for the week of May 11 – May 17, 2009

Hello, newly sunny Philadelphia, that’s a hell of a farmer’s tan you’ve got there.
Let’s keep that weekend energy going with our region’s active tech community. Half of our highlights are straight outta West Philly. It’s not bias, we swear! But if you just refuse to do anything West of the Schuylkill, our events calendar would be happy to schedule an appointment for you.
On Saturday and Sunday, help University City with some GPS mapping. The folks at Philly OpenStreetMap realized long ago that Google might one day threaten our existence so they’re mapping the world until it happens. How else are you gonna find the way to good Chinese restaurant when the Goog steals your identity and shuts down Maps?
Wednesday, academia will sign-up for Second Life, get harassed by creepy dudes and annoying tweens, and beg for a way to get the heck out of there while still applying some of those virtual concepts to higher education. With Wharton hosting, it might be a little smarter than our summary.
Monday, IndyHall will host a PHP Meetup featuring Sigurd Magnusson of Silverstripe, an open source CMS for the WordPress haters out there. Magnusson will even be taking feature requests, so give him some advice or he’ll ignore your feedback when the next version hits.
Philly Office Geeks are trying to spread the word about social media in the business community on Tuesday. It might be a clever attempt at getting network privileges for Facebook in the office, but we’d bet there’s a little more too it than that.
All events listed on the event calendar are free to attend. Be sure to check our complete calendar for more information, or follow us past the jump.
Monday, May 11: Philadelphia Area PHP Meetup Group has Sigurd Magnusson of SilverStripe, an open source CMS built on Sapphire, speaking at IndyHall. We’re hoping it won’t be too sales pitchey, but given the venue, we imagine it will lean toward philosophical. Learn the story behind the software and leave a couple pointers of your own. 6:00 p.m. Old City. RSVP. [view more events]
Tuesday, May 12: As social media has injected itself in nearly every facet of the online world, so to has it grown as a valuable resource to the business community. That, or your cubical mate has been tweeting and passing his work on to you. Figure out how to address it all Tuesday evening. Philly Office Geeks will also have Ashley Roach of NewsGator, makers of those nifty RSS services. 5:00 p.m. Malvern. RSVP. [view more events]
Wednesday, May 13: Sure, it may be our background, but Technically Philly has love for the academic world. On Wednesday, Wharton and the Philadelphia Future Salon will host a discussion of virtual worlds and their place in higher education. Turns out Second Life isn’t just for sex addicts. Educators love it, too. Get yourself some three-dimensional ed with guests Don Bain, formally of The Electric Sheep Company, Fred Fuchs of FireSabre, Ana Reyes who teaches a virtual work class at Penn and more. 2:00 p.m. University City. Details. [view more events]
Thursday, May 14: There’s been much talk about electronic medical records lately, due in part to the economic stimulus. Who ain’t trying to get a piece of that? In light of tech prospects in the health industry, University of Sciences is hosting a panel on the Future of Health Information Technology. It’s a killer list of top digital health officials from the U.S. Department of Health, MIT and more. Plus, who knows, maybe you feel more comfortable having a doctor use an iPhone on you over a stethoscope. 5:00 p.m. University City. RSVP. [view more events]
Saturday May 16, Sunday May 17: The folks at Philly OpenStreetMap are trying to replace Google Maps with an open source mapping solution, one GIS location at a time. Regular day Magellan’s they is. Join them Saturday and Sunday, grab a GPS, and set to tacklin’ University City. Bring your own GPS if you can. All day. University City. Details. [view more events]
Every Monday morning, Technically Philly will preview the best free tech events in Philadelphia and the surrounding region. See others here. Check our comprehensive events calendar here.