Archive for February, 2011

Posted on February 18, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Barrack Obama Silicon Valley tech supper with the stars. Where was the diversity?

Last week a post called “Startup America needs to look more like America” by Kalimah Priforce that was reposted on Quora fired up a debate between some noted Silicon Valley venture capitalist and other startups founders. The post led to a follow up post by Kalimah called “MAKING HISTORY | WILL SUPER ANGELS & TECH MAVENS CLOSE THE MINORITY-LED STARTUP GAP?. The debate and conversations were also continued on HackerNews. In other words, it’s a touchy subject.

Yesterday President Barrack Obama held what the various blogs are calling “tech supper with the stars” and the White House released a photo of a big cheers moment at the dinner table as you can see below.

From devicemag here’s the full list of attendees according to the NY Times, LA Times and SF Chronicle:

John Doerr, partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Carol Bartz, president and CEO, Yahoo!
John Chambers, CEO and chairman, Cisco Systems
Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter
Larry Ellison, co-founder and CEO, Oracle
Reed Hastings, CEO, NetFlix
John Hennessy, president, Stanford University
Steve Jobs, chairman and CEO, Apple (seated next to Obama, above)
Art Levinson, chairman and former CEO, Genentech
Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO, Google
Steve Westly, managing partner and founder, Westly Group
Mark Zuckerberg, founder, president and CEO, Facebook (seated next to Obama, above)

Wow, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the dinner. You can’t argue that everyone on the list is deserving and I like the male to female ratio. But there was not one minatory Silicon Valley CEO or founder worthy or available to attend? I know there are debates about why each of the individuals where invited. You can read about that via a Search Engine Land post called “Who Sat Where? Why Was He There?“.

It’s not like there are no black founders, entrepreneurs, and executives in Silicon Valley because there’s a list on Quora here: Who are some notable black founders, entrepreneurs, and executives in Silicon Valley? At least they could have invited @MCHammer. Maybe next time guys!

Just a simple observation and if you attend a lot of technology events, conferences, or meetup the diversity ratio at the dinner table is about accurate how it is outside of the bubble.

I normally don’t blog about race or the lack there of in the web/tech/startup space but it’s becoming more of a hot topic and a much needed conversation. Plus I’m doing my 28daysofdiversity.com series and the dinner photo just made me think about it even more. #justsayin

Posted on February 18, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 18: People of color impacting the social web – Lauren Thomas #28DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. Last year for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2011 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also address a topic that affects everyone. For 28 Days of Diversity 2011 each post/person will answer the question “How can we use technology to close the digital divide?” So for the next 28 days, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 16, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Lauren Thomas

Twitter: @HelloLT

Website/Blog: http://digitalaftershock.com

Bio

Lauren Thomas is a digital marketing strategist with a passion for connecting with people through social media, storytelling, and travel.

She launched her marketing career at Grey and then went on to work at Everywhere, an Atlanta-based firm specializing in social media strategy and content development. Lauren was a member of the Everywhere team when it secured a nod in the Guinness World Records for #BeatCancer, a pro bono campaign that raised $70,000 for charity in 24 hours. She is currently a digital strategy analyst at Nurun, a global interactive marketing agency.

Lauren also speaks about new media and social media marketing and has spoken at events including the Atlanta Food Blog Forum. During the inaugural Social Media Atlanta, she served as the co-host of #DigitiniATL, a special event that celebrated the diversity of women in social media.

A recovering English major, she writes about online marketing for Examiner.com and explores the wild Web on her blog, Digital Aftershock. She is currently developing a project that will help new media newbies learn to navigate the social web.

Lauren has lived in five different countries including Ecuador and Egypt. She uses social media to remain connected with friends and followers around the world.

How can we use technology to close the digital divide?

In many ways socioeconomic inequalities are recreated and perpetuated online. That cycle contributes to the digital divide. Around the world, there are communities that lack access to technology tools and education. Those who don’t understand or have access to these tools are at a serious disadvantage. So how can we address this challenge? 

We can look for—and create—opportunities to provide greater access to technology tools and education. We can raise money to get technology into the hands of more people in more communities. We can also support organizations that are addressing this challenge. For example, the City of Seattle has a Community Technology Program that has a mission to “ensure digital inclusion for all.” The program provides public access terminals, supports community technology centers, offers educational resources, and provides other digital equality initiatives. There are also non-profit organizations like Computers For Youth that provide children with free computers in order to improve the learning experience at home. We can share our time and talents to support these organizations or launch new initiatives to serve our communities.

We also need to realize that the digital divide is a multi-faceted challenge and there isn’t necessarily a “one size fits all” solution. Economics and infrastructure are key barriers but social, cultural and political factors come into play as well. So the digital divide has different implications in each community. We could use technology as a tool to explore this issue and share ideas. We need to leverage digital media and social media to tap into the insights, knowledge and experiences of people from a wide variety of backgrounds including: arts, education, entertainment, marketing, science, anthropology, sociology and, of course, technology. If we leverage technology to communicate about this challenge, crowdsource ideas, and collaborate on solutions, we can take a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to better understanding the digital divide and closing the gap.

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You can follow the status of 28 Days of Diversity 2011 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.

Posted on February 17, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 17: People of color impacting the social web – Brent Leary #28DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. Last year for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2011 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also address a topic that affects everyone. For 28 Days of Diversity 2011 each post/person will answer the question “How can we use technology to close the digital divide?” So for the next 28 days, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 16, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Brent Leary

Twitter: @BrentLeary

Website/Blog: http://BrentLeary.com

Bio

Brent Leary is a crm industry analyst, advisor, author, speaker and award winning blogger. He is co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, an Atlanta based CRM advisory firm covering tools and strategies for improving business relationships. In 2009 he co-authored Barack 2.0: Social Media Lessons for Small Business.

Recognized by InsideCRM as one of the 25 most influential industry leaders, Leary also is a past recipient of CRM Magazine’s Most Influential Leader Award. He serves on the national board of the CRM Association, on the advisory board of the University of Toronto’s CRM Center of Excellence, and on the editorial advisory board for The Atlanta Tribune. Leary writes a regular online column for Inc. magazine, and serves as Blogger-in-Residence for TheSocialCustomer.com. He blogs at BrentLeary.com, and can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BrentLeary.

How can we use technology to close the digital divide?

The latest social tools and mobile technologies have dramatically lowered the cost and complexities of business creation. And because certain barriers have been lowered, more people are exploring ways to start a business – which means more people will be competing for the hearts, minds, and dollars of today’s socially-empowered customers.

Technology is evolving at an accelerated pace, which means we need to be vigilant in perpetually understanding how we can best take advantage of it. The Digital Divide can quickly shrink if we permanently embed technology into our business and personal lives. But it can expand at the speed of light today, if we turn our head for just a moment. Knowing what’s available to us today may not help us be as competitive as we need to be tomorrow. So it’s imperative to continually be up to date with how technology is changing, and how those changes impact business models, as well as customer relationships. We should also be ready, willing and able to drive those changes wherever possible.

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You can follow the status of 28 Days of Diversity 2011 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.

Posted on February 16, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Top Social Media Brands – infographic

Top Social Media Brands: Infographic

Via The Blog Herald.

Posted on February 16, 2011 - by Wayne Sutton

Day 16: People of color impacting the social web – Anil & Varsha Chawla #28DaysofDiversity

As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. Last year for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.

For 2011 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also address a topic that affects everyone. For 28 Days of Diversity 2011 each post/person will answer the question “How can we use technology to close the digital divide?” So for the next 28 days, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 16, I would like to introduce to some and present to others the first 28 days of diversity couple: Anil & Varsha Chawla

Anil Chawla

Twitter: @anilchawla

Website/Blog: http://anilchawla.org

Bio

Anil Chawla is a software developer, aspiring entrepreneur, and the founder of ExactByte, LLC. Anil started programming at age twelve and has been in love with computers and technology ever since. Until recently, Anil was a software engineer in the Emerging Internet Technologies team at IBM. After nearly six-and-a-half years in the corporate world, he decided to pursue his passion and start his own software development company. Anil’s current projects include social media applications tweetymail (http://tweetymail.com) and TheFriendMail (http://thefriendmail.com) which provide comprehensive email integration with Twitter and Facebook. When he is (rarely) not writing in code, Anil blogs about the impact of technology at http://marriedtoageek.com and his personal entrepreneurial journey at http://anilchawla.org.

How can we use technology to close the digital divide?

The digital divide is a strange phenomenon because technology is both at the heart of the problem and the solution. Two of the central issues seem to be 1) Affordable access to technology, and 2) Enough knowledge and understanding to effectively utilize technology. Although there is still tremendous economic disparity, I find the first issue to be much more straightforward. After all, one of the greatest strengths of technology is it’s ability to lower costs. The One Laptop per Child (http://laptop.org) program is a great example of how technology is coming increasing closer to overcoming some of the economic barriers.

So how can we better spread knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of technology to close the divide? The Internet has evolved from simply “connecting people to information” to “connecting people to each other”. I believe that this is the key. The ability to interact and share with each other gives us the opportunity to learn from and inspire each other. As the economics of technology continue to fall into place (particularly in terms of mobile devices), I believe that we will see communities grow to stretch across the divide and gradually bring people together towards a more equal standard.

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Varsha Chawla

Twitter: @VarshaChawla

Website/Blog: http://varshachawla.com/

Bio

Varsha works as a Product Manager at SAS in Cary, NC. She currently oversees email and mobile marketing, Business Intelligence, and mobile BI products. In addition to attending key marketing and social media events and conferences, she has been involved with local tweetups, the local chapter of the Social Media Club, and un-conferences such as BarCamp, ProductCamp, and AnalyticsCamps for the last few years. She recently participated in the STEM project, which encourages younger students to become involved in science, technology, engineering, and math. (Link to SAS’ STEM video). Varsha just presented her first workshop on using social media as a tool in the job hunting process, together with Anil, at the Meredith School of Business. In her spare time, she also writes blog posts internally at SAS, on http://marriedtoageek.com/ and on her personal cooking and recipe blog, http://varshachawla.com/. She is looking for a partner to help her launch the Raleigh-Durham chapter of Girls in Tech, so please reach out to her if you are interested in helping out!

How can we use technology to close the digital divide?

Answer: Many people are betting on mobile (specifically, smartphones and tablets) to provide easy access to the Web to those who still don’t have the opportunity to get online. I think that mobile will definitely be part of the answer, especially in areas where mobile has traditionally been spreading rapidly, such as Asia Pacific. I also think that closing the gap needs to start in schools. Of course, the lack of funding prevents many schools from purchasing computers and getting access to the technology they need to educate children. However, just as kids sell Girl Scout cookies and wash cars to get the funds they need to participate in extra curricular activities, they should be raising funds to start technology clubs and get hands-on technical training outside of the classroom that will serve them well in years to come. This means that school principals need to be made aware of the benefits and need for technical education. It also means that key influencers, such as successful tech entrepreneurs and executives at high tech companies might have to spend some time educating our teachers and local leaders – those who can make a difference. An excellent example of an initiative that I fully support and believe in is STEM. I think the gender gap will continue to close over time and am less worried about this than I am about children getting a leg up in the digital world. If minorities continue to show what they’re capable of, hopefully it will encourage more of us to try to make a difference.

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You can follow the status of 28 Days of Diversity 2011 on http://28daysofdiversity.com, http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/ and syndicated on BlackWeb 2.0.