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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 9, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Terrance Gaines

Twitter: @BrothaTech

Website/Blog: brothatech.com

Bio

Terrance Gaines has been interested in technology ever since he can remember. He realized his passion for technology of all kinds when he worked at an electronics store selling Audio/Video gear to make some extra money during college.

In 2008, he decided to share his techie background and unique writing skills, and created BrothaTech.com. Where he writes about the latest technology trends, does gadget reviews, and writes about the technology he uses everyday. In addition to his blog, Terrance has also written technology news that empowers the African American community for BlackWeb20.com & AtlantaPost.com (now apart of Madame Noire), and currently writes mobile app news and reviews for AppScout.com, small business mobility and productivity articles for SmallBizGoMobile.com. Several of his technology articles have been published in print for Uptown Magazine and he can be regularly found guest posting for various sites like BlackWeb20.com, BlackandMarriedwithKids.com…and anybody other site that needs a fresh (and a little witty) technology perspective.

Terrance’s latest tech travels include reoccurring appearances as a mobile app specialist on the “Mario Armstrong Show”, XM ch. 169 and his future plans include Apple Certification, speaking, and a weekly technology podcast.

What motivates you to become successful?

It’s pretty simple for me: Being around other successful people. By far the most rewarding attribute I get out of networking with other entrepreneurs and professionals is listening to what they are currently doing, the plans they have for the future, and how they are executing on their goals. The energy, the passion, and the resiliency in everything they do is something I admire in successful people, so I try to hang around them as much as possible in order to keep me motivated in my own endeavors. “Birds of a feather flock together” is pretty cliche…but so true.

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 8, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D.

Twitter: @drgoddess

Website/Blog: drgoddess.com

Bio

Kimberly C. Ellis, Ph.D., is affectionately known as Dr. Goddess,” and a true Renaissance Woman. She is a Scholar of American and Africana Studies, an Artist, Activist and Entrepreneur who loves Technology and Social Media. A published academic author, popular blogger, playwright and issues and electoral campaign winner, Dr. Goddess has become a staple at such conferences as Netroots Nation, Blogging While Brown, Blogalicious, Black Thought 2.0 (Duke University) BlogHer and South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi). Welcome to the Cult!

Topics
Women and World Change, Women’s Studies
American History and Literature
African American History, Literature and Black Theatre
Organizing 2.0, New Media Liberation for the Every Generation,
Tweeting the Revolution, The Bombastic Brilliance of Black Twitter
Instructional Technology and the Academic Experience

Qualifications
Doctorate, American Studies, African American Literature and History
Assistant Professor, DePauw University, University of Houston, Univ. of Pittsburgh
New Organizing Institute Participant, State of Pennsylvania Rootscamp Organizer Community Benefits Agreement Movement
Raise Your Hand! No Casino on the Hill Campaign

Awards
One of the Most Influential Black Women on Twitter, For Harriet Digital Magazine
Exquisite Women, The Black Man Can
Nominee, Women’s Media Center Social Media Award
Top Ten Creative Women in Social Media, Liberated Muse
Fab 40 Under 40, New Pittsburgh Courier Award
Thomas Merton Center, New Person Award
YWCA Racial Justice Award

Major Speaking Engagements
Black Thought 2.0, Duke University, 2012
South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SxSW) 2012
Netroots Nation, 2009, 2010, 2011
Blogging While Brown 2011
BlogHer 2011
Blogalicious, 2010
National Trust for Historic Preservation 2011

Target Audiences
High School and College Students
Academics
Women aged 18 – 65, Men, aged 18 – 50
Black and Latina women
Activists, organizers
Theatre Lovers

What motivates you to become successful?

Knowing all of the sacrifices that have been made for me, especially by my mother, is a primary motivating factor for me to be successful in my endeavors. I also intend to live as free as possible, so it’s important for me to focus and do well. Otherwise, whenever the sun is shining and the waves undulate across the landscape. That’s enough for me!

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 29 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 7, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Curtiss Pope

Twitter: @aislefinder

Website/Blog: aislefinder.com

Bio

Curtiss started his technology career coding and designing web sites and software for companies like Yahoo, Microsoft and Installshield.

His current role is as Founder/CEO of AisleFinder, an app that matches items on shopping lists with aisles within supermarkets (Google maps for supermarkets).

Curtiss’ company AisleFinder was selected to be one of the startups selected for the first class of NewMe Accelerator in 2011.
At 29 years old he is one of the youngest black entrepreneurs within the tech sector. He often shares his views on entrepreneurship,design and motivation on blogs such as VentureBeat ,Hacker News, Black Enterprise, and has been featured in sites such as:TechCrunch,ReadWriteWeb,VentureBeat, ,CNN.com,PC Magazine and CNET.Curtiss was born and raised in Silicon Valley where he still resides.

What motivates you to become successful?

In life: I would have to say my wife motivates me, she has been on this ride with me since the beginning. Her support allows me to stay motivated when things don’t go the way I plan. She is a tough little Nigerian woman that brings out the best in me.I call her my co-founder for life!

In business: Other startups and their founders motivate me. I love the raw and unfiltered premise of a new startup ready to take on the challenges of building a business.I also get motivated by helping them to overcome challenges that I myself have faced as an entrepreneur.

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 6, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Christine Celise Johnson

Twitter: @iamdtech

Website/Blog: www.Iamdtech.com

Bio

A graduate of College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Christine is the Founder of DiversiTech, an organization that provides educational programming, networking opportunities and access to resources for minorities in technology. DiversiTech is based out of the Baltimore/Washington area and has national partnerships with like-minded organizations working to change the look of the technology startup landscape. No stranger to the startup culture, she has been the driving force behind the success of the national model for technology transfer and commercialization showcases for the nation’s top seed/early-stage funding company since 2001.

Ms. Johnson’s background includes owning a successful event planning and marketing company that serviced various tech and non-profit clients, creating a visual arts gallery and education program, being published in a number of poetry journals, contributing to business and creative publications/blogs, and facilitating healing arts and women in entrepreneurship workshops. She has been recognized as an outstanding woman entrepreneur by Morgan State University’s Entrepreneurial Development Assistance Center (EDAC).

Ms. Johnson is presently on the board for The America21 Project, an open, collaborative and innovative platform that fosters solutions-based approaches to 21st century community economic development. She is also a member of the Emerging Technology Center (ETC) Ambassador Council, an award-winning incubator in Baltimore, MD. Her previous service includes a national advisory committee member for the National Association for Blacks in Bio; board member for A Step Forward Rehabilitation Facility; committee member for Prince George’s County (MD) Business Summit; and board member for Youth Warriors Environmental Justice Organization.

Ms. Johnson has been interviewed on various topics by Sophie’s Parlor on WPFW (DC), BriefCase Radio on WEAA (Baltimore), Mario Armstrong’s Digital Lifestyle Show on XM Radio, Technology Today and WomanSphere by Amina on Blogtalk Radio.

These days she spends much of her time developing relationships with, and advocating for, amazing minority technology entrepreneurs.

What motivates you to become successful?

What motivates me to become successful? – My spirit and the belief that there is nothing I can’t do. When I see there is a need in the world and I get a “spirit tug” to create something that will make a difference, I act. In the end, it’s all about the people you touch and the amazing ways that touch changes you.

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 5, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Joselin Mane

Twitter: @JoselinMane

Website/Blog: bostontweetup.com/

Bio

A passionate Internet Marketing Consultant with 20 years of computer technology experience. Add my 10 years of Online Marketing experience and 12 years of Business Development experience, and you get a powerful combination that is rarely seen in this new media market. His passion and focus is working with small/midsize businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs to best leverage Internet technologies to systematically reach their financial and/or growth goals.
He specializes in wrapping marketing around technology to help grow his clients’ businesses in more efficient ways. He’s known in the corporate world for his resourcefulness, and since going digital, have has earned online recognition and a reputation for these skills as well. His way of finding information and adapting new technology enables his to quickly access opportunities for growth and provide several easy-to-understand tactical plans based on his clients overall strategy. Early in his career, I was highlighted in a full page ad for the work he contributed to Herman Miller saving over 1 Million dollars.

As a first generation Dominican American, many extraordinary life experiences allowed him to analyze opportunities from various, unique perspectives. He has traveled extensively across the United States and around the world. His previous business endeavors have taken him to places including three months in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and six months in England, Sweden, Norway, Germany, France and Spain. His international experiences gives him a strong foundation from which he has developed global marketing campaigns for my clients.

Throughout his life he has worked with and been a part of many community organizations including the Boys Scouts, Lawrence Boys & Girls Club, Inroads, and NSBE. Most recently he developed a marketing plan for the fastest growing and largest professional Latino membership site in Massachusetts history, have co-founded both BeScene Marketing, which provides Social Media Strategies for the Entertainment Industry and BostonTweetUp , which provides people in the Boston area a central resource to learn all about local Tweetups. He has also been selected as a connector for the Mayor of Boston, Boston World Partnership initiative.

Via BostonTweetUp, which he has been focusing the majority of this time now on, he created MegaTweetUp. MegaTweetUp is the largest non-branded tweetup in the world, uniting people of all ages and disciplines to network and learn more about how to best leverage social media for their businesses.
He is a strong believer of, “Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” He embodies this by championing the Kolbe A index, an index that measures one’s strengths. By knowing one’s natural strengths they are able to focus on what they are most effective at, and find other people who complement them to join their team. His Kolbe results say that he is a forward thinker and has a great ability to conceptualize what could be, and to picture how things work. His expansive technical and marketing knowledge combined with my ability to intuitively visualize possibilities allows him to not only create solutions quickly but more importantly, find a better way of doing things in the process. He has a keen eye which allows him to detect discrepancies and adjust procedures in any project.

He has posted his Kolbe results on his company website and his blog. He invites people to read his results and learn his Modus Operandi, and encourages people to go to the Kolbe site and find their unique strengths.

Since he has a strong understanding of myself, He begin each of his projects by having an honest conversation with each of the team members to determine the most effective use of everybody’s skills and natural instincts, maximizing the effectiveness of the team.

He devote several hours a day to learning the varying trends in business and technology such as the new platform of ever changing Social Media. He provides his clients with the best and most current information to make a decision that will have the greatest impact on their business. He continuously researches and networks to bring his clients the very best resources available.

As the founder & lead consultant of LITBeL Consulting, He brings all of my experience, knowledge, and resources together. One of the strengths he brings to his clients is the ability to handpick the perfect team, one created from the skills and talents of the clients’ current team accented by the best of the resources of LITBeL Consulting. Using this strategy he is able to create great teams of professionals which are completely customized based on the individual clients needs.

What motivates you to become successful?

“What motivates you to become successful?” My Mother who came to this country on the sheer notion that this was the land of opportunity. I also work hard/smart on behalf of those that came before me, that that can’t themselves and those that will come after me.

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 4, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Brett Anitra Gilbert, Ph.D

Twitter: @profgilbert

Website: http://about.me/brettanitra

Bio

Brett is an assistant professor in the Department of Management and Global Business at Rutgers University. She is the very first Entrepreneurship PhD graduate from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Her expertise is in geographic clusters, technology entrepreneurship and new venture performance. Her research was awarded a Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship in 2004, and was later selected as a finalist for the Heizer Award, which is given by the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division for outstanding dissertations in entrepreneurship.

In 2009, Brett was chosen as a Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellow, which is awarded to emerging entrepreneurship scholars. Of the 10 recipients to date, she is only the second woman to receive the award and the only African-American. Her expertise on clusters and technology entrepreneurship landed her a two-year gubernatorial appointment as an advisory committee member to the Texas Emerging Technology Fund from 2008-2010.

Brett’s research is currently published or forthcoming in several top management journals, and her most recently accepted manuscript, “Creative Destruction: Identifying its Geographic Origins” has been one of the top 10 most downloaded manuscripts in the Social Science Research Network for Entrepreneurship & Economics, since the manuscript’s release in December.
Brett teaches a Technology Ventures course to undergraduate and graduate students, and has also taught courses on creativity and innovation as well as general entrepreneurship. Students who have taken her courses are currently exploring ventures in industries as diverse as construction services, education, fashion and social media.

What motivates you to become successful?

I am motivated to be a good steward of the gifts and talents God has given me, and to use them to the best of my ability to fulfill my life’s purpose. ‘Success’ has been the natural byproduct of doing those two things, not really something I can say I consciously work to achieve.

“Going back to Cali, Cali, Cali…” Yesterday was a bitter-sweet day. I’m excited, nervous, sad, happy, out of my mind, but motivated. I’ve moved to San Francisco. It was a tough decision but with everything going on and my future plans, dreams and goals it’s the best move for life today.

I’ve been a long time geek, entrepreneur, blogger, designer and then some and my long time dream was making it big in Silicon Valley. Until last year I never thought it would be possible but then NewME Accelerator happen and that changed everything. I think back to 2009 while planning and giving my first Ignite talk at Ignite Raleigh the topic was 19 reasons why the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) is better than Silicon Valley. It was a fun presentation but doing it really just showed that being that I had never been to Silicon Valley at the time it was silly and also showed I was a little jealous and wanted to move. The Triangle community is great, has been great to me and the web/tech scene has come a long way in the past two years especially in Durham, NC. But being that I just attended an innovation Raleigh meeting where they are still trying to play catch up and establish Raleigh as an entrepreneur hot bed, I now agree and see why Vivek Wadhwa made some of his comments a few years ago about the community. No diss just the truth.

Today will be my first full day in San Francisco and I’m focused to work hard and succeed. A few days ago while visiting parents my dad asked me what do you do for fun in Silicon Valley. My response was there are things to do but you work. You work on your startup, your company, your dreams and when you launch or get funding you work even harder. That’s fun, it’s fun for me and what I love to do and it’s what I’m going to do. I’m not a big Drake fan as a few close friends know but in the words of Drake in “the Motto” #YOLO = “You only live once” and for me I rather try to make it and go after my dreams than look back a year or two years from now and say I wish I would have done this or that.

The projects I’m currently working on are:
NewME – Accelerator, Community
gokit – cofounder/advisor
Vouch
Advising Startups and Entrepreneurs
Designing, Learning and Networking: HTML5, CSS3, javascript, python, iOS, Android and more.
Speaking: Conference/University, Entrepreneurship

Thanks for the support to everyone over the years. I’m making a few big sacrifices now with the plans to succeed later. The quote by finical expert Dave Ramsey which has been adopted entrepreneurs “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.” … That’s my plan.

Let the “fun” begin and Change the world!

Quote: Steve Jobs
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith”

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. ”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Stay hungry and stay foolish”

Stay Focused & Keep Shipping!

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 3, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Rob Fields

Photo Credit: Ed Marshall Photography NYC

Twitter: @robfields

Website/Blog: nbifestival.org

Bio

Rob Fields is the Founder and Chief Curator of the Festival of the New Black Imagination, a platform for forward-looking, global black culture that launched in 2011. The Festival is a natural outgrowth of the work that he’s been doing on his black alt music and culture blog Boldaslove.us.

What motivates you to become successful?

A belief that a fresh conversation about what blackness means in the 21st century is not only good for black people, but for the country as a whole.

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 2, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Sian Morson

Twitter: @xianamoy

Website/Blog: kollectivemobile.com

Bio

Sian is CEO & Founder of Kollective Mobile, and brings 15+ years of experience in digital development and leadership to the mobile marketplace. She has a passion for creative information design, a strong technical background, and a talent for developing a team culture of user experience innovation and effective product development. Her skills, excellent client relations, and drive and determination have made her a well-respected force in the industry.

Sian started her career as the dotcom boom was changing the fundamental way that we communicate, share ideas, and bring products to market. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she studied Film & Television but soon became enthralled by the incredible artistic and social potential in web technology; She went on to earn a Masters degree in Interactive Media Design from Middlesex University in London.

In 2010, she founded Kollective Mobile, a mobile development agency based in Oakland, CA. Kollective helps agencies and start-ups design and grow their mobile business, by providing strategy consulting and building great apps. Currently, Sian leads client relations and drives strategy and product development, including ArtKollect, our mobile and web solutions for art professionals.

What motivates you to become successful?

What motivates me to become successful is my core belief that information is power. We are living in an unprecedented time in history.We have access to so much more information that our ancestors did. What we do with it today will determine the tomorrows of generations to come. I am passionate about bridging the ‘digital divide’ and ensuring that our communities aren’t left behind. It is my hope that with with so many black tech entrepreneurs and start-ups with black founders that we can reach back and help those who are less fortunate than we are. It’s great to market apps and products to early adopters but it is critical that we remember our own communities as well.

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. For the past two years 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 2012 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also ask a question to where each featured person could share their passion with others. For 28 Days of Diversity 2012 each post/person will answer the question “What motivates you to become successful?”

For the next 29 days since 2012 is a leap, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and/or 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 1, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:

Will Lucas

Twitter: @will_lucas

Website/Blog: about.me/will_lucas

Bio

Will Lucas is the founder and CEO of AWLCo that houses web projects such as thankyouaga.in (http://thankyouaga.in), a mobile application that helps users “collect the good”, vinyu (http://vinyu.com), a mobile check-in application that enhances the consumer shopping experience, and Classbag (http://classbag.in), an educational web platform. Lucas founded Creadio (http://creadio.com), a custom Internet streaming service that develops custom radio and television stations for brands to promote their products and services in-house in 2007. It produces custom networks for some of the worlds largest brands.
A musician, innovator, and former radio DJ, Lucas is also curator for TEDxToledo, and a respected speaker on technology, entrepreneurship, and social issues.

He is a husband and father of one.

What motivates you to become successful?

“I want to fulfill my maximum potential. That’s really it. Success is just a byproduct of that. I heard someone say ‘You judge yourself based on what you know you can do, others judge you based on what you’ve done.’ I want to make it matter that I lived.”

It’s that time of the year again, the emails have been send and the list has been made! February is black history month and for the past two years I’ve posted a series called 28 Days of Diversity.

The History

As someone in the technology/web/social space, I often travel and attend various events in the industry and notice a huge lack of diversity, and when it comes to getting attention from mainstream media/tech blogs it’s almost impossible(in 2010). That’s why I started 28 Days of Diversity on SocialWayne.com in 2010.

The goal of 28 Days of Diversity is to feature someone new everyday for the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. The list will include some leaders in the social web space, startups, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends NOT ranked in any particular order. Each post will include a picture, bio, social media profiles provided from the selected individual and this paragraph. It’s my simple way of giving back.

via About 28days of diversity

Since 2012 is a leap year that means it’s 29 Days of Diversity. Like the previous years I’ll cross post the profiles here on SocialWayne.com, the 28daysofdiversity.com, weekly recaps on BlackWeb20.com and this year on google+ along with sharing the post on twitter and facebook. The hashtag for this year is… #29DaysofDiversity

I’m excited about the 29 individuals selected for 2012. Last year I asked each participate “How can we use technology to close the digital divide?” The question for 2012 is “What motivates you to become successful?” I’m looking forward to the responses.

As always, thank you for the support, friendship, following on social networking sites and reading SocialWayne.com. Have a great 2012!

This infographic, A History of Disruptive Innovations in B2B Marketing, looks at breakthrough technologies and processes that forever changed one segment of the world: the lives of B2B marketing professionals.

But the release of this infographic is emblematic of another change — albeit a smaller, more nuanced change. It heralds a refined approach to content marketing.

A History of Disruptive Innovations is different. We are releasing it jointly with a new product. Why? Because the product, called Eloqua Engage for iPad, is the convergence of four of the disruptions expertly visualized by JESS3 in this infographic.

Eloqua Engage for iPad enables sales to easily customize and fire off emails to leads from their iPad using templates pre-built by marketing. Best yet, the correspondence is automatically updated in the user’s Eloqua databases.

According to John D. Sutter, writing for CNN:
“The fact that centers of tech innovation are emerging all over the globe – not just in that mountain-ringed, strip-mall-plagued valley near San Jose, California – is both encouraging and fascinating. Many of these emerging tech hubs are exporting technologies and ideas that could have impact all over the world, not just in their respective regions.”
In this infographic, we examine the world’s up-and-coming tech communities – from Germany to Mexico to Indonesia and more – and compare them on a number of different factors, including entrepreneurial mindset, access to capital and general strengths and weaknesses:

social management blog

Matt Mickiewicz, 99designs Co-Founder—27 Years Old

Mickiewicz’s business partner, Mark Harbottle, is 37
Founded 2007
Located in San Francisco and Melbourne
27 employees, with plans to double that number over the next year
No official revenue released—“eight figures”
99designs is a hub for businesses to find graphic designers without having to do all the searching themselves
Recent acquisition of Series A funding from venture capitalists Accel Partners—$35 million
According to Matt, the United States is home to 74,000 graphic designers
99designs lists 100,000+ graphic designers
80% of the company’s business comes from word-of-mouth
77,000+ projects completed so far

Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowski, Dropbox Founders, 28 and 25 Years Old

Founded 2007
Located in San Francisco
50 employees
No official revenue released
Lets users access and share files from nearly anywhere using a file sync cloud
3 months in, landed $7.2 million in funding from venture capitalists and individual investors
The how-to video posted on Digg boosted beta waitlisting from 5,000 to 75,000 people in a few hours
Available in English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese
25 million users
1 million files saved every 5 minutes
Plans up to 100 GB of storage

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram Founders—25 and 27 Years Old

Founded 2009
Located in San Francisco—Twitter’s old office, to be exact
4 employees (yes, 4)
No official revenue released
Allows photo editing in an app, along with location sharing
After it launched in the App Store at midnight on October 6, 2010, Instagram had 10,000 users in just a few hours
Now 7+ million users
150+ million photos uploaded in the first 9 months
1.3 million photos per day
15 photos per second
Flickr didn’t even reach 100 million photos until nearly 2 years after launch
16 options for photo editing
$7 million funding from Benchmark Capital
Plans for revenue: paid extra filters, exclusive accounts, advertising

Hussein Fazal and Kristaps Ronka, AdParlor Founders—29 and 24 Years Old

Founded 2008
Located in Toronto, Canada
15 employees
No official revenue released—“tens of millions”
After Facebook’s 2007 API, the pair began designing apps for fun
Along the way, they noticed Facebook didn’t have any solid ad networks
Ronka dropped out of school as the pair began coding and started AdParlor
One of fewer than 100 companies with access to Facebook’s ad API
Over 100,000 ads daily on Facebook
Over 500 million impressions

Alexa Andrzejewski, Soraya Darabi, and Ted Grubb, Foodspotting Founders—27, 27, and 29 Years Old

Founded 2009
Located in San Francisco and New York City
10 employees
No official revenue released
An iPhone app allowing people to search for food by dish, not cuisine, while seeing photographs of the meals and getting the locations of the restaurants serving it
Grubb was a programmer, but knew nothing about app development—so he learned in order to create Foodspotting
He programmed the prototype app in a tent in the wilderness!
In the beginning, Foodspotting was 1 of just 6 location-based apps in the iTunes App Store
$3 million in angel funding after highly successful run at Start-up Weekend in SF
600,000+ foods now “spotted” on the app
101,615+ follows on Twitter
Partnering with The Travel Channel and Zagat

Jason Baptiste and Andres Barreto, Onswipe Founders, 25 and 24 Years Old

Founded 2010
Located in New York City
12 employees
No official revenue released
Provides mobile website optimization for all levels of publishers
Content becomes interactive, customizable, “app-like”
Received over $6 million in funding from companies like Spark Capital and Lightbank before platform launched
Invented a WordPress plug-in specially for the iPad
Now, a deal with WP has Onswipe running 18.6 million blogs for iPad
Barreto is also a founder of Grooveshark and PulsoSocial—“TechCrunch for Latin America”

Siamak Taghaddos and David Hauser, Grasshopper Founders—Both 29 Years Old

Founded 2003
Located in Needham, Mass.
50 employees
No official revenue released
A voicemail/call routing system using its own phone number
Began with existing software, but developed their own proprietary software
Plans for all sizes of business: $9.95 to $199.00 per month
Grasshopper Group founded in 2010: will produce many products for entrepreneurs
May 2010: Created and circulated petition for National Entrepreneurs Day
President Obama one-upped them and made National Entrepreneur Week in November
Growth of 1,983% in 2007
Growth of just 5% during the worst part of the recession
However, Grasshopper is due to grow 20% on top of 2010’s revenue, with more than $15 million

Matthew Corrin, Freshii Founder—29 Years Old

Founded 2005, with seed money from his parents
Based in Chicago, with locations around the world—first location in Toronto
50+ locations in 4 countries—United States, Canada, Austria, and UAE
500+ employees
No official revenue released—est. $50 million
Custom fresh food—salads, soups, wraps, bowls—made affordable
A calorie, fat, sodium, cholesterol and protein counter tallies each online order’s total by ingredient
Aim to open 700 more stores—½ corporate, ½ franchise—in the next 5 years
To open a franchise: $30,000 up-front, 6% royalty, 3% advertising fees
Typical start-up fee: $250,000
Corrin had never worked in food service or retail before opening

Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, Birchbox Founders—27 and 28 Years Old

Founded 2010
Located in New York City
25 employees
Projected revenue for 2011: $7 million
$10 per month for a shipment of 4-5 samples of beauty/cosmetic products to customers’ doors
At launch, Birchbox already had 660 members by word-of-mouth!
A beta test e-mail was sent to 40 friends in March 2010—and resulted in a waiting list of about 3,000
Currently about 45,000 members
Just 1 month after launch, $1.4 million seed
Accel Partners and First Round invested
Cosmetic giant Benefit was the first to join the project

Daniel Gomez Iniguez, Solben Co-Founder—20 Years Old

Founded 2009
Located in Monterrey, Mexico
15 employees
Revenue for 2010: $1 million
Projected Revenue for 2011: $3 million
An alternative energy project begun for a high school senior project
Sells technology for making biodiesel out of algae and plants, as opposed to cooking oil or animal fats
2010 GSEA Global Social Impact Award Winner
1st Place Entrepreneur Award 2010 in the Mexican Stock Exchange

So 2011 was the year that….
January: Epic life changing skype conversation
January: My son was born (first child)
March: SXSW (cofounded a startup, 2011 was special, thanks everyone!)
May: Black Enterprise Conference in ATL. (another great special event)
April: Saw Diddy Live in Concert with @iFroggy
June – August – Lived in Silicon Valley for the Summer with NewME Accelerator (Thanks Angela, startups, sponsors, mentors, and speakers)
September – Spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation 2011 Annual Legislative Conference
October: Spoke at O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference in New York
October: Kanye West and Jay Z – Watch the Throne Concert with @iFroggy
November – CNN’s Black In America 4 Aired which covered the NewME Accelerator

All of 2011 = Met a lot of new amazing people, built closer relationships with internet friends and did my best to help as many people as I could.

Happy New Year Everyone!
Take a breath, pause for one second, say thank you and let’s get back to work, because we have a lot of work to do and let’s change the world!

I want to change the world
I want to change the world. I don’t want to occupy the world but change it.
When I change the world it’s not going to be how others think I should change the world or who I change the world with but my plans are to change the world.
To change the world, I have to change myself first and a lot of other things.
I have a few ideas about how I plan to change the world but they’re just ideas to change the world.
I do know that I’m not going to change the world by running for a political office or marching or rioting.
My ideas to change the world may reflect a small percent of the world and how people view a certain demographic of the world or people or view point but when I reach my goal, I will change the world.
I’m not going to change the world by myself.
I don’t know who’s going to change the world with me.
It’s not going to be easy to change the world, it never is, never have been or will be but I rather try to change the world than do nothing.
I want to change the world not for my personal gain but for those yet to live, grow up or who knows the world needs changing.
I’m not going to change the world how I am today, a lot has to change, but I’m up for the challenge to change the world.
When I do change it may happen in my life time or not but when you look back I hope you can at least say I tried to change the world.
I want to change the world for a better place for you and me… (insert “we are the world music”) I wish more people would want to change the world too.
What changing the world means to me may not mean the same to you but in my goals by you reading this means I’m already starting to change the world.
I have a lot to learn now, before and during trying to change the world but I’m up for the challenge.
Some of you are not going to like me while I’m trying to change the world.
While I’m changing the world I’ll look at how it impacts individual minds, our society, and our culture.
I don’t want to change the world just my way or your way but hopefully in a better way.
I don’t see changing the world as having a start or finish but an ongoing journey of goals, life lessons, conversations impacting individuals to become better and reach their goals even if that means one person at a time to help them change the world too.
Thank you to the people who have changed my world who have enabled me to help change the world.
I hope you change the world too.

Quote: Steve Jobs
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith”

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. ”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Stay hungry and stay foolish”

To be continued…

About Guest Author: Victoria Kushner is a blogger and PR manager at Freemake.com. She writes about top multimedia apps and tech startups.

Nowadays everyone is talking about word of mouth promotion success. Viral marketing is a promising method, especially for small business and new companies. As matter of fact, viral campaigns bring substantial traffic, attract new audience and help build warm business-friendly atmosphere. Each business owner dreams about vast public support and good attitude to his/her startup.

However, many useful social media tools are still rarely implemented by small business. The reasons for such viral marketing reluctance are lack of knowledge, fear to fail or viral concept misinterpretation. Let’s dispel myths around viral marketing and explore 3 real viral growth cases that every business owner may apply to own company.

Cool Infographics

Infographics is a powerful viral tool. People love to share it. You can see thousands of Twitter updates with word “infographics”. If you plan to boost your company name mentions in social media – design impressive infographics.

First of all, you need thoroughly research your industry-related topics that may be interesting to wide audience. Visit such popular infographics galleries as visual.ly, Killer Infographics, or Daily Infographics and view ready infographics for your niche.

Then, work out ideas and connect them with your company product/services. Hire a designer and make your infographics dream come true.

Next step is to place your excellent infographics on your website and supply it with social sharing buttons. Don’t forget to promote it among your existing customers via newsletters, Facebook, Twitter feeds or offline announcements.

After that pitch bloggers and suggest your slide for magazines. If you target right journalists and make appealing image, people will talk about it. For, instance, “YouTube Killed TV” infographics has numerous tweets that reached people worldwide.

By Freemake, proud developer of YouTube Converter

Great YouTube Video

For complicated products or services, just an infographics will not do. In this case, try demo or promotional video. There’s no need to hire Hollywood producer or New York Video Agency. A video can simply show your company internal processes or have a video message from CEO. Audience is always excited to learn inside information and to meet real people who stand behind a small company.

Make your video unique, short and outstanding. Compare other YouTube videos and write compelling video title and description. Add as much information as your want. It’s important to put your website, social media links and contacts. Then, buy YouTube ads to drive extra traffic to your video channel – it’s cheap and does not require much online advertizing skills.

A vivid example of this viral tool success is Orabrush “Bad Breath” video that gained 16 million views and lots of comments.

Catchy Social Networks

Invite your current customer to join your Twitter, Facebook or Google+ pages. Offer incentives, coupons and exclusive bonuses to your social networks buddies. Logos Bible Software generated over $300 000 through Facebook promotion. They prepared custom discounts for each fan. The campaign resulted in mass social message distribution and additional orders. Follow Logos way and create active social community.

Guest Author:
Nancy Evans is a freelance writer that specializes in technology and business.

New Years Eve is just around the corner, and for many that means trying to come up with a list of this year’s resolutions. It seems like every year, nearly everyone you know comes up with a long list of resolutions designed to make them a better person only to have many off those resolutions pushed into nonexistence or rolled over on to the following year’s list.

While resolutions aren’t always easy to stick to or achieve, there are several ways that technology can actually help you stay true to your goals. The apps available on smartphones and tablets have become increasingly helpful when trying to better organize and manage our lives, and there are a few apps in particular that can make adhering to your New Year’s resolutions, even those hard-to-do ones, much easier and even rewarding. Such apps include:

LunchMeet
For those who are wishing to become better connected in the professional world in hopes of finding the job of their dream or to simply find a partner for a business venture, LunchMeet is just the app to have. LunchMeet connects to LinkedIn and allows professionals to meet with one another face to face in their available locations. Through the app you can locate other professionals of interest and list your location as well as any time you are available. You are then free to contact others which may just land you that job you always wanted – because as we’ve all heard, it’s not what you know, but who you know.

Mint
If you have found yourself surrounded by debt over the last year, your New Year’s Resolution probably has something to do with paying off those credit cards and loans. If this sounds like you, then Mint is your app. Mint automatically syncs all your bank accounts and other financial information, such as installment loans and credit cards, to help you monitor all of your spending in one easy-to-use place. The app will let you know where you are spending too much, and will also let you know when you are going over budget – making sure that you are spending and saving in all the right places.

Today’s Plate
Maybe you have got the job you’ve always wanted and your feeling financially stable so those two resolutions, which are at the top for many, don’t have a reason to make your list. Instead, however, you are growing wearisome of the spare tire sitting around your waist. There is no other resolution that makes the New Year’s lists more than losing weight, and for those who are finally serious about shedding those extra pounds, Today’s Plate is for you. One of the predominant reasons why people struggle with losing weight is because of their diet. With today’s plate you can keep track of all your calories on the go. The app even calculates restaurant meals so that you can always keep your diet in check ensuring that you will get that thin body after all.

MyQuit Coach
MyQuit Coach is the serious app for those serious about quitting smoking – which is a common New Year’s resolution for thousands of Americans. MyQuit Coach offers a personalized and highly customizable plan for quitting smoking, and will help you stay on track by alerting you to how many cigarettes you should be smoking a day in order to reach your goal. The app will even award you badges for quitting milestones, and will also tell you how much money you have saved to date by not smoking.

Quitter
While MyQuit is a little bit more intense as far as quitting smoking apps go, Quitter makes quitting, well, a little more enjoyable. The app provides you with a count of how many days you have gone without smoking, and congratulates you for reaching certain milestones. Instead of a coach, it is more like having your own personal anti-smoking cheerleader.

Following through with those New Year’s resolutions isn’t always easy, but thanks to a few selected apps, it can sure be a lot easier. Now if only one of those apps could actually create your New Year’s resolution list for you, you’d be golden.

Google Doodle Happy Holidays Song Video

I say ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ to a person based on their appearance. Some call it profiling. I call it living on the edge.

— Andy Richter (@Andy_Richter) December 23, 2011

Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology, health and parenting. Beside this she is fond of eating. Recently an article on Nokia Lumia 800 attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Racing Games For Kids.

Have you ever come across deals like discount on purchase for a copy of a tweet or for liking a Facebook profile of a company? What could happen if you like Dell’s Facebook profile to Dell in reality? What is there for Coke to encourage Facebook profile? These are at the end of the day only intangible and binary signals confined within servers and networks. And answer is web 2.0 or interactive capabilities of today’s World Wide Web. User generated content is becoming tools for marketing in both B2C and B2B segments.

But who and why should spend?
All most anybody willing to draw public attention can spend – Barrack Obama did it in presidential election and Ford do it for their cars. Social media allows companies, organizations to spread brand awareness and increase customer engagement.
Companies spend millions of dollars on market research activities every year. But social network sites and forums provide endless opportunity to interact with customers and to understand their psyche at fractional cost. Besides, you can earn commitment if engage the customer around the branding activity. Reviews and remarks generated by customers work as marketing content for other left out prospects and customers.

Budgeting
But even a deep pocket corporate also needs to budget its spending. And despite so many cost efficient benefits it’s not easy to budget social media optimization. Part reason is lack of effective parameters that link money spent to money earned directly and the other part is slow action of optimization initiatives.
Other than budgeting, another common problem with SMO is how to distribute the allocated fund. Too much stress on campaign eats up fund for customer engagement process. This results in less than expected return on investments.
For these reasons, often companies drag their feet when budgeting for social media marketing. Even most willing marketing officers often suffer from over-budgeting or under-budgeting. To avoid such problem you can try few useful tips to streamline your social media initiative.

Separate budgeting
Make separate budget for different activities like, campaign, customer engagement, customer care etc. And don’t let one activity to eat up fund allocated for other activities.

Activity planning
We all know social media is a very fast changing medium. But for proper budgeting and fund use you must have a plan for future optimization strategy for near future. This would help you to allocate fund properly.

Introspection first
What worked for Ford may not yield for you. Try to understand your customers, prospects and brand reach. Every brand has its niche and it is important to understand that before you plan your strategy.

No magic
Social networking sites don’t give you any magic wand. It is absolutely legitimate if you find social media not much promising for you. You can restrict yourself within digital marketing only.

Wise parameters
Be wise when deciding on what test parameters to use to check effectiveness of your media effort. Try to rely less on paid media and stress more on earned media. Millions of followers won’t earn you dollar if they don’t shell out money to buy your product. Try to build and nurture even a small base of engaged followers.

CMOs must understand time is the most valuable input to skim optimum benefit from the social media marketing. And how much time you can afford would be major determinant of your budget. How much to spend is not important in SMO; what is most important is how long you can afford to spend. So, be careful to spend evenly across a long time horizon for better brand engagement and sales conversions.

Are you into gaming or mobile or social gaming or earning rewards or all of the above? If so you’re in luck as playd iPhone and Android apps are now available for you to download on both the iPhone app store and Android Market place. Playd allows you to you rate, share, and discuss the games you love with your friends!

In an email sent last night Playd founders say:

I’m proud to announce that Playd is finally born! We spent the entire summer building and collecting feedback from you guys and now you can see it in action. As gamers our work is never done. We are forever working on new features and partnerships to offer you guys the best experience.

Playd app features include verified check-ins, real-time game channels with your friends and tokens. With tokens you can earn you free swag, discounts, DLC, and more! Here are a few Playd screnshots.

For more about Playd visit: http://playd.it or follow @getplayd on Twitter.

Disclaimer: Anthony Frasier, @AntyonyFraiser, cofounder Playd was one of the startups that participated in the NewME Accelerator. BlackWeb 2.0 and NewME Accelerator are owned and operated by Black Web Media.

Also read: Anthony Frasier and Tiffani Ashley Bell are the new face of Black Startups

Have you downloaded and “played” Playd? If so let us know what you think about the app in the comments below.

Any surprises? I have one…. Kardashian?

Social media has already been firmly established as the new paradigm of electronic communications, and in 2012 it is expected to become even more prevalent thanks to the rapid development of mobile applications which will allow us to constantly receive update in real-time, wherever we may be. Online social networking is moving towards an “always-on” model; an efficient way to be tied-in to the people and organization that matter most in our lives.

Smarpthones are the new de rigueur electronic platforms for receiving social media updates. Twitter, the leading short messaging and micro-blogging social network, is constantly being redesigned to improve user experience on mobile devices such as an Android phone or Apple's iPhone. Other popular online social media platforms like Facebook and Google+ are also experimenting with different new features for their mobile apps that take full advantage of the improved functionality of smart handheld devices.

Both Apple and Google are engaged in a veritable arms race for mobile operating software (OS) dominance. Apple's iOS 5 and Google's Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich Android recent upgrades were focused to accommodate the advanced multitasking capabilities of smartphones and tablet computers. Both mobile OS platforms are centered on the idea of social media being keenly integrated in users' lives. The ability to receive and create social media updates is taking center stage in the new mobile OS offerings and their third-party apps. Thanks to the vastly improved hardware features in video, audio and connectivity, users of the next-generation mobile devices are poised to become the most prolific group in terms of contributing social media content.

Internet and software giant Microsoft is also actively engaged in transforming its ubiquitous Windows OS into a premium platform for providing a rich social media experience. The upcoming Nokia Lumia lineup of Windows-powered smartphones promises to be a solid contender in mobile social networking. Microsoft's social media strategy is not limited to its partnership with Nokia. The company's next iteration of its flagship OS, Windows 8, is being developed with a strong social media and cross-platform functionality in mind.

Disclosure: Sponsored post

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to background checks. She gives advice to entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.

Photo Credit lyntonweb.com

To get straight to the point, I think Meta Keywords are annoying. For those who are unfamiliar, as you create and design your website you will be prompted to insert Meta Keywords. These keywords, words that are most relevant to describing your site, are hidden from the public because of what we call Meta Tags, or pieces of code seen only by search engines. The keywords are generally placed between the HEAD tags in your HTML code, and each keyword is separated with a comma. The idea is that these keywords will help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

Believe it or not, most people I talk to also find these keywords annoying, and many are now saying that they are completely useless. However, these Meta Keywords are easy to type into your website or your article, so businesses have been filling in these blanks since search engines become popular ten years ago. Although it only takes two minutes, there is no sense in bothering, even for two minutes, with something useless. If you are going to do something for your website, it is important to know what the benefit is (if there is a benefit at all), regardless how long it may take. Consider the history of these Meta Keywords and how their role has evolved over the last ten years:

Meta Keywords Then and Now

In the 1990’s, it worked like this:
1. A website would place these keywords on their site to signify its main and relevant topics
2. Search Engines would then use meta data to classify and index a website
3. A website with correct meta elements would then rank highly in search engine results

Today, the Meta Keywords work very similarly, but with one major difference:
1. Business owners place these keywords on their site to signify its main topics
2. Businesses began to take advantage of meta keywords, and sites then began to appear in unrelated search engine results
3. Major search engines no longer use keywords to classify or index a website

Now that the biggest factor, Google and other search engine page rankings, is no longer, many businesses are wondering whether or not Meta Keywords are worth their time. Although it is simple to add in Meta Keywords, the whole concept can be a bit confusing to a startup company or employees new to the SEO world. At first glance, most would say these keywords have lost their value. After all, Google is the end goal for an SEO director. However, there are a few reasons that these annoying little words are still worth your time:

Google Doesn’t Want Them, but Meta Keywords Are Here to Stay

• Smaller search engines still use Meta Keywords

It may seem like Google and Bing rankings are the only way to get ahead, but many companies are realizing that local search engines also bring in business. After all, creating dishonest keywords was worth it for companies looking to rank on Google, but now that this is no longer available, smaller search engines have nothing to worry about.

• Directory sites still use Meta Keywords

Directory sites often use these Meta Keyword tags to help categorize your website. These sites will need to know where to index your site, and they are more likely to do so if you make it easy on them through Meta Keywords. Think of it as a document management tactic for directory sites. In other words, your site will appear much more often in directories when compared to sites without Meta Keywords.

• Meta Keywords work well for internal uses

Tagging specific keywords works well when it comes to documenting each page. As your company grows, your pages and your team will likely expand. If you have a Meta Keyword in place, future employees looking to develop pages will know the goal of each page exactly.

• Preparation if major search engines ever go back to the Meta Keyword system

This is unlikely to happen with Google simply because they have new algorithms for ranking pages, but it could very well happen with other major search engines. If done correctly, this system is an easy way to help index a page. It only takes a few seconds to set up a keyword tag, so it can’t hurt to get ready for the unexpected.

As I said before, I will be the first to admit that worrying about Meta Keywords is a bit annoying. However, once you know that this habit has positive effects, you can begin to think of these keywords as just another way to increase popularity in your company. Although they may not yield quite as obvious results, they cannot hurt your company. In other words, they are still worth the extra two minutes.

TheSocialGeeks Episode 41 – The Right Path

Join Caleb Elston, Robert Murray, Chris Miller and myself as we have great conversations around:

• Facebook buys Gowalla.  What was the real purpose?
• Is Path.com the new mobile app to beat?
• If you have a whim to do something, Whim is the mobile app you need.
• Are we too far ahead of the adoption curve of the normal user?

TheSocialGeeks is part of Spiked Studio Productions

Download | or Click Here to listen.

Paul works in the marketing department for CliqStudios, a cabinet manufacturer that sells white kitchen cabinets and more factory-direct, and is a blogger and Apple fanatic.

We all know of Google’s dubbed “Facebook killer” called Google+ that has, in fact, failed to kill Facebook. We also know that the success of Google+ is also highly debated. Sure, it sports over 40 million users, but only a fraction of those users actually remain active. In contrast, as of last September, Facebook has over 800 million active users worldwide.
So, what went wrong for Google+?

From the outset of its beta, the primary selling point of the service was its almost too simple way of organizing your friends into Circles so you can share specifically and privately with only certain people. Circles was meant to be a means of one-upping Facebook’s lackluster and underused Lists feature.

However, Circles is by no means perfect, and the way it’s intended to be used is somewhat laborious. Using Circles is a manual process and requires you to drag and drop your friends in a variety of friend categories that you’ve created.

The problem is that friendships aren’t one or the other, and are constantly changing. Google+ can’t keep up with your life outside of your interactions on Google+, and thus requires you to continually evaluate your friendships and manually change them on the service.
If you think about it, most people wouldn’t bother spending the time to organize their friends into super specific categories, let alone keeping the Circles organized and up to date. This, basically, then renders Circles useless.

Shortly after Google+’s release, Facebook announced Smart Lists, a feature capable of automatically grouping some of your friends. For example, it creates Smart Lists for people you are related to, places you work, and for where you are currently living.
What’s more, and what is the most important part of Smart Lists in terms of updating relationship and organizing friends on a social network, is its ability to dynamically update. If a work friend leaves for a new job, he is automatically removed from that List once he updates his employment. Facebook is showing that developing better ways to categorize your friends without you having to think about it is important for its users.

Therefore, rather than Google+ requiring its users to manually update their Circles, Google should start to give Circles some artificial intelligence capable of evaluating and updating for you. While there’s not a way that I’m aware of for Google to know every detail of your life, there must be a way to analyze your behavior and interactions across the site to do this. I don’t know what that is, but I’ll leave it to the developers to figure out.

What do you think about Google+’s Circles? Do you use them? Do you constantly update them? Please share your opinion.

Software developer, entrepreneur, and general geek, Chris is a vocal and omnipresent figure in Cambodia’s burgeoning hacker community. Chris has founded or partnered in several software startups which are proud to have built their products in Cambodia and sold them globally. Chris is an active member of the Barcamp movement, attending and speaking at events across the region, and is also a founding member of the up-and-coming Phnom Penh HackerSpace. Chris’s vision is for Cambodia’s software sector to leap-frog its neighbors by skipping IT outsourcing and moving straight to product-focused startups fueled by the entrepreneurial spirit that Cambodia has in abundance.

Hat Tip: Carla Mays from Building While Brown West Facebook Group

TEDx was created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading.” The program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level.

Francis Santos is a writer and blogger for Benchmark Email and can be found on Twitter.

A few months ago, internet users suddenly found a big black bar across their browser windows whenever they accessed Google’s services. Standing out in stark contrast to the gargantuan corporation’s usual light colored palette, this bar became “Google Control Central.” This was the first step in a comprehensive effort to harmonize all of Google’s far-flung serviceswhich range from search and translation to email and social networking.

Blogger users should now identify themselves
This harmonization recently extended to the untold millions of users on Google’s über-popular Blogger site. A pop-up field on the Blogger In Draft Dashboard holds out the promise of accessing future Google+ social media features. However, the blog writer has to switch out their current Blogger site profile with a Google+ one. From then on, any social connections would have their blogs appear in Google search results along with an annotation that the writer shared it.

With this announcement came a footnote that this new integration facility would not be available to any writer who is currently using a pseudonym. This policy provoked considerable oppositionfrom a wide range of users, not just on the Blogger site but also on Google+ itself.

Google+ is integrating with Blogger but not all users are thrilled.

Many hesitate to use their real names
Google seemed to forget that their users are located all over the world, including the 42 nations Freedom House claims have repressive governments. Therefore it could be understood that Cuban, Iranian, or Tibetian citizens wishing to even mildly criticize their leaders might be hesitant in linking their real name to their comments.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of The Googlization of Everything states that that “we are Google’s product, not its customers”. That was clearly evident when Google+ first launched and the admins went into “seek and destroy” mode. They erased thousands of profiles because they suspected that the name on the profile was not the user’s “legal name.”

Bloggers have received death threats
For many of the users of the Blogger service the real name policy also presented a clear obstacle. Bloggers don’t have to be in Third World countries to receive credible death threats, as some in North America and Europe have. There are a number of reasons why an online writer might want to remain anonymous in perpetuity. They might have been blogging for years under a pseudonym and could confuse their readers when they found that their habitual read of TheCreepingGecko’s blogs were now being written by Mr. Bartholomew Featherstonehaugh. Or perhaps they had made some deprecatory remarks about clients or co-workers that they did not want to be personally identified with.

Google changed its policy to allow nicknames
The real name debacle is a primary reason why Google users everywhere welcomed the official announcement that the policy had suddenly changed. Google will soon allow users to maintain their anonymity and chosen public identity on Google+ and Blogger. However this is not the only worry Google users have, as participating in the services offered by the web juggernaut can lead to some very unpleasant results.

Google shuts down all access to violating users
An underage user in the Netherlands signed up for a Google+ account. As soon as the Googleplex discovered that the boy was three years younger than the minimum allowed, they not only just deleted his new social network account but all of his Google services. In a single action, Google shut down his access to email, documents, maps, and everything else they supply.

Of course Google has the right to enforce its policies, which include prohibitions against “copyright infringement” and “publishing of someone’s private or personal information”. The worrisome question is whether any Google adult user could see years of their personal emails and precious work documents vanish because they violated the terms in any way. Perhaps they did something as innocent as posting a photo they copied from a copyrighted site, or mentioning in a post that “BTW, if you need Steve’s cell number, it’s…”

Impossible to change your primary email address
Google+ users also found a troublesome, albeit less critical quirk in their new accounts. Whatever email account they used to sign up for the service remains the primary one… with no way to change it. Alternate additional addresses can be added but the primary remains immutable for all eternity. You might have signed up for Google+ with your work email and changed jobs; got married and are no longer using your maiden name; or used one of your websites’ domain names which you’ve now closed down. If so, your “no longer applicable” primary email account will continue to be associated with all your Google services. And there’s nothing you can do about that as it’s against Google’s terms to open another account.

Google’s global search market share is 85%.
The original name for Google was BackRub.
W3 Markup Validation shows that Google’s home page has 37 errors and 3 warnings.
The Googleville Data Center uses up as much electricity as all of Tacoma, Washington.
The current market capitalization of Google is more than 12 times greater than the CBS TV network.
Google Co-Founders’ Larry Page & Sergey Brin have a net worth of $16.7 billion each.
$16.7 billion can buy you 68,940 2011 Ferrari 458 Spiders, or 282,840 houses in Kansas.
Excite CEO George Bell was offered Google for $750,000 in 1999. He turned it down.

Publicly identifying yourself can be a boon
To be fair, there are many advantages to write on Blogger under your own real name, as Google continues to be the online leader that Microsoft could have been if their internet policy hadn’t run off the rails when we were still using 2400 baud modems. Blogger is a major platform which can allow the savvy writer both an effective platform and a wide-reaching pulpit. It is far easier to identify with Mr. Featherstonehaugh than to TheCreepingGecko. Google is essentially correct in stating that the change could boost blog readership and help readers gain a greater insight into the personality and viewpoint of the writer.

Google certified as a U.S. government identity agency

Google has recently had their user credential policies certified so that they meet U.S. federal privacy and security requirements. The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace now includes Google as an accredited identity agency, which makes its services suitable for a number of federal applications.

The slow death of the anonymous web
The move to the use of real identities on the Wild Wild Web is meeting with begrudging approval by most of its users. However, many are recognizing that a network directly responsible for pumping trillions of dollars a year into the world economy needs to grow out of its “sophomoric prankster” stage and into the light of greater legitimacy and verifiability.Google is leading the way to this future of near-universal identifiability where the internet will be less anonymous and by extension, perhaps tamer.

What is your opinion on the legitimization of the web? Please join the debate by entering your comments in the box below.

I guess this is a good/bad problem to have but since the Black In America 4 showing on CNN, emails and phones have been flowing in like crazy. A lot from entrepreneurs pitching their ideas, or entrepreneurs looking for a designer, developer or just help get started (See NewME Community for help) . Other calls and emails have been from people wanting to know more about NewME Accelerator. A few have been from investors or Venture Capitalist and then there are the feedback calls and emails saying you should do this or that. In the mix of it all, there’s national media, local media, and niche media such as blog talk radio shows, podcast and more. I’m humbled and grateful to be put in the postion by NewME Accelerator and CNN.

Sadly, I can’t handel it all alone. I need a virtual assistant or something, but in the mean time I’ve changed my voice message saying please send an email for a faster response. Please don’t see this as an insult or a “I’m to busy” but just the truth. As an entrepreneur myself I don’t have set hours and I plan on keeping my phone number and email address public on this site but that doesn’t mean you should call at 2:30 AM EST and expect me to answer or at 7:30pm EST all of the time. My voice message says please send an email and I’m serious.

When you do send an email, please include the following information:

• Name:
• Company/Startup Name:
• Company/Startup Website:
• linkedin profile:
• Twitter: profile:
• Blog URL:
• Angel List profile (optional and for investors)
• The ask? (keep it simple and short)
• Deadline (if you’re on one)
• Mobile number:
• Work Number:
• Best time to call back in the next three days if necessary.
• If you’re media/press please put in the subject (MEDIA/Press)

If you must leave a voice message please leave the following:

• Name:
• Company/Startup Name:
• Email address:
• Phone number:
• The ask? (keep it simple and short)
• Deadline day (if you’re on one)
• Best time to call back in the next three days.
• If you’re media/press please state deadline time.

I’m not sure if this helps anyone but please don’t leave an angry voice message when you are making a cold call and I have no idea who you are or what you have done or what your company does or what you can offer or even if I can help you.

Let’s keep it professional, friendly and keep it moving.

Much Success!

A big thanks to Mario Armstrong for inviting and hosting the event.

Black In America 4 spoiler alert, spoiler alert! (not really)but Black In America 4 airs tonight 8pm on CNN. The subtitle is Silicon Valley, the new promise land narrated by Soledad O’Brien. The base of story about Black In America 4 is the NewME Accelerator which I help plan/organize with Angela Benton and also as a participated in as an entrepreneur. CNN heard about the project via a Wall Street Journal Article and the rest I guess you can is history. You’ll see tonight right?

The leading producer is Jason Samuels and while Soledad O’Brien is the host we spent most of our time with Jason Samuels and his crew. The CNN Black In America production crew was great and was nice to work with. I want to say a special thank you to not only Jason but to Garland McLaurin, Kim, Mark, Ronnie Stevenson IV, Henry and more.

Some of the questions I received during the pre-screening interviews were, what was it like living in the NewME Accelerator startup house, was it like a reality TV show, how much of the documentary was real vs staged. I couldn’t answer to many of those questions before last week because I was not in attendance to any of the pre-screening until Wednesday. Now that I’ve seen it I’ll say that the documentary is not stage at all and it’s 99% accurate BUT it’s also only about 10% of everything that happen this summer.

To be fair Jason Samuels wanted two hours or at least 90 minutes for Black In America 4 but CNN only gave him one hour for the show. That’s tough to try to fit everything in one hour especially when CNN recorded over 300 hours worth of footage this summer. Regardless I’m very grateful for the one hour.

With that being said, while watching Black In America 4, Silicon Valley, The New Promise Land tonight keep in mind the notes below of things you won’t see while the cameras were rolling this summer.

1. Coffee shops in Mountain View, CA – The NewME startup house was in Mountain View, CA & many of the founders worked out of Red Rock Cafe, StarBucks and the Mountain View Library
2. Three other startups in NewME Accelerator 2011 were One School, Central.ly and AisleFinder
3. The NewME Accelerator had over 25+ different great mentor and speakers. You can see them here http://www.newmeaccelerator.com/speakers-mentors/
4. Coworking – We did a lot of coworking from Citizen Space, Tagged and at the NewMe startup house
5. Black Founders welcome event. Our first Sunday in CA, Black Founders held a meetup/welcome event. Thanks again.
6. About the midway point we had a “practice” pitch session at Blue Run Ventures, with Jay Jamison. This was a big deal, Blue Run Ventures is known as where paypal was funded.
7. There were some amazing speaker dinners at the house. Two notable ones were with Tristan Walker right after his birthday and with Shellye Archambeau.
8. Mentor sessions at Tagged. It was great to see how both mentors and the founders interacted
9. Dinner with Soledad O’Brien at the NewME startup house. That was an interesting, fun day.
10. The cookouts! Hank Williams was the man on the grill. You’ll see some of that in the documentary.
11. The July 4 cookout was epic! Come on, 8 black people in one house, you know we were having a cookout on July 4th.
12. Driving… I mean a lot of driving. The house was in Mountain View and a lot of our meetings/mentor sessions were in San Francisco. Not to mention giving people rides.
13. There was a lot of trash in the house, I mean, it was.. ok you can use your imagination.
14. Dirty Dishes … we told everyone to clean up after themselves but somehow I did a lot of dish washing. #justsayin
15. Hajj Flemings after dark.. that was the saying after midnight but it wasn’t just Hajj we had some epic/funny conversations late at night.
16. Google sent various team members from Youtube, App Engine, Android and Oath to talk with us. Thanks Google.
17. Tagged, I can’t say enough about Tagged. The cofounders gave us an awesome talk, they hosted us for coworking and the closing party.
18. Pizza… that is all.
19. Keep in mind that we started planning NewME Accelerator around February/March 2011
20. Demo day was great! A big thanks to Mitch Kapor and team at Kapor Capital for hosting us. I wish you could see all of the demo day pitches.
21. Stephen DeBerry and Stephen Adams. I don’t care what color you are, if you ever get a chance to talk with either one of these guys. Value it, listen and learn.
22. The Fights! …wait. we didn’t have any fights. Sorry to disappoint you but there were a few heated conversations at times. All in the family.
23. Jason Samuels, as the Black In America 4 producer he’s behind the camera. He’s a great guy and I appreciate him reaching out about filming us for Black In America 4.
24. To be fair…I was wearing a baseball cap. Watch the documentary & you’ll understand.
25. We met MC Hammer and Chamillionaire. Both were interviewed about NewMe and Silicon Valley but it didn’t make the cut.
26. Here’s the roommate format:
Tiffani Bell with Angela Benton
Crisson Jno-Charles with Hajj Flemings
Anthony Fraiser with Wayne Sutton
Pius Uzamere (dinning room air mattress)
Hank Williams (outside room air mattress)

Please don’t read this as a dis or as if Black In America 4 is not going to be good, it’s still must watch tech tv!. A big thank you to Jason Samuels, CNN, Soledad O’Brien, all of the NewME Accelerator, speakers, mentors, sponsors and the Silicon Valley community.

Enjoy the documentary!

Reminder
Watch CNN Black In America 4 this Sunday 8pm EST on CNN and then go to your computer to watch the official after Black In America 4 online live video panel and discussion with Mario Armstrong called “Innovation Nation:Startup Success”. Join us in the live chat, google hangout and more as we’ll talk about Black In America 4, Silicon Valley and more. We’ll also take questions from the online audience. When tweeting about the online live broadcast use the hashtag #bialive. The Black In America 4 hashtag is #blackinamerica. For more information about the live broadcast visit: http://www.marioarmstrong.com/on-air/innovation-nation-the-official-live-webcast/

Vouch Demo Day Slide Deck:

Founded:
Wayne Sutton co-founded Vouch in July 2011.

What is Vouch?
Vouch is a unified platform that allows people to share recommendations of others in their networks.

The status of Vouch
I’m currently learning new programming languages to build, design and launch a beta version of Vouch by the end of first quarter 2012, along with preparing to work with the NewMe Accelerator 2012 class. I’m also working on my first book, which is about closing the digital divide.

First here is what I said,

It’s very sad, it’s 2011 and we have a black President … AND, he’s not putting no money in my pocket right now directly, so what do we got to do? Play the game to be successful

Here is what happen and what I remember, (I think) it was a long summer and that sound byte was around June 2011. Heck, I forgot I even said it until I saw the commercial. Regardless is was a warm summer night in Mountain View, CA at the NewME Accelerator startup house. One of our guest speakers was Professor Vivek Wadhwa was sharing his experiences as an entrepreneur and they were vary deep. Some of his stories were sad and shocking. Everything from his comments about getting a, quote “white boy” to be the face of our startups to his stories about his partners trying to cut him out of his company while in the hospital. It was a very, very emotional night. The CNN camera crews where on hand and I was feeling part mad, part sad and part shocked.

With that being said I believe the question and/or comment I was asked was about how do I feel right now, and/or what do I say to people why the NewME Accelerator is needed etc. I can’t remember if I was asked directly about President Barack Obama but I do know some of the blog comments and conversations I read or was told was about how some people were saying race doesn’t matter in Silicon Valley, and in 2011 we have a black President and we should fine, etc. You get the picture.

So, Mr. President Barack Obama, my comments were not anything negative directed towards you but more towards people who were/are saying we don’t need the NewME Accelerator when we know that not only do we need a program like the NewME Accelerator but we need multiple NewME Accelerators setup across the country to help not just minority entrepreneurs but entrepreneurs of all kind.

If you haven’t seen the CNN Black In America 4 commercial, watch the video below. My rant where I mention the President is at the one minute mark.

As for the playing the game to be successful part. Once you learn what the process is not matter if it’s pattern matching or referrals or living up to the Silicon Valley standards, then as an entrepreneur do what’s best for your startup that you feel is what’s right and you can live with.

Reminder
Watch CNN Black In America 4 this Sunday 8pm EST on CNN and then go to your computer to watch the official after Black In America 4 online live video panel and discussion with Mario Armstrong called “Innovation Nation:Startup Success”. Join us in the live chat, google hangout and more as we’ll talk about Black In America 4, Silicon Valley and more. We’ll also take questions from the online audience. When tweeting about the online live broadcast use the hashtag #bialive. The Black In America 4 hashtag is #blackinamerica. For more information about the live broadcast visit: http://www.marioarmstrong.com/on-air/innovation-nation-the-official-live-webcast/

One learning lesson out of all this to remember is to always and I mean always be careful what you say when media/cameras are around and when you’re upset, just be quiet… #lessonlearned

While doing interviews about CNN’s upcoming Black In America 4 – Silicon Valley – The New Promised Land with Soledad O’Brien a few of the questions I’m often asked is what was it like living in the NewME Accelerator startup house, why go to Silicon Valley for the summer and what was it like living in Silicon Valley. It was also one of the questions that Soledad O’Brien ask me during one of our interviews.

One thing I don’t think many people know is that even though I currently live in Raleigh, NC that I’m originally from a small rural community called Teachey, NC. Yes, Teachey. According to Wikipedia in 2000, the census there were 245 people, 92 households, and 66 families residing in the town. Yes that’s the place I call home. It’s very country, I grew up cropping tobacco, working in the fields and the digital divide is very much a problem in that community even today much less growing up.

Although Raleigh, NC is a lot different from Teachey, NC there is nothing like the Silicon Valley community. Take a look at the video below of my interview with Soledad O’Brien as I talk about Silicon Valley vs Teachey, NC.

Reminder
Watch CNN Black In America 4 this Sunday 8pm EST on CNN and then go to your computer to watch the official after Black In America 4 online live video panel and discussion with Mario Armstrong called “Innovation Nation:Startup Success”. Join us in the live chat, google hangout and more as we’ll talk about Black In America 4, Silicon Valley and more. We’ll also take questions from the online audience. When tweeting about the online live broadcast use the hashtag #bialive. The Black In America 4 hashtag is #blackinamerica. For more information about the live broadcast visit: http://www.marioarmstrong.com/on-air/innovation-nation-the-official-live-webcast/

Regardless, I think it was reported that some 4 million people watched the last Black In America 3. Some are saying this is the best one yet and expecting about 5 million or more to tune in. We’ll see. With that being said, we’ll see what happens after Black In America 4 airs. Not just for my life but for those who watch, future entrepreneurs and various communities across the country. Yeah.. I’m nervous.

One thing I want people to keep in mind before, during and after you see Black In America 4 is don’t focus on the negative or what has happen so much in the past but think about what you can do to make a positive change in your life and those around you.

If you haven’t seen the latest CNN Black In America 4, Silicon Valley trailer take a look below.

Also join Mario Armstong, myself and more are hosting the official after Black In America 4 online live show and panel. If you’re in the Baltimore area join us in person if not watch and participate online. Details here: http://www.marioarmstrong.com/on-air/innovation-nation-the-official-live-webcast/

When I met Arrington twice this summer in Silicon Valley.

While working on NewMe Accelerator this summer and going to Silicon Valley there were a hand full a people I wanted to meet who were not a mentor/speaker such as Sean Parker, Mark Zuckerberg, Ron Conway, Jack Dorsey, MG and Michael Arrington. I saw Ron Conway passing through 500Startups one day and waived hello, (almost counts). No luck on Sean Parker but I really didn’t try(sorry Pius) and both times when I visited Facebook HQ, Zuck wasn’t in the building (dang). I saw Jack when I had a meeting at Twitter HQ but he was busy talking and I didn’t want to look like a crazy fanboy so I kept it moving. As for MG I saw him at the TechCruch August Capital party after the Mobile First CrunchUp. We talked and he was like, Wayne…. we met at SXSW a few years ago…. Ok MG.

As for Michael Arrington, I first met him walking into the Mobile First CrunchUp with Angela Benton. I was caught off guard cause I wasn’t’ expecting to see him and I had a “geek shock” moment. I introduced myself and said by the way I was a friend of MC Hammer. Yes, I went the name drop route. Bad move, very, very bad move. A lot of people in the Valley do this (name dropping) and I guess it rubbed off on me but don’t name drop as a first introduction/impression ever. Either way Arrington was cool and said ok, we shook hands and he had to run off. I knew later that day he was being interviewed by CNN for Black in America 4 and was hoping to have a chance to talk with him again the same day but it didn’t happen.

Arrington does know Black Entrepreneurs:

Luckily I did see and talk with Arrington again a few days later at the Google Ventures BBQ. Ironically he was walking around with a “Black Entrepreneur” and we talked about the CNN Black In America 4 interview. This time I did a better job of introducing myself. One of his first statements was “how do you think I did”, “I don’t want to look like an asshole”. My response was, Mike, I haven’t seen your interview. He seemed generally concerned about how he was going to be portrayed in the documentary on CNN. He mentioned about being asked if he knew any “Black Entrepreneurs” at the time it kinda threw him through a loop but him and the “Black Entrepreneur” he was with at the time was starting talking “lightly” how they know each other.

From there Arrington and I talked about having TechCruch host a pre-screening for Black In America 4 when it comes out. Now Arrington is no longer at TechCrunch and with the way CNN is using his quotes, good luck with that happening now. Arrington and I talked a little more, I made a few introductions to him of other “Black Entrepreneurs” while at the Google Ventures BBQ and said keep in touch.

Arrington’s foot in the mouth moment?

I know for a fact that Arrington did know “Black Entrepreneurs” before the interview, before his CrunchFund and before he invested into a few Black Entrepreneurs with his CrunchFund. Some may not be considered the traditional Entrepreneurs but I know that Arrington knows Charles Hudson, Clarence Wooten, Tristan Walker, Adria Richards (who has attended and reported from TechCrunch Disrupt, the last two years) and artist turned entrepreneurs Chamillionaire and MC Hammer, all Black/brown. Speaking of Hammer, when I first met Arrington I texted Hammer and was like, hey I just met your boy Arrington and Hammer replied Arrington is the man.

So did Arrington stick his foot in his mouth when he said ‘I don’t know a single black entrepreneur’ or did he say it to stir up controversy as some have suggested, or was he caught off guard and said what he really meant or was he being to some would say, Arrington being Arrington. I don’t know and only Arrington can answer that but that doesn’t mean at all that he’s a racist. Trust me, there were times in Silicon Valley where I was thinking/feeling am I the only one here? Heck there’s times like that in Raleigh, NC. So for Arrington to say he doesn’t know any “Black Entrepreneurs” is somewhat surprising being I know how many Black Entrepreneurs would love to have been featured on TechCrunch or may have tried to reach out, myself included. That still doesn’t mean he’s a racist or all of Silicon Valley is.

UPDATE: See Michael Arrington’s blog post response to CNN: Oh Shit, I’m A Racist

Arrington is not Silicon Valley

Still, I’m not saying I agree with Arrington and/or a lot of his comments about Silicon Valley but what I can say is that living in Silicon Valley for the summer it’s an entire different world. You can say there are not a lot of blacks in Silicon Valley or tech and be part right just like you can say that Atlanta is the black capital of USA and be part right based off of opinion, demographics and culture.

Sadly for Silicon Valley, Arrington is a loud, public figure and CNN knows that. I know that. But his comments and/statements do not represent all of Silicon Valley or Silicon Valley VCs;it also doesn’t mean he’s right. Just Arrington perspective. Media is media and always be careful what you say to media on camera and off. Some of my comments will be used not the way I like and it’s life. Lesson learned.

What I would like to see are the interviews from Mitch Kapor, Ron Conway, Jay Jameson and others who talked more about the need for the NewMe Accelerator..

The Disappointment

Back to NewMe Accelerator, CNN and the documentary. I have yet to see a pre-screening. A few friends have seen it in NY, ATL and other cities. I’ve seen the tweets, had a few phone calls but I’m clearly disappointed that so far out of the pre-screenings most of the conversation is about Michael Arrington one sound byte! I mean there was hours and hours of footage being recorded about NewMe Accelerator and the eight of us living in one house. Note there were 11 startups in NewMe Accelerator but CNN only covered the eight of us in the house. But I mean Arrington was only interviewed for two or three hours out of the countless hours of footage and sadly this is all of what people are talking about so far? The closer it gets to the documentary being aired the more nervous I get.

There were so many great things that happen this summer. I met a lot of great entrepreneurs (Black, White, Asian, Hispanic) who wanted to see all of the entrepreneurs in NewMe Accelerator succeed. I hope this story is told in the Black In America 4 documentary too. Yes, we had challenges and situations… trust me. You’ll see but there was so more good things that happen versus what I’m currently reading about and seeing online.

Where are the Black Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley?

Why the ratio of Black Entrepreneurs vs other races in Silicon Valley may be very low? There are a good number of Black Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. Groups such as Black Founders and more are doing a good job connecting Black Entrepreneurs in the community to support one another.

Where are the Blacks In Tech?

There are tons of blacks in tech! Another blog post on that and how to find them later but check out http://28daysofdiversity.com for starters.

Race, gender and relationships matter in technology, in business, in life!

This is a very sensitive subject but all I’m going to say and address at this time is that race matters. I’ve experienced it, seen it, doing it, living it and have stories to tell why and how it matters. You may or may not have seen or experienced anything “racist” yourself, well…lucky you! Sadly a lot of others across the world have. In the words of Kanye West “Racism still alive they just be concealing it”.

Regardless of what you build, how smart you are, a lot of factors go into play in terms of success no matter if you’re in Silicon Valley or Raleigh, NC. Be a good, smart business person and do the best you can.

The big picture!

Let’s talk about the big picture here and why Black In America 4 decided to cover NewMe Accelerator. The NewMe Accelerator after learning that only 1% internet start-ups founders are African-American and we wanted to do the following:

Increase exposure to talent,
Connect founders to access of early stage capital,
Provide mentorship from qualified individuals,
Collaborate and build successful companies in the heart of Silicon Valley,
And most importantly, we want to…

MAKE HISTORY

It’s not going to be easy (but nothing is) and the life-cycle starts here.

The negative attention, racist comments, and more is not what I wanted to see happen.

Also read:
Arrington, Race, and Silicon Valley by Hank Williams
Why Arrington is NOT a Racist & Don’t Believe the Hype by Angela Benton

My Challenge

Have an idea… do it and don’t talk about it.
Have a vision… complete it.
Have a problem.. solve it.

CNN only covered the eight startup founders in the house and not all of the startups founders in the NewMe Accelerator. That was their choice not ours. The other startup founders were Chris Bennett of Central.ly, Curtiss Pope of aislefinder and David Adewum of OneSchool. There are a few Black In America 4 promo videos running on CNN currently like the one of me below.

A lot of people are asking if I’m excited about being in the upcoming Black In America 4 documentary. My response is a little but I’m more nervous than excited. Especially after reading the post called TechStars, Lies & Videotape about the TechStars Bloomberg TV show. Either way exciting times are ahead and Black In America 4 with Soledad O’Brien airs November 13 on CNN.

Random thoughts, rants, goals and dreams!

Confession:
I want to change the world. I don’t want to occupy the world but change it.
When I change the world it’s not going to be how others think I should change the world or who I change the world with but my plans are to change the world.
To change the world, I have to change myself first and a lot of other things.
I have a few ideas about how I plan to change the world but they’re just ideas to change the world.
I do know that I’m not going to change the world by running for a political office or marching or rioting.
My ideas to change the world may reflect a small percent of the world and how people view a certain demographic of the world or people or view point but when I reach my goal, I will change the world.
I’m not going to change the world by myself.
I don’t know who’s going to change the world with me.
It’s not going to be easy to change the world, it never is, never have been or will be but I rather try to change the world than do nothing.
I want to change the world not for my personal gain but for those yet to live, grow up or who knows the world needs changing.
I’m not going to change the world how I am today, a lot has to change, but I’m up for the challenge to change the world.
When I do change it may happen in my life time or not but when you look back I hope you can at least say I tried to change the world.
I want to change the world for a better place for you and me… (insert “we are the world music”) I wish more people would want to change the world too.
What changing the world means to me may not mean the same to you but in my goals by you reading this means I’m already starting to change the world.
I have a lot to learn now, before and during trying to change the world but I’m up for the challenge.
Some of you are not going to like me while I’m trying to change the world.
While I’m changing the world I’ll look at how it impacts individual minds, our society, and our culture.
I don’t want to change the world just my way or your way but hopefully in a better way.
I don’t see changing the world as having a start or finish but an ongoing journey of goals, life lessons, conversations impacting individuals to become better and reach their goals even if that means one person at a time to help them change the world too.
Thank you to the people who have changed my world who have enabled me to help change the world.
I hope you change the world too.

To be continued…

Quote: Steve Jobs
“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith”

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. ”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“Stay hungry and stay foolish”

If you heard me speak at a conference or panel before a common line I will often say about why people should blog is that if you don’t tell your story then who will? Then I usually follow up with some ways to create blog topics and justify blogging and the whole social media building relationships, you can’t rely on news media etc. You get the picture.

But what is Blogging? Blogging is telling a story, blogging is sharing your opinion, blogging is reporting news and more. But at the core, blogging is writing! While being one of the speakers at BrandCamp Detroit last year, I got a chance to hear my friend Peter Shankman talk as well. He said, writing is one of the most important things you can do online or something like that. Then Peter went on to tell a few stories about some bad written letters he received. Since then I’ve been thinking more and more about how to improve my writing skills and constantly telling others to start or continue to write. Regardless let’s take a look at a few examples of how just being a good writer, blogger, journalist or just being able to tell good stories have paid off for a few people.

Recently it was announced that MG Siegler who is a tech journalist/blogger for TechCrunch will now become a partner at CrunchFund with Michael Arrington. This is a special case because of the nature of the deal being in Silicon Valley, TechCrunch, AOL, Arrington, etc but at the end of the day MG did a few things well and mainly he was a good writer and he used his writing skills to build relationships and the rest is history. The same can be said for Pete Cashmore. I remember when Pete started Mashable and now Mashable is not only one of the top tech blogs but it’s one of the top websites in the world. Those are rare cases but I have friends who have received book deals just from their blog that’s not even a three years old. Also look at Groupon, it was reported that Groupon has 70 writers on staff to help with marketing which has lead Groupon to be the fastest growing business ever. It was also reported recently that Cnet was trying to hire Nick Bilton, the NY Times lead technology writer and offered him a significant pay increase, which became news itself especially since he turned it down. Even myself, some of the opportunities I’ve had and clients I’ve been able to work with has come from me blogging, writing telling stories, my experiences online, mainly here on SoicalWayne.com.

As more digital content is being created today from videos, podcast, photo sharing apps, infographics, status updates, tweets, and more at the core of everything is writing. So, why is why writing and blogging are important? Writing can build relationships, tell stories, create opportunities and help educated others. Make time to write, get better at writing and just do it.

Since coming back from CA and co-launching the NewMe Accelerator, I’ve received tons of emails and phone calls from various entrepreneurs across the country looking to either launch a startup, launch their own accelerator or minority tech conference. You get the picture. Like I said in one of my previous post, the topic of lack of diversity in tech is hot this year and the conversation around the lack of blacks startup founders or trying to be one is even hotter.

One of the many reasons we launched NewMe Accelerator was with the hope of being examples for other like minded entrepreneurs who wanted to pursue their dream of launching their own startup. The experience was life changing. A popular question I get asked is what was some of the things I learned while in Silicon Valley. I learned a lot but one thing I learned in particular about the Silicon Valley community is that majority of the entrepreneurs, investors, Venture Capitalist for the most part are willing to work with each and help other entrepreneurs succeed. I left with the feeling that they understand the ech system, how it works and knows that if they help and support one another, communicate and provide introductions and referrals then it not only helps them but it helps makes Silicon Valley what Silicon Valley is, the leading place in the world to launch a web/tech startup. You have your few individuals who are cut throat and only care abut themselves or their startup etc but we have those everywhere.

There are programs and communities across the world trying to duplicate the Valley success. Now apply that to the African-American tech community and our culture. We’re spread out, disconnected and known via our “culture” not to work together well with others.(please prove me wrong). Going back to problem and conversation of why so few blacks in tech or black founders and the whole diversity problem. I don’t believe we “Blacks in Tech” needs a modern day Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks, we just need to start working together and those who are working together do even more. Myself included. There are tons of resources, various niche communities from Facebook groups in California, to Meetup Groups in NY and State of Black Tech panels in DC and if we really want to help close the digital divide, create jobs, launch startups and be examples to the community and for the next generation, they’re won’t be one or two or three people doing it or leading the charge. It will be a dynamic change in the African-American culture/communities how we work together and educate each others about technology.

Part 1…

Entrepreneurs what are your most used online tools?

via: Women Flex Big Muscle in Small Business [INFOGRAPHIC]

You can read the full transcript via TechCrunch

I want to talk about how we build things here, a little bit about the product, the work we do and the work we need to do. So, this is something I put on our Wiki a long time ago [shows slide], as one of our principles is to delight our users. But then I realized it’s more important to delight their users, which are their customers and payers. And the more we focus on that payer experience, the more we focus on really making that magical — and designing it. We win, our users win, and we get more users.

So, going back to a lot of Brian’s points, this is a big focus for us, we’re the only payments company in the world that’s concerned with design. We are all designers in this room, and that’s how we’re leading this company, through design.

So, how many of you have walked or driven across the Golden Gate Bridge? Almost everyone in the room. This is one of my favorite parts of living in San Francisco. This is astoundingly beautiful, and it’s not just beautiful because it looks pretty, it’s beautiful because of the challenge that everyone who built this bridge overcame.

So, if you go back and you look at how this bridge was built, this is what San Francisco looked like before the bridge. This was the Golden Gate. We called it the Golden Gate because San Francisco was known for gold rushes. People would come here, explore and risk everything they had to live in an environment where they might find gold, or might find work, or might open a store of some kind.

So, this is the Golden Gate, this is the fort, right on the point in the Presidio, and there’s this big divide between this fort and Marin, and a lot of people living in Tiburon and Sausalito would have to go all the way around the Bay, all the way up here to get around across the river, up by Richmond.

So, they needed something that was a little bit faster. The war was over, they weren’t using this fort much anymore, so, they decided to build a bridge. So, very simply they said we need to build a bridge here, and they got an architect. The architect had a vision, actually there are a few architects, but one person has incredibly taken credit for most of the work, which was recently rectified — it’s a fascinating Wikipedia article if you have the chance to read it.

So the architects designed this gorgeous bridge, but the problem with the Golden Gate is that this is an extremely tumultuous area, if you’ve ever sailed through this or taken a boat through this, the waves are immense. Or surfed through it, which is more dangerous. It’s a disaster, I mean all the weather of the Bay is being forced through this one single point. So, all these elements create this perfect storm of turbulence. It’s extremely deep in the middle and it’s an epic span, so this was not an easy challenge.

They got a bunch of amazing engineers, and they took it step by step and iterated and iterated and iterated. There was a lot of back and forth between the architects to make this beautiful opening into this gorgeous city that we live in. And what is possible? What is beautiful? What is possible? And that’s really what it comes down to … we want to design the beautiful and build the impossible.

And a lot of people think of design, when they hear the word design as visual, something that looks pretty. Design is not just visual, design is efficiency. Design is making something simple. Design is epic. Design is making it easy for a user to get from point A to point B.

Engineering is design. Every engineer in this room, every operator in this room, every customer service agent in this room, is a designer. Because you’re designing constantly the interaction that you have with your tools or with your users or with your customers, and you’re trying to bring efficiency and take all the thinking out of that process.

So, everything we do here is design. We always want to make the beautiful — to this point — Keith, two minutes before I was supposed to start this Town Square, told me, stop. I’ve got a mistake in my slides, I forgot to capitalize an “S”. I swear. That level of perfection is what we wanna achieve, because if we achieve that level of perfection — it’s gonna take a long time to do that, a lot of hours — but then our users see it immediately, without thinking. And that’s the important part. That’s what design is.

And look at this, this is gorgeous. I mean, just look at this bridge, it’s amazing what was achieved with resources they had in the time these folks had. Millions and millions of people go over this bridge, and one of the features of this bridge is it doesn’t fall down. Reliability is a feature. This is what Brian said earlier, availability, reliability, and staying up, that’s a feature and that’s a product, and it has to be well-designed and thought after and considered, and that’s what we’re doing.

I’ve often spoken to the editorial nature of what I think my job is, I think I’m just an editor, and I think every CEO is an editor. I think every leader in any company is an editor. Taking all of these ideas and you’re editing them down to one cohesive story, and in my case, my job is to edit the team, so we have a great team that can produce the great work and that means bringing people on and in some cases having to let people go. That means editing the support for the company, which means having money in the bank, or making money, and that means editing what the vision and the communication of the company is, so that’s internal and external, what we’re saying internally and what we’re saying to the world — that’s my job. And that’s what every person in this company is also doing. We have all these inputs, we have all these places that we could go — all these things that we could do — but we need to present one cohesive story to the world.

Brian said something very interesting to me a few weeks ago, he said, support and feedback is what our customers are telling us, and product is what we’re telling our customers. I think that’s an amazing, amazing statement. We have feedback loops, and then we speak something back, the product, this company, is what we’re telling the world.

So, on this point, ideas can come from anyone, and they can come anytime. So, we all have various directions that we want to take the company and sometimes those ideas come during a shower, sometimes they come when we’re walking, sometimes they come when we’re talking with other employees at the coffee store, and sometimes you just wanna build it — you just wanna get it done — and we want to support that.

If I want to go and create a screen saver that shows all the signatures that are coming into Square in realtime, and I’m gonna go spend the weekend doing that, and I’m gonna finish it to my satisfaction so that when I go back to the company and say look at what I did, this is amazing, this is beautiful and I’ve had a lot of fun building this. And instead of saying, you know, that’s cool but we didn’t do it as a team so let’s not use it right now. Instead, let’s figure out how to say, that’s awesome, now let’s figure out how to put it into production.

So, allowing folks to work on what they want and the strong ideas that they have at any point, and then figuring out how to build it into production, and speaking to that point of reliability as a feature. Ideas happen to individuals, they happen to groups, we should allow for all of it. We should take them all in and consider them. If we don’t act on an idea, then let’s put in on the shelf, don’t throw it away, just put it in the shelf, because we may use it later in a different way then what was originally intended. This gets us to become good storytellers, and that’s what we want to do. This is about the editorial.

As a lot of you know, this is one of my favorite magazines. [Shows The Economist] This magazine is very interesting. It’s actually a newspaper — out of London. If you look through this magazine, you’ll notice a few things. First, it has a beautiful unfolding. You open the first few pages, you get all the news around the world in brief, little, 140-character news bytes of what’s happening. You want to commit some more time, then you page through and you’ll see the briefings in half pages or pages, a little bit more on what’s going on in the world, about what you just read. If you want to commit even more to any direction or any topic that you find interesting, you can read the full articles, which are multiple pages. And then at the very back are the indicators, the economic indicators, of what various aspects of the economy are doing.

The other thing you notice about this is that there are no bylines at all, there are no names in here, not even the editor has a name, it’s The Economist, they’re building The Economist, they’re writing articles for The Economist.

The editor says, I want to write about Obama, and how he needs to step it up, it’s time. He gets 5 or 6 articles, edits them into one thing that he thinks, or she thinks, will sell the magazine and tell the best story, and that becomes the magazine. This is done with every single article that’s in the magazine. And effectively every single product and feature and aspect that we’re building to our company.

So, my point here is, this company is not going to be known by one person or by five people or by multiple people. It’s going to be known by the product that we put out. We, in the Valley, think that Steve Jobs is Apple. We see Apple and we think Steve Jobs. But the mainstream audience doesn’t know who the hell Steve Jobs is. They don’t really care. They know that the Nano works, they love it, and they want to buy the next one. They could care less what this old guy in the black turtle neck does. Square is not going to be known by me, it’s not going to be known as Keith’s company, it’s not gonna be known as any other individual’s company in here, it’s going to be known as Square.

That’s what we want people to care about, and that’s what we’re trying to push, we’re trying to push, we’re trying to push the products and the brand and our story above everything else. And if you ever see that not happening, then let’s fix it. Tell me about it, we’ll fix it. Kay will help.

So, building beautiful things, it’s not easy. You can give up easily. It’s not 9 to 5 job. This is a 9 to 5 bridge [shows new slide]. Everything about this bridge says do not cross me. First of all, I don’t trust that it’s going to stay up. It’s forcing me into these narrow lanes. It’s got this mile-per-hour limit. This does not inspire. This is not aspirational to anyone. This is not something I want to cross. This is not something I want to use. It’s not something that I look at and say, wow, that’s amazing, I mean wow, What the hell were they thinking?

And a lot of people in our industry, this is what they’re building. It’s terrible. This is the bridge I want to cross. [Shows Golden Gate] This is how I want to arrive at a destination. This is classy. This is limitless. This is inspiring. This is gorgeous. Every single aspect of this is gorgeous.

Think about all of the engineers and all of the architects and all of the people that drove rock to this bridge and their families and how happy and proud they are when they walk over this bridge and when they see this bridge in newspapers and they see it in movies and they are part of this bridge. That’s what we all want to feel. That’s what I want to feel, and I know everyone in this room wants to feel.

So, this is why design is important and this is why this coordination is important, and this is how we’re leading and building this company. So, your homework for the weekend is to cross this bridge, think about that, and then also think about how we take those lessons into doing what we want do, which is carry every single transaction in the world.

Hat Tip to @Tiffani for posting this link in Facebook

I list the problem factors of Digital Divide in the following categories:

1. Location
2. Access to information/technology
3. Race
4. Income
5. Gender

Per the Microsoft Shape the future infographic below the annual impact of the U.S. digital divide is 32 billion dollars.
The infographic breaks down the Digital Exclusion in the U.S. and it’s cost into six categories.
1. Healthcare inefficiencies
2. Social Program inefficiencies
3. Lost Tax Revenue
4. Increased Incarceration cost
5. Lost E-goverment benefits
6. Lost Earning potential

Last year I hinted around in a few blog post that I was done speaking at tech conferences for a few reasons. One being my first child was being born in January. Two, felling a little burnt out having speaking over 60 times in the last 4 years. Three, I wanted to focus more on doing what I love pre-twitter (2006) and before the web went social media crazy and that was entrepreneurship and launching my own startup. Four, being a little tired of the lack of diversity in web/tech/social, etc. Fast forward to today I’ve done most of that by only participating at SXSW 2011 and being on a panel at the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference & Expo, along with co-launching the NewMe Accelerator in Silicon Valley.

Currently I’m planning a few projects and also working on my next trick. Then two amazing opportunities just opened up for me last week. One was being asked to be on a panel at the Congressional Black Caucus Conference about Social Media & Entrepreneurship. The panel takes place Friday, September 23, 2011, 1:30-3:30pm. You can follow the conference hashtag at 41stALC for updates. We’ll announce a panel hashtag soon too. Other panelist will include the following:
Chris Genteel, Google
Susan Gonzales, Facebook
Patricia Cesaire, Black Enterprise
BMaynard Scaborough, One Economy Corporation
Hajj Flemings, Gokit, BrandCamp University

If you’re attending the panel feel free to add yourself to the plancast event here: http://plancast.com/p/7loh/panel-social-media-entrepreneurship-using-technology-build-successful-business

The second opportunity is O’Reilly Web 2.0 conference in New York. My session topic is “Prepare for the 2012 Social Media Landscape and will be on Thursday, October 13, 3:15. Yep, social media. Web 2.0 is one of the conferences you want to say you have spoken at that’s on your bucket list. I’m excited, nervous and focused to delver value in this session. So if the world doesn’t end in 2012 you’ll at least know how to use social media. If you’re planning to attend Web 2.0 NY register today with discount code webny11alx107 to save an extra 20%. The code expires September 22.

I just want to say thank you to my readers, followers, friends, supporters, heck everyone who really cares. Without your support and encouragement a lot of the opportunites that I’ve had would never happened. Keep being awesome and although my inbox(email & voice) stays full and it’s hard to get back with everyone, feel free to call or email or leave a comment if you need anything.

Have a successful future.

1ST Annual Blacks in Technology Entrepreneurship Week, Durham NC

November 6 – 13, 2011 Durham, NC – The 1st Annual Blacks in Technology Entrepreneurship Week holds promise like no other. The theme for this year’s event is “Changing the Face of Technology” and focus’ on NC natives and residents who are indeed changing the face and landscape of technology entrepreneurship. Katrina M Harrell in connection with 100 Urban Entrepreneurs of NC will honor six extraordinary minority innovators in technology and entrepreneurship:

• Wayne Sutton and Angela Benton co-founders of NewMe Accelerator,
• Tiffani Bell founder of Pencilyou.in and part of NewMe Accelerator project who are each subjects of CNN: “Black in America 4”;
• Stephanie Harris and Roderick Frizzelle cofounders of ibuzzn.com, and
• LaShanda Henry, founder of Black Business Women Online.

This year’s kick-off event on Sunday, November 6, 2011 will be held at the spectacular and historic Bay 7 in the American Tobacco District, Durham NC, as a networking and celebration event not only celebrating the accomplishments of the honorees but also providing unsurpassed networking opportunity among Top entrepreneurs throughout the state. Networking begins at 6:00pm with the honoree event & program beginning promptly at 6:30pm. November 13, 2011 viewing party of the CNN show to be announced.

An array of sponsorship and vendor opportunities is also available. Any questions regarding sponsorship should be directed to the contact information below. The event founder seeks a goal to raise $10,000 to help fund an Entrepreneurship program at a Historically Black College or University within the state of North Carolina.

Registration for the event can be completed online by visiting 
BLACKSINTECHNOLOGYENTREPRENEURSHIPWEEK.YOLASITE.COM or by contacting Katrina Harrell at 919-438-BITE (2483) or via email: katrina.harrell@100ue.org.

About 100 Urban Entrepreneurs – 100 Urban Entrepreneurs is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping provide a long-term economic boost to urban communities throughout the United States by supporting entrepreneurship at its earliest stages. 100 Urban Entrepreneurs seeks to identify, fund and mentor 100 of the most promising young businesspeople from economically disadvantaged communities who might otherwise lack access to startup capital and a professional network. Our goal is to provide the tools to help talented young dreamers create viable, profitable companies and create jobs within urban America. For more information, visitwww.100UrbanEntrepreneurs.org.

About Katrina M Harrell – North Carolina resident and Businessperson,Katrina is the founding CEO of Your Simple Bookkeeper, Inc. which was the recipient of 100 Urban Entrepreneur funding grant in 2010. As founder of BITE week, Katrina Harrell is an advocate for entrepreneurship as a wealth builder for people of color and women. Ms. Harrell is also the President of the KM Harrell Group, LLC a strategic business development & consulting firm offering business strategy solutions to create profitable business models. She has been featured in blackenterprise.com, Top 200 Leading Moms in business by Start-upNation.com and a host of other media outlets. For more information, visit www.katrinamharrell.com.

Event Title Sponsors: American Tobacco District, Your Simple Bookkeeper, Inc., ibuzzn.com, Opulent Suites Media & PR, Selections entertainment.

Along with the funding news AisleFinder announced a new partnership with TaskRabbit to provide grocery delivery for their current users. The new AisleFinder and TaskRabbit partnership currently supports San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston.

This makes the third startup that participated in the NewMe Accelerator summer program to announce have raised startup capital joining OneSchool and BeCouply. I’m sure it’s not the last. Congrats Curtis and the AisleFinder team.

Be sure to read the cnet article that featured Curtiss Pope, AisleFinder and the NewMe Accelerator here: Minority entrepreneurs set up own Valley incubator .

To other minority led startups seeking to raise funds, good luck and continue to prove me wrong!

Let’s start with some facts:
African Americans make up 1% of Internet company founders nationally. (source)
Whites make up 87% startup founders, with Asians make up 12% (source)
Minority angel investors account for 2% of the angel population. (source)
Minority-owned firms represented 6% of the entrepreneurs that presented their business concept to angel investors. (source)
92% of venture backed startups are male (source)
California ranks as the highest state in terms of number of VC deals with 48%, with New York at 14% and Boston at 8% (source)
Half of the startup founders who Raise Money ages range from 35-44 (source)
Black unemployment: Highest in 27 years (source)

Hot Topic for 2011: Black Startup Founders/ Entrepreneurs
This year like never before have conversations, meetups and programs been launched and talked about why are there so few blacks in tech, or why black startup founder are not getting the same opportunities or access or why such programs as the NewMe Accelerator and organizations such as Black Founders are needed. It’s about time is how I feel about since I’ve been in the web/tech space since before the first dot com bubble and even though the internet is suppose to make things a level playing field, sadly when it comes to launching a web tech startup and getting funding it’s not. Some people act like racism doesn’t exits and want to say if you have a great idea or product, you have the same chances as everyone else. I tell you that is just not true in most cases.

True Stories from Silicon Valley:
This summer while we were in Silicon Valley for the NewMe Accelerator we learned a lot and kept hearing a few repetitive stories. One was about a young teenage Indian programmer who worked for another startup, left and pitched an idea, no app, no MVP, nothing but an idea and walked away with over $700,000 in funding. Another was from leading Venture Capitalist and investors such as Jay Jamison, Mitch Kapor, Michael Arrington, and Ron Conway that there are not enough Black startup founders and/or they don’t see enough Black Startup founders walk through their doors and/or there are not enough successful Black startup founders who have raised funds as examples for others. So if you don’t see the need for such programs such as the NewMe Accelerator or Black Founders or groups such as Blacks in Tech. Don’t argue with me… I dare you to argue with them.

flickr photo by Juan Haro Rodríguez

Black Founders/ Entrepreneurs Are you ready?
Since the launch of the NewMe Accelerator we have received tones of request from Black Entrepreneurs with startup ideas looking for help in terms of mentorships, funding, partners, investments, design help, programming help, you name it. But most of the time the request is looking for small seed investments to get an an app or product launched. When the phone rings I can almost predict the conversation, it goes a little something like this: Hello, I have an idea or startup that’s going to be big. Can you help with funding or mentoring or introduce me to someone with money. Every now and then someone will say, I’m building a new social network that’s going to be bigger than Facebook and I my response is usually, Ok, can you send me a deck and after that I hear nothing.

Regardless of the phone calls or who has an idea or not, one thing I learned being in the Valley during the summer is there’s a system, a format a bar set by other startup founders to raising capital and that bar is high. It doesn’t matter what color you are, if you don’t follow the protocol or format or standard unless you have a NBA friend, or rich uncle or have the right people in your network with capital and trying to raise money for your startup in this economy…good luck!

Getting in and making a difference:
With everyone launching a startups these days or have an idea to launch one, this is why the business / community accelerators are on the rise and startup accelerator/incubator such as Y combinator, Founders Lab, Tech Stars, and 500 Startups are like the NBA and NFL draft for entrepreneurs.

The numbers for how many black startup founders who have participated in such programer have yet to be made public and while a few incubators are well diverse such as 500 Startups in terms of race and gender none have had a large or a significant amount of Black founders participate over the years. If I’m wrong, show me the data and explain the 1%. This is why we launched the NewME Accelerator, it’s why I’m happy to see the growth and future of the Black Founders group in Silicon Valley and why programs such as the DreamIt and Comcast Ventures for minority-led startups are being created.

If you’re a founder that makes it into one of these programmers, consider yourself lucky and take advantage of the opportunity because you may not get another chance and there are thousands of entrepreneurs who would love to be in your shoes.

Your startup chances by idea and team to raise money:
I don’t have any hard data yet but this is my observation for Black Startup Founders/ Entrepreneurs:

Idea + Team = Chances to raise money

Start a new social network
Single founder with no startup and no coding experience = .5%
Team (developer, CTO, designer) with little experience = 2%
Single founder with experience from a huge successful social network = 4%

Launch a hip hop or Urban platform or urban blog/website or urban video site
Single founder with no startup and no coding experience = 1%
Team (developer, CTO, designer) with little experience = 3%
Single founder with experience = 5%

Launch a mobile (iPad, iPhone or Android) app
Single founder with no startup and no coding experience = 5%
Team (developer, CTO, designer) with little experience = 10%
Single founder with experience = 20%
Team (developer, CTO, designer) with little experience = 30%

*If you’re a black woman and single founder = -1%

The harsh reality for black entrepreneurs in the web/tech space. Your chances of raising startup capital are slim to none. If you’re an entrepreneur, good luck and prove me wrong. If you’re an accelerator or incubator, open your doors and prove me wrong. If you’re a venture capitalist please prove me wrong!

PS:
There’s nothing wrong with launching a startup, not raising or taking any money and being successful by making money form your customers. Good luck!

Today it was announced that BeCouply, the mobile app that helps couples have epic social lives received Pre-Seed Investment from Kapor Capital. This is the second startup that participated in the NewMe Accelerator that announced they have raised capital. OneSchool was the first as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

As reported on BlackWeb 2.0:

BeCouply just received a pre-seed investment by Kapor Capital.

“We’re making a pre-seed investment in BeCouply to enable them to complete development work on the product, said Mitchell Kapor. We think the team has identified a social network segment, couples, which is currently not well served.”

BeCouply allows couples to engage and interact with each other on a different level. The app intends to capture the moments people share as a couple and connect with other couples on the go. In addition, users will be able to get new date ideas and deals.

With the investment, BeCouply will come to life sooner than later so that couples can start sharing their memories instantly.

This is great news as many has asked how would we measure the success of the NewMe Accelerator. I’ve often said the fact that we decided to launch the accelerator, move to Silicon Valley for the summer and complete the program we’re successful. But in the startup space its all about raising capital and not just launching a program. So… now that makes two NewMe Accelerator startups out of 11. For the startups in the program that are still in the process or trying to raise capital good luck and keep working hard. To investors… #cutthecheckalready!

You can see the full list of startups that participated in the NewMe Accelerator 2011 first class here: http://newmeaccelerator.com/startups/

Today’s web is a result of the ongoing efforts of an open web community that helps define these web technologies, like HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL and ensure that they’re supported in all web browsers.
The color bands in this visualization represent the interaction between web technologies and browsers, which brings to life the many powerful web apps that we use daily.

Click to enlarge and redirect.

via The Evolution of the Web

Why do startups fail? The Startup Genome project analyzed data from 3,200 companies and came up with some answers. At the core of any successful business are two things: a good product and a large market for that product. In other words, a startup should be able to scale. And to scale properly, it must balance the growth of five core dimensions: customers, product, team, business model, and funding. The dominant reason for failure: premature scaling of one or more of those dimensions.

by visually via

Instagram is one of those little startups that could. I’ve been blogging about Instagram since I fell in love with the app when they first launched. Now with over seven million users instagram is living up hype of what I call the new twitter and with the recent rumors that Facebook tried to buy Instagram the photo sharing startup only has one way to go and that is up. With a rapid user growth, an API that developers are building new mashups with and a list of growing brands such as Chevy, Playboy, National Geographic and ABCNews posting photos in the instagram app it’s hard to believe that instagram is still just an iPhone app. The instagram team has said an Android app is on the way but no date has been announced yet.

The other day I was editing my google+ profile and I wanted to add a public link to my instagram photos  and with instagram being only an iPhone app I had to turn to one of the websites built on the instagram API. There’s a few good ones but some require instagram users to login to see your photos. I wanted a site that would show my instagram photos in a public stream even if someone doesn’t have an instagram account. Instagram public profiles is something I’m sure the team will launch one day but right now they’re focused on mobile, which is a smart move. Below is a list of sites that allow you to create an Instagram public online profile or see your Instagram stats. I decided to go with Webstagram and you can see my webstagram instagram profile here: http://web.stagram.com/n/waynesutton/

1. Listagram
2. Inkstagram
3. Instagrid
4. Webstagram
5. Gramfeed 
6. Extragram
7. statigram 
8. followgram 

HatTip – Paul Ford  for items 1-4 via his  Instagram Online post.

What Instagram site do you use to show your photos online?

Originally posted on google+
For the record. I agree with Eric Schmidt. It’s google’s platform. If they say the rules are real names then you play by the rules or you don’t use it or you get bumped off. Google knows their plans for + and they don’t have to tell everyone what they are right now.

When you purchase something on Amazon or with iTunes you have to use your real name, credit card information and address. Amazon and Apple/iTunes has all of that information. Apple by the way has the largest online store.

The difference is you provide both services with your email address, password and your profile url / name is less relevant. Well, Google already has your email ( gmail ) address, now google wants your real name ( identity) to go with your gmail address. This could be very helpful to google AND you in the future in terms of matching transaction, matching search results to your content and connecting your identity across the web with your other social networking content/profiles. Also it could help reduce spam and people leaving / making anonymous comments where they feel as though they can hide behind a computer screen and say whatever without any consequences.

At the end, I think everyone will see the value of google+ in terms of real name and identity. Yes it could overlay with other services and probably will when the google+ api is released. You may be able to use google+ for your blog comments or openID login or as a publishing platform all together.

In the mean time, join the other real name / people on google+ or continue to use your other favorite other social network and stop complaining or launch your own.

Response to: Mashable post: Eric Schmidt: If You Don’t Want To Use Your Real Name, Don’t Use Google+. via google+ reshare by Jess Stay.

I’m Wayne Sutton on google+ profile is here: https://plus.google.com/100894513529515310753/about

I can think of many reasons to just give up and quit. Just stop everything and so can you. You’re tired, away from your family, or to close to your family, frustrated, angry, turn on the news and everything sucks, the economy, the government is divided, wars, you name it. You almost have to separate yourself from mainstream media to stay positive. The same is almost for social networks, Twitter, Facebook and now Google Plus. Who’s talking about using these platforms for changing the world, improving the quality of life vs trying to look like the next guru for the new shiny tool that “pushes the needle”. It’s not the social network problem but the users. Regardless, negativity surrounds us, things can get hard, you’re not going to agree with everything or everyone around you. You’re going to get tested, you’re going to want to change, you’re going to get frustrated and pushed into a mental corner of life.

From that corner is where you will find out what you’re made of. You’ll find out if you’re in round 1 or round 12, you’ll find out if you have the guts to go another round or throw in the towel. You’ll think about all the things you could do or should have done differently. You’ll think what’s happening right now and what you’re going to do next. Hopefully, you’ll decide to continue and from there you’ll think about everything that has led to that moment in time and what’s going to motivate you to finish if you decide to finish.

Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. via wikipedia

Motivation can come from a lot of things, places, feelings, thoughts and people. Motivation can be the drive to leave a legacy behind. Motivation can be trying to live up to the expectations of others. Motivation can come from just wanting to be successful. Motivation can be trying to help others be successful. Motivation can be wanting a better life for you and your family. Motivation can be not letting others down. Motivation can be you just want to be happy. Motivation can be you wanted to go after your dreams. Motivation can be you don’t want to end up like “that guy” or “that woman”. Motivation can be you wanted to make history. Motivation can be, you just want to say, I tried and at the end of the day you did the best you could. Motivation can come from and be a lot of things.

Regardless if the situation sometimes you have to pause and think how somewhere in the world someone is going through something that’s ten times worse than you and that someone would love to be in your shoes know matter what’s happening in your life at the moment. The question is what are you going to do right now, this very second and when things gets tough what is going to motivate you to keep on going?

What motivates you?

The NewMe Accelerator just completed it’s first full week of working with amazing mentors and speakers from the Silicon Valley. Closing out the week NewMe startups had a chance sit down for one on one sessions with well known Venture Capitalist Mitch Kapor @mkapor of Kapor Capital. Before the sessions begin Mitch talked to the NewMe Accelerator startups first class on how he learned about the accelerator, why the NewMe Accelerator is important to have in the Silicon Valley and what Kapor Capital looks for in startups when considering investing. Take a look at the video and notes below.

Why the NewMe Accelerator is important for the Silicon Valley?

The NewMe Accelerator is supported by generous sponsors, speakers, and mentors. Sponsors include: Interactive One, Google, Tagged, Gunderson Dettmer, Syncom Ventures, PepsiCo, Kapor Capital, Bronze Investments, Justin.tv, and e3 Innovation Fund.

The JESS3 latest grid illustrates the role content plays in helping brands meet business objectives and buyers reach their individual goals. An added value of v2 is its outline for measuring content marketing success.

The original grid was recognized for giving insights into content marketing. But v2 goes even further: explaining the connection between content type and distribution channels, matching content to the buyer’s stage in the purchase process, equipping marketers with Key Performance Indicators for each type of content, and delivering it all in an easily digestible grid.

Silicon Valley welcomed the first ever technology accelerator for minority-led start-ups, NewME Accelerator. NewME’s select participants commenced their first class on June 16 and will participate in this program throughout the summer.  The start-up founders are based in a shared house in Mountain View, Calif. and are utilizing co-working space at Citizen Space in San Francisco.

This program gives the founders a unique opportunity to learn from key industry leaders during private group dinners and one-on-one mentorship. The founders will leverage this once-in-a-lifetime access, and being in the epicenter of Silicon Valley’s culture, for nine weeks to take their ventures to the next level.  Speakers and mentors will include representatives from successful start-ups such as Tagged, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Zynga Games. The accelerator concludes with a demo day at Kapor Capital August 4th where founders will pitch their products to various investors and members of the start-up community.

“The amount of support and interest from the Silicon Valley community in the NewME Accelerator is overwhelming,” shared Founder & co-Producer Angela Benton. “It serves as a testament to not only the need for a program like this, but also to the excitement and stewardship of the mentors and companies who are participating.  We are thrilled about this summer and the companies and individuals who’ve agreed to be involved.”

The accelerator provides housing, transportation and other basic living needs in addition to the mentorship and access to some of the industry’s elite minds. The intent of the program is to remove some of the barriers involved with being an entrepreneur and help pave the way for even greater success.  The program is supported by various sponsors who support not only the program’s mission but entrepreneurship in general.  Many of the program’s supporters view their participation in the 9 week long program as an opportunity to connect with budding entrepreneurs and expand their own businesses.

“Whether it is with our 100 million registered users or our own employees, everyday Tagged celebrates diversity and the entrepreneurial spirit. The opportunity to partner with the Accelerator is a natural fit for us,” said Greg Tseng co-founder and CEO of Tagged. “In addition to helping racially diverse entrepreneurs get their start, as my co-founder and I once did, our involvement also helps us connect with and ultimately attract the best talent to Tagged.  The NewME Accelerator is providing both the entrepreneurs and us with a great opportunity to connect, learn and teach.”

NewME has a total of thirteen start-ups participating in its first cycle.  Five were pre-selected while the other eight were selected from a large pool of applicants. Eight of the participating companies will travel to Silicon Valley to be housed this summer while the other 5 are Bay area locals. Applications were evaluated by the producers of the accelerator and selected based on concept, quality of pitch, and the problem the product solves in addition to several other criteria.

Yesterday the group gathered at Zibbibo in Palo Alto to commence the programs curriculum with it’s first speaker out of a series of others with Interactive One CTO Navarrow Wright.  The discussion included practical information on how each participants pitch could be modified along with candid stories of Wright’s experiences leading technology teams and raising money in Silicon Valley.

The start-ups include:  goKit, kloud.co, Pencil You In, Cued, TriOut , BeCouply, Playd, FetchMob, Aislefinder, Central.ly, Mosion, Qykno, +1 stealth start-up.

The NewME Accelerator is supported by generous sponsors, speakers, and mentors.  Sponsors include:  Interactive One, Google, Tagged, Gunderson Dettmer, Syncom Ventures, PepsiCo, Kapor Capital, Bronze Investments, Justin.tv, and e3 Innovation Fund.

via TechCrunch

What Photo Sharing App Should You Use?.