As we all know, February is Black History Month. It’s a month where we honor those who have made an impact on American culture for equal rights, those who have invented, those who have a helped others and those who have inspired everyone to be the best they can be, not only as a person of color but as a human. Last year for Black History Month, I started an online series called 28 Days Diversity where I would feature someone new everyday during the month of February for just being awesome in their own right. Even though it’s black history month, the goal for 28 Days of Diversity is to feature not just African-Americans but other minorities in the web/tech space. Also note that 28 Days of Diversity is not a popularity contest or an influencer list but a list of thought leaders in the social web sector, including entrepreneurs, bloggers, conference organizers, IT professionals and friends not ranked in any particular order who I have either met in person or followed online. Each post will include a picture, bio, two links from the selected person and this paragraph.
For 2011 I wanted to not just feature individuals but also address a topic that affects everyone. For 28 Days of Diversity 2011 each post/person will answer the question “How can we use technology to close the digital divide?” So for the next 28 days, come back to visit SocialWayne.com/tag/28daysofdiversity and 28daysofdiversity.com to see who’s on the list. For day 13, I would like to introduce to some and present to others:
Elijah R. Young
Twitter: @elijahryoung
Website/Blog: www.socialtalklive.com
Bio
Serial Entreprenuer, and Business Strategist. Elijah has been involved in the startup of 18 businesses, and teaches entrepreneurship to teens and adults through his company Young University. Elijah is currently the Co-Founder of Social Talk Live, a social training company giving clear direction to brand on how to not only strategize, but implement their social campaigns online.
How can we use technology to close the digital divide?
I’m already seeing entrepreneurs decreasing the digital divide in two ways. First, by creating low cost mobile carriers, lower income families are getting the benefit of broadband mobile internet as an affordable price. Second, these carriers are starting to release smartphones on their networks, so now the vehicle for mobile browsing is beginning to spread through communities that haven’t had access.
The digital divide is closing quickly through innovation and competition within the mobile markets especially. Countries have chosen to completely skip the ‘laptop’ age that the US has gone through and utilize mobile to bring their countries up to speed in much less time than it would have taken if they had followed the US’s lead with the laptop age.
You can follow the status of 28 Days of Diversity 2011 on http://28daysofdiversity.com and http://socialwayne.com/category/28-days-of-diversity/
