Digital Gold Rush -- HBCUs, Virtual HBCUs, and Snapchat

Last updated: Friday 11/15/13 @ 2:56 pm

This week's announcement that the two young co-founders of Snapchat  received a $1 billion buy-out offer from Facebook (NY Times, 11/14/13) echoed Facebook's $1 biilion buy-out offer that was accepted by the two young co-founders of Instagram (NY Times, 4/9/2012) about 18 months ago. 

This time, however, Facebook's billion was declined because the Snapchat hotshots are expecting even better offers. In other words, the digital gold rush is still in full surge ... and all of the luckiest panhandlers are still white. 

Why haven't there been any of black developers of gold-plated mobile apps? Why aren't the best and brightest black talents converging on the Sutters' Mills of cyberspace before this rush is over? Why haven't HBCUs formed the strategic alliances, i.e., the virtual HBCUs, that could sponsor the relatively inexpensive virtual labs that could nurture black Internet-based entrepreneurs, not just on their own campuses, but all over the country? 

Finally, why are we so aware of persistent gaps between the achievements of average black students and average white students, yet oblivious to the fact that the achievement gaps between the best and brightest black students and best and brightest white students are orders of magnitude larger? When are we going to challenge and enable our Talented Tenth to attain the fullest measure of their glorious potential???

 "The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men." (W.E.B. DuBois, The Talented Tenth, 1903)

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Related Notes:

• Moses, Joshua, and Instagram ... April 2012
• Virtual Groups at Virtual HBCUs Developing Mobile Applications in Virtual Labs ... October 2013
• Virtual HBCUs Should Offer MOOCs for Internet-based Black Entrepreneurs ... October 2013
  
• Virtual HBCUs, Mobile Apps, and Hip Hop Moguls  ... Novemberr, 2013