Saturday, May 30, 2015

DLL Storify of C/I Hackathon at Fordham Foundry -- Saturday 5/30/15

Last update: Tuesday 6/2/15 @ 4:13 pm
Held at the Fordham Foundry Incubator, C/I's third hackathon invited its students to use their tech and entrepreneurship skills to build tech projects with the help of volunteers from 10 am to 7 pm. More information can be found on the event's invitation, on the C/I website, and a background story in the Village Voice. 

On Monday 6/1/15, C/I posted this post-hackathon description of the winning apps on its Website.

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtags = #CIHacks, @weareci, and @FordhamFoundry.  As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification ... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives

TECH Dozens -- Week Ending Saturday 5/30/15

Last update: Sunday 5/31/15 @ 3:05 pm
This week's cover = photo from tweet about Google's many announcements at I/O 2015
... Other top stories = Meeker's 2015 report ... nanodegree from  Google/Udacity ... Comments about Google's announcements 



Below find links to the Digital Learning Lab's "Dozens" of favorite news items about HBCUs' use of information technology to enhance their teaching, research, and community services ... plus news about hackathons and issues related to coding & coding literacy... in HBCU media and Tech media ... for the week ending Saturday 5/30/15 @ 3 pm ... Links to previous editions of the Dozens can be found ==> Back issues.

A. HBCUs | B. Ed Tech | C. Gen Tech | D. Hackers | E. Views | F. Events ... TECH 2014

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

DLL Storify of Kickoff Meeting of BGC Chapter in Raleigh Durham, NC -- Wednesday 5/27/15

Last update: Wednesday 5/27/15 @ 11:11 pm
Held at the American Underground incubator, the meetup celebrated the launch of the Black Girls Code chapter in the Raleigh Durham area of North Carolina. More information can be found on the event's home page. Additional background information can be found in this article.

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtags = #BGCRaleighDurham, @AmerUnderground.  As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification ... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives.


Monday, May 25, 2015

Tech power beyond Silicon Valley (3)

Last update: Friday 5/16/18

The good thing, no, the great thing about the rapid and unprecedented expansion of tech wealth and power during the last fifty years is that it has not been a zero sum game. Silicon Valley's young billionaires did not snatch their new billions from the pockets of old billionaires located elsewhere. But the bad thing about the new digital wealth is that, so far, its expansion has not been shared by Blacks, other minorities, and women. 

Saturday, May 23, 2015

"TECH Dozens" -- Week Ending Saturday 5/23/15

Last update: Sunday 5/24/15 @ 11:05 am
This week's cover = photo/graphic from tweet that Senate fails to resolve extensions of Patriot Act surveillance ... Other top stories = Google develops OS for IoT ... Tech coalition urges Obama: no backdoors to encryption ... and Jay-Z defends Tidal


Below find links to the Digital Learning Lab's "Dozens" of favorite news items about HBCUs' use of information technology to enhance their teaching, research, and community services ... plus news about hackathons and issues related to coding & coding literacy... in HBCU media and Tech media ... for the week ending Saturday 5/23/15 @ 12 noon ... Links to previous editions of the Dozens can be found ==> Back issues.

A. HBCUs | B. Ed Tech | C. Gen Tech | D. Hackers | E. Views | F. Events ... TECH 2014


Ambition, greed, and a more diverse Silicon Valley (2)

Last update: Sunday 5/1715

"Greed is good."

This was Gordon Gecko's signature line, Gordon Gecko, the unscrupulous mega mogul played by Michael Douglas in his Academy Award winning role in the 1987 movie classic "Wall Street."  Now fast forward to 2010:


"You know what's cooler than a million dollars? A billion dollars."

Friday, May 22, 2015

Diversity in Tech -- Silicon Valley vs. the rest of the U.S. (1)

Last update: Friday 5/22/15

Question: What percent of America's software jobs are in Silicon Valley?

I confess to being ignorant of the existence of any reports that provide precise answers to this question. No matter, because for the purposes of this discussion we won't need precise answers. Plausible "back of the envelop" estimates will be sufficient to make an important point.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Effective teachers use technology to stimulate motivation

Last update: Thursday 5/21/15
The author of a recent op ed published in the Chronicle (5/20/15) warns us that technology has been grossly oversold to educators, that technology cannot improve learning unless learners are sufficiently motivated. Otherwise investments in ed tech are a waste of money that may widen the education gaps between the well motivated haves and the poorly motivated have nots.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

DLL Storify of Black Founders Twitter Chat with Brian Clark -- Tuesday 5/19/15

Last update: Tuesday 5/20/15 @ 8:07 am
Black Founders conducted a Twitter chat with Brian Clark, a young Black tech entrepreneur who has used the prizes he's won in competitive hackathons to finance his start-up operations. His latest venture is LinkTexting, an app that enables visitors to the Website of a business to download the app for that business. Mr. Clark's impressive record in hackathons was recently profiled in an article in the Huffington Post.

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that that used #hashtags = @blaurenceclark @blackfounders.  As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification ... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

DLL Storify of Bronx Tech Meetup -- Monday 5/18/15

Last update: Tuesday 5/19/15 @ 8:58 am
Held at Fordham High School For The Arts, the meetup invited  technologists, students, and community members for an evening of live demos, tech education opportunities, and networking. The program ran from 7pm to approximately 8:30pm in the auditorium, and was followed by a networking after party at the Fordham Foundry, one of the only tech incubators in the Bronx. More information can be found on the event's home page and in a background article in the Bronx Times.

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtags = @BronxTechMeetup and #BronxTechMeetup.  As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification ... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives

Saturday, May 16, 2015

"TECH Dozens" -- Week Ending Saturday 5/16/15

Last update: Sunday 5/17/15 @ 12:05 pm
This week's cover = photo/graphic from tweet about Google's robo-car on the road this summer 
... Other top stories = Facebook publishes instant articles... House curtails NSA ... and Verizon buys AOL

Below find links to the Digital Learning Lab's "Dozens" of favorite news items about HBCUs' use of information technology to enhance their teaching, research, and community services ... plus news about hackathons and issues related to coding & coding literacy... in HBCU media and Tech media ... for the week ending Saturday 5/16/15 @ 6 pm ... Links to previous editions of the Dozens can be found ==> Back issues.

A. HBCUs | B. Ed Tech | C. Gen Tech | D. Hackers | E. Views | F. Events ... TECH 2014

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Pass the MOOCs ... Part 1 (New Job)

Last update: 12/2/15
Two years ago I posted a note about my dropping out of a couple of MOOCs. Since then, I've dropped out of a few more. But I'm currently taking and passing a series of MOOCs offered by M.I.T (via edX) and Johns Hopkins (via Coursera); and I will probably take and pass a couple of MOOCs offered by Udacity by the end of the year.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

"TECH Dozens" -- Week Ending Saturday 5/9/15

Last update: Sunday 5/10/15 @ 12:05 pm
This week's cover = photo/graphic from tweet that Federal court strikes down NSA's "Snowden" phone taps ... Other top stories ==> University of Illinois MBA via MOOCs from Coursera  ...  Silicon Valley's high tech education ... and IBM + Facebook's = supercharged personal ads

Below find links to the Digital Learning Lab's "Dozens" of favorite news items about HBCUs' use of information technology to enhance their teaching, research, and community services ... plus news about hackathons and issues related to coding & coding literacy... in HBCU media and Tech media ... for the week ending Saturday 5/9/15 ... Links to previous editions of the Dozens can be found ==> Back issues.

A. HBCUs | B. Ed Tech | C. Gen Tech | D. Hackers | E. Views ... TECH 2014

Saturday, May 09, 2015

DLL Storify of Black Girls Code Parent-Daughter Workshop -- Saturday 5/9/15

Last update: Saturday 5/9/15 @ 11:40 pm
The Bay Area Chapter of Black Girls Code hosted this workshop in which participants and their parents explored coding fundamentals and built a fun project together! The workshop was designed to encourage student (and parent!)-driven learning, as participants thought analytically, designed, played and coded in real-time. More details about this event can be found on its invitation page.

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtags = #BGCParentDaughter, #ChangeHerPath, and #BGCBayArea.  As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification.... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives 

Friday, May 08, 2015

DLL Storify of Morgan State University's HBCU Hacks, Make-a-thon Edition 2015 -- 5/8/15 to 5/9/15

Last update: Wednesday 5/13/15 @ 5:33 pm
As per the event's invitation page, HBCU Hacks was designed especially for college students. In this fast paced competition, students learned what it takes to take a digital product from idea to working prototype in 24 hours. They then had the opportunity to pitch their ideas in front of a panel of tech experts. This 24 hour make-a-thon began at 4:00 pm on Friday and ended at 4 pm on Saturday

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtag = #HBCUHacks.  More detailed comments (with pictures and videos) are provided on the HBCU Hacks blog ==> HERE

As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification.... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives ...

Note: On May 12, Technical.ly Baltimore published an excellent summary of the results of the make-a-thon/hackathon, i.e., descriptions of winning apps and their developers.

Thursday, May 07, 2015

DLL Storify of the PUSH Tech 2020 Summit, San Francisco -- 5/6/15

Last update: Thursday 5/7/15 @ 1:21 am

The Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition organized this summit meetup. As per the program on the Coalition's Website:
  • "Minority Business Enterprises (MBE) play significant roles in providing goods and services to corporations.  While a small handful of Tech companies maintain robust supplier diversity programs committed to increasing spend with MBE’s, minority businesses frequent lack access to tech sector corporate supply chains. This session, powered by HP and Apple, will include an interactive discussion intended to connect corporate buyers with potential MBE sellers.  Additionally, discussion leaders will drive a working session to collectively identify:  innovative approaches to minority business development program management for corporations and MBEs; best practices for sellers and buyers that are new to the supplier diversity arena,; and best practices for access to capital and alternative financing for growing MBE’s."
Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtag = #PUSHTech2020. As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification.... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives

Monday, May 04, 2015

DLL Storify of ChicagosNext Hackathon -- 5/2/15 to 5/3/15

Last update: Monday 5/4/15
ChicagosNext was a nonprofit technology hackathon event that brought together a diverse group of local, regional, national and international  tech talent with entrepreneurial spirit. The goal was to build the next app that creatively solved issues within the local neighborhood using Azure and supporting Microsoft Technologies. The event was hosted by Blue1647 at its headquarters facility from 7 pm Saturday (5/2/15) until 7:30 Sunday (5/3/15). A full description of the hackathon and the goals of its organizers are described on the event's home page.

Below find the DLL Storify of tweets that were generated by participants who used hashtags = @ChiNextHack and #ChiNextHack  As usual, the DLL Storify is merely a "firehose" draft, i.e., it includes all tweets in chronological order without comment or classification ... Storyfies of other #DiversityInTech events are listed in the DLL Archives

Saturday, May 02, 2015

"TECH Dozens" -- Week Ending Saturday 5/2/15

Last update: Sunday 5/3/15 @ 10:00 am
This week's cover = photo/graphic from tweet about Microsoft's Build 2015 
... Other top stories = Baltimore -- 
Voices from HBCUs ... New  college rankings from Brookings Institute ...Another record quarter for Apple


Below find links to the Digital Learning Lab's "Dozens" of favorite news items about HBCUs' use of information technology to enhance their teaching, research, and community services ... plus news about hackathons and issues related to coding & coding literacy... in HBCU media and Tech media ... for the week ending Saturday 5/2/15 @ 12 noon ... Links to previous editions of the Dozens can be found ==> Back issues.

A. HBCUs | B. Ed Tech | C. Gen Tech | D. Hackers | E. Views  ... TECH 2014