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After Revealing Its Own Diversity Issues, Tech Giant Google Gives $775,000 to a Diversity-Boosting Nonprofit

Google diversity

After years of contributing to the diversity problem in tech, Google is stepping up and donating $775,000 to Code2040, a nonprofit that aims to boost diversity in the tech space.

It wasn’t long ago that Google was in the hot seat after the tech giant’s diversity report revealed a stunning lack of diversity among its employees. Reports indicated that only about 1 percent of Google’s employees were Black.

Well now Google is hoping to help foster diversity with a hefty donation that will allow Code2040 to launch a Technical Applicant Prep (TAP) program.

The program will give Black and Latino students access to the type of resources and tools they need to perfect their craft in the tech sphere. This is a major move for Code2040 because the lack of resources is one of the major factors keeping people of color out of the tech space, in addition to racially biased hiring processes and subconscious prejudices in the industry.

Code2040 has always operated on a platform that supports the idea that people of color can thrive in the tech space if they are given the resources and opportunity to do so.

In addition to allowing Code2040 to launch its TAP program, Google’s donation could have an even greater impact on the nonprofit.

Google is one of the most popular and most successful tech giants there is and its hefty donation is a major seal of approval of the Code2040 mission, which could easily help the nonprofit garner the attention of other major players in the tech field.

People are also hoping that it will encourage other major tech companies to make diversity a priority.

To be clear, Google certainly isn’t the first major tech company to dedicate a large amount of money to helping the diversity mission.

Intel recently announced a plan to spend $300 million to improve workplace diversity and invest in other diversity-boosting initiatives, programs and nonprofits over the course of several years.

Apple was also a major giant behind the Hour of Code, which provided free coding classes to young people all across the globe. Apple has also recently surfaced as a leader in hiring more Blacks and Latinos than the other major competing tech giants.

While Google, Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo all had workforces that weren’t even 10 percent Black and Hispanic, Apple boosted its number of Black and Latino workers to 18 percent.

That percentage is still low and not representative of the actual number of Blacks and Latinos in the tech space, but it is certainly a vast improvement for the company and a much better score than the numbers presented by its competitors.

For now, Blerds are hopeful that Google’s donation is also a sign that the company will be opening its own doors to more Black and Latino employees.

As for Code2040, the nonprofit will also be launching a residency program for tech entrepreneur hopefuls.

The “entrepreneur-in-residence” program will kick off in three pilot cities—Austin, Texas; Durham, North Carolina, and Chicago.

While these residents will receive roughly $40,000 in seed money from the nonprofit, Code2040 will not take any equity from the businesses.

 

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5 Superheroes You May Not Have Known Were Based on Ancient Egyptian Symbols and Names

White culture has been hesitant to allow too many Black heroes and Black superheroes into mainstream media, but mainstream media have not been without Black heroes/superheroes. In fact, the very term “hero” actually derives from an ancient Black deity by the name of Heru, son of Isis and Osiris.

Yes, the ancient Egyptians were Black; check Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop for further explanation and “10 Arguments That Prove Ancient Egyptians Were Black” — Atlanta Blackstar

So with the very term hero being based on a Black deity, you could actually say that all superheroes are essentially Black and just being drawn and marketed in a form that is easily digested and accepted by the dominant culture. Whether you think they are again appropriating Black culture or paying homage to our ancient ancestors, the fact is there are actually many popular superheroes that use ancient Egyptian names and symbols as their source of superpower.

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Green Lantern

The Green Lantern Corps uses a power ring with two ancient Egyptian Shen Symbols, which mean eternal protection. The character is rumored to be featured in the upcoming Justice League live action movie set for 2017.

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Meet Hello Tractor: Integrating Agriculture With Technology

When you think of tech, do you think of agriculture? Yeah, me neither. But technology is everywhere. The only problem is it’s not being used in all possible ways — yet, until a visionary sees a powerful method of adaptation in a struggling market.

Meet Hello Tractor!

Hello Tractor is a social enterprise focused on improving food and income security throughout sub-Saharan Africa. That’s quite a summarizing sentence of all that this tiny startup is doing and setting out to do, at the intersection of agriculture and tech.

Hello Tractor is on its way to revolutionizing agriculture for small farmers in Nigeria. They are engineering what they call “Smart Tractors,” which are two-wheeled GPS-enabled tractors that allow usage tracking, data gathering — on geo-location, market trends, uptake and tractor demand. Coupled with the Hello Tractor service that allows farmers to request, schedule and prepay for tractor services via SMS messaging and mobile money, it’s a win win for small farmers.

Labor constraints lead to late planting and under cultivation, which equals loss of time and money. Long-term struggles such as these could potentially lead to farmers selling their land for pennies on the dollar. That would be a detriment to rural families and Nigeria as a whole. With the introduction of Hello Tractor, small farmers are able to fully cultivate their land and free up time that could be spent with family or on other work-related duties. This puts more money into the hands of small farmers, more food into the local markets and boosts the security of Nigeria’s agriculture.

It can take 40 days for a single farmer to manually cultivate 1.1 hectare (2.7 acres) of land and it would cost $200 to hire someone to do it for them. But with Hello Tractor (machine + service), cost drops down to $75 to fully cultivate that same piece of land in a matter of hours. Time is wealth!

A majority of the farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are women. Women tend to be the caretakers, and since Hello Tractor is looking to disrupt that industry, it’s quite evident why they put women at the forefront of their customer base. Due to this, Hello Tractor is also looking to have the company driven by women. If you are a hardware and/or software engineer living in or willing to move to Nigeria, reach out to Hello Tractor for an exciting opportunity to work with an awesome startup with a heaping lot of growth potential.

So who’s behind this excellent idea? Co-founders Jehiel Oliver and Van Jones have been leading this company for roughly a year and a half. They’re definitely two to watch and fellow Blerds. They’ve won almost (if not every) pitch competition for which they’ve been involved — now that speaks for itself. I had the opportunity to chat with Jehiel a few weeks ago, who is extremely knowledgeable in his domain, socially conscious, understanding of the issues and solutions with regards to agriculture in Nigeria; but most importantly respectful of the culture. That, I believe will lend a hand in making their company very receptive and successful.

For more information on Hello Tractor, check their website and follow them on Twitter @hellotractor.

Quiessence is an Information Security Professional with over seven years of experience within the Financial Industry. She is also the Co-founder of Urban Tech Alliance, creator of the Girltechie Campaign, and a workshop series called SecurEd. Quiessence gravitated to technology at an early age and has been captivated ever since.

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Formspring Founder’s Success With Q&A Social Site Is a Testament to the Importance of Following the Market

Formspring founder Ade Olonoh recently opened up about his journey growing Formspring into a massive social platform and revealed that his success came from his ability to follow the market when it mattered most.

Unlike most social media entrepreneurs, Olonoh actually had no intention to come up with a new social media platform.

Instead, the anonymous question-and-answer site launched from the unexpected success of one of Olonoh’s side projects.

It all started when Olonoh founded Recursive Function, a custom software development company, back in 2006.

Shortly after founding Recursive Function, the company launched a product called Formstack, an online form builder.

Formstack was initially a tool for entrepreneurs that would help them create any type of online form they needed, from surveys to event registrations.

As it turned out, most users wanted to use the service for something else — anonymous question-and-answer forms.

Olonoh created a separate website, Formspring.me, to help people do this with ease.

At the time, he still had no plans of focusing on building a social media website, but the next few weeks revealed there was a serious demand for what he just created.

In only 45 days, more than 1 million users were signed up for Formspring.me.

He now had two very different businesses on his hands and not enough time to devote to both of them.

“One was a social network that was growing quickly and didn’t have a clearly defined business model,” he told Verizon Wireless. “The other was a well-established business that was selling a subscription service to business customers. So they were two different mindsets with teams needed, and both were at a stage where I couldn’t split my time between them.”

While the safe move would be to focus on Formstack, he decided to shift gears and follow a clear desire in the market for Formspring.me, which was later rebranded as just Formspring.

It turned out to be a great success.

Before selling the company, Olonoh raised more than $14 million from investors, and the site garnered more than 30 million users.

He didn’t necessarily leave Formstack either.

Olonoh appointed Chris Byers to run Formstack while he took on special projects for the company.

It was certainly a daring move, but there is no doubt that Formspring became a groundbreaking site in the social media world.

It also saw its fair share of controversy, however, as some users started using the anonymous site as a way to take their bullying to the next level.

People started leaving hurtful comments and crushing accusations on people’s pages.

It was even linked to one Long Island teen’s suicide back in March 2010.

With Formspring being one of the first social sites of its kind, it’s hard to say that anybody could have really predicted the way some cruel youth would go about utilizing the platform.

Either way, Olonoh is focused on Formstack’s success and says the company has been “growing pretty quickly.”

As for the diversity issues that have been plaguing the world of tech, Olonoh said it’s “disheartening,” but he also isn’t sure what the real solution is.

“I don’t know that I present any answers — I don’t have that background and expertise to say, ‘Here’s how you solve that problem,’ ” he added. “But I think it’s a good step that we’re talking about it. The companies are releasing that data, and hopefully that’s the first step toward trying to solve that problem.”

 

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Is It Sexist to Use Male Characters in Games as a Female Gamer?

Am I sexist when it comes to video games? I don’t think so, but some people may think that. I’ve been a gamer since I was 6 years old. (I’m 21 now). I’ve always played as male characters because most of the games I’ve played had male characters as the lead role. And honestly, I’ve always liked it that way. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for gender equality, I mean come on, I’m a woman. But when it comes to video games, I’d prefer to play as a male character rather than a woman any day. I know what you’re thinking. “How can you say that?” “Women characters are just as good men,” and blah, blah, blah. That’s all good and stuff, but I have my reasons.

Male characters are always portrayed as a powerful figure. They have these wonderful physiques, awesome weapons and turn out to be all-around badasses. For example, Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5. He was the main character in this game. He pretty much took charge of everything. He took all the calls from his team and gave all the orders. When it came to weapons, he handled them like a pro. With every gun he obtained, each shot was done in style. Now his sidekick, Sheva, is another story. She pretty much annoyed me throughout the whole game. When I needed help, she was nowhere to be found. She looked awkward with every gun she held. She also didn’t strike me as a strong female, just a weak partner. I never played as her. When I played two players, I always fought to play as Chris. I don’t know … I just felt that playing as Chris made everything easy and Sheva’s presence was unnecessary.

Even games like Sonic and picking certain characters mattered to me. I’m totally fine with picking characters like Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles. But when it comes to characters like Amy and Rogue, that’s where I drew the line. The male characters also seem to have better attacks than the females. While the males are the heroes in the game, characters like Amy always seem to screw up or become the damsel in distress. They’re just annoying, and they were never characters that I chose unless I needed to.

I’m not bashing all female characters. There are plenty that I like. Ellie in the Last of Us was awesome. She is the definition of badass. Joel and Ellie were a wonderful team; they supported each other well and they both had their uses. Ellie was definitely a girl who didn’t need anyone’s help.

Read more from Anissa Hanley at Black Nerd Problems

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10 Facts That Will Amaze You About the Life of the Brilliant Scientist Benjamin Banneker

Banneker (1)Benjamin Banneker was born Nov. 9, 1731, and died Oct. 9, 1806. His parents were free Blacks living near Baltimore. He was an astronomer, scientist, inventor, abolitionist and farmer.

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Banneker was self-educated, with handed-down textbooks as his resources. His white grandmother taught him how to read at an early age before attending a small Quaker school for a brief time.

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10 Free or Inexpensive Educational Apps That Could Help Underprivileged Students Close the Racial Achievement Gap

Sushi Monster

Sushi Monster

A 2010 report by The New York Times revealed that only 12 percent of Black boys in the eighth grade were proficient in math compared to more than 40 percent of their white counterparts. A Harvard researcher explained that there are often major “racial differences” in the foundation that Black students have when compared to white students, especially in the area of math. Sushi Monster can help change that by giving Black students exposure to math at an early stage and disguising it as nothing more than a fun game. The free app from Scholastic helps students practice addition and multiplication skills. The app earned an impressive four-star rating after more than 800 users weighed in on the app’s effectiveness. While many parents admitted that the app was challenging, which is essentially the point of the app, they also said they noticed an improvement in their child’s overall understanding of and interest in math.

Science360foriPad

Science360

Getting students interested in science is a major part of the battle to help them excel in the subject. For schools with more sufficient funding, science fairs, field trips and other school-funded activities help get students interested and engaged in science in a way that helps them understand the concepts they learn in the classroom. For underprivileged schools that can’t offer those same experiences, Science360 can be a huge plus. The National Science Foundation’s app makes the most out of fascinating photos, intriguing videos and other digital content to show students just how interesting science can be. With a news feed that updates students on scientific news, they are also able to see their course lessons reflected in real world discussions in the science community.

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Jay Z’s Latest Power Move Would Bring Him Into Music Distribution With Premium Streaming Services

“I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man!”

Jay Z said it, and he certainly meant it.

The hip-hop mogul’s latest power move could bring HOV into the music-distribution game as he is reportedly preparing to buy the Swedish tech company Aspiro.

Reports surfaced saying Jay Z is offering 464 million Swedish crowns for the company.

That’s roughly $56 million in U.S. dollars.

He’s also offering the entire amount in cash.

If he does add Aspiro to his rapidly growing empire, it will give him ownership of two streaming services — WiMP and Tidal.

At first glance it seems like he would be preparing to battle it out with other streaming services like Pandora or Spotify, but a closer look reveals that might not exactly be the case.

Both of the soon-to-be acquired streaming services would be described by some music heads as more “premium” services compared to services like Spotify.

It’s not just for the everyday man who wants to get his fill of old-school jams or the newest hip-hop tracks. This would be for the dedicated music head who doesn’t just want to listen to new songs. He wants to read about new artists and discover the stories behind their favorite tracks.

Both WiMP and Tidal offer daily track recommendations for users along with interviews and curated playlists.

With all the extra content, the subscription price is much higher than the services most music lovers are used to.

While Spotify only costs about $10 a month, Tidal will cost $19.99 a month, but it will also give users access to more than 25 million tracks and a whopping 75,000 music videos.

There is also a major difference in the markets here.

Currently, WiMP is only available in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland and Sweden.

Of course, if the hip-hop mogul takes over, there is no telling where he might want to take the services next or how he might want to rebrand them.

If Jay Z closes on the deal, he will make the purchase via another project few people know he already has — Project Panther Bidco.

Project Panther has been keeping tabs on Aspiro for some time, The Verge reported, saying that the company was an “innovative high-quality company with strong future growth potential.”

If the deal goes through then Jay Z will join other music greats like Neil Young and Dr. Dre as musicians who crossed the line from artists into distribution through streaming services.