Nonprofit BITE-CON Foundation and 4Geeks Academy, the national technology bootcamp, are collaborating to provide Black and brown people with training for tech jobs. BITE-CON Foundation and 4Geeks Academy The BITE-CON Foundation is committed to bridging the technological divide for Black and Brown communities. They engage and inspire through technology through their Annual Web3 Technology Conference, nationwide pop-up events, and community-based STEAM and sports activities. They aim to impact a pipeline of one million BIPOC and women technologists over the next five years through strategic partnerships, workforce development and thought leadership.
South Africa’s Competition Commission released a report that alleged that Google and tech companies were hindering fair market competition and the growth of South Africa’s digital economy. The watchdog claimed that Alphabet Inc. -owned Google’s search dominance “distorts platform competition” in favor of prominent market players. In addition, the report recommends several remedies focused on improving visibility for smaller South African companies in search results to address the issue. What did the report find? According to the commission’s report, Google’s model disadvantages new, small and underfunded South African businesses. The
Melonie D. Parker, Google’s Chief Diversity Officer, has been appointed to Kanarys, Inc., Board of Directors. Google’s Chief Diversity Officer, Melonie D. Parker As Google’s CDO for over four years, Parker aims for innovative change and advances Google’s employee engagement strategy across Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. With years of experience in similar roles, Parker was Vice President of Human Resources and Communications for Sandia National Laboratories and became the first Blak woman to serve. She also spent eighteen years at Lockheed Martin, an American aerospace, arms, defence, information security, and
Alitheia IDF is a $100 million private equity fund that aims to grow African SMEs through gender-balanced businesses. According to a report from Africa’s The Big Deal, female-led start-ups in Africa had raised 4% funding in 2022, while male-led ventures raised 96%. Therefore, 25 times less funding had been invested in female-led startups in 2022 than their male-led counterparts. Alitheia IDF aims to identify, invest in and grow businesses led by gender-diverse teams to achieve solid financial returns and social impact for African communities. Alitheia IDF The Alitheia IDF invests
A report by McKinsey and Co. found that representation for Black, Latina and Native American (BLNA) women in the tech workforce has shrunk over the past four years. McKinsey and Co. surveyed over 2,000 tech employees to calculate the experiences of BLNA women. The report is a collaborative effort by Reboot Representation and McKinsey in partnership with Pivotal Ventures. It explores effective strategies employers can use to attract, train and advance BLNA women. It additionally provides tools to help companies assess their current policies and practices and intentionally implement new strategies
An American Association of Advertising Agencies (The 4A’s) report has found unsolved issues in the advertising industry. A step in the wrong direction for diversity While 2021 witnessed a surge in diversity and inclusion efforts, momentum seemingly dwindled in 2022. At the time, numerous corporations embraced more diverse hiring practices and over 200 tech firms committed to change. However, over the last year, these efforts have begun to decrease, including the media industry losing four Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) leaders in two weeks. Furthermore, the 4A’s report indicated a
Ariana McGee founded Navigate Maternity, a remote monitoring platform facilitating equitable prenatal and postpartum care for pregnant women. Black Women and Pregnancy In 2017, over 1,205 women died during and after children, with the U.S. having the highest perinatal mortality rate of any developed country. The United States is also known to be the most dangerous and expensive high-income country for childbirth, especially for Black and Indigenous women. Black women face a nine times higher risk of maternal death than their white counterparts, regardless of wealth. McGee nearly lost her
George McKinney, the founder of Better Life Technologies, is in a five-year legal battle against healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente. Better Life Technologies Black-owned tech firm Better Life Technologies Group, Inc. describes itself at the forefront of innovation in human vitality monitoring within the wireless wearable technology revolution. Their goal is to enhance accessibility to life-saving technologies and create sustainability within the industry. They work on highly disruptive, non-invasive, real-time diagnostics for COVID-19 and many other pathogens. What Happened? McKinney has been in a legal battle with Kaiser Permanente for over five years
According to experts, Black women are often hired or promoted to leadership roles during a crisis, often referred to as the “glass cliff”. The Glass Cliff The term “glass cliff” was coined by a social and organizational psychologist, Michelle Ryan, at the University of Exeter. It describes a situation where a woman or person of color gets promoted to a senior leadership role during a difficult time and when the risk of failure is high. The “glass cliff” is essentially the opposite of the “glass ceiling” – a term that
Kenyan President William Ruto announced that offensive or inappropriate content will be removed from TikTok after a virtual meeting with TikTok’s CEO. TikTok and the Kenyan Government According to the Reuters Institue Digital News Report 2023, Kenya has the highest TikTok usage rate worldwide, with 54% of users in the country using the app for general purposes and 29% for news. During the virtual call with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, it was agreed that TikTok will collaborate with the Kenyan government to review and monitor its content. The collab