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Tess Posner is the CEO of AI4ALL, an organization working to make the technology industry more inclusive and to ensure that AI is developed responsibly. Before joining AI4ALL, she was Managing Director of TechHire at Opportunity@Work, a national initiative launched out of the White House to increase diversity in the tech economy. In this episode, we explore the diversity challenges facing the technology industry and the exciting efforts that AI4ALL is leading to empower diverse young people to join – and improve – one of the most powerful industries shaping society today. ----- To learn more about EqualAI, visit our website: https://www.equalai.org/ You can also follow us on Twitter: @ai_equal
In Part 2 of my conversation with Vice President Anthony Caison, learn about the multimillion-dollar TechHire grant and how students participating in the program are gaining valuable experience. Plus, gain insight on how scholarships are available to students. Lastly, hear how social media impacts the Workforce Continuing Education division. If you liked the first part of my interview with Vice President Caison, you will thoroughly enjoy Part 2.
Two years ago, Ivy Tech received $2.6million to provide free tech certification to Indiana young people. The program expires in June and the program has been underutilized. Stephanie Wells, consultant to Ivy Tech, talks in this podcast about the need to recruit 17 – 29 year old Hoosiers before March 2020 to receive this training. People going through the training will receive free tech certification and assistance with job placement. Listen NOW and help get the word out.
Lean the F*ck Out | Fempreneurs | Women Entrepreneurs | Female Business Owners
In this episode, we talk with Leanne Pittsford founder and CEO of Lesbians Who Tech about how she has scaled her business from start up to over 25,000 queer women and allies strong. Lesbians Who Tech, which is increasing visibility and improving representation among LGBTQ women in the tech sector on a global scale. Leanne talks about how she has been able to make this all happen from a kernel of an idea to the White House and beyond. She shares all the steps she took along the way and offers valuable advice all fempreneurs should here. Launching Lesbians Who Tech Episode Highlights Gay men and gay women are at the opposite ends of the equity spectrum at work Lesbians Who Tech was built through hustling, but starting at first using lean startup principles. When you are scaling talk to the individuals who use your product and solve their problems. Recruitment of mid-level professionals is an untapped space that Lesbians Who Tech has taken over in tech industry Each day remember what are your “non-negotiables” but be open to the fact that they might change. “Don’t wait for things to be perfect.” “Trust your gut and check in with yourself often.” It’s likely you’ll be happier if you fail on something you tried to build than something you are building for someone else. Leanne Pittsford Leanne Pittsford is the CEO and Founder of Lesbians Who Tech, the largest LGBTQ network of technologists in the world. Now over 25,000 queer women and allies strong, Lesbians Who Tech is increasing visibility and improving representation among LGBTQ women in the tech sector on a global scale through annual tech Summits in New York, San Francisco, Mexico City, Paris, Singapore and programs like the Edie Windsor Coding Scholarship, a coding scholarship fund for LGBTQ to learn how to code, and Bring a Lesbian to Work Day, a one day shadow career program. You can learn more here at lesianswhotech.org. She recently launched include.io, a recruiting and retention platform that uses mini-mentoring sessions to validate diverse and non-traditional technical talent, allowing companies to be intentional about inclusion. On the platform companies can scale access to the direct referrals that matter most, their current employees, to build their best teams and hire individuals for who they really are. Check out the platform to learn more at include.io. In 2017, Leanne is partnering with TechHire, an initiative created by the Obama Administration, to launch a 50 city Tech Jobs Tour in 2017 with advisor Megan Smith, 3rd Chief Technology Officer of the United States. The Tour will stop in 50 cities across America to connect diverse and non-traditional talent to over 500,000 open tech jobs. See where it’s stopping next at techjobstour.com. Before her work with Lesbians Who Tech, Tech Jobs Tour and include.io, Leanne founded and led Start Somewhere, a design and technology agency focused on strengthening social good organizations. She built leanimpact.org, an organization that helped social good organizations and companies use lean startup principles to increase their impact, which officially became part of Lean Startup in 2016. From 2006 to 2010 Leanne served as the Senior Director at Equality California, the largest statewide LGBTQ organization behind the No on Prop 8 Campaign. She managed the data for the campaign and built online fundraising campaigns that raised millions to support No on Prop 8. Leanne lives San Francisco and Washington D.C with her partner Pia Carusone and their two dachshunds. You can find her on a plane or on Twitter at @lepitts. Follow Leanne online at: Website: lesianswhotech.org Twitter: @lepitts
Born in Germany, Marco Morawec is the co-founder of The Firehose Project, an online coding school that helped over a thousand people learn how to code remotely and become engineers. They also got a 1-million dollar grant from TechHire to help more people from under-represented groups to gain tech skills. Marco got his undergraduate degree and Master's in Public Policy and Management from the University of Constanz in Germany. He formerly worked as a Product Manager at an advertising firm called Jana. A self-taught software engineer who is big on networking, Marco believes people should not be coding in isolation. Listen in as he talks more about their programs and how people can learn how to code no matter who you are, or where you are.
Featured interview with Linked-In co-founder Allen Blue. Megan Kamerick reports on a national network called TechHire, which is forging pathways for overlooked Americans to gain skills and access to technical jobs. Dorian Warren shares his take on how Donald Trump is betraying the working-class communities that he vowed to fight for.
Bio Karan Chopra (@karchopra) a is Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Opportunity@Work, where he provides leadership on strategic direction and execution of Opportunity@Work's priorities and the TechHire initiative. He co-founded Opportunity@Work because he believes that meaningful work is not just a matter of economic wellbeing but of individual dignity. Karan's career has focused on building entrepreneurial ventures that increase upward mobility and provide opportunity for all. Prior to co-founding Opportunity@Work, Karan was the co-founder and director of GADCO (Global Agri-Development Company) -- a vertically-integrated agri-food business in sub-Saharan Africa. He led the company from business plan to building and operating the largest rice farm in Ghana, developing a processing center and launching a packaged food brand that contributed to domestic food security in Ghana and impacted the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Leading publications and institutions, including World Bank, UNDP, World Economic Forum, Financial Times and Guardian, have featured GADCO. Karan is also the co-founder of WAVE (West Africa Vocational Education), a social venture tackling youth unemployment in Nigeria. WAVE is empowering West African youth with industry relevant skills and access to jobs while improving outcomes for employers. Prior to this, Karan was at McKinsey & Company where he was awarded the social sector fellowship. Prior to this, Karan was a software developer with Siemens. Karan holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with highest honors from Georgia Tech and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School with high distinction graduating as a Baker Scholar. In 2014, Forbes named Karan in its 2014 list of Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneurs by Forbes magazine and selected as a New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Resources Opportunity@Work Opportunity@Work Learn to Earn Application (Deadline October 15th) Mindset: the New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck News Roundup Social media still in spotlight regarding Russia Social media companies turned over more evidence linking Russia to ads placed across their platforms. According to the Washington Post, Google reported tens of thousands of dollars worth of Russia-linked ads across YouTube, Gmail and search results. Facebook had reported 10 million views of Russia-linked ads on its platform. And Twitter suspended 201 accounts linked to Russia. Executives from Facebook, Google parent Alphabet, Twitter are scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on November 1st. The House Intelligence Committee has asked the executives to testify in connection with their own investigation the same day. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill. More federal agencies breached A new report came to light last week that Russia hacked an NSA contractor's home computer back in 2015. We're just finding out about it now, but officials discovered it in Spring 2016. According to the Wall Street Journal, Russia stole sensitive information that lays out how the U.S. hacks into foreign governments' computer networks. The Russian hackers apparently got in via the Kaspersky antivirus software the contractor was running on his computer. A separate Fed Scoop report found that hackers breached the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corp. more than 50 times between 2015 and 2016. Hackers exposed the personal identifying information of hundreds of thousands of Americans in those breaches. Google crackdown on fake news draws protest from diverse media voices Google's crackdown on fake news is biased against smaller, independent content producers. That's a according to several smaller content producers that have noticed sharp declines in their web traffic. The declines have come since April. That's when Google announced its Project Owl initiative the company says it designed to boost more authoritative content. Daisuke Wakabayashi reports in the New York Times. FCC finally responds to Puerto Rico The FCC has finally developed a plan to help Puerto Rico's communications infrastructure get back up and running. On the advice of Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC has established a Hurricane Recovery Task Force, which will focus on all Hurricane-affected areas, including Puerto Rico. The FCC has also approved $77 million to help repair Puerto Rico's communications networks. The agency also gave Google an experimental license to deploy its ballon-based communications system dubbed "Project Loon". IRS under fire for signing a contract with Equifax The IRS came under fire last week for entering into a $7 million contract with Equifax. The deal was for Equifax to help the IRS prevent tax fraud. The IRS and Equifax signed the agreement just three weeks after the Equifax data breach that exposed the personal information of 145 million customers. The IRS's Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Tribiano told the House Ways and Means Committee that the contract was a "bridge contract." The IRS had put the contract out for rebid and awarded the new contract to Experian. But Equifax protested that decision. As a result, Tribiano said, the IRS was under pressure to sign a bridge contract with Equifax since the existing one was set to expire on September 29th. Tribiano told members of Congress that if the IRS failed to sign the bridge contract, millions of Americans would be unable to get their credit transcripts. But the Government Accountability Office says the IRS could have moved forward with Experian. It said that the IRS could have moved forward with Experian if it considered doing so to be in the best interests of the United States. The GAO is expected to decide the outcome of Equifax's protest against the Experian award on October 16th. Backpage.com settles with 3 women Backpage.com settled with 3 women who allege they were victims of sex trafficking that the now-defunct site facilitated. The women were between the ages of 13 and 15 when the alleged sex trafficking happened. The court did not disclose the amount of the settlement. The parties settled in Pierce County, Washington Superior Court, which is in the Seattle area. In the meantime, IBM has announced that it is backing Senator Rob Portman's bill to make websites amore accountable for content posted by third parties. Can algorithms draw district maps? The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Gill v. Whitford last week. The key question in the case is whether courts can throw out voting district maps for being too partisan. This will be a landmark decision. The outcome of this case is likely to have huge implications for American democracy for generations to come. But a recent paper published by computer scientists at the University of Illinois proposes letting algorithms do the work of redistricting. Daniel Oberhaus reports in Motherboard. EU orders Amazon to pay $295 million in back taxes The European Union has ordered Amazon to pay $295 million in back taxes to Luxembourg. The EU's Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager says that Luxembourg did not tax almost three quarters of Amazon's profits. Robert-Jan Bartunek reports in Reuters. Marsha Blackburn running for Senate Marsha Blackburn announced last week in a YouTube video that she's running for Bob Corker's Senate seat in Tennessee. But Twitter took down Blackburn's campaign ad because in it, she talks about having fought against "the sale of baby body parts". Verizon announces that hackers compromised ALL 3 billion Yahoo! accounts Verizon announced last week that, back in 2013, hackers compromised ALL of Yahoo's 3 billion accounts. Before the acquisition, Yahoo! had said that the hacks affected just 1 billion accounts. Verizon acquired Amazon earlier this year for $4.5 billion. Nicole Perlroth reports in the New York Times.
What are the building blocks of a startup community? Beyond infrastructure (coworking, incubators, accelerators, VC funds, etc.), a community needs people. Without passionate entrepreneurs and talented people, infrastructure can go so far. Many cities around the U.S., Tallahassee included, face steep talent shortages in tech. According to the TechHire website, hundreds of IT jobs currently sit vacant in Leon County. So how can Tallahassee build up its IT workforce? For season 2, episode 7 of the Startup Capital Podcast, host Lucas Lindsey spoke with a couple people working towards an answer. Ryan Kopinsky is a local developer, tech advocate, and director of I/O Avenue, Tallahassee's newest coding bootcamp. I/O Avenue is a partnership between Domi Station, FAMU, and the Office of Mayor Andrew Gillum. The program seeks to provide an alternative option for residents looking to learn IT skills and even start new careers in tech. Joining Ryan was Jim McShane, executive director of CareerSource Capital Region. CareerSource collects data on local hiring demand, and uses it to connect local businesses with qualified candidates. To learn more about I/O Avenue, and to hear Kopinsky and McShane's thoughts on the local IT workforce, listen in to season 2, episode 7 of the Startup Capital podcast by Cuttlesoft.
Never miss another episode of Where Genius Grows. Get each new one delivered straight to your inbox by signing up here: http://eepurl.com/ckKJ1f * At the beginning of 2017 there are over 500,000 unfilled tech jobs in the United States. How will applicants learn the required skills to succeed in these jobs? How will employers avoid overlooking qualified candidates? How will applicants from underserved communities gain access to the training they need to compete for these jobs? * Tess Posner (@tessposner) is the managing director of TechHire, an initiative by Opportunity@Work to connect 100,000 people to tech jobs by 2020. In this interview she describes the steps TechHire is taking to accomplish this feat and how you can participate. Tess also offers her vision of a well-rounded 21st-century education, balancing ever-evolving technical expertise against an understanding of what it means to be human. * Further readings Tess recommends include: * - "The World is Open" by Curtis Bonk: http://amzn.to/2iLmrI8 * - "The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies" by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee: http://amzn.to/2iIK8Ty * - "Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future" by Martin Ford: http://amzn.to/2iLkSdt * - "Savage Inequalities" by Jonathan Kozol: http://amzn.to/2iXJ8J3 * - "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky: http://amzn.to/2iK3F3S * - "The Apology" by Plato: http://amzn.to/2iK7lCM * - "The Republic" by Plato: http://amzn.to/2iK1PQC * - "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith: http://amzn.to/2hWS2Vf * - "The Federalist Papers" by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay: http://amzn.to/2j9YDgj
If you’re hoping to get your first tech job and you haven’t heard of TechHire, this episode is for you. We talk to Tess, the managing director of TechHire, about working with employer and learning partners to place 100K people in tech jobs by 2020. She talks about the realities of finding a job in tech at the salary you want, what technology’s increasing demand for talent means for job seekers, and what every codenewbie can do to maximize their chances of launching their tech career. Show Links Digital Ocean (sponsor) MongoDB (sponsor) Heroku (sponsor) TwilioQuest (sponsor) Samaschool Burning Glass Glassdoor Salary.com Opportunity@Work Bloomberg article on bootcamps General Assembly TechHire Codeland Conf Codeland 2019