Black Techies & Entrepreneurs Seek Their Piece Of Silicon Valley Too!

Despite Lies From GOP & Tea Party Leaders About How Dismal The American Economy Is, Many Economists Agree There's No Better Time To Start A Small Business Than Right Now! Especially In The Service & Technology Areas. And...Where Are The BLACK Bill Gates & Steve Jobs? Why Only ONE Black Techie? (Omar Wasow) It's High Time More Of Us Get Our Piece Of Silicon Valley's Pie Too!

‎"It's hard to find black geeks. We're out to start a movement that affirms the geek in you. A movement that says black geek is ok. We're out to support each other and grow an interest in tech in the people around us. We're out to solve hard problems and engage others. We're about being inclusive of all people, yet we have a special dream for our communities to become more engaged in tech. Here, the rubber meets the road. Welcome!" - Blacks In Tech Meet Up: http://www.meetup.com/NY-B​lacks-in-Tech/



Black entrepreneurs pitch their dreams to Silicon Valley

Hank Williams has performed dozen of times to audiences like the one here on Thursday at the Kapor Capital investment firm.

This time, however, the 46-year-old software veteran wasn't the only black person in the room, as is often the case at fundraising meetings in Silicon Valley.

Williams is a member of the NewMe Accelerator's inaugural class. The tech incubator was formed to help minorities get advice from successful executives and put their new Internet ventures in front of investors.

For two months, eight black entrepreneurs worked (and some lived) together in a rented house in Mountain View, California, which is the same city Google, a NewMe sponsor, calls home.

Having removed himself from the Silicon Valley technology scene for a decade, Williams re-emerged on Thursday to demonstrate the project he's been working on for four years with two colleagues in New York.

When Spaces begins testing in the next few weeks, people will be able to sign up for an online storage locker, which allows them to organize, search and transmit various types of data. It can handle files, e-mails, calendars, Twitter messages and other digital information that competitors generally don't facilitate.

The concept is unique, yet familiar to investors salivating over the unexpected success of another new Web-storage service, Dropbox. Williams' Kloud.co has been self-funded so far, but he is about ready to exchange equity in his company for cash.

Before the dotcom bubble burst a decade ago, Williams had raised $40 million for an Internet music service called Clickradio. But he is an anomaly of sorts in the Silicon Valley institution, where black people don't typically start Internet businesses and, for that or whatever other reason, rarely receive venture capital.

Despite his legacy and deep connections in Silicon Valley, Williams was nervous on demo day.

"I will never go up there in front of a roomful of people and not be nervous," he said in an interview afterward. "The tech industry is pretty clubby," he said earlier, and it often shuns prospects who "didn't go to Stanford or work at Google."

Among the presenters, Williams stood out not because he's a person of color but because he's the grayest of those who presented on stage, with salt-and-pepper hair on his head and face.

The rest of the class is fairly green when it comes to raising capital. Associating with this minority-focused Web startup group, an innovative idea in Silicon Valley, has helped them to secure meetings that they otherwise wouldn't have gotten, said several of the entrepreneurs.

"People like to think of us in terms of what they already know," said Crisson Jno-Charles, one of the NewMe Accelerator participants. "The way Silicon Valley works is word of mouth."

Last year in Boston, Jno-Charles, a black computer programmer, began building Fetchmob, along with Alisa Boguslavskaya, who is not an ethnic minority but as a woman, is likewise a minority in the tech industry. Fetchmob is targeting colleges with an online marketplace for ordering groceries that other students can volunteer to deliver.

Another male-female duo started BeCouply, which makes an application for scheduling and chronicling dates. Statistically, blacks and women get little venture funding -- less than a tenth combined, according to some studies. BeCouply founders Pius Uzamere and Becky Cruze have another factor stacked against them: investors tend to shy away from entrepreneurs who are romantically involved, they learned.

"He's black; I'm a woman; we're a couple," Cruze said in an interview. "So we're screwed, right?"

Angela Benton, the NewMe event and group organizer who also pitched an app called Cued that offers restaurant recommendations based on a person's interests, said she would consider the incubator a success if three of the companies received funding.

Some investors here were more optimistic.

"The expectations aren't set, and we need to do something about that," said Mitch Kapor, a software pioneer turned venture capitalist who lent his office and contacts to the NewMe Accelerator.

James Joaquin, who attends the top incubator events and pitch presentations, said of the NewMe crop: "These entrepreneurs, these startups are at the same caliber."

Matt Van Horn, an executive at the venture-backed social networking company called Path, spoke at an event for the NewMe class and he agreed. "I've just seen a lot of growth," he said.

Joaquin is the CEO of a popular service for synchronizing bookmarks between Web browsers. He also finances young companies, a practice called angel investing. He added, "I think the majority of these companies will get angel investments."

He named Pencil You In as one of the standout presentations. The service, led by Tiffani Bell, lets people schedule haircut appoints online.

Other presentations included:

Aislefinder is a digital grocery list that tags each item with the aisle number the store stocks it in, as long as the product is among the 80,000 at 1,300 stores in the database. Users have made 12,000 shopping lists so far.

Playd, an app geared toward video-game players, is expected to launch this month.

Central.ly has a drag-and-drop website geared toward small businesses and is already bringing in revenue.

Wayne Sutton, whose service called Vouch lets users endorse associates via social networks, offered what sounded like music to a tech financier's ears. "We're going to have an API integrated with mobile apps, and we're going to make some money," he said in rapid succession, to laughter.

In a business environment that values teamwork, at least one person in this crop of entrepreneurs possesses a skill uncommon among the typical pasty-faced programmer.

Hajj Flemings, who co-founded a personal website builder called Gokit, concluded his speech saying: "I'm a former college athlete, and I always play to win."


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Sources: Black Techies, CNN, C-Span, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

FCC Chief To Propose More Bandwidth, Net Neutrality For Consumers...Thank You

U.S. as Traffic Cop in Web Fight


The U.S. government plans to propose broad new rules Monday that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, seeking to give consumers greater freedom to use their computers or cellphones to enjoy videos, music and other legal services that hog bandwidth.

The move would make good on a campaign promise to Silicon Valley supporters like Google Inc. from President Barack Obama, but will trigger a battle with phone and cable companies like AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp., which don't want the government telling them how to run their networks.

The proposed rules could change how operators manage their networks and profit from them, and the everyday online experience of individual users. Treating Web traffic equally means carriers couldn't block or slow access to legal services or sites that are a drain on their networks or offered by rivals.

The rules will escalate a fight over how much control the government should have over Internet commerce. The Obama administration is taking the side of Google, Amazon.com Inc. and an array of smaller businesses that want to profit from offering consumers streaming video, graphics-rich games, movie and music downloads and other services.

Julius Genachowski, head of the Federal Communications Commission, is also expected to propose in a speech Monday, for the first time, that rules against blocking or slowing Web traffic would apply to wireless-phone companies, according to people familiar with the plan.

Wireless carriers, which have been among the fiercest opponents of such regulation, continue to restrict what kind of data travels over the airwaves they control. For example, earlier this year, AT&T restricted an Internet-phone service from Skype so iPhone users couldn't place calls on AT&T's cellular network. At the time, AT&T cited network congestion concerns.

"We believe that this kind of regulation is unnecessary in the competitive wireless space as it would prevent carriers from managing their networks -- such as curtailing viruses and other harmful content -- to the benefit of their consumers," said Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA, the wireless industry's trade group.

If the FCC does force U.S. wireless carriers to open their networks to data-heavy applications like streaming video, it could push them beyond the limited capacity they have. Already, in areas like New York and San Francisco, a high concentration of iPhones has caused many AT&T customers to complain about degrading service.

In such a scenario, wireless carriers may have to rethink how much they charge for data plans or even cap how much bandwidth individuals get, said Julie Ask, a wireless analyst at Jupiter Research.

The FCC's proposal will take into account the bandwidth limitations faced by wireless carriers, according to people familiar with the plan, and would ask how such rules should apply to current networks.

The rules could encourage big Internet companies to launch new data-intensive services by establishing that their traffic can't be slowed or blocked. In the business market, companies that make Internet-phone services or video-conferencing software may invest more heavily in those services, some analysts say.

The rules are likely to be a big boon to smaller tech companies, like Silicon Valley start-ups and small makers of mobile software for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other devices, that wouldn't be able to afford paying Internet providers for special access.

"Any company or piece of software that becomes popular, generating a lot of traffic, would tend to benefit," said Jonathan Zittrain, the co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

The FCC has four "net neutrality" principles, which call on Internet providers to avoid restricting or delaying access to legal Internet sites and services. Carriers are permitted to block access to illegal services and sites.

Mr. Genachowski is expected to propose the agency clarify its current principles and turn them into formal rules. He will also tack on a new one, which would require carriers practice "reasonable" network management. The agency will ask for guidance on how to define "reasonable."

Most Internet providers have resisted "net neutrality" rules in the past, saying they have a right to control traffic on networks they own and it's not a good idea for the government to micro-manage Internet traffic.

Phone companies including AT&T have argued that they can live with the FCC's existing principles, but they've argued there's no reason to put more formal rules put into place.

Representatives from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Comcast and Sprint Nextel Corp. declined to comment ahead of the FCC's anticipated announcement.

The proposals come as the FCC faces a federal appeals court case over its authority to regulate Web traffic. Comcast is fighting an FCC decision last year to ding it for violating the agency's "net neutrality" principles when it slowed traffic for some subscribers who were downloading big files. Comcast said it didn't violate any rules because the FCC had never formally adopted any, but it did change how it manages its network.

Republicans are likely to oppose the FCC's new proposal -- both at the FCC and in Congress -- arguing that the FCC is trying to fix problems that don't exist and that the agency should take a more hands-off approach to the fast-changing industry.

"With only a few isolated instances of complaints alleging net neutrality-like abuses ever having been filed, it is a mistake," said Randolph May, president of Free State Foundation, a free-market oriented think tank.

The concept of network neutrality originated with the nation's longtime telephone monopoly. AT&T and its successors were prohibited from giving any phone call preference in how quickly it was connected. Since the Internet was born on phone wires, the concept survived into the Internet age largely by default.

That notion was challenged toward the end of the 1990s, as cable companies began offering Internet service. Cable companies argued since they were content companies not phone companies, the principle of network neutrality didn't apply to them.

Phone companies responded by getting into the content business as well, with television service. As a result, both the cable companies and phone companies had incentives to create conditions on the Internet -- either through pricing or slowing or speeding up certain sites -- to favor their own content.

In 2005, the FCC deregulated the Internet business, by ruling that Internet providers were communications companies and not phone companies and, importantly, were therefore no longer subject to the old phone rules such as network neutrality.

The FCC instead created its four "guiding principles" for protecting network neutrality. They were vague enough to embolden those looking for ways around it. Major phone companies like AT&T subsequently said they were considering creating "fast lanes" on the Internet, available at a higher price -- plans they put on hold amid an outcry.

Now, by codifying the principle, the FCC is seeking to limit erosion of network neutrality.

Mr. Genachowski is expected to set plans to open a formal rule-making process on the issue at the FCC's October meeting. The rules would have to be approved by a majority of the FCC's five-person board; whose three Democrats support net neutrality.



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Sources: Wall Street Journal, FCC, Google Maps

Apple CEO Steve Jobs Returns To Work Part-Time After Receiving Liver Transplant

MSNBC----

Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Inc., received a liver transplant about two months ago but is expected to return to work later this month, CNBC reported on Saturday.

Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, stepped away from managing day-to-day operations for the consumer electronics giant about six months ago, citing unspecified health issues.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs, 54, recieved the transplant in Tennessee. CNBC confirmed that Jobs' jet flew from San Jose to Memphis in late March.

The Wall Street Journal quoted an unidentified source as saying Jobs may return to work part-time at first. The source said Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook may continue to manage daily operations of the company when Jobs initially returns.

Some Apple directors knew about the surgery and were briefed weekly by Job's doctor, the Wall Street Journal reported.

An Apple spokesman would not discuss whether Jobs had received a liver transplant.

"Steve looks forward to returning to Apple at the end of June, and there is nothing further to say," spokesman Steve Dowling said.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Sources: MSNBC, Flickr, Google Maps

Facebook, Youtube & Twitter's Role In The Iranian Protests, Twitter Responds to U.S. State Dept's Request

BBC News----

Twitter has distanced itself from State Department revelations that it asked the company to delay maintenance so Iranians could continue to communicate.

Twitter is one of the social networking tools being used by people inside the country to coordinate protests disputing the election result.

The planned upgrade would have cut the service at a crucial time of the day.

"The State Dept does not have access to our decision making process," wrote Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in a blog.

"When we worked with our network provider to reschedule this planned maintenance, we did so because events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network.

"We decided together to move the date. It made sense for Twitter and for NTT America to keep services active during this highly visible global event."

The State Department declined to give details of its contact with Twitter except to say "we highlighted to them that this was an important form of communication."

Mr Stone turned down requests by the BBC to be interviewed on the matter.

In an e-mail he said "we've addressed this on our company blog to the extent we're willing to comment at this time."

Industry watchers however believe that Twitter would have rescheduled its planned maintenance regardless of the State Department's intervention.

"My guess is that the people at Twitter were already planning to switch things around so that people in Iran could use the service," said Professor Jonathan L. Zittrain co-founder of the Berkman Centre for Internet & Society at Harvard.

"They would have been well aware of how important their role is in all of this so I wouldn't read too much into the report about State Department involvement."

Citizen Journalists

While social networking tools are proving to be crucial at this time, the unanswered question is just how groundbreaking a moment it will prove to be for the likes of Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook.

YouTube spokesman Scott Rubin is in no doubt about the answer.

"I'm likening this to the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic where all these barriers are placed in front of people and they keep marching. Only this time it's happening online and it's happening on YouTube."

YouTube has played a major role with videos being uploaded from inside and outside Iran and reposted around the world.

We have been comparing our content with the official coverage coming from journalists inside the country working under severe restrictions and are seeing YouTube acting as a critical platform for citizen journalists," Mr Rubin told the BBC.

"By using YouTube, Iranian citizens are having their voices heard, their faces seen and their story gets told around the world without filtering. The real story of this election is being told by the citizen."

Mr Rubin said that, while it has had no official confirmation, it does appear that YouTube is being blocked by the Iranian government. Traffic is down by 90%.

Civic Technology

Regardless of blocks on YouTube and other social networking sites, people are managing to work around the problem by using proxy servers to bypass censorship.

CitizenTube has posted videos on how to configure these proxy networks. It was set up by YouTube to chronicle the way people are using video to change the way they communicate.

One 25 year old who has found himself on the virtual front lines of this world event is Austin Heap, an IT director in San Francisco.

Over the weekend he started collating a working list of proxy server addresses and his easy-to-follow instructions on how to set one up made him famous overnight.

People contacted Mr Heap from all over the globe and sent new proxy addresses. Traffic to his site grew from a few dozen users a day to more than 100,000 in 24 hours.

Mr Heap told the San Francisco Chronicle "Most of the reactions from Iran have almost made me cry. Having somebody tell me that their family thanks me - that's the power of the internet.

"I haven't been in the middle of an outpouring like this, ever. And it makes me incredibly proud of the IT community," said Mr Heap.

While Professor Zittrain acknowledged that social networking has taken centre stage in this story he said he reserved judgement about just how seminal a moment it is for the sector.

"It just too early to say but my expertise tells me what is going on is extremely interesting.

"It seems to me to indicate the power of something I call civic technology and these aren't just technologies for civic purposes. I mean technologies that rise or fall depending on the number of people using them and how passionate they are about the technology they are using.

"It may take a while for history to sort out what has been happening this week," Professor Zittrain told the BBC.


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Sources: BBC News, C-Net, Flickr, Wikipedia, Google Maps