NewsTaco

By Giovanni Rodriguez, Forbes

What’s most striking about the emerging Silicon Valley Latino community is how it challenges one of the most prevalent cultural stereotypes:  that Latinos have little to do with one of the principle engines of the 21-century economy.  While disparities in education (STEM) and employment exist, the conventional wisdom obscures the reality that Latinos are emerging as a force in technology.  And it’s not just leadership in general management and marketing, but technology itself.

The way to look at this opportunity is the way folks in Silicon Valley look at startups.  Although Latinos have been organizing for quite some time in Silicon Valley, it’s safe to say that the community is at an early stage of formation.

Click HERE or on the picture to read the full story.

[Photo by Steve Jurvetson]

By Jesse Luna, News Taco

I had the pleasure of attending the Tecnifícate conference Saturday, April 28 at Riverside City College. The conference series is very unique in that it reaches out to the Spanish-speaking techie entrepreneurs.

Ariel Coro, the founder of the conference and founder of the Spanish language technology site Tu Tecnología, was the host of the conference which focused on technology, entrepreneurship, education, and using technology to help with the job search process.

Sonia Farace and Ana Reyes from Sony spoke on social media for families and for professional development. To get a sense of the tech savviness of the crowd, Farace asked how many people were familiar with and had used Skype and nearly every hand went up. When it came to whether folks had heard of Infographic Resumes, only a couple of hands went up though.

I have been a speaker at two previous Tecnifícate conferences, sharing information on using social media for social good and to support business start-ups. As in the first conference I attended, over a third of the participants identified themselves as being small business owners.

This is pretty huge.

I remember watching a video of serial entrepreneur Loic Le Meur at a Stanford Business School event. Loic looked shocked when only a third of the business school audience raised their hands when asked if they had started up their own business or planned on doing so. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. This wasn’t the case at the Tecnificate conference.

At the conference, I ran into Diego Cardenas who has several cool products and businesses in play. One of his products is a battery charger for Kindle devices that serves as a Kindle cover and iPhone charger. It allows your Kindle to run for 20 hours straight. Diego also has an iPhone app which allows people who speak different languages to do text translation on the fly. That means that I can use his app, Sendboo, to send a text in English to a friend or colleague who speaks a different language, like Portuguese, and the friend will see the text in Portuguese on his iPhone. The app works in 30 different languages.

Here’s Diego with a very quick view of his product.

Later on in the afternoon, young leaders from the Leadership and Technology Institute spoke about how they are helping with technology education for youths. Then Ricardo Arcia from Teravision Technologies spoke on lessons learned from an early startup. “Fail cheaply” was one important message.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to stay for all of Ariel Coro’s keynote address but I did hear him reinforce the importance of education, especially technology education. The Tecnifícate conference and his work on building the Tu Tecnología site is clear evidence that Ariel Coro is doing what he can to help boost Latinos in technology.

For those who missed the conference, you’ll have another chance as the Tecnifícate conference is headed up to Santa Barbara on May 25. Hope to see you there!

Originally posted to http://www.jesseluna.com/2013/04/29/tecnificate-conference-gets-techie-in-riverside/.

By Jason Llorenz, LIN@R

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the independent agency that regulates the Internet and the nation’s telecommunications and broadcasting industries, is hiring in 2013.

Two positions are to be filled – the chairmanship, which is being vacated by Julius Genachowski, who has taken a post as senior fellow at the Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society program, and Commissioner Robert McDowell. And the stakes are high.

The current FCC heralded reforms and new programs with long-term consequences. Under Chairman Genachowski, the issues of digital literacy and broadband adoption have been pursued with great success.

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

True Story: my father, who passed away late last year at the age of 92, said he remembered watching silent movies. He said he and his buddies giggled nervously thinking there were actors behind the screen. This is the same man who, years later, would call me over to the house telephone (the rotary one attached to the wall) and ask me to dial his brother’s number – “comunícame con tu tio Júlio.”

In my father’s lifetime communications technology has transformed as if from Jules Verne’s imagination; from silent movies to mobile devices we carry in our back pocket. And as I write this we’re on the cusp of even greater transformation.

Anther true story: when the United States was first formed, one of the first laws that the very first congress approved was the formation of the postal service, and special rates for newspapers. The postal service was not intended, as such, for the delivery of mail as much as for the delivery of information – an informed citizenry being a pillar of a democratic society and all…

Government regulation of the communications industry – with the excuse of regulating commerce and the scarcity of the channels on the radio and TV dial, among other reasons – has been around as long as the U.S. has been…pretty much since Ben Franklin, et al.

Through the years the two – the advance of communications technologies and government regulations – have gone forward in step (there have been hiccups and fights and nastiness). But the most recent advances in communications technologies have come at such a rapid pace that government, through no fault other than its own nature, has been left swimming upstream in a torrent. Technology advances at an increasingly fast rate, and government is designed to act slowly – we want it this way, we want to make sure that government goes slow so we can keep it in check for the same reason Franklin and Co. set up a postal service to keep the citizens informed.

The problem is that we’re at an impasse. Tech is biting at the bit to move forward and government needs to step up.  The old copper line telephone system was once a novelty to my Dad, but it hardly fits the need of today’s communications. In fact, hardly one third of all communications is done via those old copper voice lines. Most of us use our wireless and mobile phones, internet pipes, chats and hangouts and such. The transition from the old infrastructure to the newer way, across the country from rural to urban areas, is over due, and so is an organized way to get it done.

This is what’s known in communications technology circles as the IP Transition (IP stands for internet protocol, which is technical jargon, but means all the stuff that makes the new technology work), and it’s incredibly important for the Latino community. The way IP Transition is carried out will have an enormous impact among Latinos.

In this regard there’s an idea for an IP roll-out called the All IP – Pilot Program. It calls for a region specific roll out where phone companies would switch off the old lines and test new IP technology. This “pilot” way would allow for wrinkles in the process to be found and ironed out, but most importantly it would give an opportunity to find how the new technology will affect all consumers.

It’s a good marriage of the open and free-wheeling advance of technological discovery and the deliberate nature of the governmental process.

The All IP – Pilot Program is a good idea, but only if Latinos are included, front and center, from the very beginning.  Latinos lag 19% behind whites in in-home computer use. Most of the lag has to do with affordability. So the Pilot Program should include Latinos and affordability in it’s fundamental set-up.

It’s exactly what the revered founding fathers had in mind back in the late 18th century: access to information, educated citizens, vibrant democracy. Nothing’s changed since then, since the days of silent movies and rotary telephones – except the technology. And that’s where we need to catch up, with deliberate equity.

[Photo by ABC Archives]

By Jason Llorenz, LIN@R

President Obama has much to be proud of in his four years as President, including managing us through the economic meltdown and strengthening the safety net for Americans still struggling to make ends meet.

But, as he embarks on his second term, seeking to secure his legacy, he might take a cue from a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing, which focused on modernizing our telecommunications networks and the way the government regulates them.

 In plain language, the discussion among lawmakers and the five FCC commissioners who testified came down to this: policymakers need to do everything possible to bring communications regulations and infrastructure into the 21st century.

More specifically, they must help expedite the transition to advanced communications infrastructure so that Americans enjoy the full benefits of broadband-based Internet service.

The transition, which involves changing from technology designed for old fashioned phone service to high-capacity IP networks designed to deliver voice, video and data, mean faster and more reliable service for more Americans.   Possibly aided by the kind of trials runs used in the switch to digital TV, updating networks for the 21st century should be a no-brainer.

Modernizing telecom is a natural goal for President Obama, who has vowed to deliver high-speed broadband service to 98 percent of Americans.   It also would have the happy consequence of creating quality jobs, an area where the administration is still struggling.

As FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski summed it up in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed: “Few sectors have more job-creating innovation potential than broadband, particularly mobile broadband.”

Combined with a new push to expand broadband deployment and adoption, updated networks also will help deliver social justice by providing better access to jobs, educational opportunities and quality health care to people at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Committee members from both parties also pressed commissioners to expand the amount of spectrum available for wireless broadband by moving ahead with a spectrum auction targeted for 2014.  Sen. Thune (S.D.), for example, urged the commissioners to boost spectrum supplies “as quickly as possible.”

The growing popularity of wireless service is stretching the current spectrum inventory to the limit and threatens to create wireless traffic jams in which Internet connections drop, videos freeze, and phone calls can’t get through.

Boosting spectrum supplies is essential for keeping our wireless devices working.   A successful auction would provide spectrum to those who are ready to put it to work fast to meet consumer needs.

With just about every part of the economy now linked to the Internet, adding spectrum and modernizing our networks so that everything travels across its infrastructure should be an economic and opportunity bonanza.

Making sure that every American has access to broadband also means a wider distribution of the economic benefits of America’s technology sector.   If he can make those things happen, the President will have even more to be proud of.

This article was first published in LIN@R.

  Jason A. Llorenz, Esq. Is Senior Fellow, Latino Information Network (LIN@R), Rutgers University School of Communication and Information Studies; he is also Director of Innovation Policy for LIN@R. Follow him on Twitter @llorenzesq and follow LIN@R technology tweets@LINAR_technolog.

[Photo by  GSCSNJ]

By Marco Santana, Des Moines Register

As more telephone customers cut the cord and shift service to wireless or Internet-based options, some major telephone companies have asked the federal government to pull the plug on the old-fashioned service.

They say regulations that require maintenance of outdated, little-used infrastructure hinders progress because it ties up money that could otherwise be invested in technology upgrades. But some small companies question the motivation behind the push, saying it is likely a self-serving effort to allow those major companies to run wild in a relatively new, far-less-regulated Internet-based telephone environment.

Click on picture to read full story.

[Photo by mmarcotte51]

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

As the Supreme Court of the U.S. starts to weigh in on whether or not Proposition 8, a ban against gay marriage in California, is legal, social media is buzzing and changing color with streams of red equal sign logos.

Human Rights Campaign, an organization devoted to supporting lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender rights, is encouraging others to use its logo and share its photos on social media sites to spread the word about the Supreme Court proceedings. My Facebook timeline has a sea of red logos.

Local activist Lucas Zucker made this comment on his Facebook profile, “You know your organization has successful branding when people are changing their Facebook profile pictures to your logo. HRC, you win.”

Of course this isn’t the first time a campaign has used logos on avatars to promote a cause.  During the election in Iran, tens of thousands of Twitter users changed their avatars to a green tint and you can find thousands of different symbols on avatars throughout social media with political, sports, and many other types of avatar “flair.”

If you support marriage equality and want to share that on your Facebook page or Twitter stream, you can visit the Human Rights Campaign Facebook page and grab a red avatar in solidarity.

This post was originally posted to jesseluna.com.

[Image courtesy Human Rights Campaign]

By Jacqueline Clary, Broadband &  Social Justice

A typewriter is to a laptop as copper telecom lines are to IP enabled telecom systems.  Right now, we are in an age where we are upgrading from one outdated system to a newer, faster, sleeker one.  This IP transition, the future of the telecom world as we know it, can be boiled down to a few words: speed, functionality, and – for civil rights groups – opportunity.

Consumers are increasingly exercising their purchasing power to demand more from their telecommunications services and devices.

I distinctly remember when free long distance rates were introduced for landline telephones.  My weekly chats with my grandfather abruptly evolved from a quick “Hi, how is the weather?  Have a good week!” to lengthy calls discussing school, activities, and philosophy. Well, maybe not that deep, but the calls were longer and more involved.

Several years ago, my grandfather started questioning all of us about our mobile provider to determine the best plan.  While he still relies primarily on his cell and landline phones to talk to family, many consumers are turning away from voice – particularly landline service delivered from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) – in favor of mobile, text, email, video-chat, and other IP enabled networks that allow users to access voice as one of many communications options.

As consumers move away from the legacy telephone system, the cost for providers – and the declining number of consumers relying on the legacy system – is steep.  What’s more, regulations that require this continued investment in this limited infrastructure divert investment from more advanced communications systems.  For civil rights advocates and the communities they serve, the transition to IP enabled systems represents an opportunity to encourage robust, affordable broadband adoption to help close the digital divide.

Corporations and policymakers alike have acknowledged the necessity of modernizing policies to facilitate the transition from the circuit-switched network.  The FCC recognized this in its National Broadband Plan:

“Regulations require certain carriers to maintain [Plain Old Television Service] – a requirement that is not sustainable – and lead to investments in assets that could be stranded.  These regulations can have a number of unintended consequences, including siphoning investments away from new networks and services.  The challenge for the country is to ensure that as IP-based services replace circuit-switched services, there is a smooth transition for Americans who use traditional phone service and for the businesses that provide it.”

The Plan continued to explain that in past communications transitions, government policies eased way to a more efficient system.

Consistent with the Plan’s recommendation for the FCC to commence a proceeding to examine the necessary components of such a transition, AT&T, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, and the US Telecom Association filed petitions to get the conversation started.

Civil rights advocates responded to AT&T’s petition, which urged the Commission to conduct limited trials to determine the most efficient means to complete the transition.  The Joint Commenters support limited market tests with stakeholder participation as the best means to resolve the issues raised by the transition process.  Specifically, the Joint Commenters reasoned, “With minimal consumer disruption, the beta-trails would enable policymakers to choose the best and fastest path of how to migrate consumers from antiquated 20^th century ‘voice only’ networks to the networks, services, and applications that will directly benefit the nation’s economy and the (minority) communit(ies) in particular.”

The FCC is listening.  The Commission is holding its first technology transition task force workshop next Monday, March 18, between 9:30-4:00PM EDT.

The transformation is already underway, while many questions remain, including important public safety, competition, universal service, and affordability concerns. It is crucial to have an open and transparent public policy dialogue on these issues.

This article was first published in Broadband & Social Justice.

Jacqueline Clary is the John W. Jones Fellow at the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. In this position, she focuses on a variety of policy issues to advance minority participation in the media and telecommunications industries. Ms. Clary earned her B.A. from John Carroll University, her J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law, and is a member of the New York State Bar.

[Photo by Gilgongo]

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

NewsTaco is a proud ally of The Social Revolución and we’re just as proud of this year’s Social Revolución Winners. A special shout out to two of this year’s winners: our friends and collaborators Viviana Hurtado, from The Wise Latina Club,  and Axel Caballero, from Cuéntame, who share their insights and content with NewsTaco. We also want to congratulate our friends Joaquin Guerra, Magaly Chocano and all the DREAMers who were also recognized as Social Revolucionarios this year!

¡En buena hora!

Here’s the official word from the  Social Revolución organizers:

AUSTIN, Texas—Today The Social Revolución, the official Latino event at the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival celebrating online Latino trendsetters, is announcing the winners of the 2013 Revolucionario Awards. Seven award recipients from the United States and Latin America will be recognized at the Revolucionario Awards at The Social Revolución on March 12, 2013 at Ballet Austin.

Now in its second year at the SXSW Interactive Festival, The Social Revolución continues to recognize Latinos utilizing social media as a platform to create and inspire change. After over 23,000 online community votes and the evaluation of a panel of industry leaders serving as judges, seven winners were selected from the 170 nominations received in the following three categories. The New Americano recognizes trendsetting individuals and organizations impacting the Latino market online. The Mobilizer salutes Latinos using social media as a strategy to mobilize their audience behind local or international causes. Individuals redefining how Latinos are reached online, whether through a new app, website, or other digital tool, are celebrated in The Innovator category. The Líder of the Social Revolución is awarded to a recipient who embodies all three categories.

Winning The Mobilizer category are Axel Caballero and Joaquin H. Guerra. Caballero is the director and producer of Cuéntame, a non-profit media organization that invites Latinos to share their personal stories online and encourages political and community activism. He also runs MetaforaPolitica.com, a blog and public opinion forum in Spanish. Guerra is a digital strategist and immigrant advocate who used his professional background to spread the story of Walter Lara, an Argentine immigrant who embodies the common dilemma of an undocumented immigrant brought to the United States as a child and forced to return to his country of origin. Guerra continues to help the Latino community by working to build digital engagement capacity for non-profits servicing low-income communities.

Mi Vida Tec – with Rosa Alonso and Magaly Chocano were awarded in the The Innovator category. Mi Vida Tec – with Rosa Alonso uses social media to share new technology trends, digital and social news, and lifestyle tips in English and Spanish, while making the content relevant to Latino audiences. Chocano launched Swebapps, the first build-your-own-app platform, which has helped local, national, and global brands find their footing in the mobile space.

There was a three-way tie for the 2013 New Americano awards. This award went to Viviana Hurtado, Laura Donnelly Gonzalez and Alicia Rascon and Dream Activists. Hurtado is an award-winning journalist and founder of The Wise Latinas Club, an online space to educate Latinas about the political process, spark civic engagement, and encourage community involvement. Donnelly Gonzalez and Rascon have empowered over 20,000 young Latinas through their non-profit organization Latinitas. By training young girls to use Web 2.0 platforms and technology, Latinitas is bringing a voice to a rising generation of New Americanas. Dream Activists is an online network of social media activists that advocate the enactment of the DREAM Act by sharing the stories of individual DREAMers online.

The 2013 Líder of the Revolución honor goes to all DREAMers, to the countless individuals and organizations that have borne and spread the dreamer movement. These Líderes demonstrate that being Americano is not defined by where you were born. Undocumented and unafraid, DREAMers have uniquely used social media and their online voice to strengthen their advocacy strategies and create opportunities that reflect our modern reality. Their message has united organizations and people, inspiring a movement with a clear objective—to open doors for immigrant students to realize their own American Dream.

Visit http://www.thesocialrevolucion.com to learn more about The Social Revolución. You can also find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheSocialRevolucionatSXSWi and Twitter https://twitter.com/RevolucionSXSWi.

By Jesse Luna, NewsTaco

One of the primary questions at the start of a relationship is “Can I trust you?”

The same is true on online relationships and in the process of vetting new connections and networks. Everyone gets invites to join this or that and if you don’t have a previous relationship or personally know the person IRL (in real life) then you might be suspicious of the attempt to connect.

Connecting with this new person or group might turn out well, like a blind date arranged by your favorite aunt. Or, it could be a nightmare like a blind date you go on that one guy’s famous list.

This is what I did, do or have done before joining groups that became invaluable to me, really changed my life or are just fun.

A few years back, by being open to a new group of social media savvy folks from across the country, I was able to connect with this Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) group. Since then, I’ve made a lot of friends and eventually helped produce one of the first social media for social good conferences.

It took some time to trust the new LATISM group though. Eventually I met enough people, had enough live one-on-one conversations with LATISM supporter and I was sold.

I’ve been a part of several other networks on Twitter and they often raise dust before people understand what they are. When I was actively working with hundreds other to help save the life of Eric De La Cruz, a young man who needed a heart transplant, there was much scrutiny of supporters bearing the #ERIC branded Twitter avatars which I still wear today. “Who was this #Eric person, why are people asking for contributions and whoa, why are Trent Reznor, Alyssa Milano, Tony Hawk, and Dave Navarro supporting this campaign?” people would ask. Some took these questions further and dug deeper, often looking to find something wrong.

The creation of a new online network is a delicate thing. There has to be transparency but the forming network can’t spend all of its time trying to appease doubters. During the #ERIC campaign, skeptics were silenced when Eric’s sister, Veronica De La Cruz, started tweeting photos from the hospital.

So what should you do if you are trying to start an online group or network?
In real estate people talk about “Location, Location, Location.” In social media it’s “Transparency, Transparency, Transparency.”

Transparency (1) – Let people easily know who you are. Introduce yourself and your organization. The LATISM network spread quickly, first with the use of the #LATISM hashtag then by spreading the story of the creation of the group which was tied to founding member Ana Roca Castro (@AnaRC).

Transparency (2) – Let people know what you want. Have a Web site that explains your mission and intentions. For the campaign to save Eric De La Cruz’s life, we created a website that had background information and photos of Veronica and Eric when they were children to help people connect with what was going on. The site also had a way to take online donations.

Transparency (3) – Let people know who you really are. If there are holes in your story the Internet will find out and use it against you. The Internet is a big tattletale – photos, forum messages, public records, the Library of Congress!!! This is especially true if you are going to be doing any kind of fundraising or gathering of personal data.

And remember, bloggers like to dig.

Conclusion
Be authentic and build relationships. Also, don’t be a jerk and blow people off when earnest questions are being asked. As Dr. Seuss says, “There is no one youer than you.” But you need to do work to show people who you are.

Photo Credit:
Erlend Aasland on Flickr – License

PRESS RELEASE

Latinos own smartphones, go online from a mobile device and use social networking sites at similar, and sometimes higher, rates than do other groups of Americans, according to a new analysis of three Pew Research Center surveys.

The analysis also finds that when it comes to using the internet, the digital divide between Latinos and whites is smaller than what it had been just a few years ago. Between 2009 and 2012, the share of Latino adults who say they go online at least occasionally increased from 64% to 78%. Among whites, internet use rates also increased, but only by half as much (80% in 2009 to 87% in 2012).

Over the same period, the gap in cellphone ownership between Latinos and other groups either diminished or disappeared. In 2012, 86% of Latinos said they owned a cellphone, up from 76% in 2009.

Among the biggest drivers of these increases are spikes in technology adoption among foreign-born Latinos and Spanish-dominant Latinos. Both groups’ rates of going online and of owning cellphones increased sharply since 2009, helping to reduce the digital divide between Latinos and whites and also reducing gaps within the Latino community itself.

This analysis, based on three national Pew Research Center surveys of more than 7,500 adults combined conducted between May and October of 2012, also finds:

Cellphone Ownership: Fully 86% of Latinos say they own a cellphone, a share similar to that of whites (84%) and blacks (90%). Among Latinos who do not own cellphones, 76% are foreign born and 24% are native born.

Smartphone Ownership: Among adults, Latinos (49%) are just as likely as whites (46%) or blacks (50%) to own a smartphone.

Going Online from a Mobile Device: Latino internet users are more likely than white internet users to say they go online using a mobile device (76% versus 60%). Black internet users are equally as likely as Latinos to access the internet from a mobile device.

Social Networking: Among internet users, similar shares of Latinos (68%), whites (66%) and blacks (69%) say they use social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook at least occasionally. Among Latinos who use social networking sites, 60% say they do so mostly or only in English, 29% say they do so mostly or only in Spanish and 11% say they use English and Spanish equally.

Computer Ownership: Some 72% of Latinos say they own a desktop or laptop computer, compared with 83% of whites. Among blacks, 70% are computer owners. Half of Hispanic computer owners are foreign born. By comparison, 73% of Hispanics who do not own a computer are foreign born.

Internet Use: Nearly eight-in-ten (78%) Latino adults go online at least occasionally, compared with 87% of whites and 78% of blacks. Half (50%) of Hispanic internet users are native born and half are foreign born.

The report, “Closing the Digital Divide: Latinos and Technology Adoption,” was written by Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center; Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, research associate with the Pew Hispanic Center; and Eileen Patten, research assistant with the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. It is available at the Pew Research Center’s website, www.pewresearch.org.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan source of data and analysis. It does not take advocacy positions. Its Hispanic Center, founded in 2001, seeks to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos’ growing impact on the nation.

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[Photo by woodleywonderworks]

By Jason Llorenz, LIN@R

“Can I tell you about my idea? I think this stuff is going to be revolutionary!” Asks an entrepreneur in her mid-20s roaming the halls of SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, with an idea for a mobile app and cloud-based ecosystem that could help K-12 teachers better serve English language learner students.

The digital divide has morphed into today’s significant “techpreneur” gap, where Latinos and African American entrepreneurs combined claimed only about 2% of startup investment dollars as recently as last year. Access to SXSW and its unique collaboration spaces is an important way of closing that gap. This year Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media (LATISM) is hosting a casita of Latino techpreneurs with a prototype, working, dedicated team, and an overriding focus on their startup.

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

It’s not lost on Latino educators, community and industry leaders that a major part of preparing young Latinos for careers in the 21st century involves science, technology, engineering, and math – the four columns of the education structure commonly called STEM.

At NewsTaco we’ve made it a priority to highlight news about STEM as it pertains to Latinos and to shine a light on organizations that take it upon themselves to carry the STEM effort forward – we feel it’s that important to the future of our community. HACEMOS, AT&T’s Latino Association, has done just that.

For 15 years HACEMOS has hosted National High Technology Day, where they engage students at risk of dropping out of high school in hands-on technical activities and interactive workshops designed to encourage them to consider careers in science and technology. This year’s event hosted about 1,800 teens in 31 cities across the country. The event wwas held in Miami and Houston on March 7, 2013.

In more than half of the participating chapters, HACEMOS will collaborate with AT&T Aspire Mentoring Academy, the key community engagement program of AT&T’s $350 million investment in Aspire, which is focused on high school success leading to college and career readiness. Through Aspire Mentoring Academy, AT&T employees are engaging in their communities and providing 1 million hours of mentoring to students at risk of dropping out of high school.

HACEMOS National High Technology Day is designed to give students insight into the many opportunities available in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields—areas where Latinos and other minorities have historically been underrepresented. HACEMOS aims to build stronger communities by providing positive role models and demonstrating the importance of education to achieve success in life.

“We’re thrilled to once again offer our future leaders real-world insight and guidance by offering them full access to our company’s senior leaders, employees, and program speakers,” said Delia Hernandez, National President of HACEMOS, the Hispanic/Latino Association of AT&T.  “Careers in science and engineering are extremely rewarding and we hope to spark our participants’ interest in these fields.”

The theme for this year’s National High Tech Day was Awaken Your Dreams, intended to expose student participants to opportunities in technology fields, the prevalence of technology in their future and the importance of specialized skills and higher education.

Programming will vary by location and include an introduction to circuitry and workshops featuring cyber security, mobility and AT&T U-verse^® technologies. In addition, there will be specialty tours, keynotes from top AT&T executives and students will connect with other high schools using AT&T Telepresence Solution®, AT&T’s advanced, high definition videoconferencing service.  Students will also have the opportunity to simulate the dangers of texting while driving through AT&T’s It Can Wait campaign.

HACEMOS National High Tech Day broadcast two live national webcasts featuring the youth engagement company CoolSpeak. Motivational speakers from CoolSpeak included Carlos Ojeda, Jr. in Middletown, NJ, Lilyan Prado Carillo in Dallas and Ernesto Mejia in Chicago. They delivered messages of education, leadership, community activism and entrepreneurship on the webcasts, available to participating HACEMOS chapters and schools nationwide.

In Miami, the event featured Fernando Fiore, an Emmy award winning broadcaster, who is the host of “República Deportiva” (Sports Republic), the top-rated weekly sports entertainment program airing on the Univision Network.  Mr. Fiore covers sporting events around the world for Univision Deportes, the sports arm of Univision Communications Inc.

HACEMOS chapters also featured remarks and presentations by various AT&T leaders including Carmen Nava, Senior VP – Customer Experience; Marian Croak, Senior VP – Applications & Services Infrastructure; David Christopher – Chief Marketing Officer; Marissa Shorenstein, President – New York; and Rodney Smith, President – Connecticut.  José M. Gutiérrez, President – Wholesale Solutions, and Glenn Lurie, President Emerging Enterprise and Partnership, made significant contributions to support the event.

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Austin, Texas
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Chicago, Illinois
• Corpus Christi, Texas
• Dallas, Texas
• Fresno, California
• Ft. Worth, Texas
• Houston, Texas
• Joplin, Missouri
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Lake Mary, Florida
• Los Angeles, California
• Lubbock, Texas
• Mesa, Arizona
• Miami, Florida
• Middletown, New Jersey
• New Haven, Connecticut
• New York, New York
• Norman, Oklahoma
• Orange County, California
• Sacramento, California
• San Antonio, Texas
• San Diego, California
• San Juan, Puerto Rico
• San Ramon, California
• Southfield, Michigan
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Tampa, Florida
• Washington, D.C.
• Whitehall, Pennsylvania

(AT&T’s Hispanic/Latino Association HACEMOS, with approximately 5,000 members, recognizes the importance of educating Hispanic youth and preparing them for a technology-intensive future. Its members are dedicated to developing and supporting technology education projects in communities where they live and work. For more information about National High Technology Day, please visit HACEMOS. )

[Photos courtesy HACEMOS]

By Insight Tr3s

We know that Hispanics are big TV viewers – but what do their TV set-ups look like at home? Tr3s’s new study, “Hispanic Adults 18-34 Living ‘The Next Normal’” has some revealing insights about what services they subscribe to and what kind of TVs they prefer. Here is a summary:

Bicultural Hispanics 18 to 29 are more than twice as likely as their non-Hispanic peers to have multiple cable/satellite providers.
• 26% of bicultural Hispanic 18-29s subscribe to more than one cable/satellite provider, compared with 12% of non-Hispanic 18-29s
• 18% of foreign-born Hispanic thirty-somethings have multiple cable/satellite providers

Those with more than one cable/satellite provider are most likely to have made that choice to satisfy the diverse viewing preferences of their household.
• Among Hispanics 18-39 overall, the main reason for choosing multiple providers is “to get the channels everyone wants”
• Non-Hispanics 18-29 also want to accomodate diverse viewing preferences in their households — and they have an equally strong desire to have a backup in case one system goes out

From streaming subscriptions to multiple cable providers, Hispanics 18 to 39 are seeking content from a number of sources and in many configurations.
• Nearly 6 in 10 Hispanics 18-39 have streaming subscriptions such as Netflix
• Close to 4 in 10 Hispanics 18-39 use devices like Slingbox to watch TV on other platforms (laptop, tablet, smartphone) – more than non-Hispanic 18-29s (20%)
• About 1 in 10 Hispanics 18-39 use a streaming player like Roku or Google TV (compared with 5% of non-Hispanic 18-29s)
• 16% of bicultural Hispanics 18-29 have streaming subscriptions and more than one cable provider – more than foreign-born Hispanic 30-39s (11%) and non-Hispanic 18-29s (6%)

Bicultural Hispanics 18 to 29 like big TVs, spend a lot of money to buy them, and prefer Samsung.
• 31% of bicultural Hispanics 18-29 have a TV that’s 50 inches or larger – and they’re more likely to have a big set than non-Hispanics 18-29 (26%) and foreign-born Hispanics in their thirties (20%)
• Hispanics and non-Hispanics 18-29 spend an average of $1,107 on their TVs – compared with $684 among foreign-born Hispanic thirty-somethings
• Samsung is the #1 television brand among bicultural Hispanics 18-29 — while Sony is the top choice of foreign-born Hispanics in their thirties and non-Hispanics 18-29

Source: Tr3s Ipsos-OTX 2012, Experian Simmons Summer 2012 12-month NCHS

This article was first published in Tr3s.

[Photo by jDevaun]