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“Here We Go Again!! ” TechLatino247′s Response to NYT Article: Keeping the Internet Neutral By Eduardo Porter

As I’ve written before, government policy should focus on making broadband faster and more affordable for all Americans – not putting it out of reach for those that need it most. That’s why I was surprised at Eduardo Porter’s New York Times editorial resurrecting outdated arguments about the Internet and arguing for government regulations that …

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Jaime Dickinson

LISTA to Recognize President of NewCom International Jaime Dickinson

New York – Thursday, On Thursday May 24th at 7:00 p.m. ET, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association will host their 11th Annual National Tech Latino Achiever’s Award Gala, also known for their acronym LISTA, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, will recognize President and CEO of NewCom International, Jaime Dickinson for his …

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LISTA Announces Dr. Bernice A. King to Keynote ETLS VIP Welcome Reception and Share her Mother’s Legacy.

LISTA invites Dr. Bernice A. King to Share her Mother’s Legacy with a Private Book Signing of Desert Rose. New York – Wednesday, May 23rd at 6:00 p.m. ET at the Hotel Meliá located at 590 West Peachtree St NW Atlanta (Georgia), GA 30308 at the annual National Emerging Technology Leadership Summit and National Techlatino …

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LISTA #TechLatino247 Guest Blogger Kristian Ramos: Technology is the key to success for Latinos

Think back to your childhood and remember what it was like learning to type. Remember the computer class room, full of desktop computers and learning the Herzog System of typing. How critical that was for future job prospects. Now imagine your children’s computer lab, what will that look like? Given recent technologic gains, desk top …

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Zuckerberg Plays Host in New Facebook IPO Video by Adario Strange, PCMAG.com

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has apparently come a long way since his infamous sweat-drenched meltdown on stage at a tech conference years ago. So much so that he now serves as the company’s staple in a new video that Facebook posted in the run-up to its initial public offering (IPO). The video is part of …

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BenFranklin

14 Lessons from Benjamin Franklin about getting what you want in life By Thea Easterby, Freelance Writer

Benjamin Franklin was a man of action. Over his lifetime, his curiosity and passion fueled a diverse range of interests. He was a writer (often using a pseudonym), publisher, diplomat, inventor and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. His inventions included the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove. Franklin was responsible …

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“Here We Go Again!! ” TechLatino247′s Response to NYT Article: Keeping the Internet Neutral By Eduardo PorterLISTA to Recognize President of NewCom International Jaime DickinsonLISTA Announces Dr. Bernice A. King to Keynote ETLS VIP Welcome Reception and Share her Mother’s Legacy.LISTA #TechLatino247 Guest Blogger Kristian Ramos: Technology is the key to success for LatinosZuckerberg Plays Host in New Facebook IPO Video by Adario Strange, PCMAG.com14 Lessons from Benjamin Franklin about getting what you want in life By Thea Easterby, Freelance Writer

Apr 20

Rural Latinos Still Waiting for Quality High-Speed Access by Jose A. Marquez-Leon

Categories:

Diversity, Government, Health IT, LISTA in the News, Policy, Workforce Development, digital media, inclusion, software development, spectrum, wireless

by JAM

Rural Latinos Still Waiting for Quality High-Speed Access

Last year, I wrote about the struggles of the 4.2 million Latinos living in rural areas to connect to high-speed Internet networks. It’s no secret that the FCC found the majority of 10 million households that don’t have access are in rural areas, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that Latinos are the fastest-growing non-urban population. That means the lack of rural broadband access impacts a growing number of Latinos: from farmers and ranchers to small business owners to anyone trying to get state-of-the-art health care services.

Unfortunately, I can’t report that much progress has been made on this front. I hoped that Congress and the USDA could work to fix some of the problems that have rendered rural broadband programs ineffective, much like the FCC did last year when it overhauled parts of the Universal Service program that deal with remote, high-cost rural areas. The FCC eliminated much of the waste in that subsidy program, ensuring that the money targets unserved rural areas rather than building additional networks in areas that already have them. It is a common-sense solution that Congress and the USDA should emulate.

But the USDA’s Farm Bill Broadband Loan Program continues to commit the same errors that it has since its creation in 2002. The program has made loans to more than 100 projects since 2002, totaling close to $2 billion in funding that Congress intended for unserved rural areas. And yet an eye-opening internal audit in 2005 showed that many of these projects were neither unserved nor rural. Despite these findings, the USDA has not reformed the program to reduce waste.

When I last wrote, I noted that USDA had some $300+ million that it has been authorized to loan under the same careless rules. Because the agency has not issued a rural broadband loan in nearly three years, there is likely closer to $500 million sitting in its accounts unused. That’s nothing short of a travesty for rural residents eager to join the Digital Age.

I’m urging Congress to use this year’s Farm Bill to make the reforms that the USDA seems unwilling to make: specify that Farm Bill Broadband funds be targeted exclusively to the areas identified as unserved by broadband, and consider converting future loans to grants that would entice more businesses to take a chance on building high-speed data networks in remote, sparsely-populated areas. The FCC recognized in its National Broadband Plan that investing in infrastructure is a risky and expensive venture and that loans would be tough to repay; in fact, many previous Farm Bill Broadband Loan recipients have relied on Universal Service Fund subsidies to pay back the loans. Why not skip the middle man and give grants in unserved areas?

Improving access to broadband in rural America is crucial both economically and socially. The benefits of distance learning for our children in rural areas will pay dividends for generations. Providing telehealth capabilities to rural doctors and hospitals will not only save lives but create countless health IT business opportunities for Latino entrepreneurs. But in order to achieve these goals, we need to ensure that infrastructure funds reach the areas where no broadband exists. Once again, LISTA calls on Congress to get this right.

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Apr 20

LISTA Guest Blogger Paul Gillin: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in Plain English by Paul Gillin

Categories:

Being Latino, Hispanicise, LISTA in the News, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Social Media, Workforce Development, digital media, wireless

by JAM

For the last few months I have had many people ask me so how do we use social media to market my businesses, I asked do you understand what FB TWIT and Linked is all about. Things that make you go HUMMMMM? JAM

So we asked a friend to write some SM 101

LISTA Guest Blogger Paul Gillin
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in Plain English

I prepared summaries for my upcoming Search & Social Double Whammy seminar on May 2 in Burlington, MA describing the “big three” social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. My goal was to describe in plain English the way these networks provide value to their users and the metaphors they use for interaction. Perhaps you’ll find these basic explanations useful in some context. And if I’ve missed or misstated anything, I’d appreciate your corrections.

Facebook & LinkedIn

The two most popular social networks – Facebook and LinkedIn – use similar tools and metaphors to provide strikingly different utility.

Both are based upon a foundation of personal profiles and “friends,” which LinkedIn calls “connections.” Profiles are online identities that define members’ backgrounds and interests and reflect their activities and contributions to the community. The more active members are in the community, the greater their influence and the richer the interactions with other members.

Friends and connections are persistent relationships between members that require mutual consent to create. Friends can see information about each other that others can’t, and because connections are maintained by the social network rather than by individual members, they outlast job changes, relocations, relationship changes and other disruptions that often cause us to lose contact with others.

The most powerful force created by social networks is the “Power of 130.” The name is derived from the fact that the average Facebook member has 130 Facebook friends. That means that every member’s actions within the community can potentially be communicated to 130 other people through the every-flowing timeline called the “activity stream.”

Marketers can think of these communications as a Web 2.0 version of the classic impression, but social network interactions are potentially much more important because members can comment upon, endorse and share other members’ activities with their own networks. This means that a compelling message can be spread far and wide by the members themselves without investment or active involvement by the person or organization creating the message. Good content sells itself.

Facebook is the overwhelming favorite of business-to-consumer companies because the action is free-wheeling and fun. Good Facebook marketers provide a constant stream of information that provokes conversation and interaction among members. Contests, polls and games work particularly well there.

LinkedIn is a favorite of B2B marketers because its members go there mainly to discuss professional interests. LinkedIn’s roots are in networking for job-seekers, but the service’s active professional discussion groups and useful Answers section have become favorite places for people to gather and share information about their work. LinkedIn also enables members to identify shared connections and to form relationships with others through friends-in-common. This makes LinkedIn a compelling new tool for professional networking and lead generation.

Both Facebook and LinkedIn permit brands to create their own pages to communicate with advocates, build awareness and create persistent relationships. Facebook fan pages focus on conversation with followers while LinkedIn stresses information about the companies. Both services provide great value for brands in very different ways

Understanding Twitter

Twitter is still a mystery to many people. How can rich conversations form when people can only speak 140 characters at a time? It turns out you can say more in 140 characters than you may think, and Twitter’s forced brevity actually encourages people to share information they wouldn’t communicate through long-form media like blogs or even e-mail.

The core feature of Twitter is the activity stream. It’s an endless flow of news, recommendations and observations that create endless opportunities for connection. You can find and engage with people on Twitter whom you could never reach by any other means, and it is arguably the world’s best source of breaking news. It is also a valuable extension of any company’s online presence.

Twitter is a loose-knit social network in which members subscribe to each other’s activity streams in a relationship known as “following.” Unlike Facebook’s friends or LinkedIn’s connections, following does not require the consent of both parties. Anyone can follow anyone else unless explicitly blocked by the person being followed (a rare occurrence).

As members amass more followers, the value they give and take from the network increases. People or brands with large followings can reach a large number of people directly because their messages appear in followers’ activity streams. While the percentage of people who see any individual message may be small, the ease with which messages can be forwarded – or “retweeted” – to others provides ample opportunity for amplification. In fact, a study by ShareThis found that the average retweeted message is shared 18 times.

While the volume of messages on Twitter may seem overwhelming and unmanageable, there are a variety of useful ways for people to organize and discover interesting topics. Members can filter the entire Twitter stream by keywords or “hash tags,” which are category labels members attach to their tweets to associate them with popular topics. Twitter also notifies members by default when their username has been mentioned by another member in a tweet. This notification feature makes Twitter an extraordinarily useful way to find people who may be difficult to reach by e-mail, phone or other media.

Twitter is proving to be particularly valuable for organizing and promoting online and real-world events. Hundreds of virtual chats take place each week around Twitter hash tags in fields ranging from medicine to marketing to aviation. Organizers of physical events frequently ask attendees to use specific hash tags when sharing information about the conference, giving the rest of the world a glimpse into the conversations going on at the live event and promoting it to future attendees. “Tweetups” are physical meetings organized on Twitter using hash tags, and anyone is invited to come. Tweetups can be used for anything from attracting fans to a concert to promoting a book-signing or store opening.

Twitter is evidence of the power of simplicity. Users have adapted and modified this relatively simple publish-and-subscribe service in thousands of creative ways, making Twitter one of the best tools for finding out what’s going on now in a wide range of professional activities and leisure interests.

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Apr 18

VW IPad App Touts The New Golf By Karl Greenberg, Marketing Daily

Categories:

Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Skills, Social Media, apps, digital media, software development

by JAM

Volkswagen has a new sports car and it isn’t wearing an Audi nameplate. The factory-tuned 256 hp Golf R hatch is here, and mercifully, there’s no automatic tranny available, which says everything about who this car is meant for: enthusiasts. The car also goes against the grain for the automaker, which has been focused on going mainstream in the U.S. The R is very much for loyalists. They aren’t a tiny group. The main non-VW fan site, VWVortex.com, says it gets 120 million hits each month.

To tout the top-of-the-line Golf, which starts at around $33,900, to that core group of fans, the automaker has launched a new iPad app to talk up the vehicle. The Herndon, Va.-based U.S. division of VW is firing up a U.S. promotion“Golf R Ultimate Fan Experience” for the 2012 version of the car, which it is calling its most powerful vehicle ever in the U.S. The program is also a way to get R fans to download the new VW Golf R iPad app, which is the portal for entering the promotion.

Fans of the Golf R, which replaces the R32, get an opportunity to share what they love about the Golf R and describe why they are “the ultimate fan” through the Golf R Drivers Forever iPad app. One winner and a guest gets a seven-day, six-night trip for two to Germany in September. The trip includes a stop at VW global headquarters in Wolfsburg to tour the Autostadt and Volkswagen AG; a visit to Nürburg to drive the Golf R on the Nürburgring motorsports complex with instruction from professional drivers; a visit to Berlin for an exclusive sightseeing package Luxury hotel accommodations in each city.

The Golf R Drivers Forever app, which is free, has a link to the Sweepstakes, where entrants have to describe in 256 words or less why they want to win. The app also has Golf R videos, photos, footage and interviews about the heritage and performance of the R. Mail-in entries (does anyone still do this?) are also accepted.

The Golf R will compete with vehicles like the Subaru Impreza WRX STI and Mitsubishi’s famed Lancer Evo GSR. For enthusiast motorists looking for the biggest muscle over weight ratio, the two competitors beat the Golf R. But the automaker’s U.S. chief, commenting on the vehicle’s fan base and the fact that the promotional campaign is focused squarely on R enthusiasts, makes it clear that it’s not a numbers-comparison game for shoppers, and there is probably less cross shopping.

The company reported a 34.6% increase in sales last month, also saw a 19.2% increase in sales of Golf R, GTI and R32 variants.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/172525/vw-ipad-app-touts-the-new-golf.html?edition=45779%20#ixzz1sQekWpAW

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Apr 18

Huffington Post wins Pulitzer, a first for digital media By Matthew Flamm, Senior Reporter Crain’s New York

Categories:

Healthcare, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Skills, digital media

by JAM

Beyond the Battlefield, David Wood (image www.mediabistro.com)

Updated: April 17, 2012 9:42 a.m.

The Huffington Post—and digital media—has won its first Pulitzer Prize. The award went to David Wood, in the category of national reporting, it was announced Monday by Columbia University, which administers the prizes.

A longtime print journalist who did stints at Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Wood was praised for his “riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges facing American soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during a decade of war.”

The award was a breakthrough for The Huffington Post, and for AOL, which acquired the massive news site last year as part of a risky, if not desperate attempt to turn itself into a major player in the content business.

The Huffington Post is the first commercially run, native digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer, which is generally considered the highest honor in journalism.

“It’s a big breakthrough,” said Dean Starkman, an editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, which has no connection to the prizes. Noting that the nonprofit investigative news site ProPublica.org won Pulitzers in 2010 and 2011, he added that it made a difference that the Huffington Post has had to manage as a business.

“They did quality work while earning their daily bread,” he said.

Politico, a web publication with a print component, also won its first Pulitzer, for the political cartoons of Matt Wuerker. The Pulitzer committee described them as “especially memorable for lampooning the partisan conflict that engulfed Washington.”

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120416/MEDIA_ENTERTAINMENT/120419908#ixzz1sPg6dq00

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Apr 18

The State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative By Nielson

Categories:

Diversity, Hispanic Community Trend, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Skills, Social Media, apps, wireless

by JAM

More than 52 million strong and representing the majority of population growth over the next five years, Latinos have become a prominent actor in all aspects of American life, according to The State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative, released by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy. Latinos are a fundamental component to future business success, with a projected buying power of $1 trillion in 2010 expected to grow 50 percent to $1.5 trillion in 2015.

“The Hispanic community in the United States is large and growing, and businesses must make strides to understand and engage these consumers,” said Susan Whiting, vice chair, Nielsen. “Due to the general youth of this segment, family focus, strong culture and prevalent Spanish-language use, Hispanic consumers are impacting all areas of work and play and helping to redefine American culture in the 21st century.”

Looking closely at Hispanics’ media habits and purchasing behaviors, The Hispanic Market Imperative reveals that:

- Rapid Latino population growth will persist; the median age of this segment is 28 years old, nearly ten years younger than the total market median age of 37.

- Hispanics are the largest immigrant group to exhibit significant culture sustainability, with nine out of ten Hispanic parents and parents-to-be wanting their children to speak Spanish, but also be fluent in English.

- Technology and media use do not mirror the general market, but have distinct patterns due to language, culture, and ownership dynamics. For example, Hispanics spend 68 percent more time watching video on the Internet and 20 percent more time watching video on their mobile phones than non-Hispanic Whites.

- Latinos exhibit product consumption patterns distinct from the broader market. Hispanics make fewer shopping trips per household than non-Hispanics, for instance, and spend more per trip.

The information in this report confirms what many marketers have known for some time, and yet, for some this is a new opportunity to engage with a demographic change and a consumer that is here to stay.

To download report CLICK on link below;

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Apr 17

LISTA Guest Blogger: George “Urban Jibaro” Torres 5 Tips on How To Effectively Reconnect With Your Hispanicize Friends. #hispz12

Categories:

Being Latino, Hispanicise, LISTA in the News, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Skills, Social Media, Tablets, Workforce Development, wireless

by JAM

So I literally just got home from Sunny Miami where I spent the week sharing best practices, eating Croquetas & drinking Mojitos with some of the most influential bloggers, brands and media professionals at Hispanicize 2012.

If you are anything like me, you come back home with full of excitement with lots of ideas and then the unexpected happens… while you were away the rest of the world emailed, called you and is waiting for your response. This may cause you to miss out on major opportunities to really expand on your projects by not following up with all the amazing people you met.

Since I have made this mistake more times than I care to admit, I thought it might help to give you some tips to help you plan exactly how you will reconnect.

(Note: We are currently on hiatus as we prepare for our 15th Aniversary Re-Launch on May 15th… so this will be the last post for this version of Sofrito For Your Soul)

Here are 5 tips on how to reconnect with your Hispanicize friends.

Tip #1 – PLAN TO RECONNECT: Go thru all the business cards you collected from people you met and sort them in a way that makes sense to you. I usually sort by bloggers, brands and agency and I put a keyword on each card to help me remember what I had in mind for each connection. This will help you prioritize with projects and/or ideas that may be time sensitive.

Tip #2 DON’T RUSH: You are not alone… everybody is tired and need a few days to decompress, reengage life and worth thru their business card stack. Take 48 hours to handle your day to day business, spend time with family and then come back to your sorted business card stack. If you try to rush and get your email out before everyone else’s… you run the risk of your email getting buried and lost forever.

Tip #3 GET TO KNOW THEM: Take a moment and see what the person you want to connect with is doing. You need that to fully understand the scope of how you will connect with them. It may help you uncover opportunities you that are not as obvious when you are in regular conversation.

Tip #4 BE YOURSELF: Make your email personal, these people have learned, shared and partied with you and have a pretty good sense of who you are. Connect with them in your natural “voice” and highlight memorable parts of your shared interaction. Make all emails short and sweet and most importantly actionable.

Tip #5 STAY CONNECTED: Alway create opportunities to further engage beyond that first email wherever they tend to hang out socially. By doing that you will build a deeper relationship that will open future opportunities to work together.

I hope these tips help… and I would love to hear in the comment section if you have any tips of your own that you would add. Feel free to share this article with your #hispz12 friends.

I look forward to connecting with many of you in the near future and as always… estoy a la orden.

George “Urban Jibaro” Torres

Community Builder

Sofrito Media Group

Social Media I Branding I Event Management

T. 516-690-7397 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 516-690-7397 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
E. Engage@SofritoMediaGroup.com

Follow me on Twitter @UrbanJibaro

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Apr 17

After Hispanicise 2012… Latinos Will Definately Need More Spectrum…by Jose Marquez.

Categories:

Being Latino, DOL, Health IT, Hispanicise, LISTA in the News, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Mobile Health, Social Media, apps, spectrum, wireless

by JAM

Last week, I had the pleasure to be at the Hispanicize 2012 Conference in Miami, Florida. It was one of the most engaging conferences that I attended in over 4 yrs. Bloggers and twitter experts from across the nation came together to discuss best practices and develop strategies for more wireless apps for Latinos, i.e. elWiri App which finds delicious LATINO food and cultural events through your smart phone anywhere in the world.  It is clear that most of us use cellphones and smartphones, devices which enhance our personal lives and help us make the way we do business more efficient and profitable and it is even clearer that Latinos are over indexing when it comes to wireless technology.  What has not been so clear is what makes all this possible.   We all want and have come to expect mobile access anytime, anywhere. Unfortunately, as phones have gotten “smarter,” they have also gotten greedier—for data. Smart phones require a huge amount of data to perform many of the functions that we have come to rely upon—mapping routes, streaming music, sending videos etc.

Spectrum is what makes all this possible.  Spectrum is the finite airwaves over which wireless communications move.  And it is becoming too crowded.  We see this evidenced by more dropped calls, slower Internet connection speeds and frequent service interruptions.  This can be a mere inconvenience if you are calling your friend or want to browse a website, but a real problem exists if you are a doctor or patient waiting to see an X-ray, or look at the results of an emergency biopsy so a prognosis or even a consultation can be made. 

So you ask yourself why should we care about this?  Because this poses a potential problem: increased data demands are straining the nation’s supply of spectrum. Without adequate wireless spectrum, our cellphones and smartphones will not work as quickly and efficiently as they should, and if we don’t fix this soon, they will work not at all. 

And unfortunately, Latinos may bear the brunt of this impending spectrum crunch. 

Latinos used to rely much more on wired networks at our homes; but that is not the case anymore.  Trends have been changing fast and now, Hispanics lead the way in cell phone ownership and are far more likely to own smartphones than any other segment of the American population. Almost half of Hispanics (45%) own smartphones according to the Nielson Group.  Compare that to 33% of African Americans and 27% of white Americans. We are moving quickly and we are learning and adopting new technologies faster than just about any other group in America.  By leading the charge though, Latinos have positioned themselves to be disproportionately affected by the increasing scarcity of critical Internet and communications resources

And we use our smartphones for more than just video streaming, social media connections and making restaurant reservations.  Mobile broadband allows us to experience a plethora of previously unavailable mobile opportunities for education, job training, healthcare, and to get more involved in our communities and in civic life, just to name a few examples. 

Access to this technology greatly benefits Latinos across the country, and our access must not slow down.  On the contrary, we need solutions that will ensure the appetite of our smartphones can be satiated at every turn.  It is not only empowering, it can be life-saving. 

With non-profit organizations like Connect to Compete providing low-cost broadband Internet service, Latinos can use telemedicine applications which provide everything from remote medical monitoring of diabetes and heart disease to remote, virtual doctor visits via teleconferencing for distant or immobile patients. These programs also offer digital literacy opportunities to Latinos and other underserved populations throughout the United States.

With all of these amazing opportunities at our fingertips, we cannot stand idly by while this wireless infrastructure is strained.  The Federal Government and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must do everything possible to ensure that wireless providers are able to meet consumer demand for wireless Internet access. This means finding and reallocating existing spectrum resources so that broadband providers can acquire the spectrum necessary to expand their networks to ensure that wireless devices function as designed.

 Jose A. Marquez-Leon is the National President, CEO, and Founder of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA). In this role he serves as lead advocate on state and federal issues related to the role of Latinos in the technology sector.  He is also charged with coordinating organization-wide strategic planning for LISTA initiatives and is executive director of fifteen LISTA Tech Councils nationwide. 

Follow me on Twitter @lista1 or visit our blog www.techLatino.org or Next Emerging Technology Leadership Summit  Conference www.techlatino247.org

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Apr 11

Verizon donates $100k to Philadelphia hospital for telemedicine By Mike Miliard, HealthcareIT News

Categories:

Health IT, Healthcare, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Mobile Health, Skills, software development, telemedicine

by JAM

PHILADELPHIA – The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has announced it will launch a telemedicine pilot program, dedicated to providing pediatric specialty consultations to community hospitals, with help from a $100,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation.

The pilot program is designed to test the applicability of consultation services in the community hospital setting for intensive care services; neonatal intensive care; inpatient pediatric care; neurology consultation; genetics consultation and in the emergency department, according to a statement issued by the hospital.

[See also: Verizon offers security tools for EHRs, HIEs, eRx.]

The goal of Children’s Hospital’s Telemedicine Program is to improve the quality and safety of care for children by offering a level of pediatric expertise not available at community hospitals, and to reduce the numbers of patients transferred for specialty evaluations when appropriate care could be delivered at the originating hospital.

“Thanks to the support of the Verizon Foundation’s funding, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia will be able to embark on a telemedicine pilot program with the goal of providing top caliber pediatric expertise to children, no matter where they live, through their community hospital,” said Michael Apkon, chief medical officer of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

[See also: Telehealth conference spotlights innovation, disruptive technology.]

This pilot phase will be conducted in partnership with community hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, hospital officials said.

“Verizon is proud to overcome medical healthcare barriers of distance, time or availability of doctors and nurses through the use of technology,” said Douglas R. Smith, vice president of state government affairs, Verizon Pennsylvania.

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Apr 10

The Digital Divide: The Newest Barrier for Immigrants and Latinos? By Cristina Costantini, The Huffington Post

Categories:

Diversity, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Skills, Social Media, apps, inclusion, wireless

by JAM

On Wednesday, Portada, a Latino research group which calls itself “the leading source on Latin marketing and media” released a data set which would likely sound the alarms at Facebook headquarters. Only 19% of U.S. Hispanics are using Facebook, the study concluded.
Fortunately for Facebook, the Portada estimates are definitely misleading, and possibly inaccurate, as they are contradicted by most other major studies. In fact, social media seems to be the only segment of the Internet which offers Latinos and Latino immigrants hope of shrinking a “digital divide.”
According to most other surveys, more than half of U.S. Latinos are on Facebook. AOL’s Hispanic Cyber Study from 2010 found that 54% of US Hispanics regularly use Facebook compared with only 43% of white Americans.
The same year, Mashable.com statisticians concluded that U.S. Latinos were overrepresented on the site when compared the populations numbers, and lead researcher at the Pew Internet & American Life Project Aaron Smith found that English-speaking Latinos outpaced their white counterparts in adoption of Facebook and Twitter as well.
While Portada most likely got it wrong about Latinos and Facebook, large barriers to more general Internet adoption do persist for U.S. Hispanics.
Researcher Gretchen Livingston of the Pew Hispanic Center found that about two-thirds of Latino (65%) adults went online in 2010, while more than three-fourths (77%) of white adults did so.
The study found that those Latinos who were offline were more likely to be from lower income backgrounds, to be less educated, and to not be fluent in English. First generation immigrants were the most likely to be without Internet access.

Increasingly, job listings, news, apartment classifieds, and healthcare resources are being transferred online, where English speakers and Internet users can access them readily.
Robert Park, the father of the theory of assimilation wrote in 1922 that, “the immigrant
must learn quickly, for his livelihood depends on it.”
While he wrote these words in regards to the importance of reading newspapers for immigrants, in a modern context, his words perhaps apply to the unique value of the internet for immigrants seeking information about their new home.
But Latino immigrants, behind in the adoption of Internet technologies, may be losing out on opportunities and crucial information due to this 21st century barrier to societal integration.
In Pew Center studies from the last three years, Latinos and first generation Latino immigrants lagged severely in the adoption of broadband technologies at home. While 76% of U.S.-born Latinos go online, 43% of those born outside the U.S do the same, according to Pew’s 2010 study.
Aaron Smith, head researcher at the Pew Internet & American Life Project called “Home Broadband 2010”found that English and computer literacy were the two largest barriers to Internet use in general for Latino immigrants.
Elianne Ramos, a queen of Hispanic social media, is hopeful that social media and smartphone technologies — which Latinos have adopted at faster rates than non-Latinos — can help close the digital divide.
Ramos, who has nearly 15,000 followers and has tweeted almost 87,000 times since she started her account, says that the it is the responsibility of those with Internet to assist those who are not connected and act as their voice in a sphere in which they are underrepresented..
“What it means is that those of us with access to technology, as opinion leaders, should embrace the chance to use our influence in a way that can helpshape misconceptions about our community and better the economic conditions, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of those Latinos who lack access,” she said in an interview with The Huffington Post.
Not only is Ramos hopeful about the implications of social media in the Latino community, but she believes it will give a voice to those without one.
“There’s no middle man,” she said. “At long last, through social media, we can produce, consume and exchange ideas, theories and information by anyone and to anyone with access to the online community.”

Cristina.Costantini@huffingtonpost.com

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Apr 09

Qwest leader Mueller resigns from CenturyLink board. By Andy Vuong, The Denver Post

Categories:

Broadband, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, Policy, Skills, jobs, wireless

by JAM

Ed Mueller image credit to The Denver Post

The man who sold Denver-based Qwest to a smaller telecommunications company is stepping down from the buyer’s board of directors a year early.

Ed Mueller, who served as Qwest’s chairman and chief executive from 2007 to 2011, will resign from CenturyLink’s board when the company holds its annual shareholders meeting May 23, according to a regulatory filing.

Mueller assumed the board seat after CenturyLink acquired Qwest in April 2011, and the term was scheduled to run until 2013. The company declined to comment about his resignation.

The move comes as Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink continues to downsize its footprint in the Denver area through layoffs, attrition and organizational restructuring.

The company has shed about 700 jobs in Colorado over the past year and now employs 6,700 in the state.

CenturyLink recently initiated a companywide “cost realignment process” that led to 1,300 layoffs, including 170 in Colorado, spokesman John Hall said. Some Colorado jobs cuts have covered redundancies, such as accounting and administrative roles.

The company also folded the Business Markets Group, a Denver-based division headed by former Qwest executive Chris Ancell, into a new division called Enterprise Markets Group. Ancell is leaving the company as part of the reorganization, though the Enterprise Markets Group will be based in Denver. It will be headed by Jim Ousley, chief executive of Savvis, which CenturyLink acquired after its deal for Qwest.

Even though its workforce is shrinking, the company said it remains committed to the Colorado market.

In 2011, CenturyLink invested $220 million in its network in the state.

“Our goal is continue to provide better broadband to customers in Colorado,” Hall said.

The company also said that its employees and retirees in Colorado continue to pledge to volunteer 100,000 hours of service in the community each year.

But perhaps the most noise CenturyLink has made in town has come from its lobbying efforts against a bill that proposes to cut off a $50 million annual ratepayer-funded subsidy. That campaign has included sending thousands of e-mails to state lawmakers, which are considering whether to phase out the Colorado High Cost Support Mechanism, a outdated program created in the mid-1990s to help ensure that all residents have access to affordable phone service.
Andy Vuong, The Denver Post

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