Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) and Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE) Announce Partnership to Further Digital Empowerment Initiatives.

LISTA and ADE partnership will work to facilitate digital advocacy, digital literacy,

job creation and economic development in regards to digital empowerment initiatives

Today, Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA), the nation’s leading organization of Latino technology professionals and the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), a nonprofit organization that provides broadband solutions and broadband related services to underserved and un-served communities, are excited to announce a partnership to facilitate digital empowerment initiatives.

The strategic alliance of ADE and LISTA combines the collective skills, knowledge and experience of two diverse technology-based organizations, enabling them to work together to facilitate digital advocacy, digital literacy, job creation and economic development in regards to digital empowerment initiatives. In particular, the MSI Wireless Technology Act, the Workforce Investment Act, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), among others.

“We are forming this partnership right now because this is a pivotal time in the race to close the digital divide. Access to affordable high-speed Internet and broadband technology is a stepping stone to the opportunities of economic prosperity,” said Julius H. Hollis, Chairman of ADE. “As we focus on turning our economy around, we must make sure that those Americans currently in un-served and underserved communities are not left behind and further marginalized in this economy.”

“Both  LISTA and ADE have worked hard individually to provide and enhance digital empowerment opportunities for communities of color, now as LISTA joins ADE’s Board of Directors we will combine our unique strengths and expand our reach,” said Jose Marquez, President and CEO of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association. “This will strengthen our ability to make a difference. I am very excited to work with the ADE leadership team to further these important goals.”

Together, ADE and LISTA will pursue initiatives in order to increase Latino and African American employment opportunities within American based information sciences, telecommunication, and technology industries. The partners will target project opportunities that make technology applications available to communities of color for educational purposes, for job training and development, and to enable fuller participation in the learning, civic engagement and cultural opportunities afforded jointly or separately by ADE-LISTA utilizing online technologies.

“As part of the LISTA/ADE Partnership, we will conduct a series of surveys of African Americans and Latinos in the tech sector to measure which tech companies are leading the way in corporate responsibility relative to their Latino and African American inclusion in higher management within their company. While Latinos have made strides there are areas in the tech industry we still have little to no representation, boards, upper management and key decision making positions are still scarce at some of the most successful tech companies, we can’t ignore Latinos in high tech anymore, it is just bad business,” said Marquez.

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About Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) (www.a-lista.org)

Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) promotes the utilization of the technology sectors for the empowerment of the Latino community. We are an organization that is committed to bringing various elements of Technology under one central hub to facilitate our partners, members and the community with the leverage and education they need to succeed in a highly advanced technologically driven society. LISTA Mission is to educate, motivate and encourage the use of technology in the Latino community and empowering them to bridge the digital divide.

About The Alliance for Digital Equality

 The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), headquartered in Atlanta, GA, is a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization that serves to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved and un-served communities. The Alliance also serves as a bridge between policymakers and minority individuals in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies can impact and empower their daily lives. For more information on The Alliance for Digital Equality, please visit www.alliancefordigitalequality.org

Aneesh Chopra: The Nation’s First Chief Technology Officer Addresses the Medical Technology Summit

Aneesh Chopra as the nation\’s first Chief Technology Officer.

Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra addresses the Medical Technology Summit via live-stream video, discussing the Obama Administration’s health information technology agenda.

Latinas Leading By Example: Veronica Gonzalez

Veronica Gonzalez

Pharmacology and toxicology researcher,

Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona

The world of science and technology is one full of amazing discoveries and fascinating new technologies. It is an ever-changing world in which the players are constantly challenging the limits of knowledge and redefining our future. As new problems arise in our society, scientists work to develop new technologies to solve or prevent those problems. However, the scientific community has many blind spots. Problems and potential solutions escape our minds because of our limited experiences. This is why people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives are essential to our scientific and technologic advancement. In my case, as the daughter of migrant farm workers, I am very conscious of the environmental injustice that many Latino farm workers experience. This is why, as a scientist, I am determined to elucidate how the exposure to certain agricultural pesticides predisposes farm workers and their families to some types of cancers, developmental abnormalities, and infertility. Unfortunately, while Hispanics represent over 17 percent of the total U.S. population, only 7.6 percent of bachelor’s degrees awarded in science and technology fields go to Latinos (National Science Foundation: Science and Engineering Statistics. May 2008).

The concerns, perspectives and solutions we can contribute to our own problems will continue to be blind spots of the scientific community unless we become the scientists that care, understand and work to solve the problems afflicting our communities. The good news is that there are many programs such as the McNair Achievement Program, the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC), and the NASA MUST program that do an excellent job in helping Latino students to successfully complete their education. As Latina women, we represent a minority of a minority in science. As a result, a number of additional grants and scholarships for which we are eligible are waiting for us. Instead of lamenting the disparity of Latinos in science, let’s make history; let’s seize the present opportunities, get as much education as we can get, and be the leaders in science that we can be.

Veronica Gonzalez’s first job in the U.S. was as a hotel housekeeper, but she knew she didn’t want to clean toilets for the rest of her life. She enrolled at Pima Community College, took ESL classes, started working at the college’s biology and chemistry labs and immediately knew she wanted to dedicate her life to science and research. She is a pharmacology and toxicology researcher and about to complete her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona.

This article appears in the March 2010 issue of Latino Perspectives Magazine.

Social Media Pitfalls To Avoid.

Social Media Pitfalls To Avoid

LISTA Guest Blogger

Luis Cuneo, Marketing Manager
IBM Corporation
LISTA Member

I recently attended the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce National Convention in Denver, CO. Prior to the conference, I took note of how the USHCC was taking advantage of social media to promote their event and encourage individuals to network prior to the conference. The communication I received came through the LinkedIn social media site.

Social media marketing is a relatively new marketing discipline. I credit the USHCC for using this cost effective tool to drive awareness of their conference.  However, there are pitfalls that can dilute the effectiveness of  this marketing tool.. Based on my observation and analysis of the recent conference, I have identified five pitfalls that business professionals need to avoid when using social media.
1. Using social media without a strategic plan is ineffective
2. Social media marketing is a program, not a onetime campaign
3. Allocate sufficient resources to support your plan
4. Word of mouth is a powerful endorsement
5. Not everyone is using social media

The challenge marketing professionals are running into is there is limited information on the lessons learned about social media marketing. Before you start developing your strategy, you need to have a clear understanding of “Why,” “Where” and, “How” you  plan to reach your customer. Also, your plan needs to include measurable metrics  so that you can  make sure your strategy is meeting your business objectives. These data points will provide you insights to where you need to make adjustments to your plan.

Your social media initiative should not be a single campaign execution; rather, you need to integrate social media marketing into your overall corporate marketing strategy. Inform your customer where they can find you on the social media map. Share your plans and how they can use these sites to interact with your company. Informed customers can make better choices with regard to where and how they want to interact with your firm.

Large companies benefit from having the resources to monitor their social media pages on a regular basis. For example, an unsatisfactory remark from a customer that goes unanswered will generate negative online chatter from your audience. This is a major pitfall for a small firm with limited resources. Do not get blindsided; inform your audience that you are monitoring the site on a weekly basis. You can avoid negative chatter by clearly stating the following; “If you are not satisfied with our product or service, please call our #800 immediately, and ask for Customer Service.” Also, do not forget to post a resolution update on your social page.

This past year, I have seen a flurry of emails from peers endorsing social sites and social pages of individuals and companies. These emails share a common theme, the endorser believes you can also benefit from accessing these social pages. This grassroots promotion of your social site can spread quickly. You need to monitor the online activity, and leverage the momentum to build your brand and presence on the web before it fades out. Also consider the following, on your social site add a “Thank you section,” to recognize those individuals who are promoting your site. Everyone likes to receive kudos and acknowledgment for their efforts.

Finally, keep in mind that not everyone is using social media to connect with you and your company. Therefore, do not forget there is a market segment that you need to keep in touch with. Marketing principles have not changed, just the tools we use to connect with our customers.

Broadband for America Study Shows Importance of Investment

 Broadband for America has released a new study on the important contributions to the U.S. economy made by private investment in communication and information technology.

The study was conducted by Robert W. Crandall and Hal J. Singer – both experts in the economics of the telecommunications industry – and shows the massive investments made in mobile and wired Internet capacity by the major network providers has created hundreds of thousands of jobs over the past six years. 

The authors caution that the explosive growth in broadband access will be severely limited if “new regulatory changes undermine the incentives of broadband service providers to continue to invest.” 

“Thus, the increases in broadband’s reach, penetration, capabilities, and services which we have seen over the past seven years with a minimum of government interference should be embraced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as it moves through the process of creating a National Broadband Policy.” 

 The complete study is available here.

Obama Makes Appeal for Education Reform “That Works”

Obama Makes Appeal for Education Reform “That Works”

Watch CBS News Videos Online

President Obama appealed “to the nation’s governors today to fulfill education reforms that move past partisanship to offer every American a complete and competitive education. What’s at stake, he said, is “nothing less than our primacy in the world.”

“We are tired of arguments between the left and the right, between reformers and teachers unions,” he said. “We want to find out what works.”

Under former President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” legislation, 11 states lowered their standards for students in math, Mr. Obama said, signaling that the law created the wrong incentives.

The Obama administration is taking a different approach to incentivizing educational improvements. The president’s 2011 budget proposal includes billions in additional funding for elementary and secondary schools. The extra funding includes a large expansion of Mr. Obama’s “Race to the Top” initiative, which awards competitive grants to states that implement reforms favored by the administration, such as linking teacher pay to student test performance.

Mr. Obama also wants to scrap No Child Left Behind’s 2014 deadline by which all schools are supposed to reach “academic proficiency” in favor of a new goal of helping all students graduate “college or career ready.” In order to receive funding for primary and secondary education, Mr. Obama said today that states will have to put in place a plan to adopt and certify “college and career ready” standards for reading and math. He praised the National Governors’ Association for already working to develop common academic standards.

“If we can come together to do all this – in Washington, in state houses, across party and ideology – we’ll raise the quality of American education,” he said. “We’ll give our students, workers and businesses every chance to succeed, and we will secure this century as the next American century.”

Census: Internet Use in the United States – 2009

Internet Use in the United States: 2009 — Census released today Tables with national- and state-level data showing who is accessing the Internet, cross-tabulated by age, sex, race, Hispanic-origin, educational attainment and employment status.

State data show Internet usage at home versus use at other locations. Also included is whether people are using broadband or dial-up for Internet access.

Commissioned by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the data come from the Current Population Survey.

To view information CLICK on link below:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer/2009.html

LISTA Joins 23 Natational Organizations to Address Minority Inclusion in Media by FCC to Chairman Genachowski

The FCC’s Civil Rights Record & Overdue Section 257 Triennial Report to Congress

Dear Chairman Genachowski:

As you know, in Section 257 of the Communications Act, Congress requires the Commission   to submit triennial reports “identifying and eliminating Émarket entry barriers for entrepreneurs and other small businesses….” The Commission submitted the required reports for 1997, 2000, 2003, and (several months late) 2006, but the Commission has not yet submitted its 2009 Report.

From your eloquent letter of January 5, 2010 to Henry Rivera, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age, we know that you share our concern for the fact that minority ownership and employment in our industries are de minimis and in many respects nearing extinction. Minority television ownership has decreased by 50% since 1999. Minority radio ownership has declined by 9% just within the last three years. Minority wireless and cable system ownership levels are near zero. Finally, minority radio journalism employment has plummeted to less than 1%, a level not seen since 1950.

It is therefore unfortunate that, in 2009, the Commission failed to vote on any of the dozens of pending proposals to advance minority ownership and participation in the industries the Commission regulates, including proposals endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age (http://www.fcc.gov/DiversityFAC/). The following examples illustrate the Commission’s shortcomings in areas of concern to us. The FCC has failed:

• To adopt any of the two dozen proposed noncontroversial initiatives that would give minority businesses an opportunity to acquire FCC-licensed assets.
• To restore minimal enforcement of the broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Rule, and to assign a compliance officer to the 2007 Advertising Nondiscrimination Rule which, if it were enforced, could restore to minority broadcasters the approximately $200 million every year that they forego because of racial discrimination by advertisers.
• To hold a hearing on Arbitron’s “Portable People Meter” (PPM) audience measurement technology.
• For the fifth straight year since Hurricane Katrina – to act on the Spanish Radio Association/United Church of Christ/MMTC petition to provide for the multilingual broadcasts of emergency information. The September 8,2009 “FCC Preparedness for Major Public Emergencies” Report did not even mention this critical issue.
• To repeal the 2006 Designated Entity rules that have decimated minority wireless ownership: of the $19 billion fair market value of licenses sold in Auction 73 last year, minorities acquired $5 million, or less than three-hundredths of one percent of the total value of those licenses.
• To include even a mention of minorities or minority business enterprises in the December 2009 National Broadband Plan Framework Ð ignoring the transcripts from four staff workshops and two field hearings at which the witnesses focused on minority cyberpreneurship.
• To support the only remaining federal initiative aimed at promoting minority and women media and telecom ownership Ð the Telecommunications Development Fund. Nowhere in the Commission’s 2009 legislative recommendations was support for this vital initiative mentioned. In fact, on January 28, the Administration Ð without consulting with diversity advocates Ð proposed a budget that would eliminate the Fund entirely. The budget narrative suggested that a proposed loan program and, even more implausibly, the USF are adequate substitutes for this equity fund for new entrants.

To advance the civil rights objectives of the agency and the administration, we would be glad to assist the Commission with a comprehensive review of what can be done in 2010 to promote minority ownership and equal employment in the telecommunications sector. We specifically ask that you place on the agenda of the Commission’s A pril 2010 public Commission meeting a Report and Order adopting several of the dozens of long-pending, fully briefed and virtually unopposed proposals to advance media and telecom ownership diversity.

Sincerely,

Asian American Justice Center

Black College Communication Association

The Hispanic Institute

Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership

International Black Broadcasters Association

Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

League of United Latin American Citizens

Minority Media and Telecommunications Council

National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters

National Association of Black Telecommunications Professionals

National Association of Latino Independent Producers

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

National Black Coalition for Media Justice

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation-Black Women’s Roundtable National Congress of Black Women, Inc.

National Council of La Raza

National Puerto Rican Coalition

National Urban League

Rainbow PUSH Coalition

Spanish Broadcasters Association

United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

UNITY: Journalists of Color

cc: Senator Robert Menendez

Congressman Bobby L. Rush

Congressman Edolphus Towns

Congressman G.K. Butterfield

Delegate Donna M. Christensen

Hon. Michael J. Copps, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Robert McDowell, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Meredith Attwell Baker, Commissioner, FCC

Hon. Calvin Smyre, Presid ent, National Black Caucus of State Legislators Hon. Iris Martinez, President, National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators Hon. Robin Read, President, National Foundation of Women Legislators

Hon. Sharon Weston-Broome, President, National Organization of Black Elected

Legislative Women

Hon. Robert Steele, President, National Association of Black County Officials Hon. Sergio Rodriguez, President, Hispanic Elected Local Officials

Hon. Samuel Audwin, President, National Black Caucus of Local Elected Official Hon. George Grace, President, National Conference of Black Mayors

Blacks, Latinos and Women Lose Ground at Silicon Valley Tech Companies.

Blacks, Latinos and Women Lose Ground at Silicon Valley Tech Companies. By Mike Swift, mswift@mercurynews.com

The unique diversity of Silicon Valley is not reflected in the region’s tech workplaces — and the disparity is only growing worse.

Hispanics and blacks made up a smaller share of the valley’s computer workers in 2008 than they did in 2000, a Mercury News review of federal data shows, even as their share grew across the nation. Women in computer-related occupations saw declines around the country, but they are an even smaller proportion of the work force here.

The trend is striking in a region where Hispanics are nearly one-quarter of the working-age population — five times their percentage of the computer work force — and when dual-career couples and female MBAs are increasingly the norm.

It is also evident in the work forces of the region’s major companies. An analysis by the Mercury News of the combined work force of 10 of the valley’s largest companies — including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco Systems, eBay and AMD — shows that while the collective work force of those 10 companies grew by 16 percent between 1999 and 2005, an already small population of black workers dropped by 16 percent, while the number of Hispanic workers declined by 11 percent. By 2005, only about 2,200 of the 30,000 Silicon Valley-based workers at those 10 companies were black or Hispanic.

The share of women at those 10 companies declined to 33 percent in 2005, from 37 percent in 1999. There was also a decline in the share of management-level jobs held by women.

“It’s just disappointing,” said Shellye Archambeau, the African-American CEO of MetricStream, a Palo Alto-based company that provides governance, risk and compliance support to global corporations such as BP and Pfizer. “The valley is a very strong place, but the fact that we are so lacking in female leadership, in African-American leadership, and frankly in Latino leadership in tech, you just sit there and say, ‘Imagine what it could be.’ ”

With the number of white computer workers also dropping after 2000, Asians were the exception. They now make up a majority of workers in computer-related occupations who live in Silicon Valley, although they hold only about one in six of the nation’s computer-related jobs.

Among the findings:

* Of the 5,907 top managers and officials in the Silicon Valley offices of the 10 large companies in 2005, 296 were black or Hispanic, a 20 percent decline from 2000, according to U.S. Department of Labor work-force data obtained by the Mercury News through a Freedom of Information request.

In 2008, the share of computer workers living in Silicon Valley who are black or Latino was 1.5 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively — shares that had declined since 2000. Nationally, blacks and Latinos were 7.1 percent and 5.3 percent of computer workers, respectively, shares that were up since 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The share of managers and top officials who are female at those 10 big Silicon Valley firms slipped to 26 percent in 2005, from 28 percent in 2000.

Cisco Systems is among companies that say they are taking steps to improve diversity by forming diversity councils and employee resource groups and by tapping organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers for job candidates. Cisco declined to released its most recent race data in detail, but said the number of black and Hispanic workers had “remained stable”
since 2005, when about 6 percent of its local work force was either black or Hispanic.

“Cisco believes an inclusive culture promotes creativity, innovation and drives collaboration,” said Ken Lotich, a company spokesman.

The reasons Silicon Valley lags the nation in hiring — and perhaps in retention — of African-Americans and Latinos are varied and complex, researchers and observers say.

A company’s commitment to diversity can waver, particularly in tough economic times, said Palo Alto venture capitalist Alberto Yépez, a former executive at Apple and Oracle. While Hewlett-Packard, for one, is consistent in its efforts, “I think companies that do not necessarily fare as well have issues, and it’s the consistency that drives” successful diversity efforts.

Other reasons, experts say, include a history of valley companies hiring well-trained tech workers from the Pacific Rim, a weak pipeline of homegrown candidates, and a hypercompetitive business environment that leaves little time to develop workers.

“This is like ‘top gun’ school for techies. Basically, that’s one difference between Silicon Valley and the other tech centers,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a researcher at the University of California-Berkeley, Duke and Harvard who has studied the work-force dynamics of tech centers around the U.S. The intense premium on education “inherently gives Asians an advantage, because they tend to be stronger in math and science.”

But social research has shown that innovation can flower from differences.

“If everybody around the table is the same, the same ideas will tend to come up. If you have a diversity of race, gender, age, educational and different life experiences, people will attack a problem from different perspectives, and that will lead to innovation,” said Caroline Simard, research director for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. “In an industry that thrives on innovation, like high tech, it’s especially important.”

First-person account

Many minority tech workers are keenly aware of the numbers, because they live them every workday.

“I was the only African-American in every IT job I’ve ever had, ” said Derek Anderson, a 24-year valley veteran who has worked at Adobe Systems, Cisco and other companies.

Like Anderson, San Jose State University computer science student Vicente De La Cruz describes a feeling of isolation — of being “the only one.”

“I’m typically the only Latino, the only Mexican-American, in my class,” said De La Cruz, a 34-year-old with a quiet demeanor. During a recent internship at the software company SAP in Palo Alto, he saw “maybe five other Latinos on the SAP campus. I’ve learned to adjust to it. You have to get used to it; it’s a major motivation of mine to keep working in this field.”

The Mercury News originally sought federal employment data for the valley’s 15 largest companies through the Freedom of Information Act in early 2008. Following an appeals process that stretched over nearly two years, five of those companies — Google, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Applied Materials — convinced federal officials to block public disclosure. Data from 2005 was the most current available when the Mercury News made the request.

Between 1999 and 2005, Hispanics were a declining share of the work force in a majority of the 10 large Silicon Valley companies analyzed by the Mercury News — slipping to 5.2 percent of all workers at the 10 companies in 2005, from 6.8 percent in 1999. The black share of the work force at the 10 companies dropped to 2.1 percent, from 2.9 percent.

Even an organization as elite as Stanford’s computer science department felt the need to revamp its curriculum this year, amid concerns that declining overall enrollment was causing the number of women, blacks and Latinos to dwindle even more.

As computer science enrollment dropped, “the percentage of women declined more than the overall percentage,” said Mehran Sahami, a professor who led the curriculum reform. For the few women and minorities left, “suddenly it feels much more isolated” — yet another deterrent.

Women’s prospects

Despite a few high-profile figures like Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Google search chief Marissa Mayer, labor department and other data suggest women are climbing the corporate ladder in Silicon Valley at a slower rate than men.

Over a recent lunch at the Women’s Community Center at Stanford, gender researchers Simard and Andrea Henderson were recounting some gloomy statistics for a room of female computer science students.

In Silicon Valley companies, men and women in technical careers are equally likely to hold mid-level jobs, but men are 2.7 times more likely than women to be promoted to a high-ranking tech jobs such as vice president of engineering, or senior engineering manager, Simard and Henderson found in a 2009 study.

The researchers found a series of clues from the water cooler to the living room. Men are more likely to develop informal professional networks, like taking coffee breaks with colleagues — networks that often lead to career opportunities.

The valley’s married male tech employees are more likely to follow the traditional model of having a man working full time, with a woman who stays home with the kids, than are male professionals nationally, perhaps because of the high salaries paid in tech. By contrast, tech women are overwhelmingly in dual-career couples, and many face an either-or choice — parenthood or career advancement.

“We expected a difference,” Simard told the glum-looking students at Stanford, “but this is kind of like the 1950s.”

Still work ahead

Simard and other researchers are convinced that valley companies do value diversity.

Take eBay, for example. While the San Jose company declined to make its executives available for an interview, or to share its most up-to-date employment information, eBay said it believes workplace diversity is crucial.

But the numbers don’t reflect that.

As eBay’s local work force swelled to accommodate the online retailer’s growth between 2000 and 2005, eBay added 366 managers to its Silicon Valley offices. That net increase included just five additional black managers and no Hispanics.

At a time when eBay was headed by one of the few high-profile female CEOs in Silicon Valley, Meg Whitman, the share of the company’s managers and top officials who were female declined to 30 percent in 2005, from 36 percent five years earlier, according to federal employment data.

“No global company today can stay competitive without persistently recruiting, retaining and developing a diverse work force “… eBay believes workforce diversity is critical to achieving our growth objectives and serving our millions of customers globally,” the company said in a statement.

Some critics blame the government for allowing powerful Silicon Valley companies to rely so heavily on foreign-born workers on H-1B visas, which they contend has boosted the numbers of Asians in the tech workforce at the expense of other groups.

“The reason Silicon Valley is different is that those standards have traditionally been enforced in other industries,” said John Templeton, whose “Silicon Ceiling” report details the lack of blacks and Latinos in Silicon Valley. “If you go to a bank IT department, or a cable television IT department, it reflects the community around it. But somewhere, government dropped the ball.”

Others point to the public education system, noting that recent achievement test scores for black and Latino students have been even lower in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties than for the state overall.

“It certainly is a self-reinforcing cycle,” said AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of the school of information at UC-Berkeley.

Aristotle Saunders, a 32-year-old Marvell engineer, volunteers with school kids in Oakland, dissecting iPods to interest them in a tech career. He thinks the lack of visible middle-class minority neighborhoods in Silicon Valley makes it even tougher to recruit minorities to tech jobs here.

“I sort of have that chameleon feel where I can fit in anywhere, but I can see where people raised in a black neighborhood would feel really uncomfortable,” said Saunders, whose parents are African-American and Filipino and who grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Southern California. “Even though Silicon Valley is based on a principle of meritocracy, where they value people based on their skills rather than their class or ethnic background, I think it’s still a challenge.”

Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/swiftstories.