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
Local hospitals shut out of federal funding for program; costs pose problem across the board, but benefits outweigh obstaclesPuerto Rico’s private hospitals are pushing for a share of federal funding they say is vital to meet a 2015 deadline for all medical institutions and practitioners around the nation to implement electronic health records (EHRs) under the U.S. Health Information Technology for Economic & Clinical Health Act (Hitech).
Hitech, passed as part of President Barack Obama’s American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) last year, calls for the development of a national electronic health-records system throughout the mainland U.S., Puerto Rico and other territories by encouraging the adoption of EHRs through incentive payments to physicians.
Although physicians and medical practices in Puerto Rico are eligible for federal incentives, the island’s hospitals were shut out of the program, leaving them $200 million short of what they expected to get to implement EHRs, hospital officials say.
At stake is a vital modernizatio! n initiative and potential cuts in Medicare payments starting in 2015 if the EHR deadline isn’t met.
Congress left the hospitals in Puerto Rico and the other territories out of the Hitech legislation because it was easier to draft a definition based on just the 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to Puerto Rico Hospitals Association President Jaime Plá Cortés.
“When the Hitech Act was approved, we thought we were in. But we were wrong,” said Plá, adding the congressional record doesn’t shed any light on how and why local hospitals were shut out.
Surprised by the exclusion, island hospitals are lobbying hard for funding to meet a federal requirement that does apply to the island’s medical facilities and practitioners. Plá has taken the case to Capitol Hill during various visits to Washington, D.C.
“Members of Congress agree there is no reason we should be left out,” he said.
“We feel it isn’t fair because we aren’t eligible for the financial aid but do have t! o comply with the law,” said Ashford Presbyterian Community Ho! spital E xecutive Director Pedro González, the incoming Hospitals Association president for 2011.
Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi is aiming to fix the problem through legislation to amend Hitech. His H.R. 1501, or the Puerto Rico Medicare Reimbursement Equity Act of 2009, was co-sponsored by the three stateside Puerto Rican members of Congress— Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., and New York Democratic Reps. José Serrano and Nydia Velázquez—and has been sent to the U.S. House Ways & Means Committee.
“This lack of eligibility apparently stems from an involuntary mistake since Puerto Ricans pay the payroll taxes that finance this program,” said Pierluisi, adding the island Health Department, meanwhile, has received $7.7 million through ARRA for the implementation of EHRs in public medical facilities.
“There is no law that obligates anyone to incorporate EHRs,” said Dr. José Piovanetti, chief medical information officer at the island Health Department.
While no sanctions will be! levied for noncompliance, Medicare-funding cuts will come into play and will increase annually after the EHR incentives run out by the 2015 deadline, he said, noting hospitals with mostly older patients would be particularly hard hit.
EHR implementation at a midsize hospital costs roughly $10 million-$12 million, according to Piovanetti. Even with the federal funding issue unresolved, some local private hospitals are pushing ahead with EHR implementation, including Ashford, which has earmarked more than $2 million for the project.
“We are currently in phase five of six and the project will be completed by early 2011,” González said.
Plá said some hospitals might receive EHR funds through Medicaid, but “the local government is still deciding how the funds are going to be distributed.”
“Only hospitals with at least 10% of patients covered by Medicaid may be eligible for that money,” he said.
Other challenges for EHR implementation
Beyond the federal fundi! ng issue, the island’s medical community faces other significa! nt chall enges in implementing EHRs.
Piovanetti believes Puerto Rico should move quickly toward EHRs, but acknowledged the process poses obstacles across the medical field.
“It requires a change in the whole operation of the institution and the adoption of a new mechanism as well as a new dynamic in the doctor-patient relationship,” he said.
It can take up to two months to implement EHRs in a small practice while the process can extend to nine months in a primary-care clinic, according to industry executives.
The Health Department official said doctors fall into one of three categories in terms of the new system: The adopters, who are young and embrace technology; the sideliners, who will wait and see how the project develops; and the late adopters, who see the system as a headache rather than a benefit and will incorporate it only reluctantly.
“This is normal in a change of this sort. But the mid- and long-term benefits outweigh everything else,” said Piovanetti, adding th! at once widely adopted, people won’t be able to work without EHRs.
A potential problem with an HER system, according to Piovanetti, is that they are designed by technology specialists, not by health experts, which can complicate diagnosis and treatment efforts by doctors.
The Health Department chief medical information officer, however, brushed aside security and privacy concerns, saying EHRs are safeguarded from hackers and dramatically more secure than paper records.
‘Bar set too high’
A big obstacle to the implementation of EHRs in Puerto Rico is that “meaningful use” must be established to qualify for incentives under the Hitech Act, a standard that will be tough to meet, according to Plá.
“Meaningful use isn’t a possibility right now for island or U.S. mainland medical practices. The bar was set too high,” he said, adding the Federal Hospitals Association agrees with his assessment.
According to the Hitech regulations, medical practices should be us! ing EHRs by 2011, exchanging information through EHRs by 2013 ! and empl oying EHRs as a full tool for patients by 2015 to comply with the “meaningful use” standard. If doctors in medical practices don’t comply with 100% of the regulation they won’t receive a cent in federal incentives, Plá said.
Plá said the Puerto Rico Hospitals Association has submitted amendments to the regulations to make Hitech compliance easier, which includes extending the timeframe to implement the system.
“There are practices that will be able to comply with the meaningful-use clause, though many won’t,” Piovanetti said.
“If medical practices wait until 2011 to start the transformation process, there is a high probability they won’t receive any funds because they won’t be set on time,” he said. “Whoever hasn’t started yet is late, for both the meaningful-use compliance and the certification.”
However, the certifier of the correct use of EHRs, the U.S. Health & Human Services Department, hasn’t completed its regulation.
“Most certified providers are transitory ! while the department finishes the regulations,” Piovanetti said.
Despite the challenges, medical-industry officials say the benefits of EHRs outweigh the costs.
EHRs, which integrate the patient information from all health providers and can be exchanged, shouldn’t be confused with electronic medical records (EMRs), which carry patient information offered from one health provider.
“Our patients can be anywhere and, with just the touch of a button, we can assure they will be covered and taken care of correctly,” said Wanda Mims, the top official in Puerto Rico of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the only institution on the island that currently handles EHRs.
Former Humana President Dr. Víctor Gutiérrez worked for more than 10 years to establish a system that compiles all the clinical data for a patient into a single file.
“Many have long seen this as a logical process so patients and health professionals can have easy access to information and prevent duplic! ation. We wanted quality to go up but costs to go down,” Gutié! rrez sai d. Obama’s inclusion of EHRs in the ARRA stimulus package accelerated the process by making it a priority for medical practices to share information through a national database.
“You are able to look at a full patient profile. For patients, it will prevent any inconveniences in terms of picking up and taking documents from one place to another. It will also lower costs and will help a lot in quality of service,” Gutiérrez said.
Gutiérrez acknowledged the high hardware, software and training costs tied to EHR implementation but argued “there has to be a safe method for data storage and the Hitech Act can help cover these costs.”
“The government is providing us with the power to transform health services to attend to patient’s needs,” said Laura Morales, president of Smart Health, a company that provides health-information systems. She added that the current manual-records process is vulnerable to errors, privacy violations, duplication of prescriptions and treatments an! d is marked by fragmentized information.
For Piovanetti, the adoption of EHRs is also a matter of maintaining the competitiveness of the island’s healthcare system.
“Puerto Rico is too focused on its problems and isn’t looking beyond our coast to see how we rate,” said Piovanetti, arguing that the island lags far behind the medical industries in Europe, Mexico, Canada and other jurisdictions.
According to a study published by the World Economic Forum, Puerto Rico ranks 43 out of 133 in the network readiness index. Countries such as Tunisia, Qatar and Barbados are more technologically ready than Puerto Rico.
“This is a long process and it won’t be easy. There are a lot of people who aren’t technologically advanced,” Plá concluded.
Message : Gracias por su patrocinio. Fué un placer servirle
Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan
America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental railroad and the Interstate highways, so too must we harness the potential of the Internet. Expanding broadband across the nation will build a foundation of sustained economic growth and the widely shared prosperity we all seek.
I commend Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Commissioners, and the FCC staff for their hard work in developing the National Broadband Plan.
My Administration will build upon our efforts over the past year to make America’s nationwide broadband infrastructure the world’s most powerful platform for economic growth and prosperity, including improving access to mobile broadband, maximizing technology innovation, and supporting a nationwide, interoperable public safety wireless broadband network.
### FCC Chairman Announces The National Broadband Plan.
What is Broadband?
The term broadband commonly refers to high-speed Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access.
How is broadband different from dial-up service?
Broadband service provides higher-speed of data transmission. It allows more content to be carried through the transmission “pipeline.”
Broadband provides access to the highest quality Internet services—streaming media, VoIP (Internet phone), gaming, and interactive services. Many of these current and newly-developing services require the transfer of large amounts of data that may not be technically feasible with dial-up service. Therefore, broadband service may be increasingly necessary to access the full range of services and opportunities that the Internet can offer.
Broadband is always on. It does not block phone lines and there is no need to reconnect to network after logging off.
Less delay in transmission of content when using broadband.
Goal 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.
Goal 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.
Goal 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.
Goal 4: Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 Gbps broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.
Goal 5: To ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder should have access to a nationwide public safety wireless network.
Goal 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.
President Obama announced he will be sending Congress a plan to reform the country’s education program by doing away with some of the main aspects of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law. While Obama’s proposal wouldn’t entirely get rid of what was one of his predecessor’s hallmark domestic initiatives, it does put forward many key changes that could dramatically change how the federal government interacts with the country’s 98,000 public elementary and high schools. Essentially, the administration’s approach to education involves setting more stringent standards for schools but at the same time implementing changes in the ways the No Child Left Behind Law measures progress. Although the Bush-era law has been praised for shining the spotlight on achievement gaps in the nation’s schools, it has been harshly criticized for pushing states to decrease standards and focus on teaching to the test on a few subjects rather than focusing on an overall student experience. In addition to being tested in reading and math, the president’s proposal would allow to test other subjects in order to measure progress. It would also place an increased emphasis on individual students’ academic growth and count other factors besides test scores when judging how schools are doing. Rather than require that all American students be proficient in reading and math, the new plan would call on all high-school graduates to be ready for college and a career. Democrats generally praised the initiative but teacher unions weren’t very happy. The president of the American Federation of Teachers criticized the plan, saying that it “places 100 percent of the responsibility on teachers and gives them zero percent of the authority.”
Statement by the President on Today’s Meetings on Immigration Reform
I have met with Senators Schumer and Graham and was pleased to learn of their progress in forging a proposal to fix our broken immigration system. I look forward to reviewing their promising framework, and every American should applaud their efforts to reach across party lines and find commonsense answers to one of our most vexing problems. I also heard from a diverse group of grassroots leaders from around the country about the growing coalition that is working to build momentum for this critical issue. I am optimistic that their efforts will contribute to a favorable climate for moving forward. I told both the Senators and the community leaders that my commitment to comprehensive immigration reform is unwavering, and that I will continue to be their partner in this important effort.
Declaraciones del Presidente sobre las reuniones de hoy sobre la reforma migratoria
Me reuní con los senadores Schumer y Graham, y me complació enterarme de los logros que han alcanzando en el desarrollo de una propuesta para arreglar el sistema quebrado de inmigración. Estoy deseoso de examinar su promisorio marco de trabajo para la reforma, y todos los estadounidenses deben aplaudir sus esfuerzos por entablar un diálogo entre partidos y encontrar respuestas de sentido común para uno de nuestros problemas más polémicos. También escuche a un diverso grupo de líderes comunitarios de todo el país sobre la creciente coalición que está trabajando para impulsar este tema crucial. Me siento optimista de que sus esfuerzos contribuirán a un entorno favorable para seguir avanzando. Les dije a ambos senadores y a los líderes comunitarios que mi compromiso con una reforma integral de la inmigración es inquebrantable, y continuaré siendo su socio en este importante esfuerzo.
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 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.”
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.”
Civil Rights Organizations’ Hopes for Change at the FCC Remain Unmet
Guest Blogger: Sylvia Aguilera
Executive Director, Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP)
A letter issued by 23 civil rights organizations should provide some answers to those who profess to being troubled and confused by the civil rights community’s unwillingness to fall into lock-step with them and the Administration on the Open Internet proceeding.
It should go without saying that civil rights organizations are not only entitled, but justified, to question the ability of a government agency to manage the regulation of something as vital as the Internet. Even a cursory look at the Federal Communications Commission’s record in addressing the needs of unserved and underserved communities, opens one’s eyes to appalling disregard for the needs of communities of color. It is a record that the current Commission has done little to change.
The FCC has failed to address:
enforcement of broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity rules,
assignment of a compliance officer for advertising non-discrimination rules,
promulgation of multilingual broadcasts of emergency information,
holding a hearing on faulty audience measurement technologies impacting minority-serving radio.
These are only a few examples of the FCC’s failure to protect the interests of minority communities. While these failures can be directly attributed to the prior Administration, more recent examples – such as the omission of minority, digital divide or minority business enterprise issues in its December 2009 National Broadband Plan Framework, and the agency’s failure to support funding for much-needed support for media and telecom ownership by women and minorities – can only be interpreted by advocates as an outright dismissal of the concerns of disenfranchised communities.
If these issues were not so serious, questions about civil rights organizations’ reluctance to embrace regulation of an open Internet would be almost laughable. When presented with the FCC’s dismal record of neglect and disregard for the needs of our communities, why would any advocate expect civil rights organizations to trust the FCC’s ability to safeguard our rights on the Internet?
Civil rights organizations need not excuse or explain themselves in the face of such naiveté. Like any group of engaged, concerned citizens, we have the right to petition our government. In this case, where the trust and goodwill of minority communities have been decimated by neglect, we will be especially vigilant in our efforts to ensure that our government engages in responsible policy making. While we respect the right of advocates to hold differing opinions, we feel strongly that the energy and resources being used to discredit civil rights organizations over this one proceeding would be better placed in moving the FCC to act on the long-standing list of civil rights proposals that have languished at the agency.
It is distressing to witness groups and individuals that are aligned with the Commission using smear tactics – typically the domain of political operatives – to discredit civil rights organizations. These tactics are at odds with the “Change” that had been the uniting promise of a new Administration that many of us helped bring into office. In the past, we have partnered with some of the same organizations that now question our motives. In the future, it would serve all of us to collaborate once again. We ask these organizations to not make the same mistakes that the FCC has made in disregarding our very real concerns for the needs of disenfranchised communities.
Sylvia Aguilera is the Executivew Director of Http: Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP) is a s a coalition of twenty national and regional U.S. Hispanic organizations working to increase awareness of the impact of technology and telecommunications policy on the U.S. Hispanic community. LISTA is a proud member of HTTP:
Contact Sylvia at http@httponline.org. or follow her on twitter httponline
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.
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.
