Black Digerati is a Web 2.0 startup that currently consists of two outfits: a blog and a social network portal called Black Digerati Network that is currently in development. The blog evolved out of my passion for technology and working in Information Technology and not seeing much of any representation of African-Americans besides me in technical related roles. That realization frustrated me, but also caused me to take action to find out for myself African-Americans in Information Technology and share that information with others along with news about our HBCU Computer Science, Engineering, and Technology programs and black tech startups. Thus the Black Digerati blog was born.
The vision for the Black Digerati Network is to create a social network portal to bring together African-Americans, African Immigrants, ect, who are students studying Science, Engineering and Technology, working in the field, and or just a lover of technology. The ideas for the core components that will make up the social network portal are still being thought through. However, a major component of the social network portal will be the collaboration lab where members can present Web 2.0 startup ideas and work together through brainstorming, marketing, coding, etc to bring the widget to fruition. This part of the social network portal came from looking at the state of the tech industry, reading books (i.e. ‘Web 2.0 Heroes: Interviews with 30 Web 2.0 Influencers’) and noticing that the majority of the tech startups members consisted of only Caucasians, Asians and Indians. Why can’t African-Americans gain a piece of that pie? We can because we have the talent and resources, but we typically don’t come together to collaborate and innovate together as a people. Hopefully the social network portal will spearhead that effort.