Blacks In Technology Podcast #47: 'How To Raise a Coder'

Blacks In Technology (BIT) is an organization whose focus is to increase visibility, increase participation and change the perceptions of African Americans in the technology field. They host regular podcasts to showcase technologists and engineers.

The 47th podcast in the series is geared towards parents of young people who are engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. The title of BIT Tech Talk #47 is "How To Raise a Coder".



BDPA Education and Technology Foundation is proud to share this podcast with those in our cyber-sphere of influence!

Blacks In Technology Podcast #45: Joshua Hoskins (Appirio)

Joshua Hoskins

BDPA seeks to support all efforts to advance the careers of African Americans in the IT industry from the classroom to the boardroom. One way that we do so is be broadening awareness of the brothers and sisters who are silently becoming rock stars in the IT industry. Many of these unheralded rock stars are being interviewed by the folks over at Blacks In Technology.

In this podcast, Joshua Hoskins talks about his journey to becoming a salesforce.com consulting MVP. Joshua shares valuable tips on driving your career, taking risks, starting his own company, relationship management, life hacking, work-life balance and how to get a job offer while attending Dreamforce. He even gets in some nitty gritty details of data modeling on cloud platforms! Tune in because won’t want to miss this podcast!



Joshua has been using computers since he was four years-old. He began writing code in the 5th grade. He was 'Director of Information Technology' by the age of 22. While being extremely passionate about Customer Relationship Management & Application Development he lives to build reliable, robust and scalable solutions just about anything you can think of.

Tech Expresso Cafe: 'Greg Greenlee, Founder of Blacks In Technology' (November 19, 2013)

Greg Greenlee, Owner and Founder of Blacks In Technology (BIT), was the guest on the Tech Expresso Cafe podcast produced by BDPA members David Blackman and Jacqueline Sanders. The discussion focused on the vision that Mr. Greenlee has BIT, its role in the community, upcoming programs and activities and the information technology content generated by BIT subscribers.

We invite all BDPA stakeholders to enjoy the podcast!

More Technology Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Tech Expresso Cafe on BlogTalkRadio

The Best Twitter Accounts for BDPA Members

BDPA members who are not using Twitter to market their chapter or business are missing out on a great opportunity. Twitter can also be a huge resource for BDPA members in the day-to-day operation of their chapter or business. However, BDPA members must know the right accounts to follow in order to benefit from all that Twitter can offer.

Here are 10 Twitter accounts that every BDPA member should be sure to follow:

1. TED Talks (1,630,325 followers)- @tedtalks - TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED Talks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. These online presentations give everyone on-demand access to the world's most inspiring voices. TED Talks have been viewed more than one billion times.



Craig Brown

2. Craig Brown (1,036,086 followers) - @craigbrownphd - Craig is the National BDPA vice president at the moment.  He is also the only nominee to become the National BDPA president for 2014-2015.  Craig has more Twitter followers than any other member in the history of BDPA.  Hopefully he will be able to translate his ability to attract support in Twitter with a similar ability to attract new members to BDPA in the coming weeks and months.  Craig is a remarkable IT thought leader and I encourage you to get to know him.
3. Roland Martin (218,100 followers) - @rolandsmartin - Martin is managing editor for TV One; senior analyst for the Tom Joyner Morning Show; syndicated columnist for Creators Syndicate ... and most importantly to BDPA members is that he will be our keynote speaker at the 35th annual BDPA Technology Conference later this year in Washington DC. Martin is an unabashed champion for his fraternity and his favorite NFL team. Perhaps we can get him to be as much of a champion for BDPA programs, scholarships and services as well!
4. Change The Equation (8,637 followers) - @changeequation - A non-partisan, CEO-led initiative to connect and align efforts to improve STEM learning in the United States. These folks seek to mobilize the business community to change the way that science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning takes place in America. Don't you agree that BDPA members should be engaged in this initiative?
5. BDPA Foundation (2,415 followers) - @bdpa - You didn't think that I was going to give a Top 10 list and not include my own Twitter account, did you? BDPA Foundation is one of the most active Twitter accounts focused on BDPA programs, scholarships and services. The tweets give updates on funding sources, grant proposals, BDPA accomplishments, college scholarships, corporate sponsors, career opportunities and much more. These tweets also prove to be very useful to others nonprofit professionals outside of the BDPA family as well.

6. Blacks In Technology (1,974 followers) - @blkintechnology - The premier online community for Black techies. Membership is free and the camaraderie is priceless. Their motto is 'Bringing Unity to the Black IT Community'. One of the most outstanding ideas to come forth from these folks is the BIT Tech Digest - an online resource of technology information written entirely by Black technology professionals.
7. Blerdology (761 followers)- @blerdology - 'Blerds' are Black Nerds. This twitter account is the Black tech social enterprise that fuels their ambitions, facilitates collaboration & makes blerd life more awesome. It is an outgrowth of the Blerdology website and I hope that we see more Blerds in BDPA over the coming weeks and months!
8. BDPA Conference (235 followers) - @bdpa_conference - The annual BDPA Technology Conference has taken place since 1979. It is the largest gathering of African American information technology professionals in the world. All BDPA members should make the trip to this BDPA mecca at least once during their collegiate or professional career. These tweets keep you updated on scheduled workshops, plenary sessions, keynote speakers, corporate sponsors and so much more.
9. BDPA Atlanta - @atlantabdpa (144 followers) - This chapter is fast-becoming a BDPA powerhouse.  They are the home of the defending national High School Computer Competition champions.  They put on some very powerful programs that serve as 'best practices' for the other 45 local chapters around the nation.  This chapter is focused and successful in a number of ways that should be admired by all BDPA members.  I strongly encourage all BDPA members to do themselves a favor ... follow this Twitter account right now!
10. BDPA New York (87) - @bdpanewyork - BDPA New York is the 2-time defending 'Chapter of the Year'.  They don't have many Twitter followers ... but, they are very active in terms of programs and services to the IT community.  The chapter president, Renetta English, is one of the hardest working leaders in BDPA-Nation.  Show them some Twitter love ... they've earned it!

Well, those are my Top 10 Twitter accounts that I think should be followed by all BDPA members. What do you think? Which Twitter accounts do you think are missing from this list? Which of these Twitter accounts do you co-sign as being truly worthy of our attention? I look forward to your comments!

Blacks In Technology Launches BIT Tech Digest

Blacks In Technology recently announced the launch of its new website -- BIT Tech Digest. BIT Tech Digest is the first online technology driven publication featuring articles written entirely by minority technology experts. The new site reflects Blacks In Technology’s continued effort and mission to increase the visibility of the Black technologist by establishing effective communication among Black people in the field to help drive individual growth, development and long-term success in the technology industry.

Greg Greenlee

The BIT Tech Digest features content focused on a variety of technology topics including networking, virtualization, software design and development and professional advancement. The BIT Tech Digest will also highlight technology news and information about today’s minority tech entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations.

Greg Greenlee, founder of the Blacks In Technology community site and the BIT Tech Digest, believes the site will change the perception of how today’s engineers and technologists are visualized by providing an outlet for Blacks and other minority technology professionals and enthusiasts to share their expertise and experience.

BIT Tech Digest was launched as a live Google+ hangout. You can view the recorded event here: BIT Tech Digest Live Launch Event.



You can follow BIT Tech Digest on Twitter: @BITTechDigest

If you’d like more information about the BIT Tech Digest or are interested in sharing your knowledge with the community please contact Greg at info@bitdigest.net.

Blacks In Technology Podcast #32: Ronnie Hash (Ubisoft)

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Soulclap to Greg Greenlee (Blacks In Technology) for continuing his tradition of creating podcasts that help each of us advance our careers within the IT industry. On the following audio podcast, Greg sits down with Ubisoft development operations engineer Ronnie Hash to talk about the Cloud, CouchDB, MongoDB, Puppet configuration manager, DevOps, upcoming technology-related conferences and the mysterious happenings of the PidginIM client.