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Steve Wozniak just created his own online university
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has just launched Woz U, a new digital institute designed for those eyeing a career in the tech industry. "Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt," Wozniak said in a statement. "People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can't do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how."
Intel's diversity report shows slow growth for women and minorities
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich condemned hate speech and white supremacy on Twitter after the horrifying events in Charlottesville this weekend. On Monday, he resigned from Trump's American Manufacturing Council to "call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues..." Now, alongside a mid-year diversity report that documents some slow and flat growth in diversity at Intel, Krzanich is touting his company's "fast march" toward the full representation of women and unrepresented minorities in Intel's US-based workforce by 2018. That's only one year away.
Peter Thiel's tech wealth made him a First Amendment gatekeeper
Peter Thiel built his fortune in Silicon Valley as a founder of PayPal, an early backer of Facebook and a venture capitalist focused on the technology industry. He's living proof of the Bay Area's ability to make billionaires of mortal men. Using a fraction of his tech billions, Thiel bankrolled Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media earlier this year, which eventually led to the company declaring bankruptcy and shutting down Gawker.com. Thiel had held a grudge against the site for years, after he claimed it outed him as gay in 2007. Since the Gawker ruling, Thiel has fielded questions about the ethics of a billionaire effectively using his money to shut down a news organization that he didn't like, a move that some argue violate the site's First Amendment rights. He's responded by calling his $10 million support of Hulk Hogan's lawsuit "one of [the] greater philanthropic things" that he's ever done. Thiel has also said he's backing other, similar lawsuits. During a Q&A session at the National Press Club today, Thiel explained three key things about the Gawker lawsuit:
The most important news at CES is a $300 million response to GamerGate
The most important news from CES 2015 involves hundreds of millions of dollars and a titan in the tech industry. It has its origins in a movement that scarred the latter half of 2014. It's not a gadget. It's not a service. It's not something that's for sale at all, actually. The most important news at CES 2015 comes from Intel of all places, which announced its Diversity in Technology Initiative on Tuesday evening: an ambitious $300 million investment, intended to "increase the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in the workplace and our industry" through partnerships, hiring and oversight. As Intel CEO Brian Krzanich puts it, "This isn't just good business; this is the right thing to do." For a company that's over 75 percent male, it's about time.
Research confirms minorities earn significantly less in skilled tech jobs
There's no denying that wage inequality is a terrible thing, and it's not just limited to blue-collar trades. The tech industry's so-called high-skilled positions -- like programmers and developers -- pay minorities much less than their Caucasian colleagues. Sure, the issue is certainly nothing new, but a recent USA Today report details the finer points, with figures from the American Institute for Economic Research. According to that latter outfit's findings, on average Hispanic males earn $16,353 less than white males per year, with Asian males making $8,146 less and black males netting $3,656 less, respectively, in those tech jobs. Of course, women face similar issues in terms of salary, on top of being massively outnumbered when it comes to positions in Silicon Valley. In fact, females in each ethnicity group researched earned less than their male counterparts. While companies are looking to combat the gender gap with mentor programs and more, the inconsistency in earnings is also a huge issue that needs to be tackled for both men and women across a range of ethnicities.
Tech industry is world's most trustworthy, says new survey
Who do you trust to "do what is right?" Your answer to that question will depend on how you interpret it, though we don't think there's too much room for ambiguity with the results from Edelman's 11th annual Trust Barometer survey. It shows the tech industry a clear 10 percent ahead of the rest of the corporate world in terms of trustworthiness, with the automotive (a favorite of ours) and telecommunications (really?) sectors following up in second and third. The results come from the polling of 5,075 "informed" members of the public from 23 nations. We reckon all the companies involved in making the business of chipmaking quite so reputable should pat themselves on the back -- unless their names are Motorola, Samsung or Sony Ericsson, those guys' failures with Android updates haven't really contributed to the credibility of their industry at all.
