Noire Digerati.com: where young black people can spread their technology wings

The target demographic is people already started in the IT industry, but there's plenty to spark career interest in kids and young adults who enjoy technology as consumers

Many more African Americans are considering IT fields today than they did twenty years ago, but Michael Lang thinks there are a lot of opportunities out there that young black people aren't aware of.

So he began Noire Digerati (Chicago, IL). This digital media and public policy company aims to foster the development, visibility and inclusion of African Americans beyond simple use of IT: in game design, mobile computing, interactive media and other areas. A companion website, NoireDigerati.com, is not only a hub for technology-related news and profiles of African Americans in technology careers, but a place where young people can learn to spread their technological wings.

Lang says his target demographic is sixteen- to thirty-five-year-olds who are already in (or headed for) the IT industry, but he also aims to spark career interest in those who enjoy technology but have never considered a career in the field.

Focus on the creative parts
"We focus a lot on the creative parts of IT, like gaming and animation," says Lang. "The research we've done shows that this demographic is more prone to these areas of IT from a consumption standpoint."

Basically, the idea is to reach out to the large portion of African Americans who are already consuming the technology and show them how they can make a career out of it.

The idea for Noire Digerati came to Lang in 2008 when he was a grad student in CS at DePaul University (Chicago, IL). "I came across an article from Stanford University on persuasive technology," he says. Persuasive technology is the use of technology as a tool to change attitude and behavior.

"I read that and thought, 'Wow!'" Lang says. "Then I got in touch with Dr B. J. Fogg, head of the Stanford persuasive technology lab." From their talks via email Noire Digerati was born. The company is based in Chicago with employees in other parts of the country as well.

Help on the technology path
Lang has a long history of trying to help African Americans find their way on the technology career path. Along with his MSCS Lang has work experience in the IT field, and taught Web design at the GenTech education and training center for multimedia digital technology on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology. The center reaches out to young people over the summer vacation, showing them technology skills like designing websites and creating video games. The teachers are also mentors who steer the kids toward further educational opportunities in the field.

The platform for Noire Digerati follows the same idea. "We're more than a website," Lang points out. "We go out into the community as well."

Lang emphasizes that Noire Digerati doesn't want to compete with other programs that encourage African Americans to enter IT fields; it's basically designed to give visibility to what's already there. "There are a lot of programs, but a lot of people don't know they exist," he says. His group also does consulting for companies and existing nonprofit programs to help them all work toward the same goal.

Pulling them in
Lang uses NoireDigerati.com to pull his audience in, providing information African Americans need to know to pursue IT careers. "For example, if you want to get into computer animation how do you go about it? Or, who are the African Americans out there working in the gaming industry? How did they break into the business? What are their experiences?"

Lang uses a group of young journalists and IT people to provide that information. They shoot videos and write articles intended to show African Americans other people out there who look like them, working in IT-related fields and doing other interesting things with technology.

For example, the website's "innovators" section includes an article about a fifteen-year-old boy in Memphis, TN who has written an iPhone app to give parents news and updates on the Memphis city schools.

There's another profile of a woman college student who entered a robotics contest and had to face down gender discrimination when people at the competition thought she'd come with one of the teams as a cheerleader.

It's real-life examples like these, Lang says, that inspire other young African Americans. "We focus on articles and features that connect with our audience," he says. "We get emails from kids in high school, and we can direct them to one of the articles on our site to help them make a connection."

The site also has sections that announce technology events and opportunities like scholarships, grants, even jobs in IT.

Spreading the word
It's a high-tech endeavor, and Lang finds his target audience through modern-day communication vehicles. "We're syndicated on another site geared for entrepreneurs and they helped generate a lot of our content," he says. "We were mentioned in an article on the Huffington Post. Articles are tweeted or retweeted on Twitter. I've even done an interview with an online magazine in Europe. That's how the word spreads."

Lang says Noire Digerati is just touching the tip of the iceberg in its outreach to the "digital natives" of the African American community. "I had the opportunity to travel to Brazil and learn about their digital divide and how technology is used in that country," he reports. He wants to explore how IT is used in other countries and communicate that back to his website audience.

He's also considering setting up a non-profit organization to implement programs like GenTech in other communities. "We want to take what we're writing about and put it to use in community programs."

Overall, Lang sees Noire Digerati as an outlet to help African Americans move into IT fields and lessen the digital divide. "We don't want to harp on the problems; we want to focus on solutions," he says.

D/C

Sue Marquette Poremba

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