Y Combinator hires black partner Michael Seibel
Y Combinator has hired its first black partner to aid in the drive to recruit more minority entrepreneurs. Prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneur Michael Seibel is joining as a full-time partner to coach high-tech hopefuls, according to a report in USA Today. A key part of his mission will be reaching out to black and Hispanics who are underrepresented in Y Combinator and more broadly in Silicion Valley. Y Combinator is Silicon Valley’s most famous – and most influential – incubator, graduating companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox that have grown into household names. Entrepreneurs who go through the start-up boot camp gain access to money and advice from some of the industry’s most powerful players and get coverage from technology blogs, a major advantage in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
Jay Z addresses critics of Tidal music service
Jay Z fired back at critics of his Tidal music service on Sunday, claiming the site is “doing just fine” and that its subscriber base is growing. The rapper, who relaunched Tidal after purchasing its parent company Aspiro Group earlier this year for $56 million, urged critics to hold off on dismissing the service too soon. “The iTunes Store wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “It took Spotify nine years to be successful.” Jay Z added that 770,000 subscribers have already signed up for Tidal, which he relaunche to compete with platforms such as Pandora and Spotify.
CODE2040 creates access, awareness, and opportunities for top Black and Latino/a engineering talent to ensure their leadership in the innovation economy.
CODE2040 is a nonprofit organization that creates pathways to educational, professional, and entrepreneurial success in technology for underrepresented minorities with a specific focus on Blacks and Latino/as. CODE2040 aims to close the achievement, skills, and wealth gaps in the United States. Its goal is to ensure that by the year 2040 – when the US will be majority-minority – Blacks and Latino/as are proportionally represented in America’s innovation economy as technologists, investors, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs.
Source: www.code2040.org
Students Suffer in Power-starved NIgeria
www.aljazeera.com. May 27th, 2015
In the midst of an energy crisis that has seen petrol stations run dry and major telecommunications companies warn of impending closure, widespread power cuts are having a dramatic impact on education in Nigeria.
A Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from Kano in northern Nigeria, says that with no electricity at home or in their classes, students are forced to study for end-of-year exams in unusual environments.
One student, Sulaiman Abdulkarim, and his friends were studying under streetlamps on a major highway when Al Jazeera spoke to them.
“I am here in order to read my lecture notes because there is no electricity in our area,” he said.
“We are facing the practicals of computer but there is no electricity.”
Behind him, cars and lorries rush past.
Teachers say students’ grades are falling, along with the larger education sector.
“It affects the quality of education they are getting and it also affects the output coming from the students,” Kabiru Sufi, a college lecturer, told Al Jazeera.
“It has impacted on teaching in such a way that it has affected research.”
Africa’s biggest oil producer currently imports most of its refined petroleum and, just last week, the government said electricity generation hit an all-time low of 1,300MW for a population of 170 million.
It blames sabotage of oil and gas pipelines, as well as an oil workers’ strike.
With chronic shortage of petrol and diesel, most places, including hospitals, are finding it difficult to deliver services.
In a few days, Nigeria’s new government headed by Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in.
The challenges that they face will include corruption, security, infrastructure decay and the current energy crisis.
Source: Al Jazeera