Tastemaker Blacks in Technology: Bringing Black Techies Together

At Black Web 2.0, there has been ongoing discussion about how to best build community among African Americans in technology and social media.  Tastemakers Greg Greenlee and Ronnie Hash are helping to reshape the way black techies communicate through their social networking website Blacks in Technology. At Black Web 2.0, tastemakers are the developers, the thinkers, and the risk takers. They are not influenced but create influence– and they do it through amazingly bold and innovative action. I recently got a chance to talk with Greg and Ronnie about their website and its importance to the African-American tech community.

How did you guys get your start in tech?

Greg : I got my initial love back in the 80’s when I was 12, my dad bought me a Commodore 16 computer. When my computer went on the fritz, I dropped off the computer scene for a while, but I knew I’d always come back to it. I came back many years later and began my career in tech support and eventually moved up to my current position as network/systems administrator. I always had a passion for technology and learning. I had a pretty long hiatus from my initial connection with a computer, but the love was always there.

Ronnie: I started in technology at a young age. My uncle owned an electronic repair shop. I remember going there and watching him work on TV’s, VCR’s, and computers. The first time I had seen a circuit board I was hooked. I wanted to learn everything I could about electronics. My parents had a computer but I could not do much with it because they were scared I would break it and PC’s were not cheap then. When I got my first job, I began to save all my money in order to build a computer. I wrote down a list of things that I needed to build the computer and every time I saved up enough for a peripheral I would buy it. It took me a few months to get all the components I needed. That gave me time to read up on everything that I was purchasing. After getting all the hardware I was able to connect with an old friend of the family who knew something about computers and he helped me install the OS. After that, I spent night and day hacking around.

Tell us a little bit more about Blacks in Technology.

Greg: Blacks In Technology is a community-oriented site with a few goals in mind. The first being one of community amongst African Americans in technology. The second is encourage more African Americans to consider technology as a viable career option and create what I like to call “face time”.  I think one of the biggest reasons why younger African Americans don’t get into technology is because they are not able to relate to the career, mainly because they don’t see familiar faces. We want to get rid of the negative stereotypes associated with technology i.e. squares, lames, etc. and show individuals, through face time,  that they have the means and abilities to make this a career as well. The third thing we want to accomplish is education and knowledge sharing. We have a saying on the site “knowledge is power, knowledge sharing is empowerment”. We want to educated and share knowledge with any individual seeking it.

What made you decide to start the website?

Greg: The site began as just a reaction from seeing lack of African-American representation at a lot of the tech conferences that I

attended. People like to call them hacker conferences. It always puzzled me, not in a negative way, as to why there weren’t a lot of African Americans attending these conferences. I always try and get to the root of the problem so as I began thinking more, I knew that the issue wasn’t the conferences but that African Americans are not entering in the field in high enough numbers. Right then and there I knew I wanted to do something to change it. I met my partner Ronnie Hash at a Linux Conference in Columbus, Ohio and we began a conversation about the subject. We agreed that we would work together to build a site that would help us in our quest to address this problem.

Ronnie:  Yeah, and Greg had actually began a blog site at that time and wanted to do more with it. We started to kick around some ideas on what we felt could help African Americans in technology communicate with each other and how we could assist each other with advancing in the field of technology.

How does the site work and what type of services does it provide?

Greg:  You first become a member of the site. It’s totally free to join. When you join, you create a profile, upload an avatar if you want and began participating in what the site has to offer.  There are a number of things that it offers including forums, chats, profile, podcasts and articles written by community members.

We talk a lot on our site about the problem that black techies have with reaching out to one another. Do social sites like BIT help to solve this?

Greg: We definitely think this is a great step into helping to solve the dilemma that a lot of African Americans in technology face which in my opinion is both a lack of mentoring and a lack of role models within the industry.

Ronnie: We noticed the same thing when it came to black techies reaching out to another. We are hoping that with BIT we can assist with changing that.

Greg: Exactly, and if you look at the  “Why Join” section of our site we have several key elements that we are trying to address amongst African Americans in tech including knowledge sharing, communication, inspiration and career development.

Have users been receptive and responsive?

Ronnie:  We are hearing a lot of positive feedback about the site and we hope to continue to see growth on the site.

Greg: Most definitely. We have had an overwhelming response so far. We launched the site in February 2010 and we have approx 220 members nationwide. We talk to people all the time and they are constantly telling us that this site is exactly what they were looking for and we hope to make more improvements in the future that will help to better serve our community.

8. What sorts of social media strategies have you used to help grow your fan base?

Ronnie:  Greg has done a great job at this particular aspect. He first began a LinkedIn group and he tends to stay on top of it. We use Twitter and also Facebook to help spread the word about our site. Initially we were constantly searching the internet for the contact information of African Americans in technology and then we would send them emails about our site. We are currently gathering a list of contacts for HBCU’s so we can reach out to them.

What are your plans for growing the site’s user base? Do you have any specific goals for BIT going into 2011?

Ronnie: Goals we have for 2011 is to continue to find ways to engage the community and bring them services that they need in order to grow their career in IT.

Greg: We have a few things that we want to bring to the site. Some of the things we have planned are a) an online video tech show,  b) online technology courses, c) a jobs board and we are also in the initial stages of building a mobile application for the site with the help from our member base. It’s a community mobile apps project that will allow members to interact with the site through their mobile phones. We also want to put together a Blacks In Technology conference.

How important is networking to moving up the ladder in the social media scene as a black techie?

Greg: Well as the old adage goes, “It ain’t what you know it’s who you know”.  Networking is a huge component in moving up the ladder if not the biggest because social media is just that….a network that connects everyone to everyone. If you can capitalize on what social media has to offer you can effectively build your brand.

Ronnie: Networking is very important. I have found some of my best opportunities through networking. Networking allows you to get your name out there as a SME.

You were voted as one of the top tech tastemakers. What advice do you have for readers who might be looking to start their own website?

Ronnie: Follow your passion. It is easier to work on things that you believe in. Blacks In Technology is something I believe in and would like to see the site assist African Americans in advancing in their career.

Greg: I agree. Follow your passion. Set your goals wisely. Stay motivated and focused and most of all do your research.

Category: Black Digerati, Featured | Tags: blacks in technology, community, Greg Greenlee, Ronnie Hash, Top 50 Tech Tastemakers