Earlier today we wrote about the Launch of HuffPoTech and the direction they’ll take covering Technology news.  They plan to cover technology and how it effects the people who use it and build it not just chase the news.  So I am especially excited because Robin Caldwell our Managing Editor will be contributing to HuffPoTech on behalf of Black Web 2.0!  She is leading the launch as the first contributor to the section (History ) and is serving as the opening act for a slew of heavy hitters that will follow.  You can check out her first contribution over there titled “Black Like Me? The Missing Faces in Technology and Innovation.“  Exciting stuff!

In addition, this opportunity forced us to launch something that we had not only been thinking about but had been working on for sometime.  It is nothing HUGE, in fact it is something that is small but had been missing as a resource.  It is called Color in Tech.  It is simply a directory of people of color inclusive of all races though is skews more African-American since that is our focus on this site.  It is pretty basic right now and Markus was able to put this together in only 2 days however, we know that it is a start to a great solution.  We run into people who often want to know where African-American’s are in technology.  They want to know where the start-ups are, and where the speakers are, and so on and so forth.  My response is I usually ramble off a few names or make a few introductions.  Collectively we all know where the color in technology is.  It is just to often locked in our heads and is only re-purposed when someone asks.  This is one of the main reasons why we’ve been contemplating launching this site and is the chief reason why we will eventually open it up so that it is editable by everyone.  We are hoping this will be an easy way (and a starting point and solution) to people becoming more inclusive in who they choose to feature, invite to speak at conferences, and so on and so forth.  We also think it will just be something that will be cool to browse through as well.  If we forgot to add you or missed you please don’t take offense, who we’ve listed is certainly not and end all be all, it is simply a starting point and the best we could do in 2 days time.  The list currently includes 100 people of color in technology.  Another important note is this list is not ranked at all so please don’t take offense to listing position as well.  We are looking forward to hearing your thoughts!!

Robert Barocci, president and CEO of The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has announced the appointment of social media trailblazer Lynne d Johnson as senior vice president, social media.

In her new post, Ms. Johnson will focus on content, brand and social media development and strategy, and will spearhead the launch of the ARF Social Media Council, among many other key initiatives.

She comes to the ARF from FastCompany.com, where she served as senior editor/community director, overseeing both content and community functionality, as well as writing the Digital Media Diva blog, covering technology, media, marketing and the entertainment business.  Prior to that, her 10-year history of bringing together communities both online and offline includes similar leadership roles at Vibe and Spin magazines, as well as BlackPlanet.com.  In addition, as a consultant, she has worked with many Web and media properties on content, brand and social media development and strategy.

Disclosure:  Lynne d Johnson is also a supportive and active member of BlackWeb20.com’s advisory board.

Are we living in a post-racial America? What does being black in America mean today?

Join The Root staff and readers as we screen CNN’s “Black in America 2″ and host an interactive panel discussion where 20-something professionals in politics, law and medicine respond to your questions and reactions from the show.

The Root and Black Web 2.0 will be live streaming the discussion, so feel free to weigh in with your thoughts.

To submit a question for the panel in advance, post on a comment below on our Wall. Share your thoughts on CNN’s first “Black in America” and any expectations you have for the second installment. Remember to include your city and state, so we can give you a shoutout during the event!

If you live in the DMV area, come out to Busboys and Poets (5th and K Streets location) on July 23 from 8-10 p.m. Or tune in and tweet your thoughts from home. Just be sure to get your voice heard!

What role does race play in the lives of young Americans? You tell us.

Live Videos by Ustream

STR8 Talk Yesterday was great so thanks to all those who were able to make it!    We plan to have more in the upcoming weeks and months, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on that.  The service we used for last night was called DimDim, it’s pretty cool and is a web based alternative to WebEx.  It also offers record and embed features but sadly I think I was a little to light on the mouse when selecting record (oops…inside joke;)) because it didn’t record yesterday’s session.  However we do have Wayne’s slide below, take a look if you like and if you missed it we hope you won’t miss the next one!

Not to be overlooked some of the awesomeness in attendance last night; straight from the accompanying chat :

Michael Robinson:
MKRob’s Sports Blog- www.mkrob.com-I blog about 6 different sports, average about 10 posts a day about news, scores etc.

atslopes:
Andrew Thompson –www.atslopes.com Art Direction, design, Illustration, Animation, and hopefully t-shirts in the near future; I’m on twitter @atslopes

Robert Holiday:
http://robertholiday.comaudio blogger/podcast personality

Mikey Digital:
Michael Lang; Black Black Digerati (blackdigerati.org)

auguste7:
Woodley Auguste I’m the communications manager for Strang Book Group, an inspirational publishing company.

Andre :
Andre Blackman – www.pulseandsignal.com I talk abut public health and innovation.

Rahsheen:
sheenonlin.biz or “rahsheen” everywhere else. Tech, Productivity, Music, and Health/Fitness.

STR8 TALK: How to Listen to your Customers Online

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM (ET)

Date: July 15th

Time: 7pm – 8:30pm*
*On Demand:  Live Broadcast will be recorded for playback at a later date for registrants.
Where: Online
Price: Free

So you have a website now what?  One of the biggest problems website owners have is how to get customers to their site and how to get a good grasp of what their customers want.  One of the most effective ways to do this on a budget is through the use of social media tools (like Twitter, Facebook, and many others).  Using tools like these market to and monitor  potential customers can help make this process simple, seemless, and ensure success.

During this conversation you’ll learn proven methods (go elsewhere for “get-rich-quick” tactics) to manage your websites reputation online and how to use Social Media to your business’ advantage.  This hour and a half session with Strategist Wayne Sutton that will take place completely online and go into detail on the following topics:

• What is Social Media listening?

• Why you should listen to your customers using Social Media;

• The difference between Listening, Monitoring and Engaging using Social Media;

• How to find where your customers are having conversations;

• Social Media Listening / Monitoring Tools

• Creating an Engagement Policy for your business.

You’ll also get a chance to ask questions and get suggestions directly from Wayne.

Register HERE.

STR8 Talk: How to Listen to Your Customers Online has been rescheduled for July 15, 7:00-8:30 p.m. EDT. All registrations for the June 24 on-demand video class will be honored on the July 15 date. STR-8 Talk will feature strategist Wayne Sutton who will discuss how social media is an affordable way for small businesses to grow. The live broadcast will be recorded for playback at a later date for registrants.

I have a passion. It rules my thinking almost as fervently as faith rules my spirit. It drives my work as a consultant and editor.

The passion?

To see ‘myself’ in places and spaces where ‘I’ belong.

I’m still young enough to recall the bliss of Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings when Soul Train and Ed Sullivan brought us some faces to watch on TV. Faces that looked like mine. It was a big deal.

Every black home had at least one copy of Jet or Ebony or Essence displayed either prominently or casually; dog-earred and passed around. In the pages of those magazines were people who looked like me, and they were doing things in science, business and the arts that were inspiring and encouraging. They were hopeful things for little people like me, like Barack Obama too.

Recently, I strolled into the digital and tech space and once again, I saw ‘me.’ I see black people. They are geeky, nerdy, super smart, theorists, tactians, strategists, fun-loving, dull and pretty freakin’ impressive. And the thing I think I love the most as evidenced with BlackWeb20.com is that they aren’t waiting to be invited to the party, they are hosting their own.

I think that’s hot.

Martinique philosopher Franz Fanon said something I can only paraphrase because I’m too darn pooped to look it up. Fanon said, in effect, that we don’t notice the absence of our image until we see that one face, that lone face, and then we want to see more.

I want to see more.

It’s a privilege to be in this space. And it’s a privilege to meet you all.

Thank you, Angela and Markus.

Heraclitus said, “The only constant in life is change”, and with so much going on in the world today, many of us have become quite familiar with it.  Sometimes we associate dramatic change with anxiety, frustration, and other less desirable emotions, but what we’ve decided to do here at Black Web 2.0 is learn to embrace change. CHANGE IS GOOD!  Change to us means progress and exciting things to come, which is why I am so excited to announce some of our changes here at Black Web 2.0.  You’ll visibly notice new faces and voices here but what may not be as visible is a new addition to the team.  Robin Caldwell was recently added to the team as Managing Editor, we are all very excited about it and think her background and passion for what we are doing here is an awesome addition.

You may have already noticed that we are testing out a new ad network many of you know called Video Egg (more about them and what they do here).  The ads that you may see as a microbar across the top of the site and in the 300×250 slot are video ads that only disrupt your experience if you interact with it.  I happen to think this is a great compromise not to mention the execution on these experiences are top notch.  They are measured by CPE (Cost per Engagement) and we plan to write about our experiences with it here in about a month so you can decide if it is something worth trying for your own site.

Lastly, but certainly not least you’ll notice here, and across the web, promotions for a new offering we are testing called STR8 Talk.  STR8 Talk will include what we are calling conversations as classes, seminars, and advice via video from industry experts, entrepreneurs, and executives.  Some of the content we plan to produce here will be free.  Some won’t.  Some of the content will be advanced and many of you here may benefit from it.  Some won’t and will be for those just getting involved in the web.  The overall goal is to offer something that will help us all be more successful in what we are doing from those who have had successes in the past or present.  We’d very much like for these conversations to be actual conversations in addition to learning and want to give you the ability to ask specific questions to the individuals who will be participating.  The first conversation is called ‘How to Listen to Your Customers Online,’ you can find out more about it here.

As always thanks for your support in what we are doing and growing with us.  I am looking forward to your feedback on what we are doing as well as your suggestions!

Cheers,

Angela

After a long and hard period of trying to figure out which hosting environment would be the best for us at this stage we’ve made the decision to take a leap into the cloud. Cloud Servers are the latest craze and allow websites and applications to scale when load gets usually high. Over the last 2 months you may have noticed our site was down due to  issues with servers/services crashing because of a sporatic spike in load. Since this load isn’t typical,  we needed a solution that was managed, but would allow us to accommodate the extra traffic when and if we needed it. We were on a Virtual Private Server and had hit the point where we had outgrown our VPS, but acquiring our own dedicated server was overkill. In addition to those options we also look at  VPS solutions that offered burstable RAM. We even took the time out to play around with a full Cloud Server however found that it would require too much maintenance since it wasn’t managed. We found a pretty good compromise with Mosso’s Cloud Site and are looking forward to taking it for a test drive starting today. So if you see something that just don’t look right or notice somethings are broken (we know search is broken right now and are working on fixing it) then feel free to let us know.

You can learn more about The Cloud and Cloud Computing on Wikipedia.

Target Market News is holding its first ever African-American Internet Summit today in Chicago.  If you can’t make it we’ll be there and Tweeting live, follow us @BlackWeb20 for updates. The agenda for the event looks a little something like this:

8:45
Welcome and Introductions
Ken Smikle – Target Market News

9:00
The Latest Research on African-American Internet Usage and Preferences
This session will offer presentations of new research data on how African-Americans are engaged with computing and the Internet. Our panel will offer analysis of the latest statistics from The Media Audit, Synovate, Target Market News and others and examine the trends revealed by these studies.

Presenters: Denise Marks, Vice President of Diversity Research, Synovate

Hugh Brown, Director of Urban Marketing, The Media Audit

10:00
Measurement Metrics: Setting Standards for Counting Black Web Traffic
Web sites that target African-American audiences are facing the same challenges that traditional black media outlets have long had to address. This panel will look at whether the means being used by Nielsen Net Ratings, ComScore and others are fair and accurate when applied to the African-American segment.

Presenters: Nielsen Online (TBA)

ComScore (TBA)

11:00
Multicultural Marketing in the Digital Space: A Google Perspective
As clients’ budgets shift more and more to online efforts, the need for marketers to develop multicultural marketing expertise in the digital space has never been more important. New tools and applications developed by Google, some only a few months old, now make marketing to these consumers more precise and measurable than ever. This discussion will center on some of these tools as well as key digital strategies to reach this important consumer segment.

Presenter: Donald Moore, Agency Team Leader, Google

12:00
A Networking Lunch for Summit Attendees

A Presentation from RushmoreDrive.com

1:00
Selling to Black Consumers Via the Net: The Advertisers’ Perspective
What is it that advertisers and their ad agencies are looking for from African-American Web sites? What kind of digital marketing strategies are agencies initiating on their own? We’ll ask a panel of those marketers that are already tapping the power of the Internet to discuss their strategies and considerations.

Presenters: David Rudd, Vice President, The Axis Agency
Clients: American Airlines, General Motors, U.S. Army, Rush Card, Macy?s

Adam Goldman, Director of Interactive, UrbanForce/UniWorld Group
Clients: Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, Burger King, Home Depot

Janet Rolle, Executive Vice Pres., Chief Marketing Officer, BET Networks

Carl Izzi, President, Energi/GlobalHue
Clients: Wal-Mart, Chrysler, U.S. Navy

2:00
Content vs. Community: How to Build a Successful Black-Targeted Web Site
What’s the key to creating a Web site that’s able to achieve financial success? How much traffic do you need to appeal to advertisers? Which is more important, content or creating social networks? This panel of varied black-targeted Web site operators will talk about what it took to get where they are.

Presenters: Barry Cooper, Vice President of Interactive, REACH Media

Denmark West, President, Digital Media, BET Networks

Dante Lee, Partner, LeeMoss Media / President, Diversity City Media

Eric Easter, Chief of Digital Strategy, Johnson Publishing Company

Smokey Fontaine, Chief Content Officer, Interactive One

3:00
Creating Your Advertising Sales Strategy
What should you consider before and after you sign up with an advertising network? Would you be better off being your own sales rep? Listen to the experiences of panelists that have taken both paths to learn what will work best for your Web site.

Presenters: Susan Morgan, Accountant Executive, Gorilla Nation

Jemilah Barnes, Vice President, AllHipHop.com

4:00
African-Americans and Digital Media: The Next Big Thing
Since African-Americans are traditionally early adopters of new technologies, can they make a difference in the success of cellular/mobile or VOD as the next marketing opportunity? Will streaming video lead to viable mass media alternatives for advertisers? How will online consumer research grow? We’ll wrap up our Summit with a discussion of these possibilities.

Presenters: Bryan K. Mattox, Vice President Urban Marketing, Burrell Communications
Group. Clients: Toyota, McDonald’s, Procter & Gamble, General Mills

Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, President and CEO of Nia Enterprises

Jason Smikle, Director, TUVOnline

Quincy Newall, President, Codeblack Interactive

Markus Robinson, General Manager, BlackWeb 2.0