SUMMARY:The startup WeWork set out to revolutionize the workplace -- leasing, renovating and subletting offices as shared coworking spaces. At the beginning of 2019, it was the single biggest private office tenant in London, New York, and Washington. But the company’s valuation has plunged $40 billion, and it’s now laying off 2400 employees. John Yang talks to The New York Times' Peter Eavis.
SUMMARY:The U.S. military has been closely connected with Silicon Valley since it "started-up" in the 1960s. More recently, the Defense Department has set up an innovation base [DIUx] of sorts to get closer to the new technology companies they need to help with strategic and tactical needs. Special correspondent Michael Cerre reports.
SUMMARY: Ellen Pao sent Silicon Valley a wake-up call about sexism in tech and finance when she filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her employer, a powerful venture capital firm. She lost her case and her personal reputation was damaged along the way, but she is still fighting for change. Pao sits down with economics correspondent Paul Solman to discuss her experience and book, "Reset.”
SUMMARY: Almost two years after major tech firms began publicizing their diversity numbers, recent figures show that Silicon Valley employees are still overwhelmingly white and male. Hari Sreenivasan reports on the steps these companies are taking to address their race and gender problems, from software algorithms to education and recruitment initiatives.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Silicon Valley, the home of the California tech industry, has long been criticized for its lack of diversity. Almost two years after major companies, led by Google and Intel, started to publicize their diversity numbers, the ethnic and gender makeup of the industry’s work force remains almost the same.
Analysis of employees at the leading tech firms that report such figures reveals, on average, 71 percent are men, 29 percent are women, 60 percent identify as white, 23 percent Asian, 8 percent Latino, and 7 percent black.
So, what exactly is Silicon Valley doing to improve its diversity?
Hari Sreenivasan takes a look in the first of two stories.
JOELLE EMERSON, CEO, Paradigm: Raise your hand if you have heard of unconscious bias before?
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): The notion that hidden bias can be methodically stamped out of the workplace has become popular with tech companies across Silicon Valley.
JOELLE EMERSON:By managing unconscious bias, we make better decisions. So, unconscious bias acts as a significant barrier to objective, data-driven decision making.
HARI SREENIVASAN: That was the message being delivered by Joelle Emerson, a former sexual harassment litigator who now spends most of her time helping multibillion-dollar start-ups diversify their work forces.
SUMMARY: American technology companies like Apple, Facebook and Google are striving to improve gender and racial diversity in their workforce. Having revealed their staffs are predominantly white men, the companies are spending furiously to recruit and keep people who aren’t. Hari Sreenivasan reports.
SUMMARY: Move over NASA, Silicon Valley is joining the space race. Entrepreneurs from the nation's high-tech hub are designing lunar landers, making plans to mine the moon and gearing up to blast off into commercial space flight. Thuy Vu of KQED reports on how private ventures and investors are investing in space exploration.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
*Anti-First Amendment policies that attempt to turn America into a theocracy by enshrining ANY religious belief as law.
* Any attempt to suppress human or Constitutional rights.
* Any law or policy that supports discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, race/color, gender, sexual orientation, or any law that does NOT support Equal Treatment under the law.
*Any law or policy that attempts to suppress Freedom of the Press or Free Speech.
LINK DISCLAIMER:
There is no guarantee that any link provided in this blog will always work, especially for older links. The validity of any link is governed by the source-site policies. Some sites will archive articles and require subscription to access. Very small sites, such as a local town newspaper, may not archive at all.
