The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) held an open house to celebrate and show off an upgrade to its San Francisco technology center at Mission Graduates, a result of the organization's ongoing partnership with Facebook.
What will the candidates for president do about technology and media issues that affect Latinos? That's the question the National Hispanic Media Coalition is now pressing.
A new study from the Joan Ganz Cooney center, an independence research lab that focuses on modern challenges to children's education, has revealed that of all low-income families, Latino immigrant families are more likely to be under-connected or not connected to the Internet at all. More broadly, the problem of being under-connected still faces many families on the other side of the digital divide.
The digital divide -- the persistent gap between those who have affordable access to information technology and those who do not -- is among the many issues that the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) believes is holding Latinos in the U.S. back.
According to the International Telecommunications Union, 3.2 billion people are now on the Internet and wireless connectivity has become the dominant path for people to get online.
Usually it's considered good news when a company announces that it is phasing out an old technology for a new one. But one network upgrade announced by Sprint sparked a lawsuit this week.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talked about the importance of closing the diversity gap in technology careers by closing the technology gap in South Texas on Tuesday, as part of the annual Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) week for area middle and high school students.
On Monday, Apple CEO spoke to Good Morning America about the company's role connecting "99 percent" of students to 21st century technologies in the classroom. "I think technology has to be a key part" of public education, he said. "That's why we're here."
The Obama administration has taken several steps in the past few months to expand high-speed Internet connectivity to more low-income Americans, including many Latinos, who remain on the inauspicious side of the "digital divide."
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to consider a plan that would modernize Lifeline -- a long-running FCC program that provides subsidies for phone service to underprivileged households -- to include broadband internet.
The FCC is taking a considering expanding its Lifeline subsidy program to include broadband services in a step it considers could lessen the digital divide among key demographics like Latinos.
Comcast has relinquished its bid to buy Time Warner Cable, dropping a proposed merger deal between the two largest cable companies in the U.S. estimated at about $45 billion.
Latinos, especially upwardly mobile millennials, have been shown by many studies to be "ahead of the digital curve" when it comes to being tuned into cutting edge digital media, as well as smartphone ownership and useage. In fact, Latinos own smartphones at a rate that's almost 10 percent higher than the U.S. national average, as we previously reported.
Often the Digital Divide -- the gulf between those online and those who don't or can't access the Internet -- is described as one of the challenges affecting Latinos in the U.S. But everyone knows that demographic terms are broad and inexact, and that's especially true with the word "Latino," which is a catchall word for the most diverse and quickly-growing demographic in the U.S.
This week FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced plans to increase funding for E-Rate, a federal program that helps connect schools and libraries in neighborhoods in need to the Internet.
Well, it may not reach the level of "charm," but Comcast is certainly trying to improve the generally offensive reputation it has built over the years, just as the federal government is reviewing its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable.
The FCC Net Neutrality debate has caused division between minority and Latino advocacy organizations, sparking a war of words between two, in particular.
This week in social media, Facebook readjusted its News Feed algorithms again, Mark Zuckerberg gave money to local schools that will disproportionately help nearby Latino families, Twitter might finally be done with its wild Wall Street ride, and Snapchat’s CEO apologized for being a jerk in college. It’s time for Social Media Saturday!
