FAMILY TECH DAY:WHY FAMILY TECH DAY?

Every day companies race to release the latest versions of their software, hardware and product brands. Technology is the key to who wins this race. Technology helps define processes, how each company interacts with its suppliers and receives deliveries, how it manages it resources and pays its employees. Technology defines how the final product is branded and marketed, how it is placed on shelves in storefronts or sold online. Ultimately reaching the most important person in this process…. the consumer.

It’s no secret we depend so much on our mobile phones, our GPS, our laptop computers our Internet service and digital televisions. We are consumers and we love to consume technology. While the use of technology is common in most of our lives, many have not embraced technology or have not embraced it as fast as others. Social networks, e-commerce, streaming media, high speed internet, smart cars have changed the way we do business and manage our daily lives. Many don’t know this…. it’s not because they have decided against it. It’s because they have no knowledge of it or no access to it.

Nationally we see enrollment in technical degree programs dropping. We see technology outsourcing to companies oversees as a standard practice in corporate America. We see thousands of technical jobs go unfilled and millions of dollars in scholarship funds go unused. There are many opinions on this topic but ultimately you will find that there is a large portion of our population that simply don’t have knowledge of or access to modern technology.

This is why…we need Family Tech Day.

Family Tech Day is an approach to help change this. It is an effort to reach out to young people and their families. It is an effort to once again have families encourage their children to learn about technology and science. It is an effort to educate people on the products and services available to them today and in the future. Finally it is an economic development effort to output individuals that are employable and comfortable working with technology as consumers and creators.

Microsoft is working with the National Society of Black Engineers and hiring and promoting African American programmers and engineers.

"The United States is not turning out from any group as many of the great engineers as there will be jobs for," said Gates, who added that Blacks are particularly underrepresented in the tech industry because high school dropout rates in the Black community exceed 50%.

"That is a stunning number … the trends are very much working against somebody in that situation," said Gates, speaking at a conference hosted by the National Society of Black Engineers at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters.

"There will be a huge number of computer science jobs created over the next 10 years, and the number of people majoring in those subjects is falling short of that,"said Gates.

According to a study by the National Science Foundation, fewer than 6,000 of the 52,500 computer science graduates in the U.S. in 2004 were Black. "The shallow pool of skills is due, in part, to the lack of minorities being drawn into technology," said NSBE executive director Carl Mack, in a statement.

Microsoft, named by the NSBE as the top employer for Black engineers, said it’s trying to change that by partnering with NSBE and hiring and promoting African American programmers and engineers.

The company also announced a software developer grant to the NSBE that gives its members a three-year membership in the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance. The memberships give NSBE faculty and students access to a range of Microsoft products and technologies, including Windows Vista, SQL Server, and Visual Studio.

Gates said that Microsoft will continue its efforts to build a diverse workforce. "We want to get Black engineers, Hispanic engineers … everyone that we can," he said.