Latinas appear to be underrepresented as entrepreneurs, according to a post on Women2, even though they are creating businesses at a rate six times the national average. One reason may be the types of  businesses these women are creating.

…it would seem that we are somewhat “invisible” entrepreneurs… and terribly underrepresented in the media and in scholarly research. What’s very interesting is that, Federal Reserve data shows that there is a huge surge (almost 60%) in the Hispanic entrepreneurial sector, and even though entrepreneurial ventures by Hispanic women are lagging slightly behind Hispanic men, they are ahead of non-Hispanic women.

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The Next Web compiled an awesome list if tech hubs in Latin America. Read the whole post here, the following is the abbreviated version, note Brazil seems to be the dominant force in Latin American tech.

1.  Miami, Florida – The city serves as a bridge between the U.S. and Latin America.
2. Moneterrey, Mexico – There’s a tech university, money to fund startups and the talent to make it happen.
3. Mexico City, Mexico – Just like Monterrey, this city’s got the talent and money on the next level to make tech happen.

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Jean Rockford Aguilar-Valdez is a doctoral student studying equity in science education and a former science teacher who shared her thoughts on the need for Latinos to get into STEM. Here’s a snippet:

When 1 in 5 of the children in our schools is Latino, what justification is there for saying that STEM is only for the white, male, and middle- or upper-class? The demographics of the U.S. are changing, and with it we are faced with two options: 1.) Leave STEM to the disproportionally represented white population (and the associated stereotype that only white nerdy boys go into that field) and thus allow the STEM shortage to continue without Latinos enjoying the career-related benefits.

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A study from The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism called “YouTube & News: A New Kind of Visual News” reports on the ways in which people are consuming news on YouTube. First, the report notes that citizen journalism is prominent on YouTube — at the expense of attribution:

The data reveal that a complex, symbiotic relationship has developed between citizens and news organizations on YouTube, a relationship that comes close to the continuous journalistic “dialogue” many observers predicted would become the new journalism online.

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Eliseo Diaz and Juan Rodriguez are the founders of a tech startup based in Austin, Texas called Flash Valet. The basic premise is to manage valet parking entirely via mobile phone. The pair are working not just on the mobile app, but on the infrastructure that will allow parking companies to mange their inventory and personnel more efficiently. With Flash Valet, when you are ready for your car, you send a text message to the parking company. Even if you want to pick your car up at another location, valets can bring your car to you.… more

Steminist did a great profile on California State University, Los Angeles Professor Claudia Espinosa-Villegas. Professor Espinosa-Villegas works as a lecturer in the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology (ECST) department. Some of the great tips she gives to future folks in STEM from the profile include:

• Believe in yourself, and do not listen to anyone that tells you that you are not able/good enough.
• Find a mentor(s) and maintain the relationship(s), thank you letters go a long way.

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When he was young, filmmaker Miguel Ferrer didn’t know that making movies was a career. Although at the time he was, writing, directing and editing videos VHS to VHS in Miami, it was not until he was much older, once he got to college, that he realized he could make movies for a living. And he’s been making movies ever since. “Nobody ever told me that you could actually be a filmmaker as a career,” Ferrer said. “In 2004 my mom and dad gave me a videocamera and I started making shorts.… more

Charles Ellison wrote a great piece for Politic365 about how the Higgs boson discovery recently highlighted the importance for greater STEM emphasis in the U.S. Here’s an excerpt:

Since 1960, U.S. investment in research and development has declined by two-thirds.

While NASA’s budget is only 1% of the federal budget, constituents complain that it’s too much while we rot on recession. Many laughed hysterically when former House Speaker now defunct Republican candidate Newt Gingrich had the gall to suggest we build a moon base.

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Some good thoughts on the importance of spectrum to Latinos comes from Justin Velez-Hagan at Politic365:

 For Hispanics, the impact is even greater.  Hispanics are adopting technologies that use spectrum at a faster rate than any other demographic.  By 2015, it is expected that more Hispanics will access the Internet via their mobile devices than via personal computers.  As business growth and employment searches rely more and more upon Internet communication – combined with the fact that Hispanics are also among the least employed as well as the most entrepreneurial – wireless communication access will have a significant future economic impact for Hispanics.

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Actress Geena Davis, who founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, as named as a special envoy to the United Nations to promote the role of women and girls in technology. According to a release from the UN:

Among her duties will be to promote the ‘Tech Needs Girls’ campaign of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – a three-year campaign that seeks to raise global awareness of the role information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in empowering women… The ‘Tech Needs Girls’ campaign aims to highlight the potential of technology to transform women’s lives, whether it be through ICT-based career choices or by improved access to services like e-health, e-education, e-commerce, e-banking and a host of new applications and devices that can help girls and women address their day-to-day challenges, ITU stated in a news release.

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