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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A study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, “Cell Internet Use 2012,” found that 55% of U.S. adults use their cell phones to go online. More importantly, 31% of these users primarily “mostly” go online with their cell phones. This report does not include ethnic data, but what is interesting to think about is this report in the context of Latinos using cell phones.  A report from Nielsen earlier this year found that ethnic and racial minorities use smartphones at a higher rate than the rest of the population:

But smartphone penetration is even higher among mobile users who are part of ethnic and racial minorities in the U.S.

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We spoke to Armando Rayo of Cultural Strategies, the founders of The Social Revolución at South By Southwest Interactive, about how Latinos looking to get into the conference next year can best participate. You have until July 20 to submit a panel, here are Rayo’s suggestions and what he told us about the panels. Latinos are already online, they index higher on social networks and social media usage, they’re creating their own spaces and as the population increases in the U.S.… more

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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The SXSW Panel Picker goes live June 25 until July 20, so if you want to submit a panel to the Music, Film or Interactive festivals, get going. Here’s what the SXSW page had to say about it:

…if you have a great idea for an innovative, forward-thinking panel or a solo session at SXSW 2013, then we want to hear this idea via the PanelPicker online interface.

Here’s a tip:

Also, remember that submitting your programming idea to all three events (SXSW Interactive, SXSW Film and SXSW Music) improves your chances of being selected to speak!

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In 2008 Microsoft started the Law Firm Diversity Program, which provides tech law firms financial incentives for recruiting a diverse workforce of attorneys. Since, according to this post by Broadband And Social Justice, 15 law firms have taken advantage of the program. The post continues:

 Boosting employment diversity seems like a difficult feat for our nation’s rapidly growing technology industry and noble law profession. With minorities representing 35 percent of the country’s population, at 12.7 percent, the representation of minority attorneys andAfrican American and Latino tech industry workers is more than 23 percentage points below that of the total population.

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