GigaOM

a few other photos from the conversation are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/500hats/sets/72057594073894588/

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/nextnet25/interesting/

great set of folks, great discussion :)

• dave mcclure
  http://www.SimplyHired.com

wow - what strikes me is that it’s almost all white males

Yep.. the tech industry is predominantly white males..

You know, as soon as I read the last issue of B2.0, I was instantly annoyed that yet another stupid terms like “Next Net” has to be created.

Feels like the Paris Club of lenders…

Animal House

“Yep.. the tech industry is predominantly white males..”

WRONG. I’m so sick of this thinking. It’s not that it’s predominantly white males, it’s that it’s predominantly “dominated” by white males. And that has less to do with talent than will culture and closed social networks. You are just as likely to speak to a non-white tech support person (and I don’t mean an outsourced worker) who is “of-color” than one who is white.

This trend also happens in media. The New York Observer recently did a story about how in New York (the media capital) 90% of the jobs are held by white people, even though we’re talking about New York City (barely 50% white), the most diverse city in the country. Nevertheless, many media people hold on to this lie that “oh, well, I guess they just don’t go for these jobs, and that’s why it’s mostly white.” Wrong. As the article points out, people of color in media are mostly steered, against they wishes, to the “urban” magazines. In the tech world, the same thing happens in a different way. A lot of the people of color are steered to the “back rooms” (i.e. tech support, customer service, etc.). And please don’t tell us about Richard Parsons, he is not reflective of what’s going on in general.

The fact that in 2006, a picture about the tech business (an industry with a HUGE amount of non-white people working hard) shows a picture with 99% white guys speaks volumes about the business culture of America. Or at least the editorial policies of Business 2.0. So Om, did they just put you in that picture to add some color?

And yeah, where the hell are the women????!!!!!

or at least the pollcles of business so om

Where’s that full report you promised, Om?

LOL. I saw this in my bloglines and clicked through to comment something like: “Whoah, turn down the white balance!”

…but some commenters already beat me to it. And yes, the barren wasteland of women there is obvious (and I looked reeeeally hard). Sigh…I mean, at least throw in the ‘token’ girl like the other top lists always do. Gee whiz!

;)

Still no report from Om…are you slacking om?

Can we have this meeting with more women and me? :)