GOOGLE TRENDS NOW SHOWS THE WEB’S OBSESSIONS IN REAL TIME GOOGLE

Wired

GOOGLE TRENDS HAS long been a tool for journalists tracking what people wanted to know about in the recent past. The function hasn’t changed, but the tense has: Trends now tracks stories in real time, giving unfettered access to what the Internet wants to know in the moment.

Trends had been largely unchanged since 2012, a helpful but slightly backdated look at subjects people were searching for over the last day or more. As of today, you can see minute-by-minute information culled from the 100 billion-plus searches that take place on Google at any given month. Not only that, but Trends now pulls in information from Google News and YouTube, for a fuller view of what people want to know.

In many ways, insight into what people are searching for is even more powerful than what they already know, says Steve Grove, head of Google’s News Lab.

“Social media data focuses on what people are talking about publicly. Search data goes a layer deeper than that, in some ways, to what people are really interested in.” Grove tells to WIRED. “When you’re searching, you’re not really editing yourself. You find out what people are really interested in. It’s very real, very raw, very personal.”

It also highlights the distance between what’s being reported and what people want to know; if you already have a good read on the Nest Cam, you’re less likely to use Google to find additional information about it. That in turn helps explains why real-time trends can be so illuminating. There’s a much larger curiosity gap on breaking news—when there are still plenty of unknowns to to the media as well—and, say, the state of the Republican primary race. GOOGLE

While that may appear to make Google Trends a sort of populist news ticker—showing what people are genuinely interested in versus what a newsroom bestows importance on—Trends doesn’t quite work that way. Rather than pure volume, it tracks surges of interest relative to how much those items usually generate. “We’re looking for spikes in particular topic areas that we then normalize,” explains Grove. “You can imagine if it was just volume overall, you’d see the same sort of topics every day.” That’s why headliners like the NBA Finals sit alongside less obvious hits like the Alameda County Fair in the top 10 “trending stories” as of this writing.

The new Google Trends also goes well beyond just headlines, though many of the features are just cleaner, more detailed versions of what was previously available. You can still access handy charts comparing how various search terms have fared over time, just now with minute-by-minute granularity. A “featured stories” section displays search data pre-sorted in a variety of visually grabby ways. A series of regularly updated data sets provide pre-packaged looks at everything from how interest in MERS and Ebola has evolved to which Copa America teams are the most search-engine sought-after. And the whole page has gotten a healthy dollop of material design.

If you’re a journalist or a researcher, the benefits of insight into what people want to know right nowshould be self-evident; you’re probably already tinkering. Even if you’re not, though, it’s worth touring the new Google Trends for the fun visualizations, sure, but also for a look at where the Internet is out of step with the news. Or maybe just a quick rundown of what’s going on in Alameda County; I hear they’ve got a great fair lined up.

San Francisco votes to expand computer science education across all grades

Donations from Salesforce charity will fund the new program from pre-school onward.

Ars Technica by Cyrus Farivar - Jun 10, 2015 4:25pm PDT

This is the view from George Washington High School, in San Francisco.

Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose

FURTHER READING

WASHINGTON LAWMAKERS WANT COMPUTER SCIENCE TO COUNT AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE

If bill passes, two years of comp sci would count toward university admission.

Within a few years, every single student in the San Francisco Unified School District will be studying computer science, at all grade levels.

The city’s Board of Education unanimously approved the measure during its weekly meeting on Tuesday evening.

"Information technology is now the fastest growing job sector in San Francisco, but too few students currently have access to learn the Computer Science skills that are crucial for such careers," Board President Emily Murase said in a statementon Wednesday. "We are proud to be at the forefront of creating a curriculum that will build on the knowledge and skills students will need starting as early as preschool."

According to the district, computer science classes are relatively rare across the United States.

"Currently, no national, state, or local standards exist for Computer Science and the academic research in Computer Science education is quite limited," the board wrote. "As such, a cohesive progression of Computer Science knowledge and skills does not yet exist."

The effort is going to be largely funded by the Salesforce Foundation, a charitable wing of the company.

At present, only a "few hundred" San Francisco public school students took the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam in Spring 2014. Of those, just 22 percent were women, and three percent were African American, Latino or Native American.

How exactly will San Francisco’s preschool set get in on the action? SFUSD says they "will most likely be using blocks to build robots, to introduce the concepts of procedural thinking, cause and effect, decomposition of complex tasks, pattern recognition as well as the ability to notice similarities or common differences, abstraction and algorithm design and the ability to develop a step-by-step strategy for solving a problem."

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "employment of computer and information research scientists is projected to grow 15 percent from 2012 to 2022, faster than the average for all occupations."

The median salary nationwide in the industry is just over $102,000—likely higher in the competitive and increasingly-expensive San Francisco Bay Area.

ITIF: A Policymaker’s Guide to Spurring ICT Adoption

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation:


Policymakers around the world often wonder how to create “the next Silicon Valley.” This is understandable, but the truth is that since the turn of the millennium, using ICT has created much more growth than producing it. That's because ICT products and services are essential tools of production for all industries in today's economy, not just tech. This report provides a policy road map for spurring ICT adoption by keeping prices low, keeping demand high, and strengthening key enabling factors across the public and private sectors.

Read the report.

NCL in the Classroom Webinar Archive Available

Did you MISS the webinar on how to integrate NCL into the CLASSROOM?

WATCH the video below as
Casey O'Brien, NCL Commissioner,
showcases the various resources available for faculty to include
NCL in the CLASSROOM.



Questions? Contact info@nationalcyberwatch.org.

First Draft Big Data Framework Seeks to Tackle the Big Questions First

bloomua/Shutterstock.com

By Mohana Ravindranath April 8, 2015 NextGov

The National Institute of Standards and Technology wants to make sure everyone means the same thing when they talk about “big data."

In an attempt to standardize big data discussions, the Commerce Department agency issued a draft “Interoperability Framework,” defining data analytics-related phrases, outlining management templates and describing common use cases for large data sets and other large amounts of information traditional data architectures can’t efficiently handle.

“We want to create this ecosystem [in which] data scientists concentrate on their own data” instead of worrying about external factors, such as whether their data sets might work on new computing platforms, said Wo Chang, a NIST manager who worked on the report.

NIST led the “Big Data Working Group,” which included members from the private sector, academia and government, to write the framework. It released the first draft of the seven-volume publication earlier this week, and is accepting public comment until May 21.

The framework aims to “stimulate collaboration among industry professionals to further the secure and effective adoption of big data,” the report noted.

NIST is also pushing for international adoption of such a framework. Chang spoke to Nextgov from Germany, where he was meeting with international representatives about how to make the framework a global standard, he said.

Eventually, Chang added, the framework could evolve into an interface, in which data scientists could find guidance on common data applications and tools to help them comply with standards, among other features.

The framework also includes several general use cases, meant to guide governments, data scientists and organizations through big data applications. For instance, according to the draft, the Census Bureau is trying to use big data techniques to increase the quality and reduce the costs associated with field surveys.

The draft framework is the first step in a long path to interoperability. Once established, the draft noted, these definitions and outlines "will form the basis for evolution of existing standards," and could prompt data-focused groups to evaluate new standards.

(Image via Bloomua/ Shutterstock.com)

U.S. Secretary of Commerce is taking on America's "skills gap"

See the article and embedded video at Yahoo News

The United States unemployment rate has been slowly but continually dropping since peaking at 10 percent in October 2009. Today it stands at 5.5 percent, with 126,000 jobs added last month alone. In fact, more jobs were created in 2014 than in any year since 1999. The flip side is that 9 million workers remain without a job, a number that might be much lower if those Americans had the necessary skills that many companies currently seek. In fact, 5 million jobs are unfilled today because skilled workers are not available to fill them. That’s a challenge U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker is tackling head-on. “One of the things that is really important for us to be doing is making sure that we’re training people for the jobs that exist today,” she told Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric when the pair visited a school in New York that focuses on job-driven training skills in computer programming.

According to a 2012 McKinsey & Company report, 45 percent of U.S. employers say that a skills shortage is a leading reason for entry-level vacancies. This problem is commonly referred to as the “skills gap.” “Since I’ve been in this job, I’ve probably met with 1,500 employers. All of them tell me they have challenges finding the skilled labor they need,” says Pritzker. “We need to do a better job of letting young people, letting families know what are the careers of the future. What are the skills that are needed? And then where do you go to get those skills?”

Pushing the need for job-driven training programs is nothing new to Pritzker. Before she became secretary of commerce in 2013, Pritzker founded Skills for America’s Future, a national initiative to close the skills gap. It works directly with employers to develop ways to better equip workers with the skills they need for in-demand jobs. In 2012, she also helped launch Skills for Chicagoland’s Future, the first city model of Skills for America’s Future.

Since taking office, Pritzker has made job-driven training a top priority for the Department of Commerce. “The reason is simple: For our economy to grow and our families to thrive, we need to ensure that more workers are better prepared and better equipped to meet the demands of business in the 21st century.”

Pritzker says the problem is not lack of jobs. “Since 2009, we’ve created 877,000 manufacturing jobs in this country. And these are not the manufacturing jobs of 25 years ago. These are technical jobs; they often require some kind of computer programming, computer literacy. And these are jobs that have great longevity and are very much associated with innovation of what’s going on in our economy.” Apprenticeships have declined by 40 percent in the last 10 years, and the Obama administration is encouraging companies to do more in this area. “CVS, for example, has just agreed to double the number of apprenticeships in their pharmacy and their medical units — from, I think, 1,500 to 3,000. Campbell’s Soup is doing an apprenticeship program for their production technicians,” says Pritzker. “They know it creates a loyal employee; they know it creates a successful employee.”

The Flatiron School, founded in 2012, teaches anyone who is interested how to code. Sophie, one of the students, has a degree in history from Barnard College. “I looked for a job for a long time. I eventually found work as a nanny … but it’s not what I went to a four-year university for.” Sophie is now training to be a computer programmer and hopes her new skills will make her more marketable when she looks for a job.

“It’s really important you build a baseline of skills on which you can build the rest of your career. And I think the other thing to keep in mind is it’s no longer that you’re pigeonholed as narrowly as perhaps a generation or two ago,” says Pritzker. “There’s the opportunity to reskill throughout life, through online learning, through various courses offered at universities, through graduate programs. So what you want to do is make sure that your baseline is really strong of skills so that you can build upon that throughout life. Whether that’s a technical baseline, whether that’s a liberal-arts baseline, you want to make sure that you put that in place. And then be a lifelong learner.”

Watch Katie’s conversation with Secretary Penny Pritzker and students of the Flatiron School to learn more about the “skills gap.”

BBC: Google announces budget-priced Chromebits and Chromebooks

By Leo KelionTechnology desk editor  BBC

1 April 2015

Asus will begin sales of the Chromebit computer-on-a-stick later this year

Google has announced new Chrome-powered computers, which are set to target budget-conscious consumers and schools.

The range includes a new type of device called the Chromebit, which looks like an oversized memory stick, and turns monitors and TVs into computers when plugged into their HDMI ports.

The tech firm also revealed the cheapest Chromebook laptops to date, costing $149 (£101).

The move is likely to intensify competition with Microsoft.

The announcements came less than a day after Microsoft revealed plans to sell a new entry-level tablet-laptop hybrid of its own.

Its Surface 3 costs more -$499, and £419 in the UK for the basic model - but provides access to a wider range of software made for the Windows platform.



"This is a booming sector of the market at the moment," commented Chris Green, a tech analyst at the Davies Murphy Group consultancy.

"With the falling cost of hardware, schools are looking to families to equip kids with their own computers - the idea of BYOD [bring your own device to class].

"This has prompted manufacturers to create low-cost entry-level laptops that parents then buy for their children as well as themselves."

Google has pledged not to display ads to children that use the education-related software it provides for its Chrome platform, and does not charge manufactures to use its operating system.

Microsoft's Surface 3 costs more but can be used with a touchscreen pen and run Windows software

But one expert said the company still hoped to financially benefit in the long-term.

"The key goal here for both Google and Microsoft is to put their brand and services out there in front of kids to build loyalty at a very early age," said Ronan de Renesse, a consumer technology expert at the Ovum consultancy.

"It's also a good way to to see whether or not to extend these types of devices to emerging markets, where they could be used outside education by people with very low disposable incomes."

For now, Google says the new Chromebooks and Chromebits will be limited to the US.

"We hope to make these widely available in the future, however we have nothing more to announce at this time," said a spokeswoman.

Stick computers

Chrome OS runs web-based software via the firm's Chrome browser and recently gained the ability to run a limited number of Android apps . The platform is designed to store most of its users' files in the cloud.

More than five million Chromebooks and Chromebase desktops were sold across the world last year, according to market research firm Gartner.

It forecasts that figure will grow to close to eight million units this year, and 16 million in 2018.

The Chromebits will be made by the Taiwanese manufacturer Asus.

Google said they would cost "less than $100" and go on sale before the end of the year.

Intel announced its rival Compute Stick in January

The search firm has already had success with the Chromecast, a media streaming dongle with a similar form factor.

In recent months both Intel and Hannspree have launched Windows-powered "PC-on-a-sticks", albeit at a slightly higher cost.

Such devices require their owners to provide displays, keyboards and other peripherals, but the idea is that many people will already own them.

"People seem to love the idea of having a working computer on something no bigger than a dongle that lets them do web browsing, media streaming and other tasks on a big screen, but can be out of sight, out of mind when needed," said Mr Green.

Great expectations

The Haier Chromebook 11 is exclusive to Amazon while the Hisense Chromebook is being sold via Walmart.com.

The Asus Chromebook Flip will also go on sale shortly

Both feature an 11.6in (29.5cm) screen and between 8.5 to 10 hours of battery life, but keep their costs low by restricting themselves to 16 gigabytes of storage and 2GB of RAM.

Google also announced a slightly higher priced model, the Asus Chromebook Flip, whose touchscreen can be turned around. It will cost $249 when it goes on sale.

"The [ultra low-cost] sector is still a relatively small part of the entire PC market, but is growing fast, so is important," commented Mr de Renesse.

"What's key is to offer some of the lowest prices. But that has to be balanced against the fact that the US is a market with very high consumer expectation, even within schools."

Voting Open for "30 Seconds to College" Sweepstakes - Prize is a Car

Good Afternoon Colleagues,

I’m excited to report that we received a total of 25 video submissions for the “I Can Afford College” campaign’s “30 Seconds to College” sweepstakes, sponsored by iHeart Media. Thank you again for your help promoting the contest to all of the students on your campus.

The voting period is now open! All of the video entries are posted on our sweepstakes website, which you can link to from our home page, at www.icanaffordcollege.com. Students are allowed to vote for their favorite video once per day, between April 1st through April 24th.

One lucky voter will be chosen at random to receive this year’s grand-prize of a car! The three videos that receive the most votes will receive cash scholarships in the amounts of $1,500 (first place), $500 (second place), and $250 (third place).

Please encourage your students to participate by casting their votes! We would be happy to provide additional sweepstakes posters to put up on campus, as well as sample Facebook and Twitter posts for your use (if your campus is active on social media).

If you would like to request posters or social media posts — or, if you have any questions about the “30 Seconds to College” sweepstakes — please feel free to contact me or our “I Can Afford College” Campaign Manager Lindsay Pangurn (Lindshall@gmail.com).

Take care,

Paige Marlatt Dorr, Director of Communications
California Community Colleges
Chancellor’s Office

Jaw-dropping Magic Leap demo shows off our augmented future

by Andrew Tarantola | @terrortola | engadget



Google's multi-million dollar investment in augmented reality startup Magic Leap appears to be paying off if this demo reel is any indication. In it, the fledgling AR firm shows off what a year and half a billion dollars can accomplish. That includes productivity functions like being able to access both websites and desktop apps from airborne virtual icons. There's also the promise of an immersive shooter game using physical weapons as its controllers and the world around you as the environment. Do want.



It's like a scene straight out of Dennou Coil. "You can think of us as techno-biology," Magic Leap CE Rony Abovitz told a Reddit AMA last year. "We believe it is the future of computing." Now we just need to know when that future is actually going to arrive and how many arms/legs it will cost once it does.

FACT SHEET: President Obama Launches New TechHire Initiative

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

March 09, 2015

President Obama Announces Multi-Sector Effort and Call to Action to Give Americans Pathways to Well-Paying Technology Jobs; Makes Available $100 Million in Grants

The President and his Administration are focused on promoting middle class economics to ensure that all Americans can contribute to and benefit from our American resurgence. Part of that effort requires empowering every American with the education and training they need to earn higher wages. Today’s announcement is the latest part of that effort: In his remarks to the National League of Cities, the President will announce his TechHire initiative, including a new campaign to work with communities to get more Americans rapidly trained for well-paying technology jobs.

Middle class economics has driven the President from day one, and it is what has fueled our comeback. On Friday, we learned that our economy created nearly 300,000 new jobs in February. American businesses have now added more than 200,000 jobs a month for the past 12 months, the longest streak of job creation at that pace in 37 years. All told, over the past five years, our businesses have created 12 million new jobs.

While we are seeing an economic resurgence, the President has made clear that there is still work left to do. America has about 5 million open jobs today, more than at any point since 2001. Over half a million of those job openings are in information technology fields like software development, network administration, and cybersecurity- many of which did not even exist just a decade ago. The average salary in a job that requires information technology (IT) skills – whether in manufacturing, advertising, retail or banking – is 50 percent higher than the average private-sector American job. Helping more Americans train and connect to these jobs is a key element of the President’s middle-class economics agenda.

As part of that agenda, TechHire is a bold multi-sector effort and call to action to empower Americans with the skills they need, through universities and community colleges but also nontraditional approaches like “coding bootcamps,” and high-quality online courses that can rapidly train workers for a well-paying job, often in just a few months. Employers across the United States are in critical need of talent with these skills. Many of these programs do not require a four-year degree. Key elements of the initiative include:

• Over twenty forward-leaning communities are committing to take action – working with each other and with national employers – to expand access to tech jobs. To kick off TechHire, 20 regions, with over 120,000 open technology jobs and more than 300 employer partners in need of this workforce, are announcing plans to work together to new ways to recruit and place applicants based on their actual skills and to create more fast track tech training opportunities. The President is challenging other communities across the country to follow their lead.
• $100 million in new Federal investments to train and connect more workers to a good job in technology and other in-demand fields. The Administration will launch a $100 million H-1B grant competition by the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to training and successfully employing low-skill individuals with barriers to training and employment including those with child care responsibilities, people with disabilities, disconnected youth, and limited English proficient workers, among others. This grant competition will support the scaling up of evidence-based strategies such as accelerated learning, work-based learning, and Registered Apprenticeships.
• Private sector boosts tools and resources to support and expand continued innovation in technology training, with a focus on reaching under-served populations. Private sector leaders are announcing commitments to provide free training through online training slots and expanding “coding bootcamps” – which provide intensive training for well-paying jobs, often in the course of just a few months – to low-income and underserved Americans including women, minorities, and veterans across the nation. National organizations are committing to work with interested cities to share job and skills information, job-matching tools, and other resources to help support the growth, adoption, and creation of promising practices across the United States.

Details on the Tech Hire Initiative

The TechHire initiative builds on work communities like Louisville, St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York City and the State of Delaware are doing to connect more Americans to well-paying technology jobs through a potent combination of new tools and training models:

Over twenty forward-leaning communities are committing to take action – with each other and with national employers – to expand access to tech jobs: The TechHire initiative will achieve its goals by connecting communities together so promising ideas happening in one community can be rapidly adopted by other regions. Today, 21 communities are stepping up and responding to the President’s call-to-action, including:

Louisville  New York City    Philadelphia     Delaware        City of Kearney and Buffalo County, NE
Colorado                       St. Louis                 Salt Lake City                      San Antonio
Los Angeles            Minneapolis          Kansas City         Memphis             Rural Eastern Kentucky
Nashville         Rochester            Detroit            San Francisco          Albuquerque
Chattanooga                     Portland

Building on the promising work already underway in their communities, they are all committing to three actions:

• Using data and innovative hiring practices to expand openness to non-traditional hiring: Having a data-driven assessment of employer demand is critical to building a successful regional strategy. Communities are committing to work with employers to build robust data on where they have greatest needs and what skills they are looking for; communities will work with employers to build willingness to hire from both nontraditional and traditional training programs; and communities will work with employers to review -and upgrade -their recruiting and hiring practices to enable non-traditional hiring.
   
• Expanding models for training that prepare students in months, not years: Communities will recruit, incubate and expand accelerated tech learning programs – such as coding bootcamps and innovative online training – which enable interested non-tech-experienced students to gain coding skills in months, not years. These new models also have potential to reaching to a broader set of students than have traditionally chosen to pursue tech careers. These new training programs can be run both independently or embedded as part of a local community college or university education offering.
   
• Active local leadership to connect people to jobs with hiring on ramp programs: Communities will build local strategies and partnerships to connect people to jobs, with steps ranging from investing in and working with industry-trusted organizations, which will vouch for those who have the skills to do the job but who may lack the typical profile of degrees and career experience. They will host local tech community gatherings with engaged employers, attract new non-traditional training providers to their regions, and bring visibility to existing local activities such as tech meet-ups, startup co-working spaces or startup-weekends - which are already in place in most middle-size cities or encouraging the founding of these groups if they are not available locally.

The Administration is encouraging more communities and employers to follow in their lead with similar innovative strategies to advance these goals.

Examples of TechHire Community Commitments

• St. Louis, MO. A network of over 150 employers in St. Louis’ rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem will build on a successful Mastercard pilot to partner with local non-profit Launchcode, to build the skills of women and underrepresented minorities for tech jobs, and will also place 250 apprentices in jobs in 2015 at employers like Monsanto, CitiBank, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and Anheuser Busch.
• New York City, NY. With employers including Microsoft, Verizon, Goldman Sachs, Google, and Facebook, the Tech Talent Pipeline is announcing new commitments to prepare college students in the City University of New York (CUNY) system for and connect them to paid internship opportunities at local tech companies. NYC will also expand successful models like the NYC Web Development Fellowship serving 18-26 year olds without a college degree in partnership with the Flatiron School.
• State of Delaware. The new Delaware TechHire initiative is committing to training entry-level developers in a new accelerated coding bootcamp and Java and .Net accelerated community college programs giving financial institutions and healthcare employers, throughout the state, access to a new cohort of skilled software talent in a matter of months. Capital One, Bank of America, Christiana Care and others are committing to placing people trained in these programs this year.
• Louisville, KY. Louisville has convened over 20 IT employers as part of the Code Louisville initiative to train and place new software developers, including Glowtouch, Appriss, Humana, Zirmed, and Indatus. Louisville will build on this work in support of the TechHire Initiative: the city will recruit a high-quality coding bootcamp to Louisville and establish a new partnership between Code Louisville and local degree granting institutions to further standardize employer recognition of software development skillsets.

A $100 million competition for innovative approaches to connect Americans with disabilities, disconnected youth, and others to the fastest path to a good job in technology and other in-demand fields.

Today the Administration is announcing its commitment to make $100 million available through the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to moving lower skilled workers with barriers to training and employment on the fastest paths to well-paying information technology and high growth jobs in industries like healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services and other in-demand sectors. The grant will focus on providing workers the skills for a pathway to the middle class while providing employers with the skilled technology workers need to grow and expand. This grant will serve people with barriers to accessing training including people with childcare responsibilities, people with disabilities, people with limited English proficiency, and disconnected youth, among others. It will serve both unemployed and low skilled front line workers.

Grants will pilot and scale innovative partnerships between employers, workforce boards, training institutions, non-profit organizations, and cities and states across the country. These partnerships will support the implementation of job-driven training strategies to help workers complete basic and technical skills training using evidence-based strategies such as accelerated learning, work-based learning and Registered Apprenticeships. A solicitation for applications for these partnerships will be available this fall and awards will be made next year. These grants will be financed by a user fee paid by employers to bring foreign workers into the United States under the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program.

Private sector leaders are announcing tools and resources to scale continued innovation in technology training, with a focus on reaching under-served populations.

Expanding accelerated models for training in months not years:

• A group of 10 bootcamps are jointly announcing a shared, third-party validated format for annually publishing completion and employment outcomes to help continue to drive innovation in the bootcamp model.
• The accelerated training providers Dev Bootcamp, Hack Reactor, Microsoft, Treehouse Island, Inc., andUdacity will all be expanding free or discounted training slots for underserved communities and individuals.
• General Assembly will work with community colleges, other training providers, and employers with the aim of further standardizing web development training
  .
• Flatiron School, Hackbright Academy, and Rural Sourcing are announcing they will provide pro bono consulting to help interested communities expand and improve training.
• Cisco will provide select individuals interested in career opportunities in IT with free access to online IT networking skills including hundreds of online training assets.

Support for local leaders:

• Opportunity@Work, a national civic enterprise that is launching at New America today, will aim to connect policy to action and will collaborate with private and philanthropic partners to create freely available tools to scale-up employer commitments to inclusive hiring practices, to facilitate a nationwide learning network for communities, and to create new financing to help lower-income Americans be trained and placed into technology jobs.
• Capital One, through its FutureEdge initiative, a $150 million effort that will help increase tech skills and hiring, will collaborate with Opportunity@Work to provide support tailored to the needs of communities.
• #YesWeCode commits to delivering $10 million in scholarships for 2,000 underserved minorities across the nation, to attend coding bootcamps over the next ten years.

Using data and innovative hiring practices to expand hiring to include non-traditional training paths:

• CEB will develop their own best practices playbook for employers with guidance to private and public employers on how to recruit tech talent from non-traditional sources.
• LinkedIn will provide free data about the supply and demand of IT skills to communities to help them identify shortages and focus training resources on skills most in-demand.
• Knack will for the first time make its aptitude test technology available free of charge to employers, communities, and accelerated training providers that are launching inclusive training and hiring campaigns aimed at underserved minorities, women, and veterans.

A complete list of private sector commitments can be found here.

The President’s Agenda to Create Pathways to the Middle-Class Through High-Quality, Job-Driven Training. TechHire is part of the President’s broader agenda to invest in job-driven training:

• Vice-President Biden’s Job-Driven Training Review. The President’s TechHire initiative builds on the job-driven training review that the President asked the Vice President to lead in the 2013 State of the Union. Amongst other findings, the Vice President’s review identified information technology generally and cybersecurity in particular as an emerging area of growth that requires job-driven training strategies to meet business needs and provide more workers with a path to the middle class.
• VA Accelerated Learning Competition. To ensure that Veterans can take full advantage of innovative learning models, VA will apply $10M in innovation funding to leverage accelerated learning and test its effectiveness for transitioning Servicemembers and Veterans over the next two years. VA will concentrate this initiative in communities where conditions are conducive for VA to provide industry-specific and place-based support to Veterans and transitioning Servicemembers
• American Apprenticeship Grant Competition. Last year, DOL opened a $100 million competition to spur partnerships between employers, labor, training providers, and local governments to expand apprenticeships into high-growth fields like information technology and scale models that work. The deadline for this application is April 30, 2015, and more information is available at the Grants.gov application page.
• Information Technology Industry-Credentialing partnerships. The President’s FY2016 budget proposes $300 million to fund IT jobs partnerships between regional employers to develop and adopt assessments and credentials that will give more people the chance to qualify for a better, higher-paying tech job regardless of their pedigree.

The Current State of Cryptocurrency

Bryan ClarkOn 23rd February, 2015  MakeUseOf
Technology Explained

It’s been a wild ride for cryptocurrency since Bitcoin (BTC) became the first decentralized digital currency in 2009.

Since then, millions of transactions have been made, millions of dollars have been stolen or lost, and we’ve seen the rise of several new cryptocurrencies with exciting and innovative new technology, and safety measures behind them.

It’s an interesting time for the future of digital currency, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t major hurdles to clear before we ever begin to see any sort of widespread adoption. We’re – mostly – on the right track, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant challenges for the fledgling cryptocurrency markets.

While the early days of cryptocurrency were rather notorious due to its widespread usage on dark net sites, such as the – now defunct – Silk Road, we have seen some key mainstream adoption indicators in recent years.




Major Highlights
2014 saw a few big wins for cryptocurrency supporters. Each of these wins puts the currency one step closer to widespread adoption, and I doubt anyone would deny that 2014 brought a lot of momentum and awareness of digital currency – or at least Bitcoin – to the forefront.
Record Setting Bitcoin Prices

In the early stages of Bitcoin, you could buy the currency for less than a penny. In fact, one early user – “laszlo” – used 10,000 Bitcoins to make the first real-world transaction with the currency. He bought 2 pizzas for 10,000 BTC. At its peak value, that 10,000 BTC would have been worth over $10-million USD. That’s some expensive pizza.

Over the years, Bitcoin has seen numerous peaks and subsequent crashes. However, 2014 was a wild ride for the coin as prices maxed out at approximately $1,250 USD before taking a sharp plunge into the low $300’s by April of 2014. The currency has continued its downward momentum since then, and currently sits in the $200’s depending on the marketplace source.



Widespread Media Attention
As the price of a single Bitcoin continued to rise, so did its media profile. Major news outlets like CNN, Fox, CNBC, Al Jazeera, and others jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon and started reporting about digital currency, the upward trajectory, security concerns, and its ultimate collapse. Since then, we’ve seen a sort of disappearance of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in the media, but the attention did bring about some awareness for alternative currencies.
Major Retailer Adoption and the Christmas of 2014

In September of 2014, Overstock.com became the first large retailer to accept Bitcoin. After the initial announcement, the dominoes started to fall and many other retailers began to announce their acceptance of the currency for the upcoming Christmas season. Here are just a few of the companies that jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon that year:

• Expedia
• Dell Computers
• DISH Network
• Reddit
• Paypal
• Tiger Direct

In addition, other major retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Nike and Amazon take Bitcoin (indirectly) through the use of gift cards from companies like: eGifter, Gyft, Giftcard Zen and GiftcardBTC. While there are more stores that won’t accept these cards than those that do, it’s still a positive sign when retailers of this size are accepting Bitcoin – albeit indirectly.

The Rise of Litecoin and Other Alternative Currencies


Until late 2013, it was all about Bitcoin. Other technologies existed in the cryptocurrency space, but none with any real traction or marketshare that came close to that of Bitcoin. In 2013, this began to change, as Litecoin started to gain some real traction, as well as some notable PR. The sudden spike in Litecoin pricing included a 100-percent leap in a single day, as well as a $1-billion USD market cap by the end of 2013. Many started to tout Litecoin as the successor to Bitcoin due to the improved technology and security-related fixes to its supposed predecessor.

The rise of Litecoin planted it firmly in the number two spot, behind industry-leader, Bicoin. This all changed in 2014 when a new kid on the block, Ripple, started to make waves with a change in the core technology behind cryptocurrency and a currency-agnostic approach to the way that cryptocurrency is bought and sold.



The aim of Ripple was to decentralize the exchange points that other services, such as those that Bitcoin relied on to process each transaction. This approach would hypothetically add increased security to each transaction as there was no centralized market to hack, and the liquidity of Ripple allowed multiple ways to buy and to sell the coin, such as: fiat currency (Dollars, Yen, Pesos, Euros, etc.), other forms of cryptocurrency, or technology-related commodity items such as frequent flier miles and mobile minutes.

Strictly speaking, Ripple isn’t a cryptocurrency per se, but rather a decentralized payment network that supports multiple currency exchanges. That said, you can trade Ripple (XRP) like you would any other cryptocurrency, the difference is that it’s relying on other currencies in order to have any real value. This isn’t unlike Bitcoin, which until recently was rather worthless without the ability to cash it out into fiat currency.

Much Cryptocurrency, Many Money, So Doge
Dogecoin is yet another of many new cryptocurrency technologies, but it’s particularly notable due to the press it gained in 2014. The currency itself, which is named after the “Doge” Internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu and seemingly random bits of Comic Sans text, was mostly spurred by its adoption within the Reddit community as a charitable currency for tipping others based on helpful or humorous comments on the site.



Reddit sent the cryptocurrency “to the moon” after using it to raise $50,000 USD to send the Jamaican Bobsled Team to the Sochi Winter Olympics after they qualified, but could not afford to go.

Next, Reddit used the momentum fueled by the media after their Olympic fundraising efforts to raise, and donate 40-million Dogecoin (more than $30,000 USD at the time), before World Water Day on March 22nd. The project was a success, and the money went to funding a well in the Tana river basin in Kenya under the supervision of Charity:Water.

Reddit wasn’t done yet. In March of 2014, the Dogecoin community raised over $50,000 USD to sponsor Nascar Driver, Josh Wise. Wise ran the Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Speedway with a Dogecoin and Reddit sponsored paintjob featuring Doge, and the Reddit mascot, Snoo.

Dogecoin has been a fast mover, but still lacks the widespread adoption of other forms of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ripple. It currently sits at the number six spot on the list of cryptocurrencies, in terms of market cap, after peaking as high as third.
Setbacks

It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows for cryptocurrencies. There are widespread fears as to the safety and liquidity of owning the digital currencies, as well as what – if any – government regulations will be made.

Mt. Gox Shutdown
The shutdown of the largest cryptocurrency exchange and its subsequent filings for bankruptcy protection were a major blow to the digital currency markets. However, theproblems with Mt. Gox didn’t start or end there.

Over its notorious history, Mt. Gox had its share of problems. They ranged from withdrawal freezes, to multiple trading incidents (one which resulted in the price of BTC on the network to temporarily drop to 1 cent), lawsuits, missing or lost coins, and ultimately a seizure of funds by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

After closing the doors for good, stories began to circulate – and were confirmed by Mt. Gox – that over its short history it had lost over 600,000 BTC that could have been worth over $800-million USD depending on when they were lost or stolen.

Chinese Restrictions
As Bitcoin soared to record levels at the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014, much of this success was attributed to additional demand in China. By the end of 2013, China started to reverse this trend after fears related to government action induced a panic and large scale sale of Bitcoin back into the open market. This influx of newly available coins led to sharp price drops in the market and a panic sale for many of those outside of China. The Chinese-induced panic was initially caused by China’s Central Bank issuing an order for financial institutions to stop accepting the currency, and further sent the cryptocurrency market spiraling when this ban extended to online payment processors such as YeePay.

As China began to pull out of the Bitcoin market in late 2013, the increased demand led to the price of each coin falling to approximately $300 USD by April of 2014.

Where Do We Go From Here?


Apple Pay and Google Wallet continues to improve, the future of cryptocurrency begins to look a lot brighter. One of the major hurdles to widespread adoption is the lack of a physical form of payment such as cash or a credit card, and instead relying on a digital transaction to purchase goods from brick and mortar retailers. As digital wallet adoption increases (if and when that happens) and more people become comfortable with the idea of digital wallets that process cash and credit card transaction instantly, currencies such as Bitcoin become infinitely more viable.

The future of cryptocurrency is exciting, but in order to ever reach mainstream consumer adoption, many things still have to happen, such as: increased retail adoption, trust in digital wallets, and improvements to security in cryptocurrency protocols. If, and only if, all of these things happen, cryptocurrency could just take over the world.

Image credit: Bitcoins by Zach Copley, Bitcoin Accepted by Theresa Rios, Litecoin by BTC Keychain, Google Wallet by Eric Pakurar, all via Flickr; Ripple Logo via Wikimedia Commons

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CCC Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy eUpdate

February 2015

In this issue you'll find:
» 130 Attend First Strong Workforce Town Hall
» Faculty Leaders Inform Task Force
» In the News
» Welcome to Walt DiMantova, New Visiting Dean
» LaunchBoard Tip: View CTE Outcomes Survey Results on
» the LaunchBoard

Regards,
Van Ton-Quinlivan, Vice Chancellor
CCCCO Division of Workforce and Economic Development



About the Task Force

• Overview
• Task Force Member
• Board of Governors Members
• Burning Questions - FAQs

Calendar

• Regional College & Faculty Conversations
• Strong Workforce Town Hall Meetings
• Task Force Meetings
• View all Events »

Newsroom

• Reading List
• View all News »

LAUNCHBOARD NEWS



Launch Board Tip: View CTE Outcomes Survey Results on the LaunchBoard

For colleges that participate in the CTE Outcomes Survey, results are now available in an easy-to-use tool on the LaunchBoard. Find out how many students got a job in their field of study and earned a third-party credential, as well as how long it took students to find a job and if they increased their working hours. Information can be sorted by year, by the type of student (completer, skills-builder, or transfer student), and by program. View a demo and college data.

130 Attend First Strong Workforce Town Hall

(Photo Credit: Ed Coghlan)
The following coverage was written by CAFWD:

If Tuesday's turnout for the first Town Hall of the Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong Economy, held in Fresno, is any indication then the desire for a strong workforce in California is very, very high.

The California Community Colleges commissioned the Task Force to address ways that California can address the skills gap that exists in the state's economy. About 1-million middle skilled workers are needed--and business leaders are looking for answers.

As California Community College Vice Chancellor Van Ton-Quinlivan said after the session the desire and the urgency for change expressed among business leaders shows the Task Force's mission is timely.

"The 130 people who attended the Town Hall and their comments affirm the direction of the community colleges and the vital role we play in jobs and the economy," Ton-Quinlivan said.

Business leaders, especially among the Central Valley's agriculture and manufacturing sectors joined some educators and other community leaders at the session.

Overwhelmingly they identified two areas of need:

1. The Community Colleges need to deepen relationships with employers by sector.

2. There needs to be more work developing work-based learning in partnership with Career Technical Education.

The two-hour session unearthed plenty of discussion and a lot of ideas. One theme often heard was the idea of "portability".

West Hills Community College President Carole Goldsmith drew more than a few chuckles when she said, "You know, California is a little fragmented." She stressed that there are many good workforce programs already underway in California's vast community college system.

"One good curriculum developed at any community college should be easier to import to other schools," Goldsmith said. You could almost hear the heads nodding in agreement.

The audience had outstanding representation from the manufacturing sector. The meeting was held at Betts Company in Fresno and company president Mike Betts pointed out that manufacturing really "turned out" for the event.

The lack of a skilled workforce in manufacturing is problematic in California, which may explain some of the robust turnout. How to introduce manufacturing earlier to students--even while they are still in high school--drew quite a bit of discussion.

Rebecca Bettencourt, the Project Manager for Corporate Training at E&J Gallo, flatly asserted that their work begins in high schools.

The ideas were flowing like the wine that Gallo produces and one expects that will be the case as other Town Hall meetings are convened around the state. Four more are scheduled:

• March 4, Los Angeles
• March 10, Silicon Valley
• March 16, Sacramento
• March 18, San Diego

Read the full article here.

Faculty Leaders Inform Task Force
At the kick off meeting of the Board of Governors Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation and a Strong Economy on January 22nd, Burning Glass CEO Matthew Sigelman outlined, "The core issues lie in the significant deficits California is facing with having enough workers to fill high value middle skill jobs, which take 20% longer to fill in California than in other states."

"Nationally, there are eleven million unemployed people in the United States and four million unfilled jobs, further underscoring the lack of skilled workers available to enable employers to compete globally," said Eva Sage-Gavin, vice chair of the Aspen Institute's Skills for America's Future Advisory Board and former global Executive Vice President of The Gap, Inc.

"The people around the table were clearly anxious to engage with the issues, and they offer an impressive collection of knowledge and experience," observed David Morse, Academic Senate (ASCCC) President. Half of the Task Force members are nominees representing internal constituency groups, including 4 faculty voices:


Lynn Shaw, President of the LBCC Full Time Faculty Union, serves as Task Force co-chair. As a CTE faculty, she brings experience embedding industry-valued credentials into CTE programs.


Julie Bruno is Vice President of the ASCCC and a Sierra College faculty. Julie brings experience contextualizing general education into CTE.


Toni Parsons, Curriculum Committee Chair at San Diego Mesa College, brings experience contextualizing basic skills into CTE.


Lynell Wiggins, Counselor at Pasadena City College, brings experience counseling students at the campus level in CTE.

"The most impactful concept I learned is that we need to meet employer demand with forthright conversations that challenge assumptions," said Wiggins. "In our attempt to build and enhance training programs, the onus is on us to bring employers to the table and establish appropriate outcomes for our programs."

When asked for her takeaways from the first Task Force meeting, Parsons shared, "1) Our focus is consistent - on the student. 2) Whether a two-year degree or four-year degree is needed. 3) How do we increase successes while holding on to our values and our mission?"

The ASCCC is soliciting broader faculty input through three Regional Faculty Conversations and invites all faculty to register here:

• North - February 27, Solano College, 10am - 3pm 
• South - February 28, Palomar College, 10am - 3pm 
• Central - March 13, Clovis College, 10am - 3 pm 

Task Force members will reconvene in April to consider the feedback from the Regional College and Faculty Conversations as well as Strong Workforce Town Halls towards the goal of 1M more certificates, AAs and industry-valued credentials for California. Visit here for more details.

In the News
Manpower Commits to Hiring with Creation of New Industry-Valued Certificate
New Study: Employer’s Role in the $1.1T Postsecondary Education & Training System

New to the Chancellor's Office


Walt DiMantova
Visiting Dean, Workforce and Economic Development Division

Please welcome Walt DiMantova as Visiting Dean to the CCCCO Workforce and Economic Development Division (WEDD) with a primary focus on staff training and process improvements. Walt has over 20 years of experience as a practitioner in developing, managing and directing innovative corporate and workforce training initiatives in partnership with some of the country's largest corporations. He is on loan from the Los Rios CCD where he is Director of Workforce and Economic Development. Prior to that, Walt was Director of the Centers for Corporate Training at Eastern Michigan University where he oversaw highly successful programs in Occupational Health and Safety, Quality, Management and Leadership and Foundation Skills Development with such clients as US Department of Labor (OSHA), Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Chrysler and the United Auto Workers joint training centers as well as over 200 other businesses, large and small.