I decided to create devLatino and the Digital Empowerment Voyage Podcast to share knowledge and information from science and technology, and the digital space. With an emphasis on highlighting the contributions from Latinos and Latin-Americans. This can include bloggers, marketers, entrepreneurs, startups, social media experts, web and app developers, engineers, scientists, and educators. devLatino looks to promote those making strides in these areas.
There is a lot of press of the contributions of Latinos in entertainment, sports, and politics. This is great, and many of these people contribute time and money to other philanthropic projects, including technology. However, we seldom hear from the many amazing and impressive Latinos in the technology space. There are many Latinos who are household names such as Jennifer Lopez, Eva Longoria, Robert Rodriguez, and Miguel Cabrera. But we also have Latinos who have been to outer-space, Latinos who have built businesses from the ground up, Latinos who know are excellent coders, Latinos who have launched successful apps, Latinos who are amazing animators, and Latinos who are building large communities on social media. These are the people I want to meet and interview. These are the people that I want us to learn from. We can learn how they reached those heights, what obstacles they faced, and how they go about beating those obstacles. I want them to share with the audience tips and tricks that they use on a daily basis that we can all learn from. I want them to give us warnings of the dangers they have faced, so we don't make similar mistakes.
I want devLatino to be a virtual mentorship program. Many of us may be the first person to go to college in our family. You may be currently attending or have graduated from a university where Latinos are only in the single digits in terms of attendance. In 2012, 14.5% of Latinos ages 25 and older had earned a bachelor degree. So perhaps your alumni association is a small one, or maybe you don't have the mentors or many examples to follow. I want devLatino to give you a virtual network of people to tap into, to get inspired by, and know that Latinos are widely succeeding in tech.
Why focus on Latino/Hispanic market?
Now, why Latinos? Let me start by saying I'm no Latino nationalist. haha I'm not looking to create divisions by race, ethinicity, nationality, whatever. I'm a huge fan of mainstream tech sites such as Recode, Mashable, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc. Walt Mossberg, formerly of WSJ's All Things D (now with Recode.net) is actually a journalist I loved reading for many years. I still don't make a major tech purchase without reading what he has to say on the matter.
However, when I started my business and expanding my knowledge from traditional marketing (such as print, direct-mail, radio, outdoor media, etc.) to digital marketing, I was looking for people like me to emulate and to mirror, as well as network. It was striking to see how seemingly few Latinos in tech were out there, few people that I can walk on the trail they have blazed. So, I'm making it the mission of devLatino to continue to blaze that trail with the people who are doing incredible work in a variety of industries. I want us to all learn together from a variety of experts and resources. I want us all to get connected on social media, and make it an agreement that we will all help one another on that voyage, no matter what the voyage may be.
Perhaps you are still deciding what to study? Or you are unsure on how to even begin your career, or what career to choose? Maybe you always had an interest in technology but felt you didn't have the resources or directions on where to go. We hope to help you with that. There are a ton of unsung Latinos out there, and I want all of us to get stronger by networking and learning from one another. So we can all continue to get smarter, wealthier, and continue to help those around us.
What is devLatino?
Now, what is exactly is devLatino. “Dev”, is the short word generally used for “developer”. In many circles, particular in web and software development “dev” is meant to signify a coder or an engineer, a developer. But I'm using “DEV” as an acronym. DEV stands for Digital. Empowerment. Voyage. Digital – to focus on those in tech or using technology to enrich our lives. Empowerment – because I really want this to be a place where we all learn new ideas and skills. Voyage – we’ll keep moving to improve Latino participation in the technology sector. We can learn lessons, share great websites and other resources, we can build networks which will help you on your voyage in your education, career, and life.
What devLatino is not?
Yes, we say it is “dev”, but we will not solely focus on coding at devlatino.com. We will definitely have guests and blog posts to teach those how to get into coding and to share the path to web development or software development, but that will not be our sole purpose. Our purpose is to educate, share information and inspire.
Format/ Segments?
The main format will be a podcast, most shows will have guests and it will be an interview format. I will ask most guests to share their stories and educational background, I will go in-depth on what they do and ask to share lessons and provide actionable steps for all of us to take. We will also have some fun with our “Rapid Fire” round, where we get to learn more fun fact about our guests. Of course, if you have any questions for a particular guest or a rapid fire question, feel free to contact us.