Hispanic-Net

The Next 4 Billion - BOP Market

At this year's TiECON, I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Allan Hammond of the World Resources Institute. Guess what? The Base of the Pyramid, those 4B people with annual purchasing power of less than $3000USD, represents a $5 Trillion market. Dr. Hammond outlined the WRI's report, The Next 4 Billion, and gave a compelling case as to why this market is being targeted by entrepreneurs and huge multi-national corporations as the next big segment to fuel revenue growth.

Seth Godin on the Digital Divide

It's interesting how when you focus on something you start running into it everywhere.  It's an example of the Law of Attraction I suppose. Or synchronicity.  I was perusing Seth Godin's book on Small is the New Big and he has a riff on the Digital Divide.

Cool New Companies

English180

Founded by Andres Moreno, English180 responds to the need of more than 2 billion people worldwide seeking to learn English as a second language in a more engaging, interactive and enjoyable way.

LaborFair

Jose Arocha recently joined LaborFair, a social enterprise focused on leveraging the power of the net to create a direct and trustworthy channel between consumers and workers in the informal economy.  This is the best place to find a painter, gardener, nanny, handyman or other informal help online.

TierraNatal

Hispanic-Net May event panelist Liliana Miranda Townshend has launched the public beta of Tierra Natal.  Tierra Natal is the first social networking site that reunites recently arrived Hispanic immigrants, hometown associations and their communities of origin.

Blogs in Employment & HR, Use of

Recruiting and HR blogs essentially perform two functions, Community Building and Branding. In community building, they essentially act as a central communications point which a recruiter might use to advertise, who/what they are looking for. The more information a recruiter shares about what is going on with an employer, the more likely a potential candidate may stumble upon it and or go to the Blog as a resource place. A secondary function of recruiting blogs is to put a personal face on what is frequently an impersonal function, governed by eCommunications and Voice Mail.

Blogs don’t get you a job and they don’t hire you. They tell you about jobs and employers.

Jobs work best when they target a narrow specific community. So for example, if I said I want to target Hispanic High Tech professionals who have a Bachelor’s degree or better, and must have worked at least 5 years in the high tech community, then I would be talking to many people who the Hispanic Net community wants to address. This could work.

Hispanic-Net Group on Facebook

Not to be left behind, we've created a members-only Hispanic-Net group on Facebook.  To join you need to a)have an account on Facebook and b) be a dues paying member of Hispanic-Net.  After all, members should have some exclusive privileges.

The question remains though - do and will Latinos leverage social networking tools?  I've been approached by more than one academic on this question.  Do social networking tools like LinkedIn and Facebook give further advantage to people with social capital and connections?  Does it accelerate their access?  Can Hispanics, women and other under-represented groups close the gap and increase their social capital?

We'll see.