Latimer Williams

Bio from Omar Wasow’s Blog

Omar Wasow, 37, is pursuing a doctorate in African American studies and political science at Harvard. In addition to his graduate work, Omar is the co-founder of BlackPlanet.com and an on-air technology analyst. Under Omar’s leadership BlackPlanet.com became the leading site for African Americans, reaching over three million people a month. As a strategic advisor to Community Connect Inc., the parent company of BlackPlanet.com, he continues to work closely with senior management to guide the long-term direction and profitability of the company. Omar also works to demystify technology issues through regular TV and radio segments on NBC’s Today Show, CNN’s American Morning and public radio’s Tavis Smiley Show. Similarly, Omar tutored Oprah Winfrey in her first exploration of the Net in the 12-part series ‘Oprah Goes Online’.

Omar’s success as a credible and friendly guide to the Internet led Newsweek to name him one of the “fifty most influential people to watch in cyberspace,” and People magazine to call him the “Sexiest Internet Executive.” Successful Meetings Magazine named him one of the “21 Top Speakers for the 21st Century.”

As a result of his active participation in a number of social issues, particularly the charter school movement, Omar was selected to be a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership program. In recognition of the promise of his academic research, the National Science Foundation selected him for a Graduate Research Fellowship. In Fall 2003, a K-8 charter school that Omar helped found opened in his hometown of Brooklyn. He received his BA in Race and Ethnic Relations from Stanford University. He can be reached at omar (at) mail.blackplanet.com.

By Latimer Williams

The law has always been unable to interpret where does the internet and blogging fit. Are they jounarlist or are they not under that protection and can be made accountable for the subjects that they write about. Congress

had a draft of a law that would shield bloggers with the same protection as journalist, it is called the Free Flow of Information Act. The law has been opposed by both parties as too broad a definition on who a journalism is and what information he can publish and also bloggers could protect their sources just as journalist sometimes are able to do. The question is who does this bill really protect?

The bill defines journalism as “gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.”

Now I have to admit this is a broad definition and this bill needs some editing before they actually bring this bill to congress for considration fo passing. The Bush Administration opposes this bill stating also that it is too broad and may protect those who are terrorist who are passing information to each other. I’m not quit sure I agree with Bush Administration because they can also operate and infiltrate under the guise of the Patriot Act.

The question is while this law is not passed what and how are bloggers protected? It doesn’t seem to be by alot and the blogger community should be careful with what they publish because it seems that there is this new underground witchhunt for getting bloggers to publish what the government or this administration wants them to publish. It just seems to me more and more this country is looking like a police state than a democracy.

What are your thoughts?

By Latimer Williams

In the early 1990’s Microsoft took the Compter experience to the next level with Windows. Like microsoft or not, Windows changed society at-large from the way we do business to our personal lives. Since that time the Information Technology field hasn’t had too many new ideas just improvements to already existing technology. Microsoft is looking to up the anti against their competitors with it’s latest creation.

Microsoft surface is a tabletop pc that doesn’t have a keyboard or mouse but relys on touchscreen technology. This technology is not new at all but imagine for a moment interactive with your cell phone by just laying on the tabletop surface and seeing all of your info, or downloading you photos from your digital camera by placing it on the table and arranging and changing the size of photos with your hands.

The tabletop pc is not cheap at the moment range between $5000 and $10,000 but you can bet your bottom dollar as demand goes up the price will come down to be affordable to all that wants to purchase it. I see limitless potential with this piece of equipment and of course being microsoft I’m quite sure there will not to be a few patches before it works properly!(It’s a Microsoft product so I had to throw them a jab!)

If I had some money to invest in I would definately purchase some Microsoft stock before this becomes big because I think this company is gonna get bigger with this product, if that is possible! I’m glad I already own a few shares and I think I’m gonna purchase some more because it is so important to use some of these companies as vessels to build personal wealth and owning stock is definately one way.

Check out Microsoft Surface on their webite for some demostrations, it is truley amazing.

By Latimer Williams

I have written a couple of articles on the $100 Laptop by One Laptop Per Child(OLPC) and how actually it is now the $175 Laptop. I made it clear that I had issues with this being available only to developing countries outside the US and not to kids here in the country where the product is being made. Well it looks like someone was listening to me because there is a new kids on the block. The Asus 3ePC has been developed as competition to the XO and will retail around $199. The more important part is that it will be available world wide to everyone!

Specs of the Asus 3ePC

Let’s look at whats under the hood:

• The laptop will weight on 2 pounds and have 7-inch Display
• The CPU will be a Pentium M (600mhz - 1200mhz)
• 512MB of DDR2-400
• 2-16GB of Flash memory for storage
• 10/100 Ethernet, a 56K modem, 802.11b/g WiFi
• uilt-in stereo speakers and a 300K-pixel video camera
• 5200mAh battery with 3 hours of use

It sure is good to know that someone was watching and saw the obvious mistake by OLPC and decided to provide a low-cost solution to those that wanted to get their hands on the original $100 dollar laptop.Maybe OLPC will rethink their stance and open the availability to all children over the world including the US, because let’s face it, their are kids in this country that are in just as bad living conditions as kids in developing nations.As sad as that is for this country, it’s the truth.

By Latimer Williams

As a blogger or webmaster we all look for different ways to create revenue via our sites. The main way is advertising and one of the main ways is through affiliate programs. That said as African-American webmasters and bloggers we should search for those affiliates that first and foremost pay the most and are the most reliable in payments and support. I began to search for affiliate programs that were from black owned companies and I have to be honest there are not too many but enough that there are options for us to consider incorporating into our websites. I believe as African-Americans we have some responsibility to make the effort to support black owned because we support each other on the black blogesphere so why not expand it to affiliate programs also.

Here is the 5 African-American Affiliate programs to consider for your website :

• It’s A Black Thang - a commerce store that sells an assortment of African-American Products and gifts. The site offers a 2-tier affiliate program with 10% and 5% commission. Minimum amount for payout is $50.
• Cushcity.com - this site claims to be the worlds largest online supplier of Books, Videos, Music, Toys, Calendars & More. Cushcity is different from the other African-American affiliates as they offer CPC rate of 0.03 cents per click meaning you earn money even if your traffic doesn’t buy any products. I’m not sure if the CPC rate is negotiable but if you are gonna bring a high volume of traffic I would call a negotiate a new rate.Minimum for payout is $50
• Coffey Park Greetings - Correy Park Greetings is a publisher of African-American Greeting cards and stationary.They bring an urban flare to greeting cards and stationary. They offer a 13% commission on all sales.Minimum for payout is $50
• Brown Horizons Art Online - Brown Horizons has a wide range of African-American Art. They offer 10% commission on all sales and has an auto deposit setup that pays you when a sale is made.
• Especially Yours - For ten years, Especially Yours has offered distinctive wigs, hair pieces, accessories and apparel for the fashion-conscious African-American woman. The comission rate ranges from 15% - 30% depending on the volume of sales. The payments are made quarterly.

I’m quite sure there are more out there and if you know of any please let me know. I plan on taking a look a couple of these and integrating into my website. I will keep you posted on how it went.