Issue #679

Last night, I had an impromptu tour of the Kapor Center in Oakland with Curated x Kai founder, Kai Frazier.  I interviewed her back in November and had the pleasure to finally meet her in person. She introduced me to a few of her tech entrepreneur peers in the iLab residency program including  Brandon Anderson, founder of Raheem, a social justice platform that uses AI allowing citizens to report and rate police interactions.

We're in day four of The Information accelerator. This marks my first visit to San Francisco and so far, I've experienced two earthquakes and soaked up a wealth of knowledge from industry experts around the world. This week offered more than I imagined. I'm looking forward to sharing our new projects very soon.

-Tyler

A Judge Rules NYPD Must Confirm Whether BLM Surveillance Data Exists

The judge also ordered the NYPD to provide NYCLU with unredacted documents related to the Dataminr software it uses to monitor activists’ social media — including information on how much money the department spends the software.

Microsoft Pledges $500 Million for Affordable Housing in Seattle Area

Microsoft’s money represents the most ambitious effort by a tech company to directly address the inequality that has spread in areas where the industry is concentrated, particularly on the West Coast. It will fund construction for homes affordable not only to the company’s own non-tech workers, but also for teachers, firefighters and other middle- and low-income residents.

San Francisco Puts Cash Behind High-Tech Workforce Training

For most residents, the fast-growing sector — and the skills needed to join its workforce — remain a mystery. Now San Francisco Mayor London Breed is trying to change that. The city Office of Economic and Workforce Development has allocated $300,000 to SFMade, a trade group representing San Francisco makers. The money will be used to train disadvantaged residents for jobs in advanced manufacturing, a fast-growing sector that pays above minimum wage but has struggled to attract enough qualified workers.

Benchmarking Racial Inequity in St. Louis

Issued by the Office of Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis’ new Equity Indicators Baseline Report hopes to plug such information gaps when it comes to child asthma as well as 71 other indicators of racial equity. The report boils down a series of metrics into ratings of 1 to 100 for each indicator, with 100 representing no disparity between white and black residents of St. Louis. On child asthma, St. Louis scored a 1.

GIVIN Is An Online Auction Site That Sends Proceeds to Your Choice Non-Profit

GIVIN is a fundraising platform that works like an online, crowdsourced silent auction. Donors post any item for auction and, once it sells, the platform sends 100 percent of the proceeds to the non-profit designated by the donor. The platform allows users to donate goods, services, and even vacation rentals. At the end, donors get a write-off for their charitable contribution along with necessary tax receipts.

Dreamit Ventures is accepting startup applications

Applications are open for the SEED Spot accelerator.

Submissions for the Pipeline Program close on January 26th. 

Browse and apply for this list of tech conference scholarships

Apply to pitch at Pitch Black.

Apply here for the Hatch 6-month software engineering apprenticeship program.