http://www.bdpa.org/?page=BDPA_Insider_Archive

Happy Birthday: Curtis Jenkins

One of the most accomplished BDPA leaders in our history is Curtis Jenkins. He celebrates his birthday today!

Curtis has been an active member and leader of the BDPA Philadelphia Chapter since 2002. Curtis Jenkins served as the Immediate Past President for 2008 and 2009 and also the Corporate Advisory Council Chairperson for BDPA Philadelphia. In his duties as Immediate Past President, he served as an ambassador, mentor, and voting member of the BDPA Philadelphia Executive Committee sharing his experiences as a President and member of the National Board of Directors for BDPA. As Corporate Advisory Council (CAC) Chairperson, Curtis is primarily responsible for the solicitation of CAC membership, scheduling and facilitating the quarterly meetings, maintaining the CAC Charter and serving as the focal point for information between the CAC and the BDPA Executive Board.

Click here for more:

http://betf.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-birthday-curtis-jenkins.html

Chronicles of an IT Job Seeker-Job Search is a Team Sport!

by Milt Haynes

This has been an exciting week! I joined a Job Search Work Team where I learned about thePierson Method. Now I'm convinced that finding a job is a team sport. It's like basketball, football and soccer, it takes a group of people working together toward common goals to win on the field.

What is a Job Search Work Team?

A job search work team is:

Click here for more:

http://blacksgonegeek.blogspot.com/2011/09/chronicles-of-it-job-seeker-job-search.html

Job Seekers Forum - September 12, 7:30 pm Central

Agenda:

Introductions

--Come prepared with your elevator pitch!

Discussion Topics:

--The Pierson Method--Job Search Work Teams (http://www.highlyeffectivejobsearch.com/teams-orgs/jobsearchworkteam.htm)

--Q&A

Bring your tough job search questions to the meeting.

Roundtable:

--Good News

--Upcoming events

--Volunteer Opportunities

Date: Monday, September 12, 2011

Start Time: 07:30 PM Central Daylight Time, 8:30 PM Eastern

End Time: 08:25 PM Central Daylight Time, 9:25 PM Eastern

Dial-in Number: 1-213-289-0500 (Los Angeles)

Participant Access Code: 671366

Click here for more:

http://blacksgonegeek.org/JobSeekerFocusGroup.aspx

Take Five: Jamesetta James (BDPA Greater Columbia)

Jamesetta James has worked the past few years as the national coordinator of the BDPA Youth Technology Camp (YTC). Earlier this year she provided her review of the 2011 YTC experience in Chicago. She has had a positive impact on hundreds of young people over the years and we thought it would be good to hear from Jamesetta as part of our Take Five interview series:

Click here for more:

http://betf.blogspot.com/2011/09/take-five-jamesetta-james-bdpa-greater.html

BDPA Philadelphia Supports Pennsylvania MESA Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

BDPA seeks to advance the careers of African Americans in the Information Technology (IT) industry from the classroom to the boardroom. An important element of that process is ensuring that our young people have exposure and experience to as many STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs as possible.

As such, it was a no-brainer for our BDPA Philadelphia chapter leadership to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the nationally-recognized Math Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) initiative in Pennsylvania. MESA is an academic preparation program for K-12, community college and university-level students that was originally created in 1970. The program provides academic support to students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds throughout the education pathway so they will excel in math and science and ultimately attain four-year degrees in STEM fields. The program has successfully been replicated in over a dozen other states.

Click here for more:

http://betf.blogspot.com/2011/09/bdpa-philadelphia-supports-pennsylvania.html

"Should-hood”

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Mark E. Calabrese

A friend of mine out in Baltimore used to tell me, "Should-hood leads to Shit-hood”. This is particularly applicable to those of us in management roles. Whether you’re managing a project, a team or even your own life, focusing on the ‘should’ can be a good thing or a bad thing.

"Should-hood” – the mindset of focusing on what should be – isn’t bad in the right context. Focusing on what ‘should be’ is how we apply our core values to our own words and actions. ‘Should’ is a very powerful mindset…..when applied to oneself. The problem comes when we focus on what ‘should be’ when it comes to the words and actions of others.

Click here for more:

http://mecmusings.com/2011/09/02/should-hood/

Cloud Brokerage is Gaining Ground

by Daryl Plummer | August 31, 2011

All of a sudden, everyone is interested in cloud services brokerage. Well, by everyone, I mean end customers looking for an easier way to integrate cloud computing into their plans and vendors seeking a new set of markets to mine. But no matter the interested party, one thing is clear. The options for doing cloud brokerage are growing steadily.

When we introduced cloud services brokerage in 2009, we described a concept about intermediation between services. The value was in having a third party take on a lot of the work of aggregating, integrating, customizing, or governing (nee managing) cloud services on behalf of the end consumer. In a subsequent update last year, we did a number of reports, including a piece called "Cloud Services Brokerage: Taking Intermediation to the next Level” that described the concept in even more detail. But through all of that, the activity around cloud brokerage remained mostly at the application and platform level of cloud services. Companies like Appirio and Jamcracker were getting a lot of attention for integrating or aggregating cloud services into new application solutions. GXS, Hubspan, and Liaison were among the B2B networks starting to see interest grow – a case study on Mohawk Fine Papers that we recently published illustrates this. And this week, Dell has announced its plans to broker Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and other cloud SaaS solutions by aggregating and integrating using the Boomi brokerage enabling technology which they acquired. This is part of the steady growth at the applications level. But now, we are beginning to see the rise of brokerage at the infrastructure level as well.

Click here for more:

http://blogs.gartner.com/daryl_plummer/2011/08/31/cloud-brokerage-is-gaining-ground/

Gates Millennium Scholarship Program

The Gates Millennium Scholarship Program will select 1,000 talented students next year to receive a good-through-graduation scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice. The deadline for submitting an application is January 11, 2012.

Scholars will also be provided with personal and professional development through their leadership programs, along with academic support throughout their college career.

Click here for more:

http://betf.blogspot.com/2011/09/gates-millennium-scholarship-program.html

Hundreds of U.S. Data Centers Closing

To save money, the U.S. government will shut down hundreds of data centers across the country and consolidate their services into its remaining data centers. The White House Office of Management and Budget recently announced that it would be shutting down 373 U.S. government data centers by 2012.

Over the last two years, the number of U.S. data centers has quadrupled, and yet they are running at only about 27 percent utilization, according to the Office of Management and Budget. The maintenance costs of these data centers, including backup power supplies, air conditioning, fire-suppression and special security devices, has been astronomical, causing them to consume 200 times more power than the typical office space. By more fully utilizing the remaining data centers, the White House hopes to maintain current service levels while drastically cutting costs

Click here for more:

http://bdpadet-tac.blogspot.com/2011/08/hundreds-of-us-data-centers-closing.html