Links of interest for Thanksgiving break

Google’s Thanksgiving Doodle

We hope you can put away the electronic devices for at least one day during the Thanksgiving break, but when you are ready to reconnect, here are some links you can read between bites of leftover turkey.

Items we’ve found thought-provoking

In the wake of CNN’s special on race in Silicon Valley, Mario Armstrong hosted a fascinating webcast and panel discussion at UMBC. It was a thought-provoking evening and an inspiring call to action. It is only the beginning of a broader discussion, but we spotted some interesting responses:

• Entrepreneur Hank Williams - After ‘Black in America,’ silence from tech industry leaders
• Robert Scoble offered an audio commentary “My thoughts on race and tech”
• Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, writes in TechCrunch about “Racism And Meritocracy”
• On December 15th, look for a local Baltimore meetup of the NewME Community.

Some links of interest on other topics

• On Wednesday the Baltimore Business Journal broke the news that Facebook has purchased Baltimore software firm WhoGlue. The Baltimore Sun’s Gus Sentementes followed up at his blog - BaltTech: Facebook buys Baltimore company that sued it.
• Members of the cybersecurity community will be interested in this Bloomberg Businessweek profile of “Palantir, the War on Terror’s Secret Weapon.”
• PBS NewsHour segment asks Can Tech Startup Schools Teach #TheNextBigThing? (via Maryland State Senator Bill Ferguson)
• The 3 biggest barriers to innovation, and how to smash them
• Revisiting a Neal Stephenson classic essay about the massive physical-world infrastucture undergirding the Internet’s frictionless cloud - “Why’s this so good?” No. 21: Neal Stephenson’s plot-free adventure story
• For designers and the people who work with them, here’s a video that’s been circulating that sums up the worst of the creative “process”

Upcoming community events

After Thanksgiving, the Baltimore tech scene is back in full swing. Among the things to look out for:

• Check out the Social Fresh Baltimore Conference on November 29 & 30.
• Baltimore TechBreakfast: Show and tell & Growing and working with tech talent at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, November 30th.