BETA
A Kenyan startup, BitPesa, which is seeking to have an impact in the global remittance business, said it has raised $1.1 million in a second round of funding from Pantera Capital of San Francisco. The CEO and founder of Pantera, Dan Morehad has joined BitPesa’s board. BitPesa has raised a total of $1.7 million. The startup began last spring with the U.K.-Kenya business. Currently it has operations in Ghana and is planning further expansion to Tanzania and Uganda this year.
Michelle Ferrier, dean of innovation at Ohio University Scripps College of Communication, and her team won acknowledgement at the Louisa Reynolds International Women’s Media Foundation Hackathon in late January in New York City. Ferrier’s group won recognition for offering pest control solutions for women online publishers. The team showed that online harassment reaches 40 percent of women online and is growing. Their research showed that women journalist are targeted online. To help deter these problems the groups has a S.O.S. Team which will counter cyberattacks in real-time with online community support and positive messaging.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is near making a proposal to regulate the Internet like it were a public utility. According to The New York Times, industry analysts, lobbyists, and former members of the FCC are saying the commission will reclassify broadband service as a Title II telecommunications service. This action would give the FCC broader powers to make sure Internet service providers don’t sell faster Internet service to larger and richer customers for higher prices at the expense of smaller Internet companies.
Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre in New York has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to debut a play by the late playwright, author and activist Amiri Baraka. The play, “The Most Dangerous Man In America,” is a reflection on the life of W.E.B. DuBois, the scholar, political activist and co-founder of the NAACP. The campaign is nearly halfway through an effort to raise $40,000.
Forging new ground that many technology companies have been traditionally criticized for, Intel said it plans to pursue steps to make its workforce reflect the talent pool of women and underrepresented minority groups. Over the next five years the company said it would take steps to increase women, blacks, Hispanics and other groups by at least 14 percent. The company said it would create a $300 million fund to improve diversity. The money will be used to fund scholarships and support HBCUs.