A few years ago, the internet took note of an automatic soap dispenser that refused to provide soap to black people. The sensors just didn't seem to recognize dark skin, thus rendering the dispensers unusable by a good portion of the general population.
This shortcoming was, of course, frustrating for people of color in need of soap, but it doesn't help the manufacturer, either. If you were a business in need of new soap dispensers for your public restrooms, would you choose the ones that wouldn't work for all of your clientele?
I'm sure the manufacturer didn't set out to create a racist soap dispenser. However, this flaw perfectly exemplifies how a homogenous workforce hurts product quality (and therefore, the employer's economic well-being). The problem most likely stemmed from the fact that engineers developing these sensors shared similar backgrounds (and complexions) and didn't realize the sensors wouldn't work for everyone. It's not that these engineers were bad at their job, but their lack of diversity inevitably lead to a bad product.
"You don't know what you don't know. The reason you want diversity is not just because you want to make Dr. King proud or you don't want to get sued, it's because often demographic diversity is a stand-in for cognitive diversity, viewpoint diversity, lifestyle diversity," explains CNN pundit and The Dream Corps founder, Van Jones.
The Corps' #YesWeCode initiative is working to create new pipelines of tech workers from low-income communities directly into Silicon Valley. While many similarly minded initiatives focus on the good that diversity can provide to underrepresented populations (and they will; coding is a dependable and often lucrative skill to have), it will also benefit the companies that recruit them.
"Some problems out there would make someone billions of dollars if they could solve it, but the person with the problem doesn't have the tools, the training, and technology to fix the problem; and the person with the tools, training, and technology doesn't have the problem," he explains. "We aren't just wasting genius, we are leaving billions of dollars on the table."
In the past few years, big tech companies have moved to increase diversity, from partnerships with minority-run institutions to publicly reporting workplace demographics. As it turns out, Silicon Valley's workforce is overwhelmingly represented by exactly the kind of workers you'd expect.
"This is a tough problem to solve," says Jones. "Some people saw this as a chance to take shots at [these companies]. We saw it as an opportunity to help them do better."
One of the ways Jones and Co. are attempting to fix these pipelines is by launching a scholarship fund for young people from underrepresented communities to attend multi-week coding bootcamps, as opposed to traditional four-year colleges. While Jones acknowledges that four-year universities are great for those who can afford them, they may not be necessary to create the next generation of coders and technologists.
Foregoing the university model is a new education-to-work paradigm quietly gaining steam. I recently interviewed Dr. Colin Paris, the head of software research at GE, who said it isn't out of the ordinary for his team to hire self-taught coders who never attended college. Disruptive technologies don't only change the way we approach gadgets and engineering, they can alter the way we approach social problems.
Over the past several decades, the internet has made all of the world's knowledge accessible, while things like low-cost Chromebooks have brought the cost of hardware down precipitously. This creates intriguing new possibilities for the future of technology and for the world. But for most of history, technology been created—almost out of necessity—by those from privileged backgrounds who could afford a top-notch education. As knowledge becomes more accessible and the tools to implement ideas more affordable, society is presented with a fascinating new way to reinvent itself.
Beyond diversity, this lowered bar into the coding profession could (ironically) be one way to mitigate the effects of technological automation erasing jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors. It's a strange new economy out there, and it's in society's interests to find ways to make it work—for everyone.
The Convo is PCMag's interview series hosted by features editor Evan Dashevsky (@haldash). Each episode is broadcast live on PCMag's Facebook page, where viewers are invited to ask guests questions in the comments. Each episode is posted on our YouTube page and available as an audio podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes or the podcast platform of your choice.