New York subway campaign targets minority coders

Calling all would-be advertising geniuses who understand the importance of a society that can write computer code – your ideas are needed.

Code/Interactive, a Bronx, New York-based outfit that helps area teens learn how to code, has teamed with tech companies and media outlets to create an ad competition to raise awareness about the need for more minorities in tech.

Entrants can visit creativeforacause.com to get details on the competition, which over the coming months will solicit designs for a campaign that will appear on New York City subway cars this summer. The winner will be chosen in May.

"So many students don't have access to tech, but when they get it great things can happen," says Michael Denton, CEO of Code/Interactive. One C/I student, Shemar Dacosta, just recently presented his hackathon-winning app, Voices, to President Obama.

C/I, which runs on private and tech company donations, creates coding curriculums for New York City educators who demonstrate an aptitude for the subject matter. So far, it has trained 16 such high school teachers.

While some of the problem for young minorities is indeed access to coding classes, an even bigger problem is the perception that computer science is the sole domain of a group that is white and male, says Jesse Jackson, who is one the judges for the C/I ad contest.

"You want to be what you see," says Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH Coalition has been on the forefront of the diversity in tech issue. "Basketball is in our consciousness, and I now want tech to be as well. Having a campaign that's in subway cars can kick off a conversation."

The contest's other judges include Kevin Brady, executive director of Droga5; Jim Moriarty, director of brand citizenship at 72andsunny; Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursquare; Hank Williams, founder of Platform.org; Jesse Juriga, creative director at Google Creative Lab; Allison Arden, vice president and publisher, and Simon Dumenco, editorial director, of Ad Age, Creativity and Internet Week. Those media platforms also are sponsors of the contest.

Once the winning campaign is chosen, it will find its way into subway cars thanks to Fiverr, an online marketplace for creative professionals, which will foot the bill for the posters' distribution.

"While the New York City subway is a great metaphor for bringing diverse people together, this is more than a New York City subway campaign," says Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr. "We've teamed up with some of the most influential advertising and tech companies on the planet to make a powerful statement, with C/I, about the need to creatively address diversity in our industries."

Kaufman says the mission of the campaign is to "inspire people of all races, socioeconomic backgrounds and genders to give a second thought to technology careers."

Foursquare's Crowley says some of the most impressive interns at his Internet company – which focuses on local search and Monday announced it would be providing its data to Twitter – have come from C/I.

"They've actually blown us away with their talent and creativity," says Crowley, who adds that his interest in increasing diversity in tech surfaced after realizing how many TV shows and movies stereotyped programmers as "nerdy white guys."

That epiphany "opened my eyes to wanting to do whatever we could to tell kids they could do whatever they wanted to do with their lives," he says. "On our end, it means that as a company we have to focus on diversity, we can't just blindly recruit."

Crowley says that many of his CEO peers understand the importance of making their staff look like the world at large, although he adds that "things won't get solved overnight."

Jackson, who in the past weeks has visited with representatives from Apple, Google, Intel and other tech giants, says he is optimistic the tide is turning.

"There is no George Wallace in Silicon Valley saying, 'Keep out,'" says Jackson, referring to the Alabama governor who opposed desegregation in the 1960s. "Many of these tech CEOs admit they are missing out on a great market, that they're often looking in India for someone who might be in Oakland."

Jackson says campaigns such as the C/I ad contest can only broaden awareness among future technologists and their prospective employers alike.

"Inclusion leads to growth, and then everybody wins," he says. "This started as a buzz, but it's turning into a seismic boom."