The Future of Tech is Everyone
Here at The Digital Acid, we are focused on bridging the technological gap.
We want to motivate a new generation of industry pioneers by galvanizing underrepresented communities with the information necessary to build the future of culture and emerging technology.
Our core members consist of a diverse group of young creatives and technologists. Our belief is that we can have an impact on the adoption of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, 3D Printing and Intelligence Amplification.
Our mission is to inspire future generations to experiment with future technologies by promoting recently democratized entrepreneurial opportunities.
Here’s a list of charities that we love and support their missions to make technology more inclusive and diverse.
What's the story behind Kai XR? Founder & CEO Kai Frazier shares her motivations for creating a kid-friendly virtual reality company.
Kai XR is a kid-friendly virtual reality platform where kids can explore, dream, and create.
On the platform, kids can explore VR field trips, plus, improve their tech skills by creating their very own VR adventures. Our educational resources offer educators, parents, & students an accessible path to become early adopters of mixed reality.
Students who go on field trips are 95% more likely to graduate high school, yet 50% of schools no longer provide them. With COVID-19, 100% of schools are no longer taking field trips.
Kai XR believes accessibility & inclusion in education should be a priority and not an afterthought. By utilizing virtual reality field trips to highlight diverse experiences around the world, we expose students to new ideas, locations, and sounds at an early age.
Nearly two-thirds of new jobs created since 2010 require medium or high-level tech skills. By 2024 The US is expected to have a 50% shortage of tech graduates.
Kai XR provides exposure to new tech careers with our VR field trips so children can imagine themselves in these spaces at a young age. After interest is piqued, we offer kids an entry point to learning new in-demand tech skills with our VR maker-space.
On the Explore page, kids can experience diverse VR field trips highlighting cultures and careers around the world.
The Dream page is a maker space where kids can collaborate to build & enter their VR dream worlds with friends or by themselves.
The Create page is a maker-space where kids can create their very own VR adventures while learning the basics of mixed reality.
Executive Team at Kai XR
Kai XR is on a mission to open doors for students with our inclusive & accessible VR field trips.
Our platform lets kids explore the world with our VR field trips, plus, kids can improve their tech skills by creating their very own VR adventures.
We are fundraising to help us complete our platform build but we need YOUR support to reach out 500K goal! #FundKaiXR
Nike x Paper Magazine x Black Girls Code
Black Girls Code's ultimate goal is to provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.
“Black Girls Code is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls Code introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails.
“Black Girls Code is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls Code introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails.
“Black Girls Code has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs we hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds.”
Photography: Tess Mayer for Paper Magazine
“Since our launch in April 2011, Black Girls Code has had the honor of bringing technology and entertainment to many wonderful girls of color. By teaching the girls programming and game design, we hope to have started the lifelong process of developing in them a true love for technology and the self-confidence that comes from understanding the greatest tools of the 21st century. And though we at Black Girls Code cannot overstate our happiness with the results of our classes, this is just the first step in seeking to bridge the digital divide.”
Photography: Tess Mayer for Paper Magazine
The digital divide, or the gap between those with regular, effective access to digital technology and those without, is becoming an increasingly critical problem in society. As more and more information becomes electronic, the inability to get online can leave entire communities at an extremely dangerous disadvantage.
Sadly, San Francisco’s digital divide falls along the same racial and social fault lines that characterize so many of society’s issues. White households are twice as likely to have home Internet access as African American houses.
Photography: Tess Mayer for Paper Magazine
Bayview Hunters Point, Crocker Amazon, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, and the Tenderloin have significantly lower rates of home technology use than the rest of the city. Sixty-six percent of Latinos report having a home computer, as opposed to 88 percent of Caucasians.
Through community outreach programs such as workshops and after school programs, we introduce underprivileged girls to basic programming skills in languages like Scratch and Ruby on Rails. Introducing girls of color to these skills gives them an introduction to today’s computer technology, an essential tool for surviving in the 21st century.
Photography: Tess Mayer for Paper Magazine
The skills they acquire through the programs give these young women a chance at well-paying professions with prestigious companies, as well as the ability to enter into the field as an entrepreneurs and leaders of technology. “Imagine. Build. Create.” has always been our motto at Black Girls Code.
Kimberly Bryant | Founder of Black Girls Code
“When I was first introduced to computer programming, as a freshman in Electrical Engineering, Fortran and Pascal were the popular languages for newbies in computing and the Apple Macintosh was the new kid on the block. I remember being excited by the prospects, and looked forward to embarking on a rich and rewarding career after college.
But I also recall, as I pursued my studies, feeling culturally isolated: few of my classmates looked like me. While we shared similar aspirations and many good times, there’s much to be said for making any challenging journey with people of the same cultural background.
Much has changed since my college days, but there’s still a dearth of African-American women in science, technology, engineering and math professions, an absence that cannot be explained by, say, a lack of interest in these fields. Lack of access and lack of exposure to STEM topics are the likelier culprits.
By launching Black Girls Code, I hope to provide young and pre-teen girls of color opportunities to learn in-demand skills in technology and computer programming at a time when they are naturally thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.
That, really, is the Black Girls Code mission: to introduce programming and technology to a new generation of coders, coders who will become builders of technological innovation and of their own futures.
Imagine the impact that these curious, creative minds could have on the world with the guidance and encouragement others take for granted. I have, and I can’t wait!”
- Kimberly Bryant | Founder | Black Girls Code
