MLB names Bean its first Ambassador for Inclusion: Former player to provide guidance, training in support of LGBT community in baseball; MLB.com, 7/15/14

Alyson Footer, MLB.com; MLB names Bean its first Ambassador for Inclusion: Former player to provide guidance, training in support of LGBT community in baseball:

"One year after Major League Baseball issued a policy prohibiting players from harassing and discriminating against others players based on their sexual orientation, Commissioner Bud Selig appointed former outfielder Billy Bean as MLB's first Ambassador for Inclusion.

The announcement was made on Tuesday at the T-Mobile All-Star FanFest, following Selig's annual Town Hall Chat on the set of the MLB.com stage at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Selig and Bean were accompanied by Lutha Burke, the sister of the late former Major League outfielder Glenn Burke.

In his new role, Bean, who made public that he is gay in 1999, will provide guidance and training related to efforts to support those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community throughout Major League Baseball. He will work with Major and Minor League Clubs to encourage equal opportunity in accordance with the joint MLB-MLBPA Workplace Code of Conduct.

Bean also will develop educational training initiatives against sexism, homophobia and prejudice, and he will be present at annual industry events, including the Winter Meetings and the MLB-MLBPA Rookie Career Development Program.

"Diversity is a hallmark of our sport, which is fortunate to have an inherent ability to bring people together," Selig said. "The people of our sport have a responsibility to act with a kind of respect and sensitivity that our game's diverse players, employees and fans deserve.

"I wish that our game had someone in place to whom Billy and Glenn could have turned when they played; a friend, listener, a source of support. That's why I am so delighted to make this announcement today."...

Yogi Berra, behind the support of his museum and learning center in New Jersey, is an ambassador of Athlete Ally, and former manager and current MLB executive Joe Torre also offered his public endorsement, signing the Athlete Ally pledge to "respect and welcome all persons, regardless of their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression."

And it all begins with education and enlightenment."

Posthumous Recognition: M.L.B. to Recognize Glenn Burke as Baseball’s Gay Pioneer; New York Times, 7/14/14

John Branch, New York Times; Posthumous Recognition: M.L.B. to Recognize Glenn Burke as Baseball’s Gay Pioneer:

"Glenn Burke was 27 when he walked out on Major League Baseball, his promising career as an outfielder undone mostly by the burden of being a semicloseted gay man. It was 1980, and it was more important, Burke later explained, to be himself than to be a professional baseball player.

“It’s harder to be gay in sports than anywhere else, except maybe president,” Burke said in 1982, when he came out publicly in an Inside Sports magazine article. “Baseball is probably the hardest sport of all.”

More than three decades later, and nearly 20 years after Burke’s death, Major League Baseball still has not had an active player publicly disclose that he is gay. There probably are several gay men currently playing, but the sport awaits its Robbie Rogers, its Jason Collins, its Michael Sam.

In the meantime, Major League Baseball is trying to ease the way for those surely to come. As part of a concerted effort to demonstrate an atmosphere of tolerance and inclusion, the league invited Burke’s family to Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Minneapolis — its first official recognition of Burke’s early role in a movement just now gaining traction across the sports landscape.

“He was a pioneer, and should be recognized,” Pat Courtney, a Major League Baseball spokesman, said....

“People are missing out when they decide to let a segment of our society not be what they can truly be,” Lutha Burke said.

But the past couple of years have seen a surge in coming-out stories in sports, as gay athletes recognize a shifting, friendlier environment. Major League Baseball, without an out active player, has decided that it should not idly wait. For more than a year, the league has worked with Athlete Ally, a group with a mission to stamp out homophobia in sports."

The Lost and Found Legacy of Barbara Ringer: Remembering one of the architects of American copyright law—and one of the legal world's pioneering women; Atlantic, 7/11/14

Amanda Levendowski, Atlantic; The Lost and Found Legacy of Barbara Ringer: Remembering one of the architects of American copyright law—and one of the legal world's pioneering women:

"Almost as soon as she joined the Copyright Office, Ringer set about updating the 1909 Copyright Law, an effort that had been tabled due to World War II. She reignited interest in reform, and spent more than two decades proposing legislation, negotiating among copyright owners, and lobbying Congress. She drafted most of the bill by herself.

Ringer’s efforts brought United States copyright law—previously, one that had been passed before the advent of commercial radio, television, and copyright machines—into the modern era. To the chagrin of many, her legislation sparked the trend in expanding copyright protection. The 1976 Copyright Act extended the length of copyright protection, from 28 years under the 1909 Copyright Act to the lifetime of the author plus 50 years. Her efforts also codified the fair-use doctrine, which permits some unlicensed and unauthorized uses of copyrighted works.

And, at her insistence, the Copyright Act used both “he” and “she,” making it one of the first pieces of federal legislation to include dual gender pronouns."

How diversity actually makes us smarter; Washington Post, 7/6/14

Gregory Rodriguez, Washington Post; How diversity actually makes us smarter:

"Successful navigation of this country’s diversity has always required extra thought, and more brainpower. The more diverse the location, the more brainpower required by the people who live there.

In more homogenous parishes, towns, states and countries, residents aren’t necessarily obliged to take that extra intellectual step. In places where the overwhelming majority of residents share a common background, they are more likely to maintain an unspoken consensus about the meaning of institutions and practices. That consensus, Dutch philosopher Bart van Leeuwen reminds us, is enforced “through sayings and jokes, in ways of speaking and moving, and in subtle facial expressions that betray surprise or recognition.” In other words, the way things are is so self-evident that they don’t require a second thought.

Diversity, however, requires second thoughts. When the consensus is challenged in a homogenous place by the presence of new people, things get interesting. The familiar signs and symbols that undergird our implicit understanding of the world can change in meaning. The presence of conflicting worldviews causes confusion, uncertainty, and alienation for holdovers and newcomers alike. These feelings can either cause people to draw back into themselves — or force them to articulate and justify themselves to those who don’t share their view of the world. Or both...

So it should follow that operating in a diverse environment makes you smarter. Not that that makes it any easier. Diversity doesn’t require us simply to learn how to celebrate our differences. It requires us to tax our brains by questioning our worldviews, our beliefs and our institutions."

Want to Brainstorm New Ideas? Then Limit Your Online Connections; New York Times, 7/4/14

Steve Lohr, New York Times; Want to Brainstorm New Ideas? Then Limit Your Online Connections:

"Clustering reduced the diversity of ideas.

The research paper, said Jesse Shore, a co-author and assistant professor at the Boston University School of Management, contributes to “the growing awareness that being connected all the time has costs. And we put a number to it, in an experimental setting.”

The research, of course, also showed where the connection paid off — finding information, the vital first step in decision making. “There are huge, huge benefits to information sharing,” said Ethan Bernstein, a co-author and assistant professor at the Harvard Business School. “But the costs are harder to measure.”

The virtues and drawbacks of connectedness, Mr. Bernstein added, vary according to the context. “It depends on whether the task is information sharing or information interpretation,” he said.

The research was just one experiment in a lab, but it does point to the larger subject of striking a balance between connectedness and isolation in the digital age.

“The connection facilitates the search and discovery process,” said David Lazer, a co-author and professor of political science and computer science at Northeastern University. “Then, you need isolation for most creative thinking.""

Program aims to attract black males into teaching: Teens encouraged to join the profession; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/4/14

Eric Boodman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Program aims to attract black males into teaching: Teens encouraged to join the profession:

"Less than 2 percent of teachers in the U.S. are African-American males, according to Robert Millward, education professor at IUP. To try to increase those numbers, Mr. Millward started the Black Men Teaching Initiative, which led to the teens, male and female, from Homewood Children's Village attending a workshop at IUP.

Through workshops such as this one, billboards on buses and changes in admissions policies, professors and administrators at IUP, California University of Pennsylvania, Point Park University and Community College of Allegheny County are trying to persuade young black men to pursue higher education and to become teachers. The second task is more difficult than the first, Mr. Millward explained...

The organizers of the Black Men Teaching Initiative hope that providing African-American middle and high school students with mentors and role models will create a snowball effect. Stanley Denton, the professor in charge of the initiative at Point Park University, remembers being stared at as he walked the halls of Pittsburgh schools as the district's director of multicultural education...

While outside education experts applaud the effort, they also warn against viewing an increase in the numbers as the only solution. "It can't be seen as a panacea," Mr. Milner said. He mentioned inequitable funding, inadequate resources and under-qualified teachers as hurdles that can trip up black students, regardless of the number of black male teachers.

"Black male teachers can serve as role models, especially for black male students, but what are we going to do to support black male teachers who take on these other layers of responsibility?" he asked."

Penn Hills woman elected president of American Library Association; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/4/14

Stephanie McFeeters, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Plum librarian takes lead at American Libraries Association:

"Today's libraries offer patrons much more than books, says Courtney L. Young of Plum, who was inaugurated this week as president of the American Libraries Association. Providing Internet access, career resources and meeting spaces, libraries serve a several different needs, and in her new position Ms. Young plans to boost their role in communities across the nation.

As president of the 56,000-member association, Ms. Young, who is head librarian at the J. Clarence Kelly Library at Penn State Greater Allegheny in McKeesport, said she will emphasize career development, diversity and community outreach. Ms. Young was sworn in Tuesday at the Chicago-based association'‍s annual conference in Las Vegas...

Another of her priorities is ensuring that the association membership is diverse. In addition to strengthening the association'‍s Spectrum Scholarship Program, which helps students from underrepresented backgrounds pursue degrees in library sciences, Ms. Young said she aims to increase minority retention.

As libraries change, collections, too, are becoming increasingly diverse. Besides books and electronic resources, some libraries now lend tools, baking pans and fishing lures, and libraries provide entrepreneurs with meeting spaces as they get their businesses off the ground, Ms. Young said."

Facebook Mirrors Tech Industry’s Lack of Diversity; New York Times, 6/25/14

Vindu Goel, New York Times; Facebook Mirrors Tech Industry’s Lack of Diversity:

"“As these numbers show, we have more work to do — a lot more,” Facebook’s global head of diversity, Maxine Williams, wrote in the blog post announcing the data. “Diversity is something that we’re treating as everyone’s responsibility at Facebook, and the challenge of finding qualified but underrepresented candidates is one that we’re addressing as part of a strategic effort across Facebook. Since our strategic diversity team launched last year, we’re already seeing improved new hire figures and lower attrition rates for underrepresented groups.”

Facebook’s disclosure follows similar reports recently released by other major Internet companies, including Google, Yahoo and LinkedIn. Older Silicon Valley companies, such as Intel, Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard, have also released their employment diversity data...

While tech companies say their diversity challenges are largely due to the lack of women and minorities getting science and engineering degrees, Rev. Jackson said the industry’s diversity data show that it has done a poor job of recruiting black and Latino workers even for nontechnical jobs such as lawyers and marketers."