Managing bias with free resources

Unconscious biases are those triggers that without our control influence our actions. They might be the job you expect someone to have because of their appearance or the intelligence you anticipate a candidate has due to their accent.

For under represented minorities in the work place biases have real and lasting negative affects - work is attributed to another colleague, skills are down played and interviews are unsuccessful. This can be due to any manner of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, appearance, age or other diversity dimension.

When we move away from seeing diversity as more than just a pipeline issue bias management is an effective tool in finding the unfair and negative actions people commit due to their biases. For many companies today it is one of the most important trends in people management.

At Google unconscious bias training is taken very seriously with over 25000 employees having attended training. The Google bias workshop is available for free on YouTube:



Facebook is also now releasing all of it's managing bias training online. You can watch from their page via Vimeo at http://managingbias.fb.com/ Their online training is comprehensive and covers stereotypes, likeability, performance expectations and the business case for inclusiveness.

Talks at Google: Pixar on Monsters University

Here at the Googleplex we get a lot of guest lecturers come and speak. Unsurprisingly many of them are from great geek culture icons. Here's a great conversation with some of the Pixar staff on Monsters University the new animated feature film.

This is my world: Inside Google's Datacenters

I am lucky enough to work in Infrastructure at Google and know first hand the beauty of our fleet, for the first time Google is making video, photos and information on our data center design public.

You can view gorgeous photos, take a video tour or even self guide yourself using StreetView.

I for one have been waiting excitedly for this all to be made public so you can share in the nerdgasmic photos. For added kudos noted technical history writer Steven Levy was invited to speak to our infrastructure leads, you can see his story on Wired. 

More at http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/ where you can find all the newly released media as well as a historical look at our approach to ecological design and innovative platforms.

Education at Google Video on Women in CS

HTTPS and SSL Explained in Plain English

Ever had to explain secure web browsing to a less computer literate friend or relative? This video tutorial is one of a number of great items from the Google Privacy team perfect to send to the security paranoid aunt in your life.


6

Androidify yourself!

Who doesn't love the super cute Android logo? The growing collection of Android toys on my desk at work is proof that I'm a bit of a fanatic and now you can bring that cute droid style to your own avatar!

The Androidify application is a free fun app by Google for the Android platform, great for a little bit of free fun!



Here's my avatar to give you ideas: