The Black Digital Elite: African American Leaders of the Information Revolution.

The Black Digital Elite: African American Leaders of the Information Revolution by John T. Barber Praeger, September 2006 $39.95, ISBN 0-275-98504-0

Scientists, policymakers, powerbrokers, educators. These are the 25 black men and one black woman profiled in The Black Digital Elite. Since African Americans own and operate very little of Silicon Valley, John T. Barber expands the definition of "elite" to encompass those African Americans who have earned names for themselves through their Internet involvement. So writer-activists like Don Rojas of The Black World Today Web newspaper and Abdul Alkalimat of the academic portal Brothermalcolm.net, for example, share space, if not the same section, with Clinton--era Federal Communications Commission chairperson William E. Kennard and computer engineering master Philip Emeagwali, the latter one of Africa's most renowned scientists.

Barber, in a too-dry academic tone, shows that African Americans are far from just being passive consumers and access-starved bystanders to the construction of the Information Superhighway and now, the data-sphere.

It was more than slightly amusing to read about how, for example, a black man named Roy L. Clay Sr. started Hewlett-Packard's computer division before H-P wanted one ("You have done this company a disservice," company cofounder David Packard reportedly told Clay in 1971). Racial pride also swells when it's discovered that Mark Dean, a key member of the original team that created the first IBM personal computer, has 40 patents registered or in process.

The slight tragedy of this book, other than some copyediting mistakes ("the late Ronald H. Brown" was not chosen by Clinton to head the Commerce Department), is that these profiles are only linked thematically, not contextually. Because the hardback is filled with individual profiles, the overall narrative--along with most criticisms of their work--is absent, so their achievements from the 1970s to now remain in too much of an intellectual and historical vacuum. It would have been useful to understand what their accomplishments meant.

The bite-size morsels do work, however, in describing how Dhyana Ziegler (of the historically black Florida A&M University) and these brothers arrived at their present posts how they got to play with tech they don't own. That's not insignificant information.

This book is one-of-a-kind in important ways. After reading this book, give it to the nearest gamers and/or constantly IMing teens right away. It'll immediately broaden their horizons with ideas--perhaps on what to do with those gadgets.

--Reviewed by Todd Steven Burroughs

Todd Steven Burroughs, Ph.D., is a frequent BIBR contributor and a journalist/historian based in Hyattsville, Maryland.