While we're all consumers, it's my pleasure to work and network with the rarer sort of individual, namely producers. In light of legislative measures threatening an entrepreneur’'s barriers of entry, namely the “Stop Online Piracy Act” and “Protect Intellectual Privacy Act”, questions arise over the long-term viability of our independent workflow. While social commentary proves my political flavor turns off a significant audience, this highlights the plight of the have-nots: what do we have to protect?

As Facebook and Timeline tussle over trademarks, Yahoo charges Facebook with multiple patent infringement lawsuits; as it becomes easier to copy and paste success on micro- and macro-levels, then where do we draw the lines of economical self preservation? You've undeniably pirated some sort of media in some way, you vehemently opposed the SOPA and PIPA legislation, and you proposed or clung to flaws in each proposed Act with nary a suggestion in favor of their premise. What then when a local artist's imitable designs are found in Urban Outfitters' catalogs? Is that when the have-nots look for protection, when they have?

When Neil DeGrasse Tyson, influential astrophysicist, published, The Sky Is Not The Limit, coincidentally in response to Lil Wayne’s, The Sky is the Limit, and Michael Arrington, influential technologist, announced, “I don’t know a single black entrepreneur,” my personal and professional accounts had already confirmed these divergent statements. There is a shortage of African Americans, particularly women, working, or even seen, in the start-up scene. After an invitation, rejection, postponements, no response, acceptance, and eventual no show, where any arrival would have stood out, this is the prevailing environment of Silicon Alley. Please enjoy some photos from General Assembly's Demo Night, March 7, 2012.