"If current trends continue, by 2018 the information technology industry will only be able to fill half of its available jobs."

-- Catherine Ashcraft, Ph.D. and Sarah Blithe, NCWIT, in research paper "Women In IT: The Facts"

"If I ever want to find a game designer, I go to the storage closet, and when I open the door there will be six people standing there with their resumes. The problem is that none of them will be female, and none of them will be people of color. They will simply be white males."

-- Sheri Grainer Ray, a game designer, in NPR article "So, Only White Men Can Be Game Designers?"

"Technology careers offer a great paycheck. Obviously, the more computer-literate you are, the better your options will be. But there's also plenty of room in tech for people who aren't good at math."

--Holly Hirzel, Lead Producer for "1 vs. 100", Xbox Live in interview with ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley

"Technical skills and scientific knowledge seem to top the list of what employers want and workers lack."

-- Liz Wolgemuth, reporter for US News & World Report, in article How to Stand Out From the Crowd and Kick-Start Your Own Recovery pg. 14

"Last year, Manpower reported that engineer ranked No. 1 on a list of the 10 slots most difficult for American employers to fill."

-- Liz Wolgemuth, reporter for US News & World Report, in article How to Stand Out From the Crowd and Kick-Start Your Own Recovery pg. 14

"Many of today's growth industries require a higher level of technical competence in quantitative reasoning, problem solving, and communication skills than they once did, and the United States simply does not have enough students who are getting solid math and science education in high school and then pursuing two- and four-year degrees in math, science, and engineering."

-- Susan Traiman, director of public policy at Business Roundtable, in article How to Stand Out From the Crowd and Kick-Start Your Own Recovery pg. 14-15

"There's a really strong image of what a computer scientist is--male, skinny, no social life, eats junk food, plays video games, likes science fiction. It makes it hard for people who don't fit that image to think of it as an option for them."

-- Sapna Cheryan, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington, in CNET article Out of the loop in Silicon Valley

"Women, people of color — we have a legacy of accomplishment in technology. So never question whether or not you have a seat at the table of innovation. Know that you've always had a seat there"

-- Randal Pinkett, Chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, in interview with Noire Digerati

"There is still a digital divide that exists today. In fact, statistics suggest that African-Americans and Latinos are not making use of home broadband and Internet technology as extensively as the rest of the population."

-- Chairman Julius H. Hollis of The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), in The Nation's Capital this week to advocate for increased minority access to broadband technology