Girls in Tech presents its first ever, “Developer Forum” at hi5 in San Francisco on November 19th from 1:00pm – 7:00pm.
We’re really excited to be producing this event, alongside, hi5, Intel, RealTimeMatrix, Slide, ThoughtWorks, Watercooler and iLike. This will be a casual, yet interactive engagement of developers, designers and engineers throughtout the Silicon Valley and beyond. This afternoon event will highlight hot button topics in the development and engineering space such as unique languages – Ruby, PHP, Perl, Java, Python, OpenSocial, new application trends, monetization of applications and platforms, and design and build options.
We hope that you will be able to join us for a lively panel discussion, a few “un-conference” workshops presented by industry experts and of course, drinks and eats.
Please RSVP, by emailing adriana@girlsintech.net
As an LA driver, I find it quite imperative to have a car with all the latest technology. This means bluetooth, ipod integration, voice activation, navigation, real time traffic alerts with my nav, and anything else I can get my hands on. Perhaps I need this next…
See above. You put this electronic hand on your car’s back window, control it via a wireless remote, and when you just need to tell the driver behind you a thing or two, you can choose a hand gesture that best fits what you need to say.
The device itself is mobile too, so you can take it to your work and put it on your office door. Can’t wait to use the bird on my boss.
More interesting hand gestures here.
The Internet continues to transform how we communicate, how we do business, how we socialize, and so on. As people have embraced it, it has becomes an incredible tool on many levels. For those that have not, or who have been late adopters, I believe it has impacted their business in ways those companies did not think was possible.
One of the industries that has been hit the hardest is the publishing industry, particularly newspapers. Something that was first produced over 200 years ago. It developed into the way news was delivered before radio, tv, and the Internet, that was synonymous with your morning cup of coffee, is being forced to change, adopt, and evolve.
The Christian Science Monitor, who is celebrating it’s 100th anniversary next month on November 25th, is the first nationally circulated newspaper shifting from print to a web-based strategy. Instead of producing the paper on a daily basis, it will be produced weekly, with enhancing the content on their site, and with daily e-mail editions. Their focus is to become a multi-platform strategy, which ought to take them into the next century.
The decision by The Monitor to make this fundamental transition is very positive. Not just because they are fully embracing the Internet, but because they want to try and keep their staff and international offices in tact, and most importantly decrease waste generated by daily print. Bravo!
In the last few weeks I have posted about what is innovative in many fields. Or it’s been about keeping up with what is making news in the fields of tech and innovation. It may be a simple thought, but how about change being innovative and leading to innovation?
Last week in Long Beach, CA was the Women’s Conference event. 14′000 women from all over California and of all ages attended this conference. I, unfortunately, was not able to attend, but watched their live webcast! The mission is to empower women to be ‘Architects of Change’. This is a very powerful message and mission and very powerful people, both men and women, from many different industries spoke at this event. The Women’s Conference was actually established in 1985, however since 2004 with the leadership of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver, the event has now become the largest conference in the nation. Over the years high-profile people like Oprah Winfrey, Queen Rania, Thomas Friedman, and many more have spoken at the conference.
The mere idea of women being ‘Architects of Change’ is innovative in of itself. I am not saying women over the centuries have not been architects of change, but in this country, that has not always been the case. With that, the more women that understand they can be architects of change empowers them to want to be innovative and make change possible.
Speaking about change, I cannot help to mention our up-coming election. We all know one of the candidates is all about change. Obama not only wants to make and inspire change, but he embodies change because of his background. Having him as President would be very innovative for this country in many ways. (One week left until we all have to get out and vote!)
One last thing I want to mention about change is the internet. Born out of the idea of being a world wide information management system, has now become an industry where some of the most exciting advances in innovation are created. Something that was once, and still is with some groups of people, not embraced because it virtually (no pun intended) changed the way we communicate and do business. Now it’s thriving as one of the most exciting areas of innovation.
I think change is a good thing and very innovative 
.
Please join Girls in Tech for an intimate presentation and discussion with Matt Flannery, CEO and co-founder of Kiva.org on December 2nd at 6:30pm at 55 2nd Street, Third Floor in San Francisco.
Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.
Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.
Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.
Please RSVP by emailing agascoigne@hi5.com
Is Social Media Killing PR?
A Lively Debate on the Future of the Media Ecosystem
Hosted By Girls in Tech and Horn Group
Jason Calacanis thinks you should fire your PR agency. Robert Scoble thinks you should ignore it. Michael Arrington says PR as its practiced today is “broken.” Jeremiah Owyang sees value in PR, in some surprising places, while Steve Rubel wonders if the thrill of discovery has made PR as we know it obsolete.
But one thing is completely clear. As the media industry becomes increasingly more social, so does the ecosystem around it, which means, everyone—from editors to CMOs to PR professionals—is a connector, a hub and a source.
So if everybody’s a communicator, what is the value of PR? No question that it’s changing, but helping our clients connect with influencers is only a piece of what we do. Much of the value we offer to clients is the thinking and strategy we provide, which media benefit from but may never see directly. And that never goes out of style.
Please join us as we invite journalists, analysts, bloggers, PR folks and various combinations thereof to have a drink and a bite as we discuss the new media ecosystem.
To RSVP, please click on the invite below:
Mashup Camp, produced by TechWeb’s Alternative Events Group, today announced an enhanced format, new program elements and a revised Web site for Mashup Camp Silicon Valley, to be held November 17-19, 2008 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. For more information please visit http://www.mashupcamp.com/.
The new Camp will showcase an improved format based on feedback received from the Mashup Camp community. The event is condensed to three intense days featuring new program elements like API Chalk Talks, as well as traditional favorites like SpeedGeeking and participant-driven unconference sessions. A revised Web Site reflects the renovations with improved functionality, design and navigation.
“The improvements we’ve made to Mashup Camp — largely based on what attendees have been telling us — stand true to the intimacy and attendee-driven content of our previous ‘unconferences’ for the mashup community,” said Alternative Events Group General Manager, David Berlind. “We expect Mashup Camp’s fresh program will be a driving force of innovation in what is becoming one of the most important software ecosystems.”
Mashup Camp Silicon Valley has proven to be fertile ground for VCs looking to invest in one of the richest mashup developer ecosystems around. Given how simple it is for non-developers to build mashups, Mashup Camp is also great for the general mashup-curious who want to come see how the mashup approach puts the power of software development into the hands of ordinary people.
TechWeb’s Alternative Events Group produces unconference-style and custom events like Mashup Camp where developers decide which application program interfaces (APIs) and development tools to use when building the next generation of Web applications. Such API and tool adoption ultimately determines which development platforms will succeed on the Web. The content of TechWeb’s Alternative Events Group is largely community-driven, with much of it created by the participants during the events, generating collaboration and idea sharing in an efficient and rapid format. Since the first Mashup Camp in February 2006, the Alternative Events Group has organized seven camps and has added a hands-on training component that allows vendors to present focused information about their APIs and other mashup solutions.
I recently encountered a few scenarios where “unethical blogging” was taking place. I thought to re-post a piece that was published by CyberJournalist.net which highlights the basics to the rules and regs of ethical and moral journalism online. Some of the areas that it covers is honesty, minimizing harm, and accountability.
The following is a synopsis of the article:
A Bloggers’ Code of Ethics
Some bloggers recently have been debating what, if any, ethics the Weblog community should follow. Since not all bloggers are journalists and the Weblog form is more casual, they argue they shouldn’t be expected to follow the same ethics codes journalists are. But responsible bloggers should recognize that they are publishing words publicly, and therefore have certain ethical obligations to their readers, the people they write about, and society in general.
CyberJournalist.net has created a model Bloggers’ Code of Ethics, by modifying the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics for the Weblog world. These are just guidelines — in the end it is up to individual bloggers to choose their own best practices. CyberJournalist.net follows this code and urges other Weblogs to adopt this one or similar practices.
We are all familiar with Research in Motion’s Blackberry smart phones and Apple’s iPhone. Apple, this past summer, released the new version of their iPhone, lowering the price, running on the fast 3G wireless network, and being available in two colors – black or white. Coming up for RIM is their Blackberry Bold and Storm. From what I have seen for both the Bold and Storm is, the Bold is a dynamically revamped version of the Curve and the Storm is a direct competitor for the iPhone in terms of aesthetics and functionality. However, that’s not all the smart phone market has to offer…
Welcome T-Mobile’s G1 phone running on Google’s new software called Android. The phone is going to debut on October 22nd, priced at $180 with a two-year contract.
The Android software’s functionality is very similar to the iPhone’s, but certainly not as attractive. What it offers is an open applications store, a Menu button with similar functionality like right-clicking a computer mouse. You can Share and Rotate a photo you’ve just taken, Delete and Archive an email you are working on, and Mute or Hold while on a call. There’s also voice dialing, picture messaging, and built-in audio recording. However, there’s no visual voice mail, no iPod department for syncing the phone and it’s quite cumbersome. I think for the die-hard Google fans, this is the phone for them or if you have been a Sidekick user, you will also enjoy this phone’s functionality.
I have been a Blackberry user for many years. I absolutely love the iPhone and use my husband’s all the time, except I am not a fan of the touch-screen ‘keyboard’. I am not sure what is going to be my next phone. Probably leaning towards to the Blackberry Bold over the G1, i just hope the Internet functions more like the iPhone’s . All-in-all, the smart phone war is not ending anytime soon, nor should it. The iPhone has really raised the bar for what is possible with a smart phone and all the other companies are playing catch up. Which smart phone is for you?
Here is a video from phonedog.com with HTC’s Eric giving a hands-on tour of the G1 - The T-Mobile G1
