Girls In Tech

Guest blogger:  Charlene Jaszewski

When she’s not writing on The Redhead Said about geek stuff , including social media, usability and behavioral economics, Charlene spends her time appeasing her appetite for all knowledge, and making homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate.

She makes her living helping people make their websites easier to use, editing books so that their ideas are crystal clear, and making marketing materials sound less markety. Wanna see stuff she’s done? Click on over to charlenejaszewski.com.

Traditionally, society forces us to choose between working at home for ourselves, or working at an office for a company. If we work at a traditional 9 to 5 job, we get community and structure, but lose freedom and the ability to control our own lives. If we work for ourselves at home, we gain independent but suffer loneliness and bad habits from not being surrounded by a work community.

Coworking is a solution to this problem…coworking provides the office of a traditional job, but in a very unique way.

- I’m Outta Here: How Coworking is Making the Office Obsolete.

The world of work is changing. While many of us are already freelancing, with the current economic climate, more of us are taking the opportunity to start new businesses and work on our own terms. But where are we working? Most of us think of two options: a home office (or, a corner of the kitchen table), or working at Starbucks. But there are more options available that you might not be aware of that offer more than just a space to lay your laptop. In the right environment, coworking provides collaboration, cooperation and inspiration.
Continued »

The cold and dreary weather in New York has finally disappeared. The warm and sunny weather brings a sense of renewal and optimism, particularly important in the difficult economic times that we have experienced. Companies, too, are slowly starting to thaw from the deep freeze of the last several months and beginning to seek out talented individuals.

Girls in Tech NYC is fostering that spirit of renewal by hosting a co-ed TalentSeeker social at Kush lounge that will allow individuals to engage each other in a casual and relaxed environment. As a complement to the event we are featuring two motivational and powerful women within the NYC business community: Dina Kaplan, co-founder and COO of Blip.tv and Peg Samuel, CEO of Social Diva Media and author of How to be a Social Diva. Of course there will also be fabulous swag thanks to our generous sponsors: Beautiful Stranger.tv, Smashing Darling and SkinCeutials, who is providing a special giveaway!

This event has everything you need to network and engage in a chic and relaxing environment. All you have to bring is yourself, a friend and a business card!

DATE: Wednesday, May 27
TIME: 6:30 – 9:30pm
PLACE: Kush Lounge, 191 Chrystie Street (Lower East Side)http://www.kushlounge.com/

COST: $10 in advance, $15 at the door
RSVP: http://snipr.com/hhria (Meetup) or http://snipr.com/hhrjp (Eventbrite)

Last call for job listings and talent seekers!

We are compiling a PDF of available roles for our attendees to download beforehand (Tuesday evening). If you have a job or project you are seeking talent for, contact Tommy Jenkins at tommy@girlsintech.net to get on the listings, and join us for the event!  You’ll get a nametag identifying you as a talent seeker so those looking for work can introduce themselves and you can get to know each other in a relaxed, low-pressure environment!

Andrea Calvaruso leading the IP panel

While most of Manhattan was holed up at home Monday evening (April 20th), hiding from the rain, 50 or so brave, entrepreneurially-minded souls risked the elements (and their shoes!) and made the trek to the Roger Smith Hotel.

There, they joined Girls in Tech NYC and NextWeb for a joint panels and cocktails event to help kick off NYC Entrepreneur Week (aka NYCENT). After allowing for some networking time, Oz Sultan (NextWeb) got the panel discussions started, moderating a panel on general Entrepreneurship topics. The panel consisted of Calvin Chu (Columbia University), Rachel Sklar (Charitini.com), Lindsey Pollak (author and speaker) and Ameeda Chowdhury (Snazl.com).

Highlights of the panel–which spanned everything from personal motivations, to user trends, to presenting oneself to potential investors–included:

• There is no single way to take the leap. Some jump in with both feet, others gradually edge away from their ‘day jobs.’
• Not having a plan B can be crazy and scary, but also a powerful motivator to succeed.
• If you sincerely want to follow your passion, do it now.
• Sites and tools are no longer the hubs; users are.
• Nobody wants to read long business plans, and they won’t believe your numbers any more than you do.
• Network, network, network…and make sure the giving flows both ways.

After a brief networking break, the Intellectual Property panel began. Moderated by Andrea Calvaruso (Donovan Calvaruso & Yee LLP), the panel included Jonathan Vanasco (FindMeOn.com and ArtWeLove.com), Jonathan Lutzky (MasurLaw), Brenda Pomerance (Law Office of Brenda Pomerance, Esq.), and Peter Fields (Roberts Ritholz Levy Sanders Chidekel & Fields LLP).

Discussion included IP fundamentals, personal experiences, case examples, and critical best practices. The panel also offered insight into the differing perspectives of entrepreneurs and attorneys when confronting IP issues and associated costs. Among the highlights:

• Patents are very expensive to enforce. If you aren’t making $50 million a year, you probably aren’t worth suing. When you cross that threshold, however, the game changes.
• How will your idea be used in 10 years? What are the possible applications of it? Think about this before you file.
• Balance cost with safety…there is some legwork you can do on your own, but get proper legal counsel before making final IP decisions or attempting to file applications and registrations yourself.
• Know your rights and obligations from the start.
• Never sign a contract under your own name. Form an entity.
• If you can’t afford an attorney to formalize a new partnership, at least write and sign a letter of intent.
• You always want a non-disclosure agreement, and will rarely get one. Know who you are talking to and how they are known to handle the ideas and knowledge brought to them.
• Be good to your attorneys. They will be good to you.

Audience questions and discussion were enthusiastic, and ran right up to the end!

Girls in Tech NYC thanks everyone who ventured out to join us, Oz and Brett Petersel of NextWeb, Gary Whitehall and Richie Hecker of NYCENT, the Roger Smith Hotel, and most of all, our panelists who made this an engaging and thought-provoking event!

The New York City chapter of Girls in Tech is thrilled to announce our “Relaunch Launch Party” is coming up on Tuesday, March 31st at 6:30pm. Held at the M1-5 Lounge (52 Walker St.), this is a party New York’s tech-related professionals will not want to miss!

We have a fabulous event planned to celebrate this next phase of the chapter. Highlights include:

• Raffle prizes – a KaraB laptop bag from eBags, $100 in driving credit from Mint Cars on Demand, and a 50/50 cash prize from raffle ticket sales! (Everyone is entered once for free with their event admission with more entries available for sale.)
• Goodie bags – The first 200 guests to arrive will receive goodie bags stuffed with treats from our sponsors.
• Special guest Juliette Powell – A media entrepreneur, a community catalyst and author of 33 Million People in the Room: How to create, influence and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking will join us for a guest appearance and book signing.
• Complimentary hors d’oeuvres
• Drink specials
• Some of the best professional and entrepreneurial networking in NYC!
  

The launch party is co-ed, with the guys welcome to join in the festivities.  You can RSVP and get your discounted advanced ticket on Eventbrite or our Meetup group.

Janine, Tommy, and I are very excited about how this event has come together, and can’t wait to connect with our members, share our plans for the future of the chapter, and hear back about what members most want from their association with Girls in Tech.

If you’re going to be in town on March 31st, please do join us…we’re looking forward to meeting you!

Guest blogger: Tommy Jenkins

Tommy Jenkins

Tommy Jenkins is an associate with a New York investment firm where she is responsible for investment analysis and management. Her passion for technology there has further lead her to become an avid programmer. She is currently working on bringing her enthusiasm for information theory, communication and charity to the web. Her areas of experience include marketing communications, visual design, natural health, and nutritional writing.

Tommy is Manager, Biz Dev & Strategic Partnerships for Girls in Tech NYC.

“Who am I?”

In Unlocking the Clubhouse,  Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher point to secondary school as the juncture where women seek to define themselves with this important question and assert that, in this quest, many women are deterred from computing. Yet to many women entrepreneurs and members of the changing and vibrant New York tech community, the experience seems somewhat different.  Here, innovation and reinvention become synonymous with self.  Girls in Tech in New York aims to capture that spirit and help to awaken it through community.

In a study of women entrepreneurs using relational theory (the conceptual framework of relationships), NYU Stern grant recipient E. Holly Buttner notes that levels of entrepreneurship among women are increasing: as a group, they now employ more of the workforce than all Fortune 500 companies put together.

Buttner saw an opportunity to study women management and client-interaction models, and showed that women tend to be more interactive and focused on connectedness.  She concludes that women leaders can strike a new balance between social benefits (ethics) and economic gain.  I am reminded of In Good Company,  a Flatiron business helping to revolutionize our relationships within the workplace environment, putting itself on the increasingly populated map of coworking sites in New York City.  Social technologies and trends parallel women who are social, business-oriented, and technical.

As the economy forces us to redefine our selves and our relationships to one another, so too does the prevalence of the internet and our interconnectedness. Mike Masnick argues that no longer is there scarcity (defined by infinite need and finite resources) in the internet-driven economies, and that, even with market abundance, the economy can thrive.

Politically and economically, access to abundant resources means mastering the art of forging and organizing new relationships to capitalize on accessibility (whether with regard to information or capital).  It becomes the art of inclusion.  This revolution in perspective–constant access, abundance of information, and transparent public relationship–opens doors for women…and women are well-equipped to lead the effort to build our renewed economy.

Steven Weber (The Success of Open Source) writes:

“the production, flow, and control of information are core defining features of a community, economy, and society….The role of technology and organization is simply to liberate that creativity (like poetry).”(sic)

Women understand that interactivity, social ethics, and relationships are here to enable us to connect, and to do so effectively. Women influence 80% of purchasing power, and typically increase their workforce numbers during recessions.

How do we:

• Preserve innovation and invention?
• Market to and value women in the marketplace?
• Help drive and build market recovery as entrepreneurs?
• Increase the presence of girls in technology?
• Create strong and lasting connections?

Get involved and connect.

Through my work with Girls in Tech NYC, I feel privileged to benefit from the passion and drive of the many talented women who want to help to build our local community chapter in the same way.  Not the least of these are Girls in Tech NYC’s Amy Cham, Open Source community champion and builder, and Janine Just, Avid Group leader and innovator and co-community-catalyst with NextWeb . I’m further looking forward to exploring the fascinating subsection of the vibrant NYC community that will participate in April’s New York City Entrepreneur Week.

More soon on these guiding lights and partners in the New York community!

Now, your story:

How do you show your spirit in business, technology or in connecting with others? What part will you play in building communities? How do you include others and promote interactivity? How can you, we, or all of us help?

Comment here, or send feedback to tommy@tamikojenkins.com if you prefer to remain anonymous!

Information on the Girls in Tech NYC Relaunch Launch Party: the details and the RSVP!

The 2009 DrupalCon Drupalchix BoF

Photo credit: by domesticat

Last week, over a 1000 Drupallers converged on Washington, DC, for the 2009 US DrupalCon (another will be held this September in Paris).  This year I was very happy to join the DrupalChix–a loosely organized group of women in the Drupal community–for their Birds of a Feather during lunch on the first day.  We were all very excited with the apparent growth in the number of women in the Drupal community.

While official numbers are unavailable, estimates of female attendance at Drupal events are on the upswing. Anecdotally, it’s just getting easier to meet up with other women at Drupal events, and our ladies’ cut t-shirts ran out well before the conference ended.  As far as real numbers, the estimates are that last spring’s DrupalCon in Boston was roughly 8% female, the summer conference in Szeged was around 10%, and this year’s event in DC pulled a roughly 15% female attendance.

In the context of open source, where women have become accustomed to being one of a few women, if not the only woman, in the room, that’s a phenomenal number.  Recent statistics are hard to find, though a frequently cited FLOSS-POLS report from 2006 suggested that only 1.5% of open source contributors were women.  Ouch.

Vanessa Haakenson of Vworld New Media, an 8-year veteran of open source  says:

I don’t have any stats on the number of women in general but over the years I’ve only seen a handful actively participating in projects I’ve been involved with. From my personal experience over the past 7 yrs I can say I’ve seen less than 10 women in what I’ve been involved with but hope to see more women in the future.

As a web developer and technical undergrad student, I got used to being the only girl in the room…sometimes quite literally.  It was not at all unusual to sit down in a new Java class and realize I was The Only One.  In the workplace, there might be another female dev and a couple women on the business side, but again, the web industry was clearly overwhelmingly male.

Despite the numbers, though, I never felt there was any hostility.  There were times I thought some colleagues were “playing nicer” with me than with each other, being less blunt in criticism or arguments, and certainly all the tech stereotypes skewed to a male persona; however, I did not feel that my skills were dismissed.  Nobody ever tried to keep me from tackling the tough code on a project, and once I demonstrated my ability, they were perfectly willing to come to me for help when they ran into trouble on my core technologies.

I always wondered why there were so few women in web development–my experience showed me about 10% on the tech side.  The real shock, however, came the first time I saw the FLOSS number.  As much as we were the minority in web development, it appeared that we were practically invisible in open source projects.

WHY?  Was it a lack of interest?  Skills?  Confidence?  Or…?  And why is it that the Drupal project seems to buck the trend?

Up Next: Being a “she” in open source today.

This post is running much longer than I expected, and quite frankly I’d like to do more research and make this something really substantial.  Let’s leave this off for today, and continue with my next post in two weeks, looking at the experiences of women in open source today.

So what do you think?

Why are women so underrepresented in open source?  Are you an open source gal with experience and insights to share?  What can we do to increase our numbers?  What deters women from contributing to open source projects…or do you think it’s just a matter of personal preference?  Is Drupal actually different, and if so, why?

If you have thoughts to contribute anonymously for the next post, you can email me at amy@girlsintech.net, and note that you prefer to not be identified.

PS – We’ll be making our big relaunch event announcement in the next few days, but you can get in early now! Click here to see the details and RSVP!

Things have been quiet for a few months, but we’re back and ready to run with the NYC chapter of Girls in Tech!

Introductions

I’m Amy Cham, the new Managing Director for the NYC chapter. For some quick background, I’m the Tech/Marketing Convergence Manager at Tree House Agency, an interactive development firm. After a few years in front-end web development, I decided to get an MBA and focus more on the business side of things; today my work with Tree House Agency is a blend of marketing and project management, though I maintain a healthy interest in Drupal and use it for most of my own projects. I am also beginning to pursue professional photography, something that I’ve wanted to do since high school.

Also on board getting things going is Janine Just, owner of The Avid Group, a NYC firm specializing in events, marketing, and PR. Janine (and a team of associates from NextWeb) will be instrumental in helping to put on what we all hope will be a series of fun and valuable events throughout this year.

We are looking for more people to get involved! If you would like to help Girls in Tech move forward as a blogger, organizer, or in some other capacity, please send me an email at amy@girlsintech.net. I’d love to hear from you!

Upcoming Events

Speaking of events, the NYC chapter of Girls in Tech will be having a “relaunch” launch party late next month. Details will follow soon…to keep tabs on chapter news the minute it is available, join our Facebook group!

So what’s a techie girl to do in the meantime? Well, for us open sourceresses, there’s the NYC DrupalCamp 6 happening February 28, and DrupalCon in Washington, DC, at the beginning of March. I’ll be at both events, and would love to meet any members who make it out. (Especially, don’t forget to stop by the DrupalChix birds of a feather at DrupalCon!)

Hot on the heels of DrupalCon is the iconic SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX, running March 13-17. While I cannot attend this, there are sure to be fellow Girls in Tech members joining the festivities!

Beyond these events, there are always an incredible number of technology-related Meetups happening in New York City. Whether you’re more inclined toward the business or development side of things, there is probably a meetup event for you during any given week.

Getting Connected

The Facebook group is a great place to leave a note and reach out to other members to arrange face-to-face introductions at events, or just around the City. Don’t be shy!

Do you know of another upcoming event that the ladies of Girls in Tech NYC should know about? Post your favorites in the comments!