Girls In Tech

The world found it’s first computer engineer woman in Ada Lovelace during the mid 19th century and its first geek doll in Mattel’s Computer Engineer Barbie announced this past month. However, centuries later there is still plenty that still needs to be done to change the assumption that engineering is a “male profession” around the world.

Through mentoring, education, and outreach to young girls and women, the National Engineers Week Foundation addresses this gender imbalance. One of the Foundation’s premiere events, the Global Marathon, speaks directly to the next generation of women engineers. Set to begin at noon (EDT) on March 10, 2010 and running continuously for 24 hours through noon (EDT) on March 11, the 6th annual Global Marathon, with the theme of “Launching Tomorrow,” provides a unique opportunity for young women engineers across six continents, as well as for middle- school, high-school and university students.

Through continuous conversation, these aspiring professionals will be able to chat about careers and experiences while networking with some of the planet’s most interesting women in engineering and technology. Empowered by the knowledge that a career in engineering has the potential to both change the world, and is within their grasp, these young women are preparing to use their talents, determination and intelligence to positively impact the way we live – now and in the years ahead.

Sound like something you want to check out? Find out more here

I am sure many of you recent-college grads can relate to my short anecdote: I graduated in 2009 with a degree in journalism and began applying to numerous jobs right away. Every e-mail sent felt like throwing another dull dart at a dartboard. To make me feel even worse, the jobs I thought I qualified for – the ones for writers and reporters – required that I know Ruby, Java, C++, and write HTML. Frustrated I considered my options: go back to school and learn computer science? Teach myself with “For Dummies” books? Fortunately, future students won’t have to experience my frustrations thanks to IBM’s new Academic Initiative.

On February 9, in order to make sure no college kid gets left behind when entering the job market, IBM announced the launch of what it calls a free “academic cloud,” basically a bundle of web-based IBM software to help professors teach technology skills to students. The IBM software will allow professors to teach students in many specific and current skills in technology including: software development, information management, web 2.0, and cloud computing.

Not only has IBM realized the trend, but the Department of Labor has noticed as well and recently stated that the majority of jobs in the near future will have a heavy focus on technology and having technical skills, including technical consulting and computer systems design.

So, that begs the question, why the sudden increase in tech? True, we aren’t experiencing the dotcom days of the 90s anymore, but we are witnessing the birth and evolution of web 2.0—social networking and applications. Love them or hate them, Facebook and Twitter have made the masses more comfortable with technology. Pre-social networking, the older generation had no incentive to get online and explore the web. Now, generations old and young, parents and grandparents, are flocking to the sites to find long lost first loves, keep up with buddies from school, and share pictures of their kids.

With more people becoming comfortable with technology and thus tech-savvy, the consumer profile is changing. People Small businesses everywhere are changing the way they market to appeal to the new techie and creating new job descriptions to fill these new voids in the companies—hopefully, with the help of IBM, recent grads will now be prepared.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe Valentine’s Day is one of the least romantic days of the year. The majority of men become robots for a day; purchasing flowers, chocolates, and jewelry for their sweethearts because that is what everyone else is doing. This year, bypass the glittery red confetti, cheesy “I Love You” bears, generic red roses, and genetically engineered gigantic chocolate dipped strawberries to try something personal for a change. Below are eight tips written by New York-based psychologist and author Marty Babits. Read on for creative, thoughtful, and fun ways to show your partner you love them—minus all the cheesy Valentine’s Day swag.

8 Tips for Renewing Your Relationship This Valentine’s Day
By Marty Babits, LCSW, BCD,

Author of “The Power of Middle Ground: A Couple’s Guide to Renewing Your Relationship”

1. How many ways do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Pick at least three qualities about your partner that you love. Gift each one of these with something special. For example, give him a CD by her favorite recording artist in celebration of whatever you consider to be his most appealing facial feature. Choose a clothing accessory that includes the color that you think best flatters your partner and celebrate the way they look in that color. Come up with a quality that you have always valued, from the start of your relationship onward and feature that in a message written in a blank card by you with a tender sign-off. De-emphasize the gifts and emphasize the qualities that you want to call attention to and celebrate.

2. Surprise! Believe it or not some psychoanalysts evaluate the psychic well-being of their clients by determining the degree to which they are capable of surprise! A person who is not responsive to surprise elements in their life is unable to respond spontaneously. Their capacity for joy — and feeling in general — is impaired. Give your partner a reason to light up the surprise center in their mid-brain! Think of something that they would like but will not suspect. Have you written them a poem lately? Have you recorded the opening strains of “You are the Sunshine of My Life” on a hand-held tape recorder lately and handed it to them with a post-it instruction to hit the play button? When was the last time you brought your sweetheart a passion fruit chocolate truffle from one of the finest chocolatiers in your community? Whatever it is, make it pleasant and surprising. By the way, the residual benefit of surprising your partner is that you activate your own surprise center. No pun intended, it will be surprisingly beneficial for you.

3. Hand your partner a prerogative pass. (Print it out on an index card if you like.) With this pass he will be able to exercise their prerogative in a situation where there is usually a conflict over who gets their way. The one limit to the pass is that they are not allowed to exercise a prerogative if it forces you to do something that you feel uncomfortable doing. Next time you have a conflict over which restaurant to go to your partner can flash the prerogative pass and you’ll go Italian if that’s their choice rather than whatever else you might have felt in the mood for. Again, this presupposes that you like Italian — whether or not it would have been your pick that evening or not.

4. Look your partner in the eye and tell them three things that you love about them. They can be big ticket items, like the way you feel together when you are making love. They can be smaller fare, like the way you love it when they wrinkle their nose and close their eyes when they are hysterical with laughter. They can be somewhere in between like when they listen to you explain something in a way that you yourself realize is quite impossible to follow without complaining that they got lost four times in the telling. Write down what you are going to say before beginning this one. Then read it with feeling as if you were auditioning for a part in a movie starring opposite whoever your greatest heart-throb might be. By the way, you can fantasize about a star from any era in this exercise. Living or dead, domestic or foreign — anything goes. Only make sure you deliver your lines with feeling.

5.  Think about something that you and your partner have had trouble coming to terms with in the past year — like speaking civilly to each other when either of you is angry; or perhaps, discussing a conflict in your financial situation. Without referencing your partner, give a commitment to improve your own ability to speak about the topic without blaming. Tell your partner that you are going to accentuate understanding the issue from their point of view and that you are hoping to have fewer hurtful arguments this coming year. Tell them that you want to conduct your relationship in the middle ground as much as you possibly can; this means that you want to work together, acknowledge and appreciate each other’s hopes and dreams and make all plans with these understandings in mind.

6.  Is your partner an exercise enthusiast? If so, did you happen to catch Marisa Tomei doing hula hoop exercises on The Ellen DeGeneres Show? The exercise looks like fun — read about comments on this product on Amazon — and if you think your partner would enjoy a novel kind of exercise, purchase the item and attach a note pledging, “I hope you enjoy going through this hoop. I look forward to going through all sorts of hoops with you! And I’m lovin’ it.” Note: Only take this suggestion if you and your partner have a similar sense of humor and you think this would tickle them.

7. Do you prepare a food dish that your partner loves? If the answer is yes, put an announcement inside your Valentine’s Day card saying that on such-and-such a date you will be cooking a blankety-blank dinner for them to continue on with the celebration of the love you share. Ask them to contribute on that night by bringing along whatever will enhance the meal for you — a favorite beverage or dessert that they can purchase or make.

8.  Take a minute to think about a trait of yours that your partner has communicated having a problem with — for example, a hot temper or messiness. Think about any constructive suggestions that your partner has made that you think, when you are considering this calmly and not when you are in the heat of a disagreement, is reasonable and possibly something that you might be able to put into practice. This tip works best if you feel that the trait is something that you actually would like to change within yourself. Research self-help either on the internet or in the self-help section of your favorite book store and find out what authors suggest may be helpful in your particular situation. Jot down the best helpful tip you can find and write your partner a note stating that you have heard their complaint, take it seriously and are poised to work on it. Outline the plan that you have read about that makes sense and feel you can realistically implement. Describe it to your partner. Sit back and let the communication magic do its work. You will have just demonstrated acknowledgment of their feelings; appreciation of their communications on a difficult topic; acceptance of their concerns. You well may have instilled hope and mutuality into your dialogue.

So this Valentine’s Day be original and take things to a new level! Chocolate and flowers have their appeal, but they lack emotional value. Think you have a more creative idea than the ones above? Comment below and share with us!
Remember: timing is everything! So hurry—it’s almost Valentine’s Day!

Want to know if that business idea you wrote down on a crumpled napkin can actually lead to crisp dollar bills? Have too many crumpled idea napkins and don’t know where to start? Join Women 2.0 for a two-day workshop February 6-7 in Microsoft’s San Francisco office. The “Will it Launch” workshop will be lead by David Weekly (Founder and CEO of PBWorks) and Poornima Vijayshankar (Founding Engineer, Mint). The two of them will quickly assess startup ideas and then teach you how to perfect that startup pitch so you leave the workshop ready to find co-founders, customers, investors, volunteers, the like-minded — anyone who will help you launch and or buy your product.

The two-day schedule is as follows:

Saturday, February 6th, 2010
9:00am — Breakfast
9:30am — Welcome & Introductions
10:00am — Introductory Improv Session
1:00pm — Lunch
2:00pm — “Will It Launch?” Workshop (with David Weekly and Poornima Vijayashanker)
5:00pm — Social drinks
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
10:00am — “Will It Launch” Co-Working
12:00pm — Snacks & Drinks
1:00pm — Open Office Hours (with Betty Kayton, Jorge Calderon, Poornima Vijayashanker, and Saad Khan)
2:00pm — Improv Session
3:00pm — Elevator Pitches (with judging and advice from Betty Kayton, Dave Mcclure, David Ulevitch, Poornima Vijayshanker, and Rashmi Sinha)
5:00pm — Closing Remarks

 
Interested? Click here to register.

 
Want to go, but not in San Francisco? Tune in here for a live stream.

For more information visit www.women2.org/willitlaunch/

Girls–grab your glasses, smartphone, and laptop! She’s Geeky-the two year old concept founded in Silicon Valley by Kayliya Hamlin (www.identitywoman.net), is returning to the Bay Area for a third time on January 29,30,31 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View for its 5th unConference. Tickets range from $210 for three days, $140 for two days, and $75 for one day. Discounted rates are also available. Doors open at 8:15 am with activities ending at 5:30 pm each day.

UnConference? Like “Alice in Wonderland’s” “Happy Unbirthday”? Close–let me explain. She’s Geeky is an unConference because all of the events on the agenda are created by the participants in real time on the day the event happens. This format is beneficial because it encourages peer-to-peer learning, dialogue about issues that are top of mind and networking. She’s Geeky aims to inspire women working it the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and the conference is a chance for women to see their contribution to their field in a new light.

You can find She’s Geeky on Facebook, Twitter, and at www.shesgeeky.org.

To register for the unConference click here: http://shesgeekybayarea3.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount

Women of all ages and aspirations crowded the second floor of the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Tuesday January 26 at the inaugural “Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference.” Some drove in the pouring rain while others had flown in from across the nation as evidenced by their small carry ons dragging behind them. The sold-out conference started promptly at 8:45  with founder and CEO Adriana Gascoigne’s opening remarks, here is a small clip from her speech:

“ THIS CONFERENCE IS ABOUT INFLUENCING AND MOTIVATING, AND I AM TRULY INSPIRED BY EACH ONE OF YOU – WOMEN WHO HAVE SUCH VARIED ROLES IN THE INDUSTRY BUT ARE ALL PASSIONATE ABOUT TECHNOLOGY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND BRINGING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF WOMEN IN THE FIELD TO THE FOREFRONT.”

The conference truly brought together a diverse group of very influential and inspiring women like keynote speaker, Heather Harde, CEO of Tech Crunch. Harde shared what she had learned during her years in the industry and working for startups. She made the audience laugh and think with unique questions like, “is the juice worth the squeeze?” Referring to weighing the rewards when taking risks. Some other advice she shared: always have options and authenticity matters.

Attendees had the chance to participate in a total of eight panels and one workshop with topics such as: “Branding and Marketing”, “VC Deals”, “The Art of Negotiation”, “Social and New Media”, “Coding and Developing”, “Social Gaming” and “Innovation in Business.” This being a tech conference, the room was equipped in style with free Girls in Tech wifi giving those who attended the conference to tweet live, spread the word, and join in on the live conversation going on in the twittersphere with the tag #gitcc.

After a lot of tweeting, blogging, talking, and sharing, each girl made their way down the street to the official Girls in Tech after party at Roe Lounge where they had the chance to catch up and network some more.

Overall the conference exceeded our expectations. A big thank you to everyone who helped put it together! To all the attendees-thanks for making it a SOLD-OUT event! We look forward to next year’s conference and continuing to inspire, motivate, and bring a voice to all girls in the tech industry around the world!

Want to know more about the conference? Want to know how you can get involved with Girls in Tech and our conference next year? Email us at info@girlsintech.net for more information!

Apple’s iPhone, Motorola’s Droid, Google’s Nexus One, the much anticipated Apple iSlate, and of course, the one that started the smart phone craze—the Blackberry. These are just some of the many tech devices that suddenly a majority of us can’t live without. In a country where the concept of fast food was born, and later spread throughout the world, it is no surprise that America loves the speed and immediacy of smart phones. Nowadays, even a laptop seems slow (seriously, who wants to wait for it to load the home screen?) when you can browse the net with the swipe of a finger and receive your news as it happens through Twitter. With the smart phone becoming an essential rather than a luxury and social gaming and social media permeating all businesses, 2010 promises to be a great year for the tech industry.

Every year, San Francisco-based law firm Morrison Foerster surveys its lawyers from the US, Europe, and Asia regarding the current state of the world’s outsourcing markets and emerging trends that will most probably shape the market over the next year. This year, the spotlight was on the tech industry, as lawyers made predictions about cloud computing. This of course is no surprise, because of social networking. It has become a major trend in the tech industry, is in all aspects including marketing and gaming, and it’s all cloud based. In social media everything is in a shared network and because of its commonalities with cloud computing, the two are slowly but surely intersecting . Together social media and cloud computing are slated to be the big movements in the web 2.0 space.

The firm expects cloud computing-the return to centralized processing-to become even more important this year, especially with major providers like IBM, Google, and Microsoft offering attractive desktop deals. The internet will be used to distribute services to multiple customers and 2010 will be the first year in which cloud computing will have a real role in procurement decisions. They mark cloud computing as a “global trend” and predict that the Cloud will become more important as companies realize they can achieve significant cost savings by exploring this option. But the key question hindering this prediction is: can anyone really define what “the cloud” means?

In an attempt to answer it, I am posing my own questions: what does “cloud computing” mean to you? What role do you think it has in 2010 and how big of a role is the social media trend playing in this return to cloud-computing?

“Twit-tahh?” the manicurist gave me a puzzled expression, “What’s that?” she turned her attention back to my nails, carefully cutting away at the dead skin near the base of my nail and listening as I explained the viral phenomenon that is Twitter. I asked her if she had heard about the “Twitter manicure” I read about in a PopSugar article recently, negative. None of the manicurists in the Palo Alto-based salon had ever used Twitter or Facebook, let alone heard of either of them.

As shocking as the image of hot blue nails with miniature light blue birds and bright orange “fail whales” painted on them is, it’s only the newest concept in the evolving relationship between social media and fashion. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been featured on t-shirts for a long time now. Popular shirt sites like cafepress.com and threadless.com sell shirts that feature slogans such as “140 is the new 420,” “Don’t Make Me Unfriend You” and “I’m Not A Blogger, I just Tweet A Lot.”

So, does this mean that social media not only a hot trend, but a haute trend as well? Last year, I wrote briefly about Shopflick —a place where online shopping meets YouTube. The website doesn’t feature mass-market retailers, major fashion brands, or look to advertise through mass-media. Instead, it calls itself a “video-powered marketplace for indie-inspired goods.” And features designers like Amy Hall, for Amy Kathryn Handbags. By viewing the two minute video (each item has their own), we meet Amy and listen to her describe her product, her inspirations, and her reason as to why her product is better than the rest. At the end of those two minutes we have all the information we need to make a purchase. Another site similar to Shopflick is StyleHop. This one brings social gaming and fashion together through fun style-rating games and links to post directly to Myspace and Facebook. It uses a Yelp-like system and provides viewers with advice on the most popular fashion for that city.

Is video shopping better than window shopping? That is up for debate. Personally, I prefer strolling through the mall and trying things on over sitting at home in my pajamas clicking on images and videos.

As the World Wide Web 2.0 turns, women are disconnecting with melodramatic TV soap operas and logging onto social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. According to an analysis by Information Is Beautiful, Facebook and Twitter boast 57% female membership. So why the gender gap? And what does this mean for the future of social media and advertising?

Explaining the gender gap is quite simple: just look at the modern woman’s lifestyle and behavior. Her time is divided between work, school, and social life — not early afternoon soap operas. Through it all she stays constantly connected – always on her iPhone on Blackberry – whether negotiating a big contract or picking up the kids from soccer practice. She no longer has time to read the morning daily, but will definitely use social media to exchange fashion and beauty advice, share pictures of her kids with relatives, and read Girls in Tech. And what about the TV? Well, as witnessed with the recent cancellation of the longest running soap in TV history (“Guiding Light”), there is very little time for someone else’s drama.

Advertisers are noticing this spike in activity online and pursuing these new opportunities. Social networks are now a viable platform for them to explore relationship-based advertising models, a more efficient alternative to the outmoded CPC, CPM and CPA pricing models. A case study of this relationship-based advertising is demonstrated by Total Beauty, a one-stop destination for everything beauty and the beauty products giant, Sephora.

Sephora leveraged the social content of Total Beauty to increase its market share and “top of mind” presence. Since they share the same demographic subset, Sephora and Total Beauty launched a sweepstakes that encouraged fans to create and submit product reviews for Total Beauty. For each product review written, reviewers received an entry for the Sephora gift card as well as an opportunity to share the review with friends, family and colleagues. The social component of this campaign trumped anything traditional media could achieve within this market segment. The social techie helped Sephora receive more entries into their sweepstakes and gain brand awareness while benefiting Total Beauty with yet another product review. Since females are more likely to spread the word by posting a link on Twitter and announcing it on their Facebook status updates, dollars spent marketing towards a female is broadcast, therefore going further than if it were spent on a male.

More women are being guided towards the light of their laptops, iPhones and Blackberry’s and advertisers are following. In the past, men commanded a dominant presence on the web, but social media has leveled the playing field. With her schedule increasingly filled, she relies on advice and input from her social network for the latest news bits, fashion tips and technology tricks. Web 2.0 has created the social techie and when it comes to being social, women rule.

Photo courtesy of: www.adage.com

Pink is bubblegum. Pink is cotton candy. Pink is definitely Barbie. But laptops? iPods? Gadgets? Widgets? Gizmos? Please – stop it already. I may have to reach for my Pepto Bismol if this all this pink doesn’t stop. Yes, I’m a girl, but, no, I don’t need my tech toys to match my gender.

Don’t get me wrong, aesthetics play a huge role in purchasing decisions. This is why Apple’s art-deco avant garde designs go hand in hand with cult like following. This is why the question, “Are you a Mac or a PC?” has everything to do with superior design and superior technology as much as it has to do with a sound and functional OS. But it is the aesthetics of design, not color choice or “gender typing”, which make Mac such an attractive product.

Aesthetics are one thing and “gender typing” a tech device is another. Why do companies insist on splattering shades of pink on their products when selling to a female audience? Since when did women like only pink? Case in point: Blackberry. Last year, RIM released the Blackberry Pearl in a soft baby pink hue. If the words “pearl” and “pink” aren’t girly enough, I don’t know what is. Most women, in an effort to be taken seriously, stay away from pink. Just take “Legally Blonde” for example. Almost everything Elle Woods owned was pink. People found her juvenile and automatically assumed she was “too dumb” for Harvard Law. Her love for the rosy color kept people from taking her seriously–yet it helped her stand out (read: pink and scented resumes). As laughable as it sounds, pink is instantly associated with juvenile tendencies and a “dumb blonde” stereotype—one that has been broken too many times to name.

It’s not pink, but it might as well be. The purple-hued Hannah Montana PSP is another sexist technology device. The fact that I think Hannah Montana isn’t the best role-model for today’s pre-teens is beside the point. But honestly, does the console a girl plays with have to be purple? Lilac to be exact? And the Hannah Montana game is definitely not aimed at boys. Instead, it just reinforces the stereotype that women can’t play more complex and intricate games like Zelda or Final Fantasy and that there is suddenly a need to develop “girly” games that teach cooking, fashion design, singing, and dancing. I understand the lilac PSP is Sony’s attempt to recognize and capitalize on the female market and turn them into gamers as well, but I am very confident they can do it with neutral tones of whites, greens and yellows.

Since the 1920s pink has been a gender-associated color. Initially, pink was for boys and blue was for girls. This was because pink was thought to be more masculine since it was in same spectrum as red. It wasn’t until the 1940s that pink made the switch to a “feminine color” and since then it has been evolving and taking on many meanings.

I have mixed feelings about the color pink in the technology world. On one hand I am happy to see that tech companies are realizing the strong and savvy female audience they now have. On the other, I dislike the color for what it commonly stands for: fragility, daintiness, the absolute girly-girl just to name a few. However, the color is evolving to mean more, and pink can also stand for strength (it is the official color for Breast Cancer Awareness) but these uses are few and far between.

We here at Girls in Tech strive to be a voice in an otherwise male-dominated field and we are making it known and putting it on blast – pink isn’t just pretty, but pretty powerful.