Girls In Tech

After Mr. Jobs’ keynote today, in which he unveiled both Ping and Apple TV, it seemed an apropos time for this post. This master of innovation and inspiration to many has been in the forefront of the Silicon Valley tech field, as well as around the globe spanning a couple of decades now.  How does one uncover what’s behind this — How does he do it? Well, I would say: “There’s an app for that,” but there isn’t (that I know of) and it does seem to be much too trite to sum up his genius. Instead, you can check out this introduction to one of the latest, upcoming books on Jobs:

The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success, (Mc-Graw-Hill Professional; October 2010) by Carmine Gallo, reveals the seven principles that Jobs has consistently used throughout his life and career to revolutionize four industries: computing, movies, music, and telecommunications.

This is an article by Sramana Mitra, which I am passing on since it is so relevant for today.  Cloud computing is the foremost driver of many small, entrepreneurial business — not to mention some large corporations — these days.  I will be posting a series of articles on the topic.  Please feel free to submit any comments you would like, as well, since I would like this to be an ongoing dialogue, here.

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(reprinted from Cloud Computing and Its Origins – by Sramana Mitra)

In 1966, Douglas Parkhill talked about utility computing in his book The Challenge of the Computer Utility. He described a future where many computing activities would be provided through computer utilities, analogous to the electricity industry. This future of utility computing has arrived in the form of cloud computing. The term was made popular by Nicholas Carr’s book Big Switch in 2008 and became a reality thanks to the likes of Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, and many other innovative startups. There seems to be opportunity galore for entrepreneurs in the cloud computing market, which is projected to grow beyond $100 billion in the next five years.    …

Even established businesses with their in-house IT infrastructure are increasingly looking to harness the benefits of “cloud-bursting” or newer options such as “private clouds” that are viewed as a way to bridge the gap between the cloud and traditional models of data centers.

Today, actual spending on cloud computing may be under 5% of total IT spending, but the momentum and activity in this space are significant. What are some of the challenges that early adopters in the burgeoning community of venture funds, startups, and entrepreneurs aiming for the clouds face? Are there any insightful thought leaders who can guide entrepreneurs in their quest for the holy grail of cloud computing?

Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing

Welcome to the Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing (TLCC) series. In this series, we talk with CIOs across industry verticals who have taken a lead in deploying cloud-based offerings within their organizations. Our focus is to dig in and figure out their experiences with cloud computing; find the missing pieces to large-scale adoption and the maturity of cloud computing in terms of business models and pricing; examine the changing role of IT within an organization; and explore standards, integration with on-premise applications, changes in vendor interactions, and much more.

As we peer through the clouds to learn about cloud computing adoption from these CIOs, … we are uncovering some of the blue skies and open opportunities for entrepreneurs who are eager to fill in the gaps and address customer cloud-related pain points with just the right solutions.

Over the next three weeks, we will publish the first set of these interviews. Entrepreneurs – take a look and let us know if this is useful research for you.

(article/s courtesy of:  http://www.sramanamitra.com/2010; copyright: Sramana Mitra)

Every year, not just the tech community, but the wider business community (not to mention music & film) gets together for South by Southwest in Austin. This year, please help support our Girls in Tech charter by voting for our panel to be selected and represent you and all women in tech next March!

This year’s proposed topic is: “Bridging the Geo-Gap to Empower Women in Technology.”  Groups supporting the increase of numbers of women in technology have sprouted up and are tremendous.  working to improve that situation. If you’re a woman in a developed country, groups and organizations for women in tech are everywhere.  However, in many parts of the world, these types of initiatives are either just starting – with varying levels of organization and support – or they’re non-existent.  But, we all now they are just as important — if not more important — in bringing these areas of the globe up to the level to be able to adapt and even compete with their counterparts abroad.  Thus, by connecting women in tech on a global level, we can begin to make in-roads to start making things happen in these disadvantaged areas as well.  The panel will address following questions:

1. What’s the current state of women in technology both “home” and abroad?
2. What have been current obstacles in some parts of the world for these initiatives, and what are some solutions?
3. What are some of the ways we’ve been able to bridge the geo-gap to connect women in technology around the world?
4. What are some ways we hope to improve the geo-gap to empower women in technology?
5. What are some specific examples/case studies of this being successful?

So, cast your ‘thumbs up’ now, as voting closes soon. Now it’s our turn to start to “pay it forward” in a big way!

VOTE here: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/7848 (Panel Picker closes Fri., Aug. 27th at 1 minute till midnight)

On Wednesday night, Ori Brafman — co-author with his brother Rom Brafman, of the book: CLICK: The Magic of Instant Connections — joined us to impart his wisdom and teach us a few things about how we “click” with certain people, and how this can be of great importance for us in both personal relationships and the business world.

In hammering home his key points (which I’ll go into in a moment) he also allowed for audience interaction, and what great participation he inspired.  These exercises he gave were meant to show participants how some of the principles of “clicking” can come about, whether we realize it at the time or not.  By talking and getting to know some intimate details about others whom we had just met, we were given a chance to be involved with the conversation which Brafman was pulling us into, painting a picture of, if you will.

The four rules of Clicking he gave us were:

1. Being vulnerable: (Making you open to clicking) 
2. Finding similarities:  (Surprising, quantity not quality is the key, here)
3. Physical proximity: (Which relates to how often we see someone – whether in a work situation or a personal or romantic one.); and
4. Resonance: (This has to do with flow and presence, attentiveness and individuality)

Beyond these logically explained reasons, there is also a certain chemistry and serendipity to Clicking, as well.  In the “moment of connection” (like love at first sight, or simply upon realization of an overwhelming commonality) this happens without one even seeing it coming.  With a good mix of both men and women represented, it is clearly a topic that hits home and the curiosity of many.  Let’s hope that the conversation continues and we keep learning & clicking as we go.   

Read More  | Buy it for Kindle | Facebook page

On Strategy (by Sramana Mitra) recently featured an article describing Google’s recent entry into the “vertical search” space, as they acquired ITA Software: a 14-year old company making software that compiles flight and pricing data. The acquisition was quoted at $700 million in cash and marks Google’s entry into the travel search market.

With the addition of Boston-based ITA, Google’s Marissa Meyer states: “we think there is room for more competition and greater innovation. Google has already come up with new ways to organize hard-to-find information like images, newspaper archives, scholarly papers… Once we’ve completed our acquisition of ITA, we’ll work on creating new flight search tools that will make it easier for you to search for flights, compare flight options and prices and get you quickly to a site where you can buy your ticket.”  “We’re confident that by combining ITA’s expertise as the leading developer of flight information software with Google’s technology we’ll be able to create great user innovations in flight search.”

Google will compete in this space with the likes of such search engines as Kayak.com.  As the blogger points out, it is about time that Google joins this vertical search space. It can provide its much-needed (in her estimation) innovation and sophisticated search algorithms which these other companies may lack. However, now Kayak is also beefing up its offering as it has purchased lead competitor, SideStep. This combined venture will become the fifth-largest online travel company, with a combined estimated worth of $3.5 billion, revenues totalling $85 million.  More consolidation in this market is most likely in the making and inevitable.

However, will Kayak compete once Google gets up and running, full throttle with customers migrating?  And will these consolidated companies really make the consumer happier?  From my past experience, certain travel sites can be better for certain purchases than others.  For example, it used to be that Hotels.com was the best for finding your perfect hotel … (Unless you were willing to be flexible on your arrival date & time and/or quality of hotel, in which case Hotwire or Priceline would almost always find cheaper rooms.)  For flights, Expedia or Orbitz may have been one’s preferred choice.   This is all left to unfold — What are your thoughts?

(quotes courtesy of: www.sramanamitra.com)

The Social Developer Summit, produced by mediabistro.com and Nick O’Neill, founder of All Facebook and Social Times, will be a series of technical conversations about programming the social layer of applications.  On June 29 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, leading developers, engineers, and programmers will unite to discuss solutions and best practices for building applications in the rapidly expanding social web economy.

Sessions cover scaling social analytics, optimizing the monetization funnel, the future of relational databases, continuous deployment, engagement and more.

Speakers include:

• Luke Rajlich, Architect Engineer, FarmVille
• Arin Sarkissian, Core Infrastructure Team Lead, Digg.com
• Jia Shen, CTO & Founder, RockYou
• Brett Durrett, VP of Engineering and Operations, IMVU
• Leah Culver, Co-Founder/Lead Developer, Pownce & iPhone Developer for Plancast
• Jason Oberfest, VP Social Applications, ngmoco
• Mike Malone, Infrastructure Engineer, SimpleGeo
• John Smart, Chief Architect, Zoosk

For the most up-to-date list, see the Social Developer Summit website.  So, join in!

* Get your 15% off with code SDSGIT!

Kauffman Foundation Vice President Lesa Mitchell Provides Testimony Before the House Committee on Science and Technology on Improving Technology Commercialization

Watch live webcast
June 10, 2010 at 10 a.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Central

Tune in to watch Kauffman Foundation Vice President Lesa Mitchell provide testimony before the House

Committee on Science and Technology tomorrow, June 10, at 10 a.m. Eastern/9 a.m. Central.

The hearing will be streamed live at:  http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?newsid=2855

This hearing will focus on the role that improving technology commercialization of government-funded research can play in driving economic growth and and job creation. Mitchell will testify and provide information on several policy proposals, along with the Kauffman Foundation’s current thinking on best practices in technology commercialization. Mitchell will discuss the Kauffman Foundation’s call for an increase in the transparency of research resulting from federal funding through the creation of an “Innovation Exchange” and the need to encourage federal agencies that fund research to become more involved with driving university-specific improvements in technology commercialization.

To watch this hearing on the critical need to improve technology commercialization, go to the following website at 10 a.m. Eastern:
http://science.house.gov/publications/hearings_markups_details.aspx?newsid=2855

(Photo credit: www.kauffman.org)

“100 Women – 100 Visions” is a portrait series celebrating women scientists and engineers, from all academic levels at the Imperial College in London in support of International Women’s Day.

On the whole, the series aims to capture a sense of the growing community of women scientists and engineers across the college, and their increasingly important role in all disciplines and levels of academic work.  Each photo gives the women a chance to express themselves; and also shows the diversity of the students and senior staff included in the project.

These portraits include women such as:

• A pharmacologist who has become a myocardial physiologist and finally a stem cell biologist.
• An undergraduate student in neuroscience, division of surgery, oncology, reproductive biology and anaesthetics.
• A MRes student in Green chemistry, energy and the environment, department of chemistry
• A professor of respiratory pharmacology, National Heart and Lung Institute
• A research post-graduate in the department of communications and signal processing, department of electrical and electronic engineering

To check out more of the profiles, and read about this great project, go to: http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/scc/100women100visions/index.html

In her new book:  When Turtles Fly: Secrets of Successful People Who Know How to Stick Their Necks Out, Nikki Stone, motivational speaker and aerial skiing Olympic gold medalist, shares the techniques she used to overcome a debilitating injury to achieve the gold, helping readers realize and reach their own personal and professional goals.  She is a motivational speaker for Fortune 500 companies and has seen what makes an individual most successful in the boardroom and on the slopes.  Over the last five years, she researched the similarities of 40 different highly-successful individuals — including the Prince Albert of Monaco, Dr. Stephen Covey, Shaun White medal-winning snowboarder, Steve Young and many more.  And no matter the field or endeavor, she found that ”The Turtle Effect philosophy” was at the core of everyone’s success.

Taught to her by her mother, Stone describes “The Turtle Effect” as including these elements:

Have a Soft Inside — let your heart drive your actions — This includes the great advice of:  Do the things you hate first so you can truly get pleasure from the parts of your job and day that you are most passionate about.  First thing in the morning write down five things you don’t like to do. Do each before 11:00 a.m., and check off that you’ve done them. Doing the thing you hate most will allow you to spend the rest of the day or week focusing on the things you enjoy the most.

Develop Your Hard Shell — stay strong against life’s challenges.  This includes:

• Enhance Your Focus
• Be Committed
• Overcoming Adversities  (Ask yourself, “If I knew I couldn’t fail, what would I try?” After you answer this question, ask yourself why it would be so awful to fail at the task or activity. We learn much more from our failures than we learn from our accomplishments.)

Be Willing to Stick Your Neck Out –

• Build Your Confidence
• Start Taking Risks &
• Find Your Teamwork

Applying this philosophy, she finds that “the same factors work to put someone at the top of their game, whether you are a triumphant athlete, Fortune 500 CEO, an accomplished politician, successful educator, or even an effective parent.”  Here’s to your turtle-like successes!

And check out her book or the website:  Click here

As the next generation of leaders prepares to take its place as the decision makers of tomorrow, well trained and educated engineers are becoming more and more in demand. Many industries rely on engineers to provide both expertise and a creative vision of the future. And In spite of the urgent need to develop our nation’s engineering talent, the fact remains that a large majority of engineers are men. Girls often feel discouraged from pursuing opportunities in engineering. We’d like to see that changed! So, we are encouraging you to participate in the National Engineers Week Foundation’s Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day – February 18th in cities around the U.S.  Women engineers and their male counterparts will mentor and reach as many as 1 million girls around the country with workshops, tours, on-line discussions and a host of hands-on activities at local businesses, universities and libraries.  All of these events deliver the message that a career in engineering is within the grasp of every young woman who is looking to play a role in addressing the issues her generation will face as it comes of age.

“The Girl Day vision is to broaden the way girls and young women look at engineering and help them to see that it touches our lives in ways we might not even be aware of,” said Leslie Collins, executive director, National Engineers Week Foundation. They want to make sure to deliver the message that “making more women engineers needs to be one of this nation’s most important engineering projects.”

Some of the events happening in various locales include:

• Siemens Industry, Inc. in West Chicago , IL will hold its annual ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering event’ for girls in 5th through 11th grade, hosted by women engineers. Girls who attend will complete several experiments associated with different engineering disciplines. Other highlights will include a short video about engineering and a factory tour.

• The New York City Transit Museum will present a program recognizing the key role that women engineers play throughout the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s (MTA) agencies. Attendees will hear first-hand from representatives of various programs about their goals, ambitions, and experiences in the MTA workforce. Panelists include a Design Manager with NYC Transit Capital Program Management – Signals and Systems Program and a Design Manager, NYC Transit Capital Program Management – Stations Program.

• In Kihei , Hawaii , Maui Economic Development Board’s (MEDB) Women In Technology Project will host Maui ’s 10th annual ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day’ event. Middle school girls will be given an opportunity for a half-day of job-shadowing with an engineer and fun, hands-on engineering-based activities. The event is free and open to 7th & 8th grade girls. The WIT Project is also expanding its outreach by arranging presentations by local engineers at Maui County middle schools.

• The Redding, California members of the Society of Women Engineers will host a Girl Day event where approximately 50 young women will learn about science and engineering. Hands on workshops will include: Best Bounce, Spaghetti Egg Drop, Electromagnetism, and Kinetic Energy.

For more information on the Foundation’s week of events, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, visit their website at:   www.eweek.org.