Girls In Tech

O’Reilly Open Source Convention - OSCON
July 20-24, 2009
San Jose McEnery Convention Center
San Jose, CA
http://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon

What Does Open Source Mean for You and Your Business? Find Out at OSCON 2009, July 20-24 in San Jose, CA.

Registration for the 11th annual O’Reilly Open Source Convention is open, and registrants are responding quickly, eager to meet the challenges and opportunities of current economic conditions, which invite the open source community to sustain, apply, and expand open source to change the world. At the core of so many emerging technologies, open source is driving the innovation engine, offering ways to save technology costs in your organization and to keep your business moving forward in tough times. Join us in San Jose, as we redefine the future of open source, including the savings and the profit it can mean for all of us. 

More than 200 sessions will focus on how open source can save money, save the day, and spread the word. Seventeen tracks include: Administration, Business, Databases, Desktop Applications, Design & Usability, Emerging Topics, Java, Linux, Mobile, People, Perl, PHP, Programming, Python, Ruby, Security, and Web Applications. More than enough to satisfy the 3,000 or so conference participants, many looking for new opportunities to regroup, retrain, and rebuild.

Some 3,000 developers and programmers, designers, sys admins, hackers and geeks, enterprise developers and managers, IT managers and CxOs, entrepreneurs, activists, trainers and educators will gather to confront the realities of open source in today’s environment–how to stay competitive, how to open up new avenues for open source, and how to find better ways to use open source in every aspect of business and life. Open source continues to thrive and grow because better ways to increase ease of use and lower the cost of deployment continue to be found. 

Save an additional 20% using discount code: 0s09git at: https://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009/public/register

Tags: girls in tech, O'Reilly, o'reilly media, O'Reilly Open Source Convention, OSCON, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, technology
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One of the biggest ad conferences in the world is making its way to San Francisco next week and Girls in Tech SF will be in full-effect, producing a few events, parties and panel discussions catering to the female “movers and shakers” of the online advertising, design and media buying community.

Join us at the Media Social party at Roe on Tuesday, April 21st. This event is also hosted by Rohit Bhargava’s Personality Matters crew.

What’s ad:tech?

ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition. Worldwide shows blend keynote speakers, topic driven panels and workshops to provide attendees with the tools and techniques they need to compete in a changing world.

To RSVP, please visit the following Facebook event page:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=179025225470

Tags: Ad:Tech, Adriana Gascoigne, girls in tech, involver, personality not included, Roe, San Francisco, The Media Social
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Susan Su blogs about everyday entrepreneurship and life in the Valley at Ask The Entrepreneurs.

I love engineers. But, I’m not one.

I’m a Murakami-devouring, French-speaking, fuzzy techie. That is, I took a total of two non-humanities courses at Stanford: Intro to Statistics, whose only textbook was “Cartoon Statistics,” and Search For Life in the Solar System, a freshman course about alien life between the Sun and Neptune.

How then, did I end up as a web product manager at an engineering-driven tech start-up?

I learned, after a few early failures, how to talk to engineers.

Here are the THREE things to remember when talking to engineers:

1.    Bring value to the table. The simplest way to gain anybody’s respect, especially members of the ‘ruling’ class of your company or organization, whether they’re engineers in a tech start-up or male analysts at Goldman, is to know something that they don’t know but might like to know.

The HR Director at my old company was a smart young woman who could easily have been pigeonholed into being another one of those “HR girls.”

She never let this happen because she had lots of valuable workplace and HR information that EVERYONE – even engineers – needed to know. And, she wasn’t afraid to make it clear in her (highly articulate) conversations with developers.

2.    Do ALL Your Homework. There’s nothing more annoying than when you’re busy fixing bugs for an afternoon release, and some product manager comes up to you with a bunch of easily answerable questions. You’re an engineer, and you’re in a time-crunch, so you respond gruffly.

The PM may or may not find the answers she needs through this frustrating, waste-of-time conversation, but either way the relationship between the ‘fuzzie’ PM and the ‘techie’ developer is strained.

When you have something important to say or ask an engineer, or anybody with major time constraints, make sure you do ALL your homework and bring in to the conversation the most critical things that can’t be answered any other way.

Is there any way your question could be answered by a Webopedia search? If so, then answer it that way.

3.    Talk less, act more. When I see an email thread that’s 17 messages long, where each message is heavy with multiple, 10-line paragraphs, my eyes glaze. I’ve been on email threads attempting to coordinate a picnic in Dolores Park that ends up being 19 messages long.

This type of communication will even drive friends away from your picnic, not to mention grouchy, overworked engineers from your project.

Always punctuate your request by placing it at the end of your email, rather than burying it at the beginning or, worse yet, somewhere in the middle of your message.

Always create a separate email for each request so that your recipient can respond to your email right away when that request is fulfilled, rather than having to wait for a bunch of them to show progress before sending an update.

Why should you go to so much trouble to talk to engineers? Isn’t communication a two-way street?

The lessons I’ve learned from communicating, and mis-communicating, with my engineer colleagues apply to all kinds of audiences that you really care about.

Want to reach out to a famous blogger to get publishing tips, or a potential mentor for career advice?

Bring value to the table, do ALL your homework, and talk less, act more.

You’ll save precious time for people whose respect you want and need, and your preparation and togetherness will raise eyebrows in the best possible way.

Tags: communication, Engineers, girls in tech, how to, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Susan Su, Talk, women in tech
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I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker that prompted a little experiment. The discussion revolved around mobile technology.  She made a case that mobile phones and PDAs are the most influential devices in our day-to-day lives, and supported her argument by pointing out that many people would rather be without their wallet for a day, than have to function without their primary means of communication.  The topic of the most influential technology for daily life is more than I want to tackle in a blog post (though it could be a topic at one of our upcoming meetings), but it did get me thinking. 

I considered ditching my cell phone for a day to prove to myself that I’m still capable of functioning without it, but came up with more than enough excuses to warrant a revision to the test.  Instead, I spent the weekend being more aware of my technology consumption.  It’s a fascinating exercise that I highly recommend, whether for a weekend or just a few hours.

I paid attention to how technology changed my interaction with the world.  As I was driving to the dog park, a place I visit several times a week, I felt compelled to lean over and turn on my GPS.  At the supermarket, Greek yogurt in hand, I opted for the self-service checkout even though there was no line for the cashier.  You’ll be surprised how fast the list can grow.

What I took away from this is that I’d like to be more conscious of the decisions I make.  I get very excited about some technology, and I absolutely support its integration into our daily lives.  The result of the test was, while I would rather ditch my wallet for a day than be without my cell phone, there are times when I’d like to not be not quite so reliant on my technology.  Because of this experiment, I might actually stop and ask for directions.

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Just when it seems like the economy might be getting a little bit better, more people are getting laid off and less companies are hiring. This is disturbing especially since the government is focusing on shoring up the economy by bailing out big corporations and not by helping people keep their jobs. As confusing as that may be, we have to move onward and upward, and the best way to do that is by giving your knowledge a boost, diversifying your skill-set, making yourself indisposable and by focusing on a few key activities when you get laid off. The following article from Amateur Asset Allocator, documents “The 11 Things To Do Immediately When You Get Laid Off.” I think the points that this article makes are extremely valid and useful, so I’m not only forwarding this onto my friends that are currently unemployed, but also, I’m writing about it as a guide for Girls in Tech members. So here goes. You can read the whole article here: 

11 Things To Do Immediately When You Get Laid Off

1. Spruce Up Your Resume
2. Tell Everyone You’ve Ever Met, Immediately
3. Give Your Resume to Everyone, Even If  They Don’t Ask
4. Play The Lottery
5. Shore Up Your References
6. Stop Spending Money
7. Freelance
8. Get a Girlfriend/Boyfriend
9. Start Your Own Company
10. Go On Vacation
11. Update Your Profiles on Social Networking Sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.)

Actually, I have to add a twelfth point that when looking back at my career, I think is ultra important:

*Make yourself indisposable and your skill-set scarce. If your job doesn’t directly align, effect or impact a company’s bottom line (in a positive way) – change that. The only way an employee can keep a job these days is if she or he is creating, igniting or innovating a new way to make money and is core, I mean CORE to that company’s business strategy, including revenue, core product(s) or operations. Also, a person has to create scarcity around themselves and their skill-set. That is to say, she or he needs to stand out and become a thought leader at a company; create a reputation for being an expert, even better, THE expert or “Go-To” person representing a crucial part of a business and the operations and success of that business.

Tags: Adriana Gascoigne, Amateur Asset Allocator, Getting a job, girls in tech, Job, Laid off, San Francisco, technology, Unemployed, women in tech
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Yesterday’s blog entry on “The Best of Web 2.0: The Cheap Seats Report” covered the keynotes, and today’s blog entry covers the Web 2.0 sessions that received the most buzz and praise from fellow attendees. You can tell it’s a good session when the audience is furiously taking notes instead of twittering or facebooking.

#1. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Eric Ries has led two startups — the first startup failed fabulously, and the second startup is profitable and making millions in revenue. The difference? Startup #1 spent $40 million and employed 200 people before there was a launched product. Startup #2 launched a beta product quickly, and continuously released newer and better versions while engaging with customers early and often.

Take Away: The #1 reason that startups fail is they are too busy marching to their own beat, with no idea of what customers really want.

#2. Optimize Your Organic Search Results by Leveraging Social Media by Heather Lutze
Internet marketing speaker Heather Lutze loves the start of this sentence because it is helping to drive up her search capital by employing a key learning from her session: Use a consistent phrase to position yourself or your company throughout social media outlets to remarkably and organically improve your search ranking.

Take Away: Your search ranking should not be an accident, think strategically about how to consistently position yourself across the internet to earn the top search spot for free.

Example: See how Heather uses consistent phrases on LinkedIn to drive up her search ranking as an Internet Marketing Speaker.

Thanks to Eric and Heather for sharing their valuable lessons with us!

Tags: Eric Ries, girls in tech, Heather Lutze, internet marketing speaker, Optimize your Organic searh results, session, The Lean Startup, Tina Tran, Tina Tran blog, web 2.0 expo
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Forrester released an interesting study this week entitled, “Reaching Empowered Women Through Social Media,” that discusses how consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands can engage with a key audience segment- empowered women.

It’s interesting to see a study like this released because it highlights how highly influential women are.  Their status and influence in the online world is growing rapidly.
They are the decision-makers in their households, influential among their friends and a key demographic target for many brands.

According to the report summary, “empowered women” are females ages 25 to 54 who feel that the Internet helps them manage family life. Author, Emily Riley, says that in order to engage these empowered women successfully and pull ahead of the competition, CPG companies must design campaigns that enhance communication and aid in consumers’ decision-making and influence.

While I didn’t get a chance to read the full report, I did read Gavin O’Malley’s summary on Media Post and pulled a few good tidbits of advice and some interesting stats on empowered women:

• Don’t sound generic. Pick a specific audience to talk to and create campaigns around that audience’s behaviors rather than brand objectives.
• Social media is not about sounding cooler than you normally do. It’s about making your brand more personal than on other channels.
• Social campaigns require long-term commitments. Once you’ve made a connection with someone, they are going to expect a higher level of interaction over a longer period of time than with a commercial or a banner ad.

Stats:

• 42% of empowered women visit social networks like Facebook and MySpace, compared to just 33% of all U.S. adults online engaging in such activity.
• One-third of empowered women use social networking sites mainly for communication compared with 23% of all online adults.
• Nearly one-third — 32% — of empowered women will actively go to friends’ pages on social networking sites to keep in touch, compared with only 21% of all online adults.
• Empowered women care about value and like knowing as much as they can before they buy. 81% of empowered women say it’s important for them to find the best deal they can on things they buy, compared with 63% of U.S. online adults ages 18 and up.

Tags: "Lucia Giacomantonio", Emily Riley, empowered, Forrester, Gavin O'Malley, social media, women
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The Web 2.0 Expo came through San Francisco last week and Girls in Tech made our debut splash as an official Media and Community Partner.

The atmosphere at Web 2.0 this year was sober, and it appeared that a majority of the 8,300 people in attendance were on scholarship — that is, they had the free expo hall pass that limited admittance to the keynotes and a handful of sponsored sessions. Girls in Tech was on scholarship as well and I was bowled over by quality of the free content. If you missed the conference, below is my Best of Web 2.0 “The Cheap Seats” report. Today I’ll highlight the top keynotes, and tomorrow I’ll cover the best sessions.

Best Keynotes:

#1 Designing for Big Data by Jeff Veen of Small Batch Inc.
Jeff Veen’s presentation stood out as the best of the sixteen(!) keynotes because he is a natural story teller and a master at using pictures to convey ideas. He used simple and vivid illustrations to show us that the presentation of data is far more important than exposing the hard numbers that lie beneath.

Take Away: Data is most powerful when users can easily access, understand and ingest it.

#2 A conversation with the founders of Threadless
Jake Nickell and Jeff Kalmikoff are the ultimate accidental entrepreneurs and they were delightfully candid and unbusiness-y as they discussed how they came to start Threadless, a highly successful community-centered online T-shirt store that has spawned an HBS case study on the use of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is a term that refers to leveraging a community of users to build key components of a company’s service or product offering. If this doesn’t resonate with you, think Yelp!

Take Away: If you are a business wanting to leverage crowdsourcing, start by asking, “How are people using our products differently than we expected?”

#3 A conversation with Ellen Miller from The Sunlight Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation is committed to increasing transparency in government through the use of the internet to catalyze openness and accountability. Ellen Miller talked about the powerful impact of creating websites that the public can use to easily access and digest thousand-page bills that are more likely to bury information than provide insights into what our government is doing.

Take Away: Let’s all think about how Web 2.0 applications can be applied to make government more transparent and accountable — and let’s make Gov 2.0 a priority and a reality.

Check back tomorrow for my take on the “Best Sessions at Web 2.0: The Cheap Seats Report”

Tags: crowdsourcing, Ellen Miller, girls in tech, Gov 2.0, HBS case study, Jake Nickell, Jeff Kalmikoff, Jeff Vee, keynote, scholarship, Small Batch, The best of Web 2.0, The Sunlight Foundation, Threadless, Tina Tran, Tina Tran blog, web 2.0
Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco | 1 Comment »

Well, as more grim Economic data appears with rising unemployment rates, furor over bailout funds, increasing jobless claims and more, it looks as though Hollywood is still providing the best escape for Americans who are looking to forget their problems by heading to the multiplexes.  Audiences are crowding theaters for films that provide easy laughs such as “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” which has sold over $163 in worldwide ticket sales or action-packed fare such as “Fast and the Furious,” which broke box office records for Universal Pictures this past weekend with a $72.5 million opening.

Hollywood did grow the most during the Great Depression of the 1930’s where audiences went to escape their everyday worries.  But we’re in a different time now as audiences now have interactive Entertainment from Rock Band/Guitar Hero, social networking sites, and youtube to satisfy their Entertainment needs.  Though all the Big Networks have added full episodes of their popular shows to their websites, one particular website, Hulu.com, has been growing steadily in viewership and even using TV advertising as a way of saying, “We’re taking over.”

Though Ad revenues are down and cost-cutting is the new reality, everyone is still looking to see where all the eyeballs are headed.  Paid Content recently reported that Hulu and Disney are in negotiations to sign on as a partner along with NBC Universal and News Corp. And the truth of the matter is that eyeballs and thus traffic will go where there is quality content. 

But in terms of finding the perfect Hollywood revenue model for the Internet, no one knows the answer yet, so what happens next?  You try new things.  Enter “Section 8, “ a new made-for-Internet series that Paramount Digital Entertainment and Gaumont are making, which will premiere on Myspace.  The show will have an interactive element and viewers will be able to vote on the outcome of the series.

For right now here in Hollywood, no one has the answer yet on how to game the Internet.  But one thing is more certain than not, just like in the classic film, “Field of Dreams,” if you build it, they will come.  If you create a site that has the content that your audience values, you will have a loyal following.

Tags: Box Office, Disney, Hollywood, hulu, Internet, Section 8, web
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GirlSource will be hosting their 26th annual WAVE Awards Luncheon on May 1, 2009 in San Francisco.  The Women of Achievement, Vision and Excellence award is presented each year to exceptional women over the age of 70 who through their leadership and pioneering spirit have made significant contributions to our community.

This year’s honorees include Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., Kay Sprinkel Grace and Ruth Jones Villia.  These honorees are incredible role models for GirlSource participants, helping them see just what a determined woman can accomplish in her lifetime.

In addition to honoring these great women, the event raises funds to support GirlSource programs which provide meaningful mentorship, work and leadership opportunities for urban, low-income young women.

As a partner of GirlSource, Girls In Tech will be sponsoring a table at the event. If you’d like to join us or make a donation to GirlSource, please click here.

For more information on the event and this year’s honorees, visit http://wave.girlsource.org

Tags: "Lucia Giacomantonio", girls in tech, GirlSource, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Kay Sprinkel Grace, Ruth Jones Villia, WAVE Awards
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