Girls In Tech

WordPress users, beginners, aficionados and nerds rejoice! WordCamp is coming to Boston this year for an exciting (probably chilly) conference uniting WordPress users from all over New England.

On January 23rd, 2010, WordCamp will convene at the gorgeous (with gorgeous views) Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge, MA. With a sprawling vista of Boston and the Charles river and housed in a major epicenter of technology development and innovation in Boston, WordCamp promises to be an exciting event with opportunities for WordPress experts and beginners alike to learn and network.

Why should our Girls in Tech members care? Well, we know many of you use WordPress, either as a web hosting platform (our GiT website is a great example!) or as a corporate or personal blogging platform, and we’re sure in many other ways as well. WordCamp will give those WordPress users an opportunity to learn from other experts, get new ideas, hear about best practices and develop new techniques.

Not only do we hope you’ll all join us for WordCamp as attendees, WordCamp is also still looking for speakers and they want to make sure women get involved. To learn more about tracks and speaking opportunities and to submit your ideas, click here.

We hope our New England Girls in Tech members and friends will join us for what is sure to be a fantastic event. To register and to get more information, visit the WordCamp Boston website, and we’ll see you there!

Tags: girls in tech, women in technology, wordcamp boston, wordpress
Posted in Girls In Tech | 1 Comment »

TEDxSV, TEDx Silicon Valley, will gather a global community of leading thinkers and doers at Stanford University to discuss Innovations for Social Change on Saturday, December 12th. While Silicon Valley is known for innovative capital pursuits, social capitalism is also born and nurtured here. Our goal is inspire others around the world to dialogue, debate, and dream. We invite those watching – in person or on the web – to infuse the event with discussions that spark new ideas and creating lasting opportunities that move all from conversation to creation.

Due to an overwhelming response, the first TEDxSV event sold out in less than 2 hours. You are welcome to sign up for the waitlist here.  (http://www.tedxsv.org/) However, in the interests of spreading social change for global good, TEDxSV will also be streamed live on UStream.com for the world to watch, here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/tedxsv. Virtual TED attendees will be using the Twitter hashtag #tedxsv to chronicle the event. More video, interviews, and content will be available following TEDxSV.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx Silicon Valley is part of a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provided a license and general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (and we are producing TEDxSV at Stanford).

The leadership team creating TEDx Silicon Valley is composed of successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, artists, social media mavens, MD’s and PhDs who are collaborating to build a very special day that will lay the foundation for a strong TEDx presence in Silicon Valley, and inspire our community members to engage in continued, contagious innovation for social change. TEDxSV is a nonprofit event, made possible by the talent and passion of committed social entrepreneurs. If your organization would like to be involved in supporting social change in Silicon Valley, please do contact them about sponsorships.

While the speakers for the inaugural TEDxSV have been selected, they are always looking for remarkable stories on how technologies and creative thinking can positively impact social change. For updates and content after TEDxSV, please join their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/tedxsv.  To nominate a speaker for a future event, please write them at tedxsv@gmail.com.

Posted in All Chapters, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

SAVE THE DATE!
NCWIT 2010 Annual Practices Summit on Girls/Women and Computing
May 18-20, 2010
Intel Headquarters/ Portland, OR

The NCWIT Practices Summit on Girls/Women and Computing is the annual destination for learning about leading-edge research on curriculum, creativity, and advocacy efforts across the entire CS/IT pipeline. Join us and other leaders, change agents, and stake holders working to strengthen the computing workforce and promote technology innovation by increasing the participation of girls and women. Network with your community. Share ideas in interactive breakouts and panel discussions, on topics ranging from women’s participation in open source to engaging CS curriculum. Hear the results of new research on women and computing, including the business value of women’s participation. Celebrate the 2010 winners of the NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing. Catch up on the latest in computing education/innovation policy out of D.C. We will also honor our 2010 NCWIT Symons Innovator Award winner for her excellence in IT entrepreneurship.

New this year: NCWIT mini-training sessions on resources (like our new corporate supervisory box), evaluation, and cross-alliance outreach efforts (like the K-12 Aspirations Award program and CS Education Week!) Also, fewer keynote speakers and more interactive breakout sessions.

Confirmed presenters and session leaders so far include:
- Dr. Christine Alvarado, Assistant Professor, Computer Science Department, Harvey Mudd College
- Dr. Tim Bell, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Canterbury
- Angela Byron, Drupal 7 Core Maintainer
- Dr. Jim Cohoon, Department of Computer Science, School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Virginia
- Dr. Wendy Faulkner, Reader, Social Studies Unit, The Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI)
- Dr. Wayne Jones, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
- Dr. Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering; Director, University of Washington eScience Institute; Chair, Computing Community Consortium
- Dr. Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Professor of Computer Science, Associate Dean of Faculty, Harvey Mudd College
- Shireen Mitchell, Founder and Executive Director, Digital Sisters/ Sistas, Inc.
- Dr. David Notkin, Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Washington
- Denise Paolucci, Founder, Dreamwidth
- Kirrily Robert, Author, Blogger and Open Source Generalist
- Joyce Roché, President and CEO, Girls Inc.
- Dr. Kimberly Scott, Executive Director, Compugirls

All NCWIT Alliances, the SSAB and NCWIT ESCs will also meet. We hope to see you there.

http://www.ncwit.org/

Posted in All Chapters, Portland, San Francisco | No Comments »

We’ve come a long way since the days of web 1.0 – we’ve gone from Geocities to geotagging, dial up to DSL, talking to Tweeting. Where once there was only C++ and HTML, wikipedia now lists an entire alphabet of programming languages. Where once there was only static content, we now expect our websites to be so dynamic that they update in real time. Remember the guestbook? Or, how about the days when browsing the web meant Netscape, searching the web meant Yahoo! and connecting to the web at all meant hours of sitting in front of your desk listening to your modem screech?

Well Toto, we’re definitely not in web 1.0 anymore. Every day we move towards a more mobile, open and dynamic internet – a trend that some people are already calling Web 3.0. Every day, the web gets faster, smarter and more semantic. Every day, sites connect more, open up more, and share more. And every day, the internet becomes more and more indispensable in our daily lives. And whether you’re one of the people touting this trend, or one of the people worried that all this data sharing really just signals the decline of western civilization as we know it, you have to admit, it’s pretty stunning to look back and realize how far we’ve come on the web in the past decade.

Wherever the web goes next, there is a lot of power in knowing where it came from. And that’s the beauty of Digital Family Reunion. For one night, they get all the best early adopters and power players of the web 1.0 world into a room with the up and comers of web 2.0 (and now, even web 3.0), from the venture capitalists to the software developers, and everyone in between. It’s a great opportunity for networking and knowledge building, not to mention a killer atmosphere for a party. And, since GIT LA is an affiliate organization, our members get $20 off tickets too. How’s that for a little holiday love from the family?

What: Digital Family Reunion 2009

Where: Wokcano in Santa Monica

When: December 2, 6-11pm

How: Enter Promo Code DFR09  when you buy tickets here.

Tags: cocktails, digital family reunion, holidays, networking, party, social media, web 1.0, web 2.0, web 3.0
Posted in Events, Los Angeles | 4 Comments »

Would you like to inject some spirit and style into your cards this year? If you are looking for something new, try add ing a favorite seasonal YouTube video or a mix of music and your own photos so you can send something original.

A Web 2.0 Holiday card would mashup these 4 things that you cannot do on a classic ecard:

• Remixing your content, community content, and the best of the Internet. No one has time to do everything from scratch.

• Support photo imports directly from Facebook, multiple video importing directly from YouTube, and searching for great images directly from Flickr artists.

• Enable Collaborative cards so you can also create cards from the family, the team, the class, or the office.

• Personalize everything from the titles to the music, and from backgrounds to avatars.

To get started, just click here.

To see a demo on these new multi-media holiday ecards on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66U0t7D9e34

Check out www.mashuparts.com. It was designed for social networkers of all ages who want to share video and photo ecards by remixing their personal content with free Internet content.  As Shaun MacDonald of Mashup Arts says, “It’s time to plot your Web 2.0 Christmas Mashup!”

Posted in All Chapters | No Comments »

We’re excited to showcase some of the new speakers that have confirmed participation as a presenter, moderator or a panelist at the upcoming Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference on January 26th at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. We will be announcing our first keynote in the coming weeks. To register, please click on the following link: http://gitcc.eventbrite.com/

Katherine Barr; Partner, MDV

Katherine Barr is a member of the investment team at MDV focused on Internet-enabled companies. Prior to joining MDV, she was a Negotiator at Vantage Partners (spin-off of the Harvard Negotiation Project), helping high tech clients such as IBM, Cisco and HP to negotiate with customers, service providers, suppliers, and partners. Before Vantage, she led a development team as a Senior Product Manager at HSA, an education technology startup in Boston. Katherine teaches a yearly Professional Education Negotiation program for the School of Engineering at Stanford. During her graduate studies at Stanford, she was involved in running the E-Challenge business plan competition for BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students). Katherine received her B.A. from McGill University, and completed an M.A. and the M.S. core curriculum in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University.

Cathy Brooks; Founder, Other Than That

Cathy Brooks has spent most of her life saturated in media – ranging from print to broadcast and, of course, myriad on-line platforms. Today, in addition to blogging for BitchBuzz and The Huffington Post, Cathy operates Other Than That, a strategic firm helping companies navigate the murky waters of strategic relationships and social media. Most recently Cathy ran business development for Seesmic, a technology company enabling threaded conversations online using video as the conduit. Prior to Seesmic, Cathy worked with Guidewire Group – a global analyst firm focused wholly on emerging markets and technologies. Cathy produced and hosted two podcasts “I of Innovation” and “Six Minutes With…” and also produced two of the firm’s conferences – Innovate!Europe and Leadership Forum. Cathy also headed the talent and booking departments at TechTV, curated content at LeWeb for several years and has held several executive positions with PR agencies.

Joyce Chung; Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures

Joyce Chung has over 10 years of operating experience in technology companies and 10 years of venture capital investing experience. She is a Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage fund focused on emerging technologies. Prior to Garage, she was a founding partner of Cardinal Venture Capital, a $125 million early stage venture fund. At Cardinal, Joyce was responsible for investments in Chipcon (acquired by Texas Instruments), Mobilygen, Valista, and Zilliant. She continues to co-manage the current Cardinal portfolio. Prior to forming Cardinal Venture Capital, Joyce managed venture investments for Adobe Ventures. Her portfolio companies included Vignette (Nasdaq: VIGN), DigitalThink, Digimarc (Nasdaq: DMRC), and Virage. Joyce also held operating roles at Adobe Systems, Sony Corporation, and Cambridge Technology Group. She received an S.B. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Joyce is active at the Stanford Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and is on the board of the Association of MIT Alumnae (AMITA), Chair of the Northern California chapter of AMITA and Member of the Executive Council of Astia.

Leah Culver; Product Manager, Six Apart

Leah Culver was a co-founder and the lead developer of the social network and micro-blogging website Pownce, which was acquired by blog juggernaut Six Apart in November 2008. Now a software engineer at Six Apart, Leah uses her experience with Pownce to develop large scale social applications for future Six Apart projects. While creating the Pownce API she co-authored both the OAuth and OEmbed open API specifications and now maintains the popular Python OAuth library. Leah promotes open source, APIs, and the Django web framework on her blog at leahculver.com. In her free time she likes to play around with new technology and try new restaurants near her home in San Francisco.

Tags: Cathy Brooks, Garage Technology Ventures, Joyce Chung, Katherine Barr, Leah Culver, MDV, Other Than That, Six Apart
Posted in Girls In Tech | 3 Comments »

Taking place Dec. 9 at the Great American Music Hall, Silicon Valley Rocks! is the Industry’s First Music Showcase featuring performances from Silicon Valley’s tech community – from VCs and entrepreneurs to bloggers and software developers – to raise money for Music in Schools Today (MuST), a Bay Area non-profit that seeks to rescue school music programs from budget cuts.   (http://www.svrocks.com)

Tickets are available at http://svrocks09.eventbrite.com/ Prices ranges from $25 for groups to $75 if you want to go VIP!

This year’s line-up features:

CORINNE MARCUS & THE KINDRED SPIRITS — catchy and intriguing with hints of Lilith, pop, rock and lounge. Tech Affiliations: Walden Venture Capital and Digidesign.

FAREWELL TYPEWRITER — melodic rock music that’s energetic yet tight, dancey but tough. Tech Affiliations: Hewlett-Packard and Thing Labs (makers of Brizzly).

MARROW — electronica/dance beats guaranteed to make you move! Tech Affiliations: Pyramind Studios and the “sflogicninja” of YouTube fame.

THE OPEN SOURCE BAND — featuring Jonah Matranga (lead singer of Far) and Randi Zuckerberg (Facebook) — a Silicon Valley Rocks! special freely available for your listening pleasure. Tech Affiliations: Facebook, Norwest Venture Partners, Walden Venture Capital and Amplified Music Services.

THE TELL-TALE HEARTBREAKERS — tearing through the post-punk music scene with tense, guitar and bass-driven songs that reflect the darker side of rock and roll. Tech Affiliations: PDI/DreamWorks.

THE WHITEHALLS — from straight-ahead rockers to political drama to crowd-pleasing ballads to electronica, this band covers all the bases. Tech Affiliations: Digg.com, Aldon (software), IT for Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco, Bite PR.

Event sponsors include: NetSuite, Midomi, Pyramind Audio, Burson-Marsteller, Joie de Vivre Hotels, Amgen, MusicianLink, Paragon, Vpype, KFOG.

Join the Silicon Valley Rocks Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38576977880&ref=ts

Follow on Twitter: @svrocks

Posted in San Francisco, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

We like it when companies we know support causes we care about. Not only do our favorite non-profits benefit, but it makes us feel good about supporting these stores for their charitable efforts. Recently Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy held a shopping event to support CARE, where 5% of their proceeds went to the organization on 4 days in November (with a 30% off to the customer). While giving back 5% of total purchases to CARE, past Give & Get promotions have generated more than $600,000 for CARE’s work around the world.
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CARE (www.care.org) is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Recognizing that women and girls suffer disproportionately from poverty, CARE places special emphasis on empowering them to create permanent social change. Women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve basic education, expand economic opportunity, increase access to health services and protect natural resources in over sixty countries around the world.  Go to their site now to see how they are raising $2.5 million by Dec. 31 to help women and girls bring themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty, for good!

Tags: CARE, Gap, giving
Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco | No Comments »

Breaking news this morning: flight delays across the nation, due to computer problems with the Air Traffic Control  System. Apparently, the issue stemmed from a glitch in one computer in Atlanta, where flight information has to be  entered manually, rather than automatically. There are no safety issues with the planes—just computer ones.

These are the times when we find out just how much technology affects our lives, without even realizing it.

Click here to see a map of the delays.

Good luck flying today!

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Please join Mission Schools International (MSI) at San Francisco’s Haines Gallery on Dec. 2 for an evening of cocktails, merriment, and mingling in support of an extraordinary new education model in Rwanda. MSI will offer a holistic program focused on science, technology, and entrepreneurship which will help create a dynamic and self-sustaining Rwandan economy.  MSI is assisting the Rwandan government to create Africa’s first-ever secondary school national curriculum in entrepreneurship.  After being inspired you will have the opportunity to donate to this ground-breaking cause.  Please RSVP at http://www.pingg.com/rsvp/7tyjk4pe8sqjbj4bp For more about MSI please go to www.missionschoolsinternational.org

Mission Schools International (MSI) will build a network of secondary schools whose graduates fundamentally transform the Rwandan economy.  MSI will offer a comprehensive program that combines exceptional education, basic healthcare, and proper nutrition.  MSI will support Rwanda’s economic development strategy of building a knowledge-based economy by providing a rigorous academic program focusing on science, technology, and entrepreneurship.   MSI is working closely with the Rwandan government to open its first school in January 2011 in Rwinkwavu, a rural village in the poorest province in Rwanda.  MSI graduates will be the scientists, bankers, programmers, and innovators who create a self-sustaining, middle-income Rwandan economy.

Tags: Developing countries, education, girls in tech, Mission Schools International, Rwanda, San Francisco, schools
Posted in San Francisco | 1 Comment »