Girls In Tech

Before I head off to New Orleans to ring in the new year, I wanted to bring your attention to some highly effective non-profits that are doing AMAZING work and changing lives of women and children in the US and around the world.  Happy giving and happy new year to everyone!!

Kiva is the first website and online platform to connect lenders and borrowers for micro-finance loans. 82% of Kiva’s loans go to female entrepreneurs.

Samasource was part of the fbFund REV social incubator class of 2009 and uses crowdsourcing to bring dignified, computer-based work to women, youth and refugees living in poverty.

International Justice Mission works to rescue  and assist victims of slavery, sexual exploitation  and other forms of violent oppression.

Tags: International Justice Mission, Kiva, Samasource, Tina Tran
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Looking forward to the New Year?  So are retailers – As value, convenience, and selection will remain top-of-mind as the New Year approaches, retailers begin to look back on 2009, with an eye for growth in 2010.  With that, Mike Kraus, Retail Advisor for AllBusiness.com, has the following predictions for retail trends in 2010.:

The Continued Rise of E-commerce – As consumers continue to be in value mode, they’ll continue to shop online for the best price.  But price is only part of the equation.  Convenience and selection will also help drive consumers to e-commerce.

The Sameness of Retail…Urgency to Retrench and Retool - As retailers continue to offer uninspired store experiences, and merchandise that is out of step with consumers, we’ll continue to see slow growth in the retail sector.

Social Media Becomes Key Driver in Retail Marketing – Instantaneous outreach to loyal customers will take hold and exponentially expand through Twitter, Facebook, and more.  This not only allows retailers to stay in touch, but it allows them to stay up to speed and get involved in an increasingly open and honest dialogue with customers.

Crash-up Retailing – the economic expansion gave rise to the over-development of shopping centers, districts and streets, leaving every shopping area no different from the next.  Crash-up retailers, those that combine more than just goods for sale, things such as gallery space, a cafe or coffee bar, a community meeting space, or a performance space are going to drive visits to their locations, simply because they’re offering something more – a place to experience versus a place to just sell.

Do you agree or disagree with these trends?  Comments?

(Source:  Mike Kraus,  Allbusiness.com.)

Tags: e-commerce, retail, social media, Trends
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Photo by Caroline Taillandier @caro972

Asli Bilgin, a great heart and community leader in New York City (via Microsoft) dined via candlelight in a charming French Restaurant in the heart of Gramercy, Park Avenue, NYC. Alissa Emerson trudged through the snow with a 5 inch by 5 inch Tiffany-blue plastic box neatly packed in her editfashion.com-approved hand bag, joined by Michael, her husband, to sit among friends at the restaurant’s inner balcony.

There, Alissa introduced an interesting gift idea that is simple and elegant – yet can be distilled into binary. Asli was treated to a projected slide show of pictures and a usb drive made of Philips metal embossed by Swarovski crystals so that as she jet-sets to Dubai to educate global leaders on new Microsoft technology – her friends go with her – a fun way to bring back old traditions like watching slides with one another. The best wishes for her in her travels.

Speaking of binary, and since Asli also loves math, on vacation, I happened across a superb explanation for binary, by Brian Hayes in his collection Group Theory in the Bedroom. On page 180, he writes:

The most important numerals are all constructed according to a place-value system. In decimal notation, the numeral 19 is shorthand for the expression:

( 1 x 10¹ ) + ( 9 x 10⁰ )

Or, as you might recite in a primary-school classroom, “one ten and nine ones.” Likewise, the binary numeral 10011 is understood to mean:

( 1 x 2⁴ ) + ( 0 x 2³ ) + ( 0 x 2² ) + ( 1 x 2¹ ) + ( 1 x 2⁰ )

which adds up to the same value. The ternary version of the same number is written 201, which expands as follows:

( 2 x 3² ) + ( 0 x 3¹ ) + ( 1 x 3⁰ )

In this case we have two 9s, no 3s, and one 1.

The general formula for a numeral in any place-value notation goes something like this:

d₃ r³ +d₂ r² +d₁ r¹ +d₀ r⁰ …

Here r is the base, or radix, and the coefficients d _i are the digits of the number.

Hint: Brian is a balanced ternary fan, which is very pretty and arguably more efficient than binary, and on which he continues to write on page 189:

the digits of a balanced-ternary numeral are coefficients of powers of 3, but instead of coming from the set {0 1 2}, the digits are -1, 0, and 1 (sic)

The decimal number 19 is written 1101 in balanced ternary, and this numeral is interpreted as follows:

( 1 x 3³ ) – ( 1 x 3² ) + ( 0 x 3¹ ) + ( 1 x 3⁰ )

Tags: Asli Bilgin, Binary, Bits, Brian Hayes, Crystals, holiday, Math, New York City, Philips, Swarovski, Ternary
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Girls in Tech is excited to announce a competition to recognize innovative women in charge of startups – and your opinion matters. The “Catalyst Competition: Awarding Leading Women-Led Startups” is open to tech startups with women leadership. Your vote will help determine winners. The Catalyst Competition is presented with the innovative Vator.tv and winners will demo at the  Catalyst Conference on January 26th. To enter the contest or vote, click here.

Here’s why should be excited –and vote for winners!

1. You Need To Do this. No, Really. For Your Business.

Raise your hand if you work in high-tech and your job doesn’t involve knowing about the competition. Or keeping abreast of market developments. Whether you’re a product developer or manager, hard-charging CEO, or biz-dev whizz, you need to know the competitive landscape. Checking out and voting on the Catalyst Competition will keep you informed – and present new business partners and opportunities.

If you’re running a company, entering the contest gives you a chance to gain major visibility to an audience of businesswomen, technologists, media and investors. As a runner-up, your venture will be evaulated by actively-investing early-stage VCs.  You could score advice — or funding. Winners will demo onstage at the Catalyst Conference to the 350-women-strong audience at the Catalyst Competition. Each and every entrant gets a discount on tickets to the conference. And letting your followers know they can vote for you allows you to activate your fan base. Beta launch of a new feature, anyone? …User-appreciation day?!

2. It’s the Ultimate New Year’s Eve Pregame

Seriously, what could be more uplifting than watching videos about innovative companies headed up by ambitious chicks? And then picking your favorite? For all the time we spend watching Andy Samberg sing silly songs on SNL clips on Hulu, or indulge our geekiness by reading 16 reviews of the exact same gadget on tech blogs, we can find time for this.  It’s an indulgent moment of Web entertainment that won’t leave you feeling like you just wasted 30 minutes. Voting closes Jan. 14, but we encourage you to vote now. It’s the most fun-yet-wholesome thing you’ll do between now and January 1!

3. Good Karma. (I’m Not Kidding.)

“One good turns deserves another.” Everyone can remember a time they asked a mentor to get lunch, a colleague for an introduction, or a family member to proofread a resume or business plan. The women in the Catalyst Competition want their hard and work and talent to be recognized. The Catalyst Conference team created the competition because we want to support our community. Voting is an easy way to make good on a New Year’s resolution to give back to the folks who’ve supported you. So go ahead. Make a nice cup of coffee, prop up your feet, and dig in.

We wish you a happy and innovative New Year!

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Donna Novitsky; CEO, BigTent

Donna is CEO of Big Tent Design, www.bigtent.com. Capitalizing on a rapidly growing social marketing trend, BigTent delivers creative “engagement marketing” campaigns connecting brands with consumers, in particular household decision makers and trend setters. BigTent can do this because of its nearly million member-strong base of women in groups such as parenting clubs, schools, non-profits and professional associations. As the next generation “Yahoo! Groups,” BigTent is the trusted platform groups rely on for enterprise-class membership management tools combined with the best of social networking for discussions, calendaring, photos, profiles and classifieds. BigTent’s members are very committed to their groups, and BigTent is the platform that allows members to connect to each other 24×7 online, by email and, coming soon, on Facebook. Donna joined Big Tent from Mohr, Davidow Ventures (MDV) where she was a Partner for nine years, serving as VP Marketing in sixteen MDV-funded start-ups. Prior to MDV, Donna was VP Marketing at Clarify Inc., a CRM pioneer that she helped establish, grow, take public and grow some more. Her career began at Sun Microsystems in product management. Donna holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering with Distinction from Stanford University and a Harvard MBA, and also teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing in the Stanford School of Engineering. In her free time she enjoys playing with her husband and two kids and volunteering in her kids’ school.

Lisa Padilla; CEO, Communicate.io

Lisa Padilla is the CEO of Communicate.io, a digital marketing agency based in Silicon Valley and host of Lisacast a podcast with a following of over 20,000 listeners. Lisacast has been following influencers in Silicon Valley (and other technology capitals of the world) for over a decade. In her role as CEO of Communicate.io, Lisa has been helping businesses reach customers and partners with effective marketing campaigns and visibility programs. Lisa’s strategic and hands-on experience offers specialization in advertising, search marketing, social media, micro-media and channel marketing. In addition, Lisa is a pioneer user of many social networks and new media, and an avid photographer with over 6,000 or her photos posted on Flickr, one of the many tools she considers a must have for niche marketers.

Cindy Padnos; Managing Partner, Illuminate Ventures

Ms. Padnos is the founding Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures, an early-stage, high-tech venture capital firm and continues to serve as a Director of Outlook Ventures. Cindy’s experience and focus encompasses Internet/Web 2.0, SaaS, digital media, technology-enabled services, mobile communications and other software sectors.

Before entering the venture capital community Ms. Padnos was a successful serial entrepreneur including as founder and CEO of Vivant Corporation (EVLV); as President and CEO of Acumen, as vice president of marketing at Scopus Technology (SCOP); and at privately held companies IDE and Ingres. Her hands-on operational skills were initially developed in the telecommunications sector at AT&T. Early in her career Cindy also served as a management consultant in the information technology sector with Arthur D. Little and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Ms. Padnos earned her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, at the University of Michigan and received her MBA/MSIA with honors from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the Tepper School and for Astia and on the Board of Directors of privately held companies BrightEdge, CalmSea, LPI&M, Wild Pockets, and Xactly Corporation.

TO REGISTER, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://gitcc.eventbrite.com/

Tags: BigTent, Catalyst Conference, Cindy Padnos, Communicate.io, Donna Novitsky, girls in tech, Illuminate Ventures, Lisa Padilla, San Francisco
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After three years in China and three months in New York, I am finally home for the holidays, in Dallas.

Last night, as we were coming home from another party, my stepfather decided to drive us to see some Christmas lights. There is a neighborhood about two blocks from our house, called Deerfield. And boy do they get it together. We drove up and down blocks and blocks of houses, all decked out in gorgeous lights and decorations. The two things that ran through my mind were: wow, and I wonder how much their electricity bills are. Then we turned on Quincy Street, and came across THIS house. Just watch this video, and come back to read the rest of this post.

Tech the Halls (Dallas style)

Okay, so it kind of looks like a house having a seizure. But what you don’t hear is that the entire display is synchronized to a radio station you can tune into in your car. COOL. I tried to share a little bit of the awesomeness here, but you just had to be there. Talk about technology. At its most creative

Happy New Year!

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As many of you know I was in a rear end accident two weeks ago. I was stopped at a red light and the other driver (probably on his phone), slammed into me going about 30 miles per hour. Over $10,000 in damages to my car and many doctors and x-rays later, I am still not feeling 100%. As an avid tweeter http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/and facebooker http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/02/02/fastest-growing-demographic-on-facebook-women-over-55/, I decided to take to the internet while in my state of bed rest. I complained about the accident and the pain I was in and was moved by the loving responses of so many family and friends.

About a week after the accident, I continued with my online conversations remarking on the ongoing pain and headaches, as well as the irony of living in LA, and the fact that the gentleman who hit me happened to be marginally famous. A friend from high school commented on one of my facebook posts with a warning. She had been in a similar accident a year prior with another more famous actor. She told me (off my wall) that during the discovery process for her case, the opposing attorney entered her facebook updates as evidence that she was in fact filing a fraudulent claim. I immediately removed every accident related post and tweet.

I began to get angry with the thought that something that so drastically affected my life was something that, for legal purposes, I should not share with my family and friends on my social media properties. Heeding the warnings on my employment 2.0 blog posted several months ago, I found that for the first time, I had to censure myself on the web and I didn’t like it one bit.

The fact remains that twitter and facebook information is in the public domain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain and there is no expectation of privacy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectation_of_privacy. This means that if you have been involved in a car accident and claim that as a result you can no longer participate in the activities you normally do, a smart defense attorney will do a background search on you online and determine whether or not you have posted incriminating information about yourself in the lawsuit. So be warned once again, information that you put online will likely be discoverable, so do so at your own risk.

Tags: accidents, facebook, lawsuit, legal, public domain, right to privacy, twitter
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Rounding up a “Top 5″ list of the top gadgets for women this holiday season was a bit daunting — there are much more than 5 to choose.  So, I decided to list the top 8. Some of these are carryovers from last year, I’m sure. Some of them are expected; and others are unique. So, here is the rundown.

(Not necessarily in order of popularity.)
1.  The Kindle 2: Electronic book-reader extraordinaire

2.   The Canon Powershot Sx

3.  Digital photo frames (to go with the above)

4.  The TomTom GO530

5.  Sea to Summit Pocket Shower or the Green Mobile Phone charger (for the outdoorsy/environmentalists of us)

6.  The Motorola Droid, iPhone 3G, or MP4 player

7.  Fitbit: Calculates the amount of calories you burn while walking around the office + access your Fitbit page to manage you meals and overall health

8.  Bendi: The silicone mat light-up keyboard.

A little bit for everyone — computer, outdoors, or home-related, alike.  Perhaps you’ll see something on the list that you might want to add to yours.

Enjoy your Holidays!

Tags: Christine Oneto, Gadgets, Gadgets for Women, girls in tech, Holiday Gift Guide, women in tech
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One Girl in Tech, Michele Grimm, and her partner Tom forwarded us their tips on making the perfect holiday photo greetings. So, we wanted to pass them on to you! — Michele & Tom are a professional photographer team, so they know a thing or two (or ten) about taking digital pictures .. .  Here’s their advice:

1. Plan Ahead. Eye-catching photos take some thought, so envision the card you want to send before you take any pictures. Pick a setting with an uncluttered background. Decide what type of clothes to wear (causal or dress-up?) and what colors might be appropriate (red and green will enhance a Christmas theme). If you want to shoot outdoors, consider the weather and the time of day for the best light. Cloudy or overcast days are perfect for portraits without shadows; avoid bright sunlight that causes people to squint.
2. Get Your Camera Ready. Be sure to install new or freshly-charged batteries so the camera won’t stop working in the middle of your shooting session. Also check that there is room on the memory card to hold plenty of new exposures. And remember to carefully clean the camera lens of dust and fingerprints; use a microfiber lens cloth. For pictures of the best technical quality, adjust the camera’s “image quality” and “image resolution” to their highest settings.
3. Move in Close. Remember that friends mostly enjoy seeing the faces of your family and pets. Get close to them by moving the camera physically closer or adjusting the zoom lens to fill the viewfinder or LCD monitor with their faces. Aim the camera’s auto-focus target on the eyes; be careful it isn’t pointed between the heads of people because the background will be in focus instead of the family’s faces. Also, make sure there are no windows or mirrors in the background that are distracting or cause reflections, especially if you are shooting with flash.
4. Forget About Red-eye. If the sun is causing shadows on the faces of your family, or you are shooting indoors in dim light, we recommend using the camera’s built-in flash or an external flash unit to provide “fill” light that illuminates your subjects more evenly. Avoid the “red-eye reduction” flash setting, if your camera offers it, because this makes a series of pre-flashes or a steady light that causes some people to blink or shut their eyes. “Red-eye,” an annoying bright red spot occasionally seen in the pupils of the eyes, is easily eliminated later with your computer’s image-editing software.
5. Use a Tripod, and a Friend. Put your camera on a tripod so it will remain in the same position after you compose the family picture. Recruit a friend to trip the shutter release instead of using a remote control or the self-timer to fire the camera yourself. Remind everyone to keep looking toward the camera and not glance away to see if the baby or dog is behaving; depend on your friend to snap the shutter when everybody looks their best.
6. Keep On Shooting. Someone in the family group is certain to blink, yawn, scratch or look away just as a picture is taken, so shoot again and again. One of the joys of digital photography is that it costs nothing extra to make a dozen or so exposures rather than just one or two. A warning: Your subjects will quickly get restless, so don’t spend time between shots checking images on the camera’s LCD monitor to see how they turned out. Pick the best image later when you view all the shots at full size on your computer.
7. Create a Collage When Family Members are Absent. Can’t get everyone in your family together for a holiday card photo? A solution is to get and assemble individual photos of each family member into a collage or montage that becomes a single image. Many image-editing software programs — probably including the one that came with your camera — have a feature for easily merging photos. First choose a template from various designs that hold different numbers and sizes of images, then arrange your family’s photos as you like.
8. Dress Up Your Holiday Photos with Borders and Type. Your computer’s image-editing software also enables you to add borders and to type captions that become part of the family’s holiday photo. Pick a border with a design and colors appropriate for the season. You can select different typefaces, sizes and colors, and position the text wherever you wish in the picture. Also, local and online photo centers offer holiday-themed templates for greeting cards that are easy to fill in with your own photos and text.
9. Print Your Own Holiday Photo Cards. Remember to design your photo card so it can be printed on standard sizes of photo paper and will fit in standard-size envelopes. To save money, select a “Picture Package” in your image-editing software to make several prints on one piece of photo paper — such as two 5 x 7-inch or four 4 x 5-inch prints on a single 8-½ x 11-inch sheet — and cut them apart. Also consider HP Holiday Photo Card packs with 20 sheets of 5 x 7-inch glossy photo paper and matching envelopes for $9.99.
10. An Easier Option: Order Your Cards at a Photo Center. If your mailing list is large, it usually is more convenient and economical to have your holiday photo cards printed at a local or online photo center. Many allow you to upload the photo image file online to a selection of card templates that you can personalize with family names and greetings. The cards and envelopes can be picked up a few hours later, or will be mailed to you. Search online for “photo greeting cards” to find a wide choice of photo-finishing companies, including shutterfly.com, snapfish.com, and photoworks.com.

©2009 Tom Grimm and Michele Grimm, authors of The Basic Book of Digital Photography: How to Shoot, Enhance, and Share Your Digital Pictures.
(Tips compliments of Tom & Michelle Grimm Photography)

Tags: Christimas, Digital Greeting card, girls in tech, Greeting card, Photography, Photos
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I’m actually glad that a lot has evolved in the world from the 50’s to current time. Trying to visualize how women were treated in the workplace and in the home, submissively providing for the men around them, getting married at a very early age for security, based on social influence and generally a lack of emphasis on education – just bothers me. Of course, we can blame that on the lack of resources available to women to help them catapult their careers to an executive level or opportunities for women to venture into the entrepreneurial world. We could also blame that on role models and how families raised their daughters, pressuring women to get married, raise families asap.

That said, the thing that I really LIKE about the 50’s was how chivalrous men were to women – taking them out on proper dates, opening doors, having official meet and greets with family members, dressing up and upholding manners.

I feel that this type of chivalry is getting lost in translation. Quite possibly for two reasons:

1. Men are confused (and getting more and more confused as the years go by)
2. Technology

Men are confused

Some women refuse to let guys open the door for them, stand on the right side of the street while walking, pay for their dinners because they want to show independence, self-sufficiency and financial stability. I understand this, but ladies, you can have the best of both worlds – men really respect women that are self-sufficient, smart and can fend for themselves; we also have the option of allowing them to treat us like the beautiful creatures that we are, keeping traditional values alive, while focusing on the multitude of opportunities that are now available to us – you can have it all.

Technology

It’s getting easier and easier for men to use very impersonal (a.k.a. lazy) methods of connecting with women, asking women out on dates, sending gifts, the list goes on. Here are my tips for not letting technology get in the way of a truly successful date, potentially a long-term relationship:

• Always expect to talk to your suitor over the phone, especially if it’s a first date (even if he leaves a voicemail, that’s ok – as long as you know that he made the effort to call you)
• Do not accept an official first date from a Facebook ping, poke or a one sentence message. This would be considered more of a “hang out” or “networking”, but definitely not a date
• Do not accept a two-word text asking you out the day of (Not kidding. This happens)
• Do not let men substitute the real thing with a virtual teddy bear, virtual roses or virtual candy. It’s not being materialistic, mainly because women care more about what’s in the card anyway. It shows that they made the effort to make you happy – it’s part of the wooing process.

Tags: Chivalry, Dating, girls in tech, Single Women, technology, Women and Dating, women in tech
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