Girls In Tech

In a new book releasing soon titled Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival, by Robert F. Brands with Martin J. Kleinman, Brands talks about how inspiration is what leads to innovation. — For example, how would the iPad or the iTouch have come about if it had not been for the original founding fathers of Apple, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak?  In this work, Brand and Kleinman ask:  “Start with the question:  ‘How inspired is your organization?’  ‘Which elements of an Innovation Process and/or culture are in place today?’ ”

They suggest these 7 tips:

• Make inspiration an imperative. In Robert’s Rules of Innovation, it states that successful innovation in an organization is driven by 10 imperatives, including — among others — leadership, ownership, accountability, risk and reward, and value creation. None is more important, though, than inspiration. An inspired leader, organization and process engages the team, welcomes them into the act of innovation and heightens chances for success.

• Install and empower a chief innovation officer. The processes of inspiration and innovation need a champion, someone who helps develop the ideas, fosters an environment that encourages creative camaraderie, feeds esprit de corps, and steers the organization toward greatness. In the small or mid-sized companies, this should be the owner or CEO. In large organizations with an especially thoughtful or charismatic leader — such as Steve Jobs — the CEO can serve this role as well. But generally in larger organizations, the CIO should be someone empowered by the CEO. The CIO (not to be confused with the Chief Information Officer) has the perspective of the organization to envision inspiration, and drive to push projects through the various necessary pipelines, and the power and purpose to see projects through.

• Set goals and create enthusiasm. Where do you want your organization to go today? Tomorrow? Does the company need one new product this year, or a new process management or   initiative? Inspiration is the daily communication that steers such direction. Though the CIO is the leader (after the CEO or other top exec), the team must embrace the challenge as a shared goal to be met together. Buy-in comes with smaller, incremental wins that need to be recognized. Failures must be tolerated, not penalized. Measure achievements, and use a reward system of monetary or recognition awards. You’ll find sometimes, especially with your most creative people, that recognition is reward enough to keep troops engaged and motivated.

• Create the right culture. Inspiration is bigger than individuals: It resonates throughout the organization. This is more than hanging motivational posters on the walls. Host regular brainstorming sessions to welcome new ideas. Hold team-building exercises, where inspiration is the focus, and new ideas — again for products or processes — are the goal. Successful inspiration that fuels innovation transcends hierarchy and silos. It’s not the just CIO’s job. It’s everyone’s job. Together, the team enjoys success and learns from the lessons of failure. Encourage the entire organization to become “Inspired” and to embrace the challenge of inspiration.

• Make inspiration a start-to-finish endeavor. On its album Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd laments, “plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.” Life and business are littered with unfinished tasks. Set deadlines, and use rewards to help ensure they are met. Strive for the completed task.

• Observe, measure, and know. Inspiration — like innovation itself — doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It must be measured to gauge performance and ensure a chance at success. Each project team must have a leader in charge of shepherding projects to their respective waypoints and end goals. Set up processes and milestones. Establish checkpoints to weigh accomplishments. As Ronald Reagan famously said: “Trust, but verify.”

• Never relent. Inspiration is about the journey, not the destination. It’s not a one-time endeavor, but a life-long calling. Herb Kohler, the 70-year-old bearded chairman of the plumbing fixture company that bears his name, still heads Kohler’s monthly new product development meetings — that is, when he’s not collaborating with legendary golf course designer Pete Dye on a new development or leading the company’s acquisition of Scotland’s famed Hamilton Hall in St. Andrews — at a time when his contemporaries are content to just hit the links, Kohler remains committed to product innovation — and helping to provide the inspiration behind it.

© 2010 Robert F. Brands, author of Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Program for Corporate Survival

Inspiration propels and catalyzes creative thinking, and therefore, new business development.  So establishing and maintaining a culture in which to do so is important for every company, high tech or not.  So go ahead, inspire!

For more information or to check out the book, go to Robert’s website at: http://www.robertsrulesofinnovation.com/.

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Or is it? According to Michael Wolff, contributing editor at Vanity Fair Magazine, “An (anonymous) person from the high media stratosphere who asks to be identified only as “a friend” offers the following hypothesis: The Twitter demographic skews notably female.”

It is an interesting hypothesis and reminds me of a post I wrote earlier here on Girls in Tech (see post “As the World Wide Web Turns”). There have been many demographic studies about who uses social media sites more actively and it always has been predominantly women on sites like Facebook and mainly men on sites like Digg (recently redesigned fyi). Women have always been the more “social” sex and now that has translated onto the online world and women-centric brands are cashing in. In my opinion Twitter has essentially become the new “radio” where people follow companies and brands to participate in giveaways and attempt to be the “1,000th” follower to win instead of being the “1,000th caller.” And stay-at-home mothers and those working from home are the ones who participate the most in these contests so it is not surprise that they are quickly becoming tech-savvy to cash in on the twitter promotions.

Wolff states that Twitter has a “dear diary” quality to it that makes it unique and therefore attracts more women than men. He goes on to further state those men who do keep diaries use it not as a place to emotionally vent, but rather as a place to keep track of facts: names, dates, people, places. Sounds a lot like the “little black book” doesn’t it? And which man doesn’t keep one of those? There are even “Black Book” applications tailored towards men in the iPhone app store.

Enter geo-location applications. If men use twitter and other social networking sites to tell people about places like Wolff says, does this mean they are the main users of geo-location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla? And are they more likely to let Twitter post their location information? I turned to my Facebook and Twitter to check out if this was indeed true and from what I gathered, it is. Most of my male friends tweet things like “Good morning”, “I am at Starbucks (insert link via foursquare)” and it goes on and on. At the end of the day I can tell exactly where my guy friends were during the day. My girl friends on the other hand tend to tweet things like “p.s. eff my life because my horoscope on Yahoo! Is true.” Additionally, my Facebook news feed is filled with things like “John* has checked into ____” via foursquare or pictures to things they’ve seen throughout their day posted via iPhone (posters in a subway on a commute to work, etc.) Whereas girls will post news links, quotes, and “I heart Chuck Bass” in reference to the Gossip Girls episode from last night.

So is twitter the new diary? Are people micro-venting? Perhaps a dear twitter” column is in order…
Read the entire article here

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If you happen to be one of the lucky ones in Austin for SXSW Interactive, please visit the Women Techies United booth, (#219) where we are represented along with the following great women’s organizations:

• Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology enables technical women in industry and academia to advance in their careers through its resources and programs.
• Astia is committed to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led startups.
• DevChix is an organization for women software developers currently we have 300+ members across 15 countries.
• Digital Sistas provides technology education and enrichment for young girls and women who are traditionally underserved.
• Girls in Tech (you know…us!) is an organization focused on women’s entrepreneurial and innovative achievements in technology.
• LinuxChix is a community for women who like Linux and Free Software, and for women and men who want to support women in computing.
• NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information Technology is a coalition of 200 corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits working to increase women’s participation in information technology (IT).
• She’s Geeky organizes Unconferences around North America connecting women in tech & STEM fields.
• Women 2.0‘s vision is to be a catalyst for innovation, mobilizing a global community of women entrepreneurs seeking to advance the world through technology.
• Women Who Tech champions women in technology and social media who use their tech savvy skills to transform the world and inspire change.

and…

• Women Techies United brings together 10 different women in tech organizations & events.  Their booth will run panels, events and other happenings at SXSW & beyond.

So all ya’ll head over and say “hi” if you are at the conference or will be there!

***Girls in Tech would like to thank Sanford Dickert for his support in making our presence at the booth possible. (You can check out his website at: http://whoissanford.com/.  Thank you, Sanford!

(Also thanks go to David Hou and Lan Nguyen from DramaFever.com for creating the Women United logo. — We greatly appreciate your stellar creativity!)

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About two weeks ago, I had reached the end of the road with my cable company – Time Warner Cable. For the past four months, my service had been spotty at best, non-existent at worst. And believe me, I wasn’t just upset that American Idol wasn’t being DVR’d…my Internet service, which is also provided by TWC, was experiencing the same spotty service. And being that I run a business out of my home, spotty Internet service is 100% unacceptable.

I had called TWC customer service many times over the months – demanding a pro-rated fee for the service I wasn’t receiving, asking for help, a solution – and the feedback I would always get was, “restart your cable box.” I began restarting my cable box at least once a day – and it never solved the problem I was having. My picture was still pixilated and frozen – my Internet service down.

Over the phone, TWC customer service told me there must be an issue with the signal getting into my house…and, basically, “oh well.”

Oh well? OH WELL??

I did not take this lightly. If I pay for something, in a timely and consistent manner, then I expect to get functional service in a timely and consistent manner. I would have dropped TWC altogether except that they have a monopoly on cable service providers in my area. I was stuck (no thanks to you Fios and Uverse-why haven’t you rescued me yet?).

Until, that is, I decided to take to Twitter and vent my frustrations there. At the very least, I could make myself feel better by telling my 6,300 Twitter followers how frustrated I was.

So, in my frustrated rampage I created the hashtag, #dietimewarnercable and began pummeling out Tweets about my “dislike” for TWC. Harsh? Yes. Did it feel GOOD? Oh yes…

In my rampage, I did a search for Time Warner Cable and could not find any Twitter handles associated with the cable giant. I believe I even wrote a snarky Tweet about corporations who don’t have a social media presence, and how people like me can help contribute to a negative online image.

About 20-30 minutes went by of me Tweeting, my followers responding, asking questions about what had set me off, etc. And then it happened. TWC reached out to me via DM. I quickly learned that Time Warner Cable actually has several active Twitter accounts including their PR person, tech support, a social media expert, among others…all of whom personally reached out to me:

@TWCablePhil @twcablebrienh @twcablehelp @alextwc

They apologized, asked what my service issues were, and how they could help. I don’t say this often, but I was wrong.

I. Was. Wrong.

Not only does Time Warner Cable have a social media and Twitter presence, but they monitor it late at night, and actually responded – in a timely, caring way to my disgruntled Tweets. They scheduled a service call for technician to come to my home and solve my service issues. The technician showed up a day later, fixed the problems, and sure enough, everything has been working perfectly since his visit.

What could not be accomplished on the phone with customer service was quickly and effectively taken care of via social media. To me, this is a wonderful example of how an age-old practice – customer service call centers – can take major notes from a new-age practice, social media.

What the call center could not solve, social media did. And that is precisely why it’s here to STAY.

Christine Kirk is founder and principal at Social Muse Communications, a PR and social media marketing consultancy firm for food/beverage, travel, luxury, technology, and lifestyle brands in Los Angeles. She also holds the position of PR Manager for the Los Angeles chapter of Girls in Tech. She can be reached via e-mail at christine@socialmuse.com or on Twitter @luxuryprgal.

Tags: online brand management, social media, time warner, time warner cable, twitter
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 6 Comments »

Since many of us are aware of just how often women’s contributions to the tech world go unnoticed, we wanted to give all of you a chance to help change that.  Here’s how:  March 24 is Ada Lovelace Day. — This is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing, etc.) to celebrate our unsung heroines, whatever they do.  It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited to join in this effort.

Just sign the pledge at: http://findingada.com/ and publish your blog post any time on Wednesday March 24th,  2010. From our past blogs on Dr. Grace Hopper and others, we know that there are many of these women in tech out there that are worthy of and due our tributes for the accolades they have received and accomplishments they have achieved.  Local and current figures in the tech world who you know, we would also love to hear about!  You are invited to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do!

Who was Ada?

Ada Lovelace was one of the world’s first computer programmers, and one of the first people to see computers as more than just a machine for doing sums. She wrote programs for Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a general-purpose computing machine, despite the fact that it was never built.  She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

Join the movement & post your blog!

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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

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Below is part II of Girls in Tech’s celebration of Women’s History Month. This week we offer another exclusive interview. This time we’ll check in with an innovator in the technology field – Danielle D. Duplin, Vice President and Executive Program Director for the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology.

Cheers,
The Boston GIT Team

1. Name, title and your current job and/or mission in life?
My mission is to catalyze innovation. My goals are to educate employees worldwide on emerging trends in business and technology and create the conditions that inspire them to experiment, collaborate, and create new economic and social value.

2. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it that’s worth passing along to others?
My biggest mistake was to spend too many years early in my career heads-down instead of taking the time to build a professional network. Don’t get me wrong, focused devotion is important for building domain expertise and strong relationships with close colleagues. It’s just that now I realize how critical it is to also cultivate a broad network of peers, advisors and experts. My advice is to pro-actively connect with colleagues within your profession (not just within your company), and even more importantly across disciplines. The strength and diversity of your network provides a wealth of inspiration that can amplify your options and accelerate your dreams into reality.

3. What’s your biggest success in the workplace?
I am most proud of creating a Global Seminar series that has produced nearly 300 seminars featuring over 750 internal and external speakers that have been enjoyed by over 100,000 attendees. I love creating a culture of continuous learning and generating that spark of enthusiasm within our communities that could one day lead to a breakthrough idea. Every day is renewing and it’s a privilege to do it.

4. What’s your life or work motto?
Strive to wake-up in the morning with something to look forward to, and put your head on the pillow at night with something new to be proud of.

5. What woman in history inspires you most and why?
The 18th century founding families of this country are my heroes . . . the everyday women and men who banded together for a higher purpose to create a system of government that honors individual freedom. They put their fortunes and their lives on the line to create a better future despite the danger and uncertain outcomes. Their grit, resourcefulness and irrepressible spirit are a true inspiration for today’s innovators and entrepreneurs.

6. What piece of technology can you not live without?
My iPhone! If I left my wallet at home I might not go back for it, but if I left my phone I would race back!

7. What tech trend are you following for 2010?
Open Government has the potential to radically alter the ecosystem of public policy development and citizen engagement — having public access to this treasure trove of data will yield tremendous insights, valuable opportunities and revolutionary applications.

8. What one piece of advice would you give the Girls in Tech of tomorrow?
Smart is sexy and passion is attractive. Do something you love and pursue it with unbridled enthusiasm and determination. You’ll soon find that others will want to join you and wealth (the kind that matters) will come naturally.

9. What three items do you always carry on you?
Lipstick, credit card, and iPhone . . . you can go anywhere and do anything!

Tags: Danielle D. Duplin, Director, Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, girls in tech, Innovator, Women's History
Posted in All Chapters, Boston | No Comments »

We’re excited to feature Go Tribal Beta, a site that helps you see “who’s down” to go out. The free web-based service is immediately available to the first 10,000 registrants. To start using Go Tribal, visit http://gotribal.com

Go Tribal helps members coordinate with friends by identifying who is willing, able and interested to hang out. It eliminates the time and frustration spent on gathering a group of friends by allowing members to easily see when their friends are available – whether it is your best girlfriend, or even an old college roommate. As a Go Tribal member you can broadcast when you are down, easily see who else is free and use the simple collaboration tool to finally decide what to do or where to go. From this, Go Tribal is able to grant members broad visibility into what their larger network is planning on doing.

“We feel that technology is moving further and further away from facilitating meaningful physical interaction. Our driving vision is to create simple technology that enables friends to get together in the real world. Go Tribal is the first step in fulfilling that larger vision,” said Shruti Challa, CEO and founder of Go Tribal.

You better believe that Girls in Tech will be using Go Tribal for corporate gatherings, meetings and all-hands calls.  Great job ladies!

Tags: Beta launch, female founders, girls in tech, Go Tribal
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Vator invites you to pitch Silicon Valley at Vator Splash May
When: May 13, 2010
Time: 4:30 pm to 12 midnight
Where: Cafe du Nord, San Francisco
Cost: $150 (Girls in Tech get a 20% discount using “Vatorgirls”)

Vator Splash II will be held on the evening of May 13, 2010 at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco and will showcase 10 up-and-coming startups across the high-tech industry, as well as Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, serial entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal (founder of ClickAgents, Blue Lithium and gWallet), Founders Fund VC Dave McClure, August Capital VC Howard Hartenbaum, Mayfield VC Raj Kappor and many more. Once again, Robert Scoble will be on hand to emcee the presentations. About 400 people, consisting of industry peers, investors and media are expected to attend.

Submit an early-stage company to pitch below:
http://vator.tv/competition/vator-splash

Reserve a discount ticket or pitch table (discount code: Vatorgirls):
http://vatorsplashmay.eventbrite.com/

Tags: girls in tech, May 13, pitch competition, Silicon Valley, Sponsor, Tech event, Vator.tv, VatorSplash
Posted in San Francisco | 1 Comment »

Do you have a killer product concept and are ready to finally make it a reality? 2010 might be your year to build it out, launch a company, and change the world.

Betaspring – a mentorship-driven startup accelerator for technology and design entrepreneurs – is opening up applications for it’s 2010 summer program. They bring the best entrepreneurial teams from around the world to Providence, RI, for an intensive twelve week program. During that time they get your company up and running, provide mentorship, legal assistance, office space and a small amount of seed funding. At the end of the program they line up investors who want to fund you and strategic partners who want to work with you.

As Co-Founder of Olive Interactive, LLC. (DandyID and Claim.io), headquartered in Providence – and a Rhode Island native – I can personally attest for our vibrant community of technologists, artists, business leaders and innovators. Not only will you spend the summer working with stellar Betaspring mentors and members – you’ll also bump heads with The Creative Capital’s top scholars (think RISD and Brown students/grads), energetic young professionals, and enjoy plentiful access to a thriving nightlife and live music, great eats, and ocean/summer activities. Watch the I Heart Providence People’s Confessions videos for more takes on what makes this city shine: http://www.betaspring.com/2010/02/21/why-providence/

The deadline for applications is March 22nd, but early applicants will have the benefit of allowing the partners more time to get to know you and your company. The application process is quick, easy and painless, and will ask nothing you don’t already know. Head to http://betaspring.com for more information about the program and to access the application form. Questions about the program? Email Program Director, TJ Sondermann at tsondermann@betaspring.com

Tags: betaspring, providence, startups, Women Entrepreneurs
Posted in All Chapters, Boston | 1 Comment »