Girls In Tech

Event Details:

Date: October 22nd, 2011
Registration: 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Program: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Where: Banatao Auditorium,
Sutardja Dai Hall, University of California, Berkeley

This TEDx Talk is setup to promote and disseminate ideas on how Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics can be used to create a positive impact on society through entrepreneurship. Our event is called TEDxEuclidAve, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxEuclidAve event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
Thanks to TEDxEuclidAve is curated and hosted by the Black Graduate Engineering Science Students

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is 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 provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Two major TED events are held each year: The TED Conference takes place every spring in Long Beach, California (along with a parallel conference, TEDActive, in Palm Springs), and TEDGlobal is held each summer in Edinburgh, Scotland.

TED’s media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily; the new TED Conversations, enabling broad conversations among TED fans; and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide.

TED has established the annual TED Prize, where exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action; TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, helping world-changing innovators from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

For information about TED’s upcoming conferences, visit http://www.ted.com/registration

Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED

Check out the amazing speakers!

SPEAKERS

	Priya Haji is the CEO and co-founder of World of Good, a company dedicated to building ethical shopping experiences with mainstream retail partners, including Whole Foods and eBay. Since the company began in 2004, it has created online and offline distribution channels for thousands of artisan producers in the developing world through more than 1,200 retail locations across the country and a brand new online marketplace, impacting the lives of more than 25,000 individuals in over 70 countries around the world. In 2007, Priya received a Social Innovation Award from the Social Venture Network for her vision to change the way the world does business.
	Daniel M. Kammen is the Class of 1935 Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds appointments in the Energy and Resources Group, the Goldman School of Public Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) and the co-Director of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment. Kammen is the Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center. Kammen received his undergraduate (Cornell A., B. ’84) and graduate (Harvard M. A. ’86, Ph.D. ’88) training is in physics After postdoctoral work at Caltech and Harvard, Kammen was professor and Chair of the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at Princeton University in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from 1993 – 1998. He then moved to the University of California, Berkeley. Daniel Kammen is a coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He hosted the Discovery Channel series ‘Ecopolis, and had appeared on NOVA, and on ’60 Minutes’ twice.
	Yahel Ben-Davidis the founder and CTO of AirJaldi.Org.Currently also a PhD student in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at the University of California, Berkeley.His research focus is on affordable, long-distance, wireless networks with an emphasis on security. Before shifting his focus to social-entrepreneurship, Yahel co-founded the Xpert group (1993), a multinational security and continuity solutions provider. Yahel designed and led the technical setup for some of the world’s largest ISPs, consulted to many fortune 500 companies, and supervised a large number of security projects for governments and top dot-com leaders. Following the sale of his Xpert group holdings in 1999, Yahel has been living and working in the Indian Himalayas (Dharamsala), where he harnessed his professional expertise to support a wide range of social causes and projects in the ICT4D spheres.Yahel is the founder of two Dharamsala-based nonprofit organizations – AirJaldi.ORG (a 501-c-3 non-profit corporation in California) and the Tibetan Technology Center – TibTec.Org.

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Girls in Tech recently intercepted a report issued by the Kauffman Foundation, which underscores that women who are capable of starting growth companies that serve global markets may be the nation’s secret weapon for achieving sustained economic growth.

Research shows that startup companies – particularly high-growth startups – are the most fruitful source of new U.S. jobs and offer the economy’s best hope for recovery. However, despite the fact that about 46 percent of the workforce and more than 50 percent of college students are female, and that women have risen to top positions in corporate and university hierarchies, they represent only about 35 percent of startup business owners. Their firms also tend to experience less growth and prosperity than do firms started by men.

“Overcoming the Gender Gap: Women Entrepreneurs as Economic Drivers,” a new paper from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, explores the reasons behind lower business startup rates among women and proposes actions that would help to realize the promise of female entrepreneurs in escalating the economy.

“There are plenty of highly qualified women in science and technology – industries from which the majority of high-growth companies are born,” said Lesa Mitchell, Kauffman Foundation vice president, advancing innovation, and the paper’s author. “More women are entering these fields than ever before. However, while women have broken through the glass ceiling, they seem to encounter ‘glass walls’ that keep them from venturing out of big companies or structured academic settings to launch their own firms at the same rate men do.”

In fact, early in the startup process, women take fewer steps to position themselves to start high-growth companies, according to “Gender Differences in Patenting in the Academic Life Sciences,” a landmark study released in 2006 that tracked the careers of more than 4,000 life science research faculty at U.S. universities over 30 years.

While women tended to produce research that was equal to or slightly better than men’s, on average, female faculty patented their research at only about 40 percent of the rate of their male colleagues, the study showed. They also tended to rely on formal university conduits to help them commercialize their research, rather than making connections and seeking guidance from private industry. In addition to more actively reaching out to establish new networks – a critical step for would-be entrepreneurs – men had more exposure to industry earlier in the process, with 93 percent of them serving on science advisory boards of high-tech companies, as compared to only 6.5 percent of women.

Other studies show that women might be more inclined to seek work/life balance and therefore shy away from establishing innovative firms that aim for global scale. On average, they also have greater difficulty raising investment capital than men do.

Nevertheless, Mitchell says, these gaps do not represent innate gender differences. They are subject to change and already may be changing.

“Women’s entrepreneurship is an economic issue, not a gender-equity issue,” Mitchell said. “As more women engage as entrepreneurs to build on their discoveries, new jobs and economic prosperity will follow.”

Mitchell recommends three steps to boost female entrepreneurship in the United States:

• Not-for-profit initiatives that advance opportunities for high-growth women entrepreneurs need greater funding and support from women executives, philanthropy leaders and industry. Networking and collaborative events between startup founders and big companies are critical to provide women entrepreneurs access to networks that can produce potential customers.
• Successful women entrepreneurs and inventors should make themselves visible and available. Role models are critical to young women considering entrepreneurship.
• Women must be invited at a much higher rate to join science advisory boards of high-tech companies.

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Being a Founder Institute participant myself, I am very proud to post information about the Founder Institute Female Fellowship. Please read below to learn more…

Last February we unveiled a new program named the Female Founder Fellowship, in an effort to grow the number of female technology founders by providing free Course Fees for the best applicants to the Founder Institute. At the time, 16% of our graduates were female, and our stated goal was to double that number and ultimately graduate 175 female-led companies a year.Well the results are in. The FFF program helped spur a 30% increase in female graduates globally in just a few months time. We have now graduated nearly 100  female founders, which account for about 21% of our total. This is roughly twice as high as most other incubators, so, in one respect we can call this program moderately successful.  However, our original goal was to double the number of female graduates and get to over 30% globally, so we are still short.To continue our drive towards 30%, and then ideally even higher, we are doing two things;1. Global Call for Female Mentors
Despite active recruitment, only 10% of our 650+ global mentors are female. Founder Institute Mentors provide invaluable insight, feedback and support to our companies in the critical early stages, and we believe more female mentors can positively impact the long-term growth of female graduates in our program.

If you know any experienced female Founders or CEOs, please have them contact us at mentor [at] founderinstitute [dot] com for more information. Being a Mentor is both a fun and rewarding experience.

2. Announcing Female Founder Fellowship program for Fall 2011 Semesters
The Institute will subsidize the Course Fee for the most extraordinary female applicant to each of our ten Fall Semesters, listed below.  Any female who applies to one of these semesters (including those who have applied already) is automatically eligible. All of the deadlines are approaching in October, so apply today at http://founderinstitute.com/join.

1. Amsterdam – October 2nd Application Deadline
2. Brussels – October 2nd Application Deadline
3. Paris – October 2nd Application Deadline
4. San Diego/ Orange County – October 9th Application Deadline
5. Jakarta, Indonesia – October 9th Application Deadline
6. Chicago – October 14th Application Deadline
7. Hanoi, Vietnam – October 16th Application Deadline
8. Singapore – October 9th Application Deadline
9. New York City – October 30th Application Deadline
10. Washington D.C. – October 30th Application Deadline

This is not about providing special treatment – the majority of applicants to the Founder Institute do not get accepted, and this will always be the case because we employ a quantitative Predictive Admissions Test in our application process. This test was specifically designed, and is constantly calibrated, to identify entrepreneurial personality traits and remove all forms of subjective bias. The program is simply designed to grow the number of female applicants, which will ultimately lead to more female-founded technology companies across the globe.

Some female graduates that have launched over the past six months include;

1. BeScrappy – Priya Sheth (Bay Area)
2. CakeHealth – Rebecca Woodcock (Bay Area)
3. CycleHarmony – Jing Jin (Los Angeles)
4. Ecobold - Steffany Boldrini (Bay Area)
5. Fashioning Change – Adriana Herrera (San Diego)
6. Feastie.com – Valerie Coffman (Washington DC)
7. HandThingsDown.com – Cheryl Marquez (Seattle)
8. In The Door – Liz  Carlson (Bay Area)
9. Learnemy – Elisha Tan (Singapore)
10. Nelou.com - Regine Harr (Berlin)
11. SnuggleCloud – Emily Marshall (Seattle)
12. WatchMe911 – Alice Armitage (Los Angeles)
13. Zirtual – Maren Kate (Bay Area)

You can follow me @AlliStrouse

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Follow me @MsSonicflare
I had the pleasure to chat with Shari Goetsch, Director of Digital Media Communications from SeeYourImpact. A great non-profit organization of making a difference whether you would like to contribute in a small or large scale.

Tell us more about SeeYourImpact.org, your role and your team?

SeeYourImpact.org is a non-profit that shows donors exactly who they’re helping and how. If you give a $25 home garden to a woman in Rwanda, we’ll email you the photo and story of the real person you helped in just 2 weeks. We want people to know exactly how their donation impacts a life. In fact, we’re so committed to the idea that we ensure 100% of your donation goes to the gift you selected.

We’re a start-up technology organization, which makes us a little different. Our focus is on helping effective non-profits leverage technology to show you who your donations are helping. We let you help people directly in countries all over the world. If you’re passionate about water, $10 will help build a well for a family in Cambodia. Or if you’re passionate about girls’ education, you can cover the monthly tuition of a child in India for $20.

Sometimes, it’s hard for people to believe they can make a tangible difference. My role at the organization is to help empower people to take that first step. We launched last year in September 2010. Our team of volunteers and supporters is growing quickly. Our job as a team is to make your giving experience so unforgettable that you’ll want to tell your friends.

Tell us more about SeeYourImpact and the initiatives you’re currently working on?

Currently, we’re helping people find inventive ways to make philanthropy a part of their every day lives. For example, children like Ellie are dedicating their birthdays to fundraise for people in need. Parents want to raise kids who give back, but it’s usually so hard to teach children what that ethereal concept “philanthropy” is all about. But when a child raises money, and in a matter of days, they see the face of a person they helped, suddenly giving is brought to life. And it’s not just the youngest of the citizen philanthropists who are getting involved. Businesswomen are donating their birthdays. Even couples are dedicating their wedding registries.

One mom whose children are from Ethiopia recently reached out to us. She had been watching the devastating famine in East Africa unfold on the news, and she knew she had to do something. Her adopted children could have been 2 of the many children who have died from hunger. So she launched a campaign called Ask $5 for 5 to deliver life-saving food and water. Over 700 people are already involved! It’s easy to help, and I hope you’ll consider joining us.

Where does SeeYourImpact.org work?

We have over 100 innovative gift solutions in 18 different countries. We’re in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and we’re also partnering with organizations doing powerful work here in the US.

What’s next for SeeYourImpact.org? How can corporations help make a difference?

We tailor partnerships to the vision of the organization. Some companies boost staff morale through employee campaigns. Others provide matching gifts. Still others look for ways to promote our work to their customers. In every case, we look for ways to show the results of the company’s work. Not just in contributions raised, but also by showing how people have been helped.

You’ve mentioned using technology as the means to drive this effort; what type of technologies drives this initiative?

We customize open-source technologies that receive broad developer support. We look for solutions that provide flexibility and stability, in addition to the creativity that comes with an army of free developers. We see social media as content delivery platform that connects our supporters to one another and to their Impact Stories. By using Facebook connect, we can send the updates of which the donor is helping to them through email or to Facebook. When people share their Impact Stories in their news feed, it invites their friends to get involved. And that’s a crucial part of our strategy. We know most organizations spend a lot on fundraising. But we think this is a new era. People don’t want to see organizations spending their donations on fundraising. They want to see their contributions going to work. By integrating with viral platforms, we help people share our work through word-of-mouth recommendations, and that’s the best way someone can hear about us for the first time.

 How can we help spread the word?

1.Go to Seeyourimpact.org and learn more about our work.

2. Women entrepreneurs: look for a way to give back through your company! Contact us, or set up a business page.

3. Upcoming women leaders and entrepreneurs: volunteer! If you’re looking for a way to use your skills to give back, we’d love to connect you with an opportunity to change the world. Email us.

So what are you waiting for? Spread the word and make a difference today!

Follow me @MsSonicFlare

Tags: ivolukas, mssonicflare, nonprofit, Philanthropy, seeyourimpact
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A recent article from Inc noted that women in technology still face an uphill battle. Quite true!

According to the article, “Women make up half of the U.S. workforce but represent only 25 percent of the technology industry. Despite growth in entrepreneurship, women lead only eight percent of technology start-ups.”

Is this a problem of widespread gender stereotypes? Lack of aspiration to the technology sector by young girls? We need to balance the energy of building awareness with keeping more women in tech arenas. 75% of women in technology report “loving their work,” yet women leave technology careers at a staggering rate.

Finding support and guidance is quite a challenging task. Being in this field for some time, I’ve seen many inspired young women/girls have a hard time finding established women and entrepreneurs in tech to help them maneuver within the industry or corporations. We need more families and friends who can embrace and mentor them within the field.

How do we address this issue? My take is that it starts by exposing, educating and engaging girls from an early young age. Many parents continue to say , “Hey, I would love to have my kids become lawyers or doctors” but you hardly ever hear parents encourage their young girls to become a scientist, or explore technical or mathematicians occupations. Especially at a young age, girls are exposed to more traditional games and toys, but why can’t girls play with Legos? Or create a robotic science project at school?

We invite you to make a difference. We have launched the Girls in Tech Mentorship program in summer 2011. There are huge opportunities to build up the next generation of young girls in technology and entrepreneurship. Our goal is not only to inspire, share knowledge and help young girls to take notice of how cool technology can be, but to expose and educate their parents by encouraging their girls to take part in science, math and tech fairs.  We are looking for mentors, mentees, sponsors, media partners and more. If you are interested in learning more or being part of the program, drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

Follow me @MsSonicFlare

Tags: entrepreneurship, girls in tech, Ivo Lukas, Math, mentorship, mssonicflare, Science, STEM, technology, women in tech
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Guest blog entry provided by the Federal Communications Commission

In just a few weeks, the Apps for Communities contest closes. We challenged developers and designers with creating apps that improve daily life in cities by making local public information more personalized, usable, and actionable for all Americans.

We’ve had over 45 submissions so far and more are rolling in as the deadline approaches. Can we have your help reaching more developers and designers? We would love your help blogging and sharing about the app challenge on social media. We know that many people are making apps that provide a social good — and they might as well earn prizes and public recognition!

Along the way, we’ve provided an idea forum to voice and vote on app ideas. It’s been a long process, and many people have helped promote the contest, such as Craig Newmark of Craigslist. You can check out who’s posted great tweets on our recent blog post: The Buzz about Apps for Communities on Twitter.

Now, we’d like to introduce you to our judges:

• Marc Andreessen — Co-Founder and General Partner of Andreessen Horowitz
• Charles Best — Founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org
• Cory Booker — Mayor of Newark , New Jersey
• Brad Feld — Managing Director of Foundry Group
• Tom Lee — Director of Sunlight Labs
• Jennifer Pahlka — Founder, Executive Director and Board Chair of Code for America

For the winners, we’re offering $100k in prizes — $30k as the grand prize, $20k for 2nd, $10k for 3rd, and many bonuses for different categories such as best design and visualization, best use of SMS, digital proficiency, and English literacy. See the full list of prizes at the bottom of the page here: http://appsforcommunities.challenge.gov/

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Looking for a job in tech? Tagged is hiring in San Francisco!

Guest post from Tagged

100 million users, profitability, catered-in lunch & dinner and unlimited vacation are just the beginning of what it means to work at Tagged. We’re hiring and invite you to learn more at http://about.tagged.com/jobs.

Open positions include:

• Software Engineer – Front End
• Software Engineer – Games
• Unix System Administrator
• Oracle Database Administrator

What’s Tagged?

With over 25 million monthly visitors, Tagged is the place where people can discover hundreds of new friends or just meet that special someone. You can meet people from down the block or across the globe – everyone is just a few clicks away on Tagged.

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Girls in Tech invites you to attend the Small Business Technology Tour 2011!

The Small Business Technology Tour, produced by Smallbiztechnology.com, will be in Mountain View, CA on September 27^th!  You won’t want to miss this full day of information, insight, energy and fun geared towards informing small businesses of the latest and greatest technology tools and solutions available for growing their business and becoming more productive and efficient.  Learn from some amazing technology guru’s including:

• Alex Chang – Founder of Roost
• Raj Sheth – Co-Founder of Recruiterbox
• Frederick Vallaeys – Adwords Evangelist at Google
• David Ramadge – Head of Local Business Development at EBay

You can register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1968017393.  Early bird registration ends on September 20th, so register today!!

Also we have a limited number of complimentary and discount tickets available.  If you are interested you can email us at info@girlsintech.net

For more information on the tour and specific topics and presentations, please visit http://www.smallbiztechtour.com.  We hope to see you there!

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Girls in Tech was a proud participant and presenter of the “Most Innovative Use of Social Media by a Charity: at the 3rd Annual Stay Classy Awards in San Diego last weekend. With over 1,ooo people in attendance, the Awards Show highlighted the most inspiring and innovative philanthropies around the world. The winners of the Awards show by category include:

-Charity of Year: The Soldiers Project

-Small Charity of Year: Long Way Home, Inc.

-Best New Charity: Marley’s Mission

-Philanthropic Business of the Year: Panera Bread

-Philanthropic Small Business of the Year: Nika Water

-Most Creative Fundraiser by a Charity: Alex’s Lemonade Stand

-Most Successful Fundraiser by an Individual or Group: Blanchard Memorial School’s 6th Grade Class

-Most Effective Awareness Campaign by a Charity: Invisible Children

-Most Influential College Student or College Organization: Northwestern University Dance Marathon

-Most Innovative Use of Social Media by a Charity: I’m Too Young for This! Cancer Foundation

-Volunteer of the Year: Troy Yocum

-Young Nonprofit Leader of the Year: Faish Huckel/Restore NYC

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