Girls In Tech

Good news:  Several of our very own Bay Area executives and women-owned businesses have been named as finalists for the 8th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business.  The nominees come from all categories, such as:

Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Business Services
Betts Recruiting, San Francisco, CA USA: Carolyn Betts, founder and CEO
DRT Strategies, Inc., Arlington, VA USA: Susan M. Kidd, Founder and CEO
Dynamic Office & Accounting Solutions, Danville, CA USA: Tiffany Stuart, President
Gagen MacDonald, Chicago, IL USA: Maril MacDonald, thought leader and industry pioneer
Going Global, Mobile, AL USA: Mary Anne Thompson, Founder & President
Human Resource Essential, LLC, Tempe, AZ USA: Stephanie Angelo, Founder and CEO
Staging Diva/Six Elements Inc., Toronto, Canada: Debra Gould, The Staging Diva, President, Six Elements Inc.
Suzanne Evans Coaching, LLC, Murrells Inlet, SC USA: Suzanne Evans, Owner & Founder
Vaco Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA: France Moreno, Partner
VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA USA: Janine Popick, CEO and Founder

Best Entrepreneur – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Financial Services & Insurance 
iFinance Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada: Ann Kaplan, President & CEO
Mercury West Associates, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom: Katie Small, Owner & Managing Director
Your Equity Source, LLC, Cour DAlenem ID USA: Sandra J. Wach, Vice President

VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA USA

Best Overall Company of the Year – Service Businesses – Up to 100 Employees – Business Services 
DRT Strategies, Inc., Arlington, VA USA
MyCorporation, Calabasas, CA USA
Sage Consulting Associates, San Francisco, CA USA
The Omnia Group, Tampa, FL USA
Integrated Archive Systems, Palo Alto, CA USA

Best Overall Company of the Year – Non-Profit or Government 
Athena International, Chicago, IL USA
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA USA
Women Presidents’ Organization, New York, NY USA

Winners will be announced at an awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on November 11.  The complete list is available at the link below.  We wish all the local nominees good luck; and congratulate all those who are nominated!

http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/women/awards/414_2252_21305.cfm

Tags: entrepreneurs, Stevie Awards, Women-Owned Business
Posted in All Chapters, Chicago, Girls In Tech, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

Bizzy recently launched a mobile app for local business/restaurant ratings and mini-reviews (on iPhone and Android) and instead of sitting in their air-conditioned office in the Silicon Valley, the team is in the middle of their 5000 mile “Check Out Across America” road trip to host MeetUps, get feedback and interact with the people they work for.

Bizzy lets people easily share their dining experiences with their friends in just a few seconds, by snapping a photo of a food dish and writing a Twitter-length restaurant review. Then, Bizzy uses the mini-reviews you publish to provide you with awesome restaurant and business recommendations.

The next stops on the list:

Portland
Monday, September 12. 8-11PM (8-9PM draft beer open bar)
Bailey’s Tap Room | 213 SW Broadway
RSVP via Facebook or MeetUp

and

Seattle
Tuesday, September 13. 8-11PM (8-9PM draft beer open bar)
Barca | 1510 11th Avenue
RSVP via Facebook or MeetUp

Check out the app, come have a drink and let’s chat!

Tags: bizzy, event, meetup, Portland, restaurants, review, Seattle
Posted in Events, Portland, Seattle | No Comments »

Is it possible to feel financially secure in this volatile economy?  Can we ever stop worrying about money?  Are you in touch with your own money emotions?

Money Emotions is our emotional connection to money, how we feel about money as we interact with it.  This internal dialogue shapes your financial identity and governs financial behavior.

Money may be an emotionally charged topic, but you can own your emotions and your finances. Money EQ (“Money Emotional Intelligence”) is the ability to effectively manage your relationship with money, allowing you to flourish personally, professionally and philanthropically.

The ability to navigate the ups and downs of money emotions makes it possible to weather life’s transitions or erratic economic conditions without a nagging sense of worry.  This deeper understanding yields long-term resiliency and resourcefulness – tools that surpass any finance expert’s schemes for financial success.

In this workshop, Dianne Juhl, PhD(c) will help you raise your Money EQ by taking an inventory of your emotional assets and liabilities, with no need to disclose personal financial information. She will introduce her “Dare to Do” approach which inspires and strengthens four capabilities sourcing your financial well-being: intuition, adaptability, discernment, and confidence.  There will be ample time for Q&A if the workshop participants desire this.

The discussion will include:

• How to establish a positive internal dialogue
• How to choose external solutions that are aligned with the confident financial identity you’ve created
• How to access technical information provided by financial experts in a way you’ve never experienced before

This workshop can be the first step on a new journey of financial success and well-being. Dianne Juhl and The Feminine Face of Money offers you a community of resourceful women who talk money and share their money stories.  There is a brain trust awaiting your discovery.  You don’t have to go it alone.

When – Saturday, April 30th, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Where – The Integral Loft, 80 Yesler Way, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98104

Dianne’s pages:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/TheFeminineFaceOfMoney

http://www.femininefaceofmoney.com/

Event page:

http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e3dw35bre08d5d45&llr=xc4dspcab

*First 10 to email ann@at6pr.com with their name and contact info will snag a free ticket to attend the following event*

Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Girls In Tech, Seattle | No Comments »

Are you a girl gamer? Do you love building games for Android? If so, you should enter PapayaMobile’s Global Game Developer Contest. You’ll get a chance to win $10,000, a flight to Game Developer Conference 2011 in San Francisco, and a 6 month, all-expenses-paid internship in Beijing. PapayaMobile, a mobile social network for Android focused on casual gaming and virtual currency, is launching the contest to celebrate the release of their SDK and platform in China, the world’s 2nd largest Android market. Since opening their Android gaming platform in June, the company has reached 8 million registered users and is pioneering new ways for game developers to reach their audience and monetize more effectively.

What:

PapayaMobile is holding a global game developer contest based on our newly released Papaya Game Engine. Developers who leverage our game engine for the contest will have access to a one-stop solution for game creation, user acquisition and effective monetization. Prizes for teams that rank in the Top 10 are:

●      First Place

○    $10,000 U.S. dollars

○    A flight for one member of the team to GDC San Francisco 2011

○    An internship in Beijing for six months, all expenses covered

○    Free promotion on the Papaya app homepage and Android App of the Day for one week (3 million impressions per day)

●      Second Place

○    $8,000 U.S. dollars

○    A flight for one member of the team to GDC San Francisco 2011

○    An internship in Beijing for six months, all expenses covered

○    Free promotion on all Papaya app homepage and Android App of the Day for one week

●      Third Place

○    $5,000 U.S. dollars

○    A flight for one member of the team to GDC San Francisco 2011

○    An internship in Beijing for six months, all expenses covered

○    Free promotion on all Papaya app homepage and Android App of the Day for one week

●      Runners Up (Fourth through 10^th place)

○    An internship in Beijing for six months, all expenses covered

○    Free promotion on all Papaya app homepage and Android App of the Day for three days

Who:

●      Android developer teams from around the world (limited to three team members)

When:

●      Submission for the contest opens today, December 3, 2010

●      The deadline for submissions is February 16, 2010

●      Games ranked in the Top 10 will be notified on February 22, 2010

●      Games ranked in the Top 3 will be announced at GDC San Francisco 2011 on February 28, 2010

Process for Contestants:

●      Develop a game using the Papaya Game Engine and submit at our website: http://www.papayamobile.com/engine_en/contest.html

●      The game will be submitted to the judging committee free of charge

●      The language of the game is restricted to English or Chinese

●      The games need to comply with Papaya Game Engine terms and services

●      All game submissions need to be run on Android 1.5 or above

●      Questions or comments relating to the contest can be address in our forum: http://www.papayamobile.com/contest-forum/

●      The game creators are free to distribute them through any other channels at any time

Judging Criteria:

●      Graphics and animation: 0-5

●      Easy to learn and easy to play: 0-5

●      Fun to play: 0-5

●      Originality of concept: 0-5

●      Effective use of Papaya Game Engine: 0-5

About PapayaMobile:

PapayaMobile is an open, mobile social network for Android focused on casual gaming and virtual currency. Papaya offers developers a fast and easy way to reach more than four million users worldwide and improve monetization on Android. Android users love Papaya because they can play multiple games and get a complete social networking experience all in one, easy to download and use app. Founded in 2008 by Si Shen and Wenjie Qian, Papaya is headquartered in Beijing and has an office in Menlo Park, California. For more information, please visit: www.papayamobile.com

Posted in All Chapters, China, Girls In Tech, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley | 1 Comment »

To date, the Founder Institute has launched over 190 technology companies in 10 cities worldwide – many of which have been founded by women, such as Skimble, Memetales, WhatsFun, and many more. Is yours next?  Applications are closing soon for Winter Semesters in Silicon Valley, Houston, Seattle and Boston.

This 4-month startup accelerator program provides structured training to launch an enduring technology company, in a teamwork-oriented environment where everyone participates in a shared equity pool. In addition, sessions take place once a week at night, so you are not required to quit your day job.

Their great Winter 2010 Mentors include:

- Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint.com;

- Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch

- Gina Bianchini, Co-founder, Ning

- Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin;

- Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo;

- Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote;

- Phillip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy;

- Jeffrey Dachis, Co-Founder of Razorfish;

- Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute;

- and many more.

Anyone starting a technology company or thinking to become an entrepreneur should apply. It only takes a few minutes, and you don’t even need an idea – just a passion to create a great technology company.- Apply to Silicon Valley by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Houston by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Seattle by Nov. 21st

- Apply to Boston by Jan. 16th

For more information, click here.

Tags: Founder Institute, start-up, technology, The Funded
Posted in Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley | 1 Comment »

As an infosec consultant, I see technology used in unintended, malicious, and downright mean ways every day. Despite all the movie scenes of green binary numbers swirling around the heads of evil computer geniuses as they ‘hack the mainframe’, a lot of damage can be done with very little technical knowledge. Accessibility, extensibility, and many of the features that make online content popular and useful can be, by their very nature, security vulnerabilities that can be exploited without altering the applications at all. A little creativity goes a long way.

In the social networking arena especially, the pervasiveness of user-generated content combined with the very personal aspects of social interactions can create a mine field of hidden risks to an innocent, every day person’s reputation, relationships, career prospects, and sometimes life. Most of the readers here are familiar with risk mitigating tactics like those suggested by the FTC. There’s another less known and growing risk to social media users: online identity hijacking.

Since signing up for a social networking site generally doesn’t require authentication, hijacking someone’s online identity is as easy as typing in a name and a few pieces of information easily found on the Web. At one of last year’s Agoras hosted by the University of Washington CIAC, one of the speakers described his own identity hijacking experiment. A security expert volunteered to allow the researcher to hijack his identity. Using only what he could find online, the researcher created and maintained an account for the expert. It even fooled the expert’s own sister!

Last year, the Aladdin AIRC predicted that 2009 would see a surge in threats against social media, especially identity hijacking. While there’s no way to completely remove the risk, there are some steps to make things for difficult for the hijackers. Identity theft expert Robert Siciliano shares some great ideas on his blog at http://realtysecurity.com.

Posted in Seattle | 1 Comment »

One of our Seattle chapter members, Luna Flesher, shares a fascinating insight into the importance of women in technology in Iran–

This week, suspicions of election fraud in Iran inspired massive protests and riots.  Millions march in the capital city Tehran, demanding democracy and human rights.  They use technology — cell phones, computers, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube — to communicate to each other and the world.  Twitter has become so important to the movement that the US State Department contacted the company and asked them to delay a scheduled maintenance until the middle of the night Iranian time.

It is clear that technology is important in Iran.  What role do women play in Iran’s growing technological base?

It turns out that in many Iranian universities, 70% of science and engineering students are women.  While they must study separately from men, they are allowed to get an education.  Women are also allowed to work (with their husband’s permission), so it is common to find women in technology careers.  This state of affairs is not free from controversy — many leaders in Iran fear this imbalance may leave men without jobs and disrupt family life.  Already, many women choose not to marry so they don’t have someone controlling their career decisions.

Here are a few famous Iranian women in technology:

Anousheh Ansari is an Iranian-American who became the first Muslim woman in space.  She is the namesake of the Ansari X PRIZE, the $10 million prize for the first non-government reusable manned spacecraft.

Mina Bissell is an Iranian-American biologist, the Director of the Life Sciences Division at UC Berkley.  She is well known for her research on the role of cells and tissues as they relate to breast cancer.

Reihaneh Safavi-Naini is the Director of Telecommunications and Information Technology Research Institute at University of Wollongong in Australia.  Her areas of expertise include cryptography, information security, and digital and privacy rights management.

Nahid Shahmehri is the Director of the Laboratory for Intelligent Information Systems at Linköping University in Sweden.  She has published many papers on information security, mobile communications, peer-to-peer computing, and programming environments.

Saba Valadkhan is a scientist in the biomedical field at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.  She is noted for her breakthroughs in understanding genetic splicing.  20-30 percent of all human genetic diseases are now better understood because of her research.

Many of these great women studied in Iran, but moved out of the country to pursue their careers.  While a disproportionate number of women study in Iran, almost none of them are allowed to become professors.

At the time of this writing, no one knows the future of Iran.  I personally hope the protest (dare I call it a revolution?) succeeds in winning the human rights all people deserve.  I hope the women of Iran may one day know as much success as their counterparts who have immigrated away.

Posted in Seattle | No Comments »