Girls In Tech

Another year passed for OSCON 2011 with over 3000+ attendees flocking to Portland, Oregon for this year’s theme: From Disruption to Default.

OSCON 2011 events, tracks, sessions and keynotes raised the bar again.

Here are a few highlights of the keynote session and tracks:

-       Microsoft Keynote by Gianugo Rabelino, Sr Director of Open Source Communities is quite great as he talks about the future of community: informed trends: education, repeatable science and experience. See speakers slides

-       Rob Pike: The  expressiveness of Go programming language. Read blog

-       Ariel Waldman: On hacking space exploration. See speaker slides

-       IBM: On building native mobile apps with phone gap. Becky Gibson and Simon MacDonald showed best practices on mobile apps. See speaker slides

-       Gabe Zichermann discussed the importance of Gamification. Check out the slides

Check out full speaker list

Check out full program speaker and slides

Check out keynote and video interviews

Lastly, On Thursday, July 28th, Global Girls in Tech Mentorship Program kicked off their inaugural VIP sessions at Oscon. Fortune 500, academic, tech and entrepreneurs and leaders from all over the world gathered together to participate and support our kick-off meet-up. Thanks so much to everyone who showed up. We couldn’t have done it without your continued help and participation. Interested in participating? Drop me an email; ivo@girlsintech.net  | Follow me @MsSonicFlare

For More info about GIT Mentorship

Watch video live interview with Ivo Lukas- Director of Global Mentorship/Partnership program & MD of Portland Chapter

Join our Local PDX Chapter

(Photo credit:  Pinar Ozger & OSCON)

Tags: 24notion, education, entrepreneurs, girls and technology, girls intech, girlsintech mentorship, girlsintech portland, gitpdx, ivo, Ivo Lukas, Mentorship program, mssonicflare, open source, oregon, OSCON2011, Portland, startups, technology, women in tech, women leadership, women technology
Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Events, Girls In Tech, GIT Mentorship, GIT U, Portland | No Comments »

Late last month May 23-25, 2011, NCWIT kicked off its Summit on Women and IT in New York City. NCWIT mission is a national community of change-leader organizations working to significantly increase the meaningful participation of girls and women in IT. The yearly summit brings in together leaders, change agents, and stakeholders to focus on research-driven practices and ideas that can strengthen the computing workforce and promote technology innovation by increasing the participation of girls and women.  The NCWIT Summit on Women and IT convenes prominent leaders from corporations, K-12 and higher education, non-profits, startups, and government organizations. Topics to be addressed during the summit include:

• How an increasingly diverse U.S. population impacts the future of IT
• How to develop diversity in open source
• Ways to better inform and educate girls about IT career choices
• How diversity impacts innovation and how stereotype threat affects underrepresented groups in particular environments
• What organizations can do to promote a diverse work environment, retain talent and avoid high attrition

The Department of Labor estimates that the U.S. workforce will add 1.4 million technology jobs by 2018, yet universities will produce fewer than half of the technology-trained candidates needed to fill these jobs. Research shows that the number of women in IT is dwindling; in 2009, only 25% of U.S IT professionals were women, compared to 36% in 1991.

check out NCWIT’s Alliances

Check out NCWIT BLOG |   Photos from the NCWITSummit |   Schedule of the prominent speakers/panelist |  Don’t forget to read all of the coverage #NCWITSUMMIT @NCWIT, And last but not least, like their Facebook page |   Fun digital photo booth on the last night hosted at MTV HQ for Symons Innovator Award |   Press Release for media

Follow me @MsSonicFlare

Tags: 24notion, Computing, diversity, education, girls in technology, innovation, IT, Ivo Lukas, NCWIT, ncwitsummit, New York, tech, technology, women in technology
Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Girls In Tech | No Comments »

The fifty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 22 February to 4 March 2011. Representatives from Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world will attend the session. There will be a number of activities, including interactive dialogues and panels, during the two-week session. I’m in particular excited about the track panel discussion on Wednesday 23^rd- it is one of the topic that is dearly to my heart. A group of leaders from all over the world will be in discussion over access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work. Be sure to watch the live webcast this Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 10am-1pm; Or if you are nearby pls stop by the conference room #3, North Lawn building.

This year following highlights key focus areas of CSW 2011.

• Priority Theme: Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work
• Review Theme: The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child
• Emerging Issue: Gender equality and sustainable development

Panel 1 Track- Key policy initiatives and capacity-building on gender mainstreaming: focus on science and technology

Moderator: Ms. María Luz Melon, Vice-Chair of the Commission (Argentina)

Panelist:

Ms. Sesae Mpuchane, Professor, University of Botswana, Botswana(paper)

Ms. Hagit Messer, President, Open University, Israel(paper)

Ms. Londa Schiebinger, Professor, Stanford University, USA

Mr. Bunker Roy, Founder and Director, Barefoot College, India(paper)

Ms. Anne Miroux, Director, Technology and Trade Logistics Division, UNCTA(paper)

If you are interested in watching day 1 high level round table web live cast, watch now!

Tags: 24notion, CSW, economy, education, entrepreneurship, gender equality, Gender Initiative, Girls, girls in tech, ivo, Ivo Lukas, jobs, justice, Leadership, NGO, Science, technology, training, UN, united nations, UNwomen, Women in Education
Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Girls In Tech | 1 Comment »

Time and again, studies reveal lower percentages of women in technical domain. There is a lot of on-going effort around the world to influence women to launch their careers in some technical field in order to bridge the gap. This decades-old question still lingering around indicates that the traditional approach to lure women into technical field is not effective and, emphasize the need for a new approach altogether.

Christine recently posted “AAUW Releases Report: “Why So Few? Women in Science, Tech, Engineering and Mathematics” at Girls in Tech blog. AAUW’s report highlights how ‘social belief system and learning environment’ affects initial mindset of the young girls.

I vividly remember during high-school, we were a class with 100 (approx) girls and, of these only 10% decided to choose a career in engineering, and relatively small percentage (4%) successfully sought a technical career. Looking back in time, and discussing this topic with a few girls who abandoned their goals midway, I figured that they were not comfortable in choosing a career in a field where women would be scarce, but most importantly that, they had some sort of inherent fear. Many girls doubted whether they could do well at math or physics, and did not wish to pursue the fundamental coursework required as basis for an advance degree in technical a field for example, engineering.

Along with positive encouragement at home and school (as AAUW report suggests, and I blindly second), there is profound need for an early exposure to technology as well. Most students have their first ‘real’ rendezvous during undergrad or graduate coursework. But, isn’t this kind of late, when most of us are already committed to our fields of specialization? I strongly feel that such opportunities of getting to taste technology should come at an earlier stage, which I prefer to call career forming age of students (junior-high school to high school), when almost all of us are faced with the question – “What do you aspire to be?”

A hands-on experience will allow these young minds make a better decision, and definitely break the ice. Those who are discomforted by the need to take basic courses like math, physics, chemistry or computers, will get a chance to see all of these in action, and hopefully get inspired and, overcome the fear factor!
Girls in Technology’s Mentorship Program shook hands with Iridiscent and launched Technovation Challenge 2010, aimed at providing a unique opportunity to high-school girls to learn directly from distinguished female entrepreneurs and professionals and get inspired! The success of this event underscores the importance of this cause.

As Managing Director of Minneapolis Chapter, I vow to bring this effort to state of Minnesota soon, and request others to spread the word. The desire to pursue a career in technological field will definitely grow deeper if winded at the right time. And, we will see professional demographics of women in technology change.

Tags: AAUW Report "Why So Few? Women in Science, education, Engineering and Mathematics", entrepreneur, girls in tech, iridescent, mentorship, Minneapolis Chapter, tech, technology, Technovation Challenge 2010, women in tech
Posted in All Chapters, GIT Mentorship, Minneapolis | 4 Comments »

Santa Monica College and The City of Santa Monica bring together business leaders for an insightful discussion on “Digital Entertainment”.

Join Los Angeles Business and Industry Executives as they share cutting edge insights on monetizing digital entertainment, discuss new and future business models for digital media across platforms and the impact of this evolving industry will have on our future workforce.

Scheduled Speakers: (Subject to change without notice)

Alex Barkaloff, Executive Producer, Digital Media, LIONSGATERichard Bullwinkle, Chief Evangelist, ROVI CORP (formerly Macrovision)

Eric Mark, Partner, DELOITTE MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT

Rob Schonfeld, Vice President, Pay Television & Digital Distribution, DISNEY ABC

Rob Salvatore, CEO/Co-Founder, TONGAL

Moderator; Emily Della Maggiora, President, Treehouse Strategies Inc.; Santa Monica College, Workforce & Economic Development

Schedule:

5:30pm Onsite Registration Opens & Check-in
6:00pm Welcome
6:00-6:30pm State of the Industry
6:30-7:30pm Digital Entertainment Roundtable
7:30-8:00pm Audience Q/A

Location:
Santa Monica Library
MLK Auditorium
601 Santa Monica Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Registration:
Free admission. Registration required.

Sponsors Include:
ThinkLA.org
Bizmore.com
GirlsInTech
Small Business Development Center (SBDC)

For more information, please contact Sandra Sanchez at sanchez_sandra@smc.edu

Tags: education, entertainment, event
Posted in Events, Girls In Tech, Los Angeles | No Comments »

Dr. Regina Dugan, Director of DARPA

Just two months ago, DARPA, headed by Dr. Regina Dugan, conducted an interesting challenge to find ten red balloons strategically “hidden” throughout the United States. Seekers had a time frame of nine days to correctly map-out the whereabouts of those balloons. In nine hours, an MIT team had located all of the balloons—that was just with real-time social networking technologies—no augmented-reality mapping involved.

Microsoft's augmented-reality mapping at TED Talks 2010

Two months later, social networking has new pal. At the annual TED Talks gathering, Microsoft unveiled its latest augmented-reality mapping. This technology will take social networking and seeking & find projects to a new level.

For education, all I can say is that if school districts don’t take this summer to get their teachers up to snuff with technology skills, there will be more of us teachers retiring as parents can create national and global networks of real-time information exchange (For educators: check out Natasha’s post below). Students no longer have to wait until gets dark to experience Orion or wait until their parents can take them to a famous landmark in a foreign country, with an iphone, internet, and augmented-reality mapping, they will be well on their way.

Though I have my hesitations about safety and privacy issues, the potential advantages to rescue missions, law enforcement, education and network publications could far outweigh the cons of such a technology. I just wonder if Dr. Dugan is willing to create another $40K DARPA Balloon challenge using augmented-reality mapping—maybe the nine hour search will become nine minutes!

Nevertheless, Microsoft has taken social networking to a new level, and it’s quite impressive!

Tags: augmented-reality mapping, DARPA, Dr. Regina Dugan, education, GIT, IBM, microsoft, MIT, Orion, social networking, TED Talks
Posted in Athens Greece | 1 Comment »

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

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

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

Girls in Tech is live at Berkeley’s Caltopia, meeting the bright ladies and gents who are sure to become our future CEOs and entrepreneurs!  Below you’ll find the details for our Caltopia Contest, ensuring that at least a few Cal Bear-GITers are well dressed for back to school.  Find our Facebook Group here:  http://bit.ly/1lgL3y

Tags: education, girls in tech, GIT U, Megan Price, UC Berkeley, Women in Education, women in tech
Posted in GIT U | No Comments »

Hello everyone,

It’s great to have come on board here in Athens. I am excited to join the GIT blogging community as well. Just a heads up: I come to you with a background in International Relations and Education; so, I tend to look at the social impacts of technology on societies. Nonetheless, that is quite appropriate here in Athens as technology and computer usage in schools is about ten years behind the US. Additionally, I have an interesting spin on improving the learning process in education. Ultimately, I believe that learning could be advanced through the incorporation of advertising and marketing techniques as pointed out in my first blog entry below.

Balancing Social Marketing Techniques and Education
School leaders often espouse their desires to become 21st Century learning centers; however, given the rigid infrastructures that have existed in education for more than a century, overcoming the past is often more difficult to achieve than they imagined. One way to circumvent this engrained tradition is to use the rapidly morphing avenues of social networking that are at hand—primarily meeting places like Facebook, MySpace and Hi5. However, the key to successfully marketing education in those forums is balance, balance, balance—particularly of content.

Unfortunately, the field of education is chock-full of content, content, content. Therein lies much of the problem with creating “educational” scaffolding tools that are designed for modernity and not tradition. In developing learning content, educators often maintain the same sterile “keep-safe” mindset, resulting in traditional education simply being repackaged instead of redesigned.
As a middle and high school educator, I decided to use some of the same techniques for teaching that are employed when designing an effective social marketing initiative. I have shared them below.
21st Century Teaching Initiative:

1. Meet your clients (students) where they socialize—here in Greece, it’s Facebook. Facebook allows for postings to be presented in a laid-back setting. It is a place where the clients are comfortable and connected.

2. Be interpersonal, humorous, entertaining and fun—relate to your clients, but avoid judging their posts too harshly. Let them know that you have a life too. Students can learn from normal and positive adult interaction, show them that you have friends too. The goal is to build a learning community without them having to trade their lifestyles to learn.

3. That said, combine business and classroom ethics. In essence, be professional and use common sense etiquette. You would not invite your students or business clients to your most personal aspects of life…so keep your profile just above the line and clean, but not so prudish that you fail to achieve your goal of successfully marketing educational content.

4. Provide quality content. There are very good content-driven videos from sites like TED, BNET, Howstuffworks, and of course YouTube. But, Balance, balance, balance! After almost 20 years in education, I can truly say that part of the problem with many of our schools’ teaching practices is that we educators are in content-overdrive!

5. And finally, take from the marketing principles of the recent past. Remember that marketing is often about the experience. So make sure your students can have a great and memorable experience around the content that you provide…it will make the technological shift in branding education much easier.

Thus, in moving towards the creation of 21st Century classrooms and schools, think of social marketing, balancing content, the experience and learning; because, to effectively move the next generation forward in education, our focus as women, mothers, and educators should be on the end receiver—the student—not the institutions.

Tags: Athens, balance, content, education, GIT, Greece, learning, social marketing
Posted in Athens Greece | 1 Comment »

I’ve recently read a number of blog entries dedicated to critiquing the recent Clearwire and Sprint WiMAX deal from an economic standpoint. People want to know: what money is there to lose? What is there to gain? Who invested in what? And are they crazy for doing so?

For now, my answer is, “Who cares?”

I’d like to step away from this and focus on what WiMAX might contribute from a sociological standpoint. Personally, I am in complete support of WiMAX and what it might do for rural and underprivileged communities. By providing wireless internet access to areas that didn’t have it beforehand, there is potential to revolutionize the global education system.

Of course, critics will point out that part of the problem with the education system is the disparity of resources. If a WiMAX chip processor can commit to providing grants to some of these communities, providing them with the necessary equipment to jumpstart their journey into the wireless world, the possibilities are endless. When discussing costs, one must note that WiMAX is indeed the most cost-efficient way to distribute broadband data to rural areas. According to Jeff Evans, a Georgia Tech Research Institute senior research engineer, “With WiMAX, an internet service provider that wants to reach a small community up to 30 miles away can set up a wireless link for thousands of dollars rather than hundreds of thousands.” This alone should knock down a large portion of critics’ monetary concerns. This information is enough to make me very hopeful and enthusiastic about what’s to come.

By enabling these communities to have access to the internet, and in turn, information, we are fighting half the battle. After working with students from underprivileged backgrounds and speaking with teachers currently working in inner city school systems, the biggest obstacles that low-income students face is a lack of access to technological resources. Many of these families are lucky to have a computer at home, but cannot afford to pay for internet access, and are forced to scramble to find access to the internet – even to do simple homework assignments. This is a significant disadvantage for these students, as it makes it extremely difficult to work on school assignments in the time given to these kids. However, with technology such as WiMAX, companies can contribute funds to provide internet access to these areas. In addition, students can be better equipped to maximize the use of their computers to access the vast variety of resources on the internet. By providing an affordable system like WiMAX to these communities, we would be helping to bridge the “digital divide” that currently exists in education to our nation’s youth. After all, access to information and education in our nation is a right, not a privilege!

For more information, resources and articles in support of WiMAX technology in rural areas and for the benefit of our education system, visit:

• http://www.wimaxforum.org/technology/downloads/WiMAX_to_Bridge_the_Digitaldivide.pdf
• http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39189051,00.htm
• http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/wi-max.htm
• http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2008/wimax-in-education-market-to-reach-1-8-billion-by-2015
• http://www.computerworld.com.my:8080/WCIT2008/index.php/2008/05/19/using-it-to-enhance-lives/

Tags: education, WiMAX
Posted in San Francisco | 1 Comment »