Girls In Tech

Booz & Company has put out its annual report on Technology Industry trends that they see for the upcoming year.  We wanted to share these with you; and direct you to this very insightful article.

The letter begins:

“We offer you this look back at 2011, a glimpse into what we believe will be the major trends in the technology industry in 2012 and beyond, and an overview of the capabilities needed to succeed as those trends gather speed in the years ahead.

Past Is Prologue

The technology industry has long been characterized by change, but 2011 stands out as a year of shocks and surprises-and we expect more in 2012. Former industry leaders have been stumbling in the face of missed trends, while others have made enormous gains in creating new value. Asian players like Samsung, Huawei, and HTC are rising fast, even as service disasters humble several established providers. And many of the largest global companies have faced unprecedented leadership challenges.”

They go on to discuss, digitization, renewed large-scale M & A, and the urgency to build capabilities within corporations now — including deep customer insights and the effects of digitization on the ICT ecosystem, in general.   Further, they also touch on a topic which is very key today, as Congress, Secretary Clinton and others are mulling over and deciding on the future of our freedoms on the web.  Here is an excerpt:

“Effective governmental interaction: Finally, given how quickly digitization is taking place — not just in technology but in every industry — it is no surprise that governmental efforts to affect the process are gaining momentum. The Internet is a case in point: The possibility of stronger regulation of both privacy and copyright protection has the potential to affect how personal data is collected and content is created and distributed. And this in turn could have a serious impact on the Internet’s primary economic engine — paid advertising. Similarly, issues involving content, patents, and other forms of intellectual property are affecting not just how companies earn revenues but the M&A landscape as well; Google’s recent purchase of Motorola Mobility, as noted, is widely viewed as a move primarily to control the company’s many valuable mobile telephony patents. In light of such impacts, a final, crucial capability every technology company will need involves ensuring a clear understanding of the policy and legal environment in which it operates, and developing an effective voice for influencing the future course of that environment.”

The letter is a combined effort, posted by principal and partners: Alex Koster (Principal), Toshiya Imai, Dr. Pierre Peladeau, Matthew Le Merle, and Kenny Kurtzman.

To read the full letter by the partners, you may view it on their website, here.

(Quotes and photo courtesy of:  Booz & Company)

Tags: Booz & Company, Christine Oneto, digitization, innovation, technology, Trends
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Ireland is well-known for its 40 shades of green. The technology space may be able to add to its 41st shade as it is estimated that the cloud computing industry will be worth $82.9 billion by 2016.

Cloud computing’s humble beginnings date back to 1996 when an Ireland-based entrepreneur, Sean O’Sullivan, coined the phrase.  Since then the term has been embraced by the industry to describe delivery of computer services through the internet infrastructure, and has been credited with transforming the media, computing and telecommunications industries.

Services such as Skype, Apple’s iCloud for content and data, and well-known computing applications like MSN Hotmail and Salesforce.com are all applications of cloud computing.

Ireland hasn’t stopped at simply naming the service; the country has become a major area of innovation for the evolution of the cloud. According to a recent study, in Ireland, the industry has the potential to create $9.5 billion in annual sales per annum by 2014, providing 8,600 jobs.

The economic impact study prepared for Microsoft in Ireland by Goodbody Economic Consultants revealed that Ireland has many of the necessary attributes to become a global cloud computing center of excellence, and could capture a disproportionately large share of the cloud computing industry.

The study also projected that the cost savings for small business from migrating to the cloud could result in some 2,000 new non-IT small and medium-sized firms being created that would in turn employ 11,000 people. Early adoption of cloud computing by Irish users could take costs of $500 million a year out of Irish businesses, it concluded.

Tags: Adriana Gascoigne, cloud computing, girls in tech, innovation, Ireland, Sean O'Sullivan, women in tech
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Big businesses tend to lag in innovation. There are plenty of reasons why large, established organizations aren’t quick to adapt and create. There’s too much hierarchy or a dearth of in-house entrepreneurs, but whatever the reason it’s why startups exist. Some startups push the frontier of what’s possible, while others successfully build within the innovation abysses between existing industry titans.

There is a set of these latter startups that are reaping the benefits of their well-executed, creative business models in crowded industries. But I’m worried about them. These companies may have a nice brand and a passionate team, but they also have a highly replicable product or service. An established company did not try it earlier because they may have not noticed the opportunity or the business concept may have been too risky to pursue at the time, but now that a startup has created market demand, the traditional player can come in and sweep.

I have two salient examples, and I’m sure there are others so don’t hesitate to leave your feedback in the comments section below. The first example is Birchbox, a Beauty 2.0 company that packages sample beauty products and delivers it monthly to subscribers. The company launched a little over a year ago and now has thousands of customers. They set out to show, and have now proved, that yes, people will and do pay for tiny samples of chic beauty products.

So, why can’t luxury conglomerate LVMH or one of its subsidiaries, like Sephora, jump into this market now? There’s little risk that their efforts won’t work, and these companies have the infrastructure to crush the competition. This is Birchbox’s Proof of Concept Problem. The company effectively innovated and executed, but now that the concept is proven to be a success, a company with more resources and reach (Sephora has thousands more email addresses on file and hundreds of brands in its warehouses, as well as marketing muscle and logistics prowess) can easily replicate the samples concept for sure financial gain. A Sephora even has access to enviable value-add features, such as outreach to celebrities to curate beauty collections each month and to know-how from famous makeup artists. The Sephora Sampler, anyone? A Sak’s Beauty Sack? It’s just $9.99 a month, with wonderfully curated boxes sent right to your door… sound familiar? It’s Birchbox’s Proof of Concept Problem.

Another example is MoviePass, a startup working on selling a monthly subscription ticket for members to get unlimited movie theater attendance. The problem is movie theaters aren’t exactly leaping on board. And now, MoviePass has a Proof of Concept Problem too. Once the idea came about (and how did no one think of this before!), why would a movie theater sign up to participate in MoviePass, rather than just offering their own, cutting out the middle man?

PS. MoviePass is a fantastic name. The company should trademark it – otherwise they’ll have another problem on hand besides the Proof of Concept Problem, which is that their brand name will be made generic when every movie theater starts issuing moviepasses!

The Proof of Concept Problem should not be overlooked as a risk in upstartopia, especially as even large companies begin to get on the innovation train (check out the neat videos of Nordstrom’s Innovation Lab).

The Proof of Concept risk can be mitigated, but I’m not convinced a strong brand and team is enough. Startups with the Proof of Concept Problem looming need to offer something more to customers that is not as easily replicable by a large firm. Patents help. Advanced technology certainly does. In the B2B space, landing a key client on a long-term contract would put up a roadblock too. Intellectual Property, advanced technology, or key customer accounts tip a large competitor toward acquisition, instead of in-house replication. Often startups worry about fellow startups launching copy-cat businesses, but there is so much that can go awry at the startup phase, I’d worry more about the well-oiled machines in your industry. These firms can see the success you’re having with the innovative business model and just take your now-proven concept for their own.

Doreen Bloch is a startup strategy consultant, entrepreneur (Poshly Inc.) and author (The Coolest Startups in America) in New York City. Check out her blog, latest projects & consulting client lists at www.DoreenBloch.com.

Image Credit: PSFK

Tags: Birchbox, business development, business model, business models, concept, Doreen Bloch, innovation, MoviePass, Nordstrom, strategy
Posted in All Chapters, Girls In Tech, New York | 1 Comment »

Through word of mouth, I recently heard about a new concept, which meshes crowdsourced design and innovation with social coupons built on an intuitive eCommerce platform – this concept is called “Fab.com” – this site allows users to design and share cool new products with the world at a discounted price.

Fab.com encourages the world to tap into their inventive, curious and creative side to produce interesting products, which could prove to be useful to others. With exceptional customer service, Fab.com ensures that each product featured on their site is built with quality materials and a “story”. Each inventor or designer has a story to share – the impetus for launching the product, the problem that they are solving and their passion behind innovation.

I had to share this with the community because at the core of Girls in Tech is creativity and we encourage our members and readers to check it out!

Tags: Adriana Gascoigne, crowdsourcing, design, discount, eCommerce, entrepreneurs, Fab, Fab.com, girls in tech, innovation, Invention, Social Coupons, women in tech
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Be sure to grab your tickets for the World’s Largest Crowdsourcing Conference coming this November 1 & 2nd.

Curious about what Crowdsourcing? The Daily Crowd describes it as “getting a crowd of people to help you with a task. You ask an undefined group of people to perform a task for you, and anyone who’s interested may perform the task.  You’ll get finished work from dozens of participants, which you get to select the best one(s) from.

The principle of crowdsourcing is based on the idea that more heads are better than one, and you can hire people based on skill rather than lowest bid. By canvassing a large crowd of people for ideas, skills, or participation, the search for an elusive answer or design is made that much simpler and more accurate.” Read More >>>

I am sure you can think of dozens of business models that take follow the principle of crowdsourcing. It’s strategy can be differentiated into four types, crowdfunding, crowdcreation, crowdwisdom, and crowdvoting. Grow your understanding about crowdsourcing at the world’s largest Crowdsourcing Conference, CrowdConf2011. CloudFlower has set up a series of crowdsourcing competitions through their many sponsors for the conference. Read about them here >>>

Girls in Tech are joining the Crowd in giving away 3 tickets to CrowdConf2011! Learn More >>>

Tags: conference, crowdsourcing, Developers, entrepreneurs, event, innovation, Terra Khachooni
Posted in All Chapters, Girls In Tech, San Francisco | 3 Comments »

Girls in Tech is proud to be part of the Women@TheFrontier  2nd annual conference tonight: Tuesday August 16, 2011 6-10pm at The Tech Museum of Innovation San Jose, CA. This event is open to public. RSVP here

Women@TheFrontier launched in summer 2009- to inspire, to empower and to link female change-agents currently impacting the world through innovation, entrepreneurship, humanitarianism, policy, science and technology.

At its core, W@F celebrates the accomplishments of leading women that are creating positive and innovative change, global in reach and exponential in impact.

W@F also recognizes top organizations empowering and actively changing the lives of women and girls around the world.

 W@F is also collaborating with Women Go Global

follow me @MsSonicFlare

Tags: entrepreneurship, innovation, Ivo Lukas, Science, tech, Women at the Frontier, women go global, women in tech, women's conference
Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Events, Girls In Tech, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, santa cruz, Silicon Valley | 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
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If you aren’t a Michigander, it might surprise you to learn that we’re working hard to become known as a hub for entrepreneurs and technology, digital and art enthusiasts. From Quicken Loans Founder & Chairman Dan Gilbert committing to turning a portion of downtown Detroit into a center of software and high-tech innovation, to five-day events like Art X Detroit that present newly commissioned works from local artists, the creative revolution that has quickly gained ground over the past several years is both infectious and long overdue.

The Girls in Tech Detroit chapter wants to educate our GIT counterparts around the world about how our region is contributing to the development of the technology and digital spaces, so we’d like to start by introducing you to the FutureMidwest Conference (disclosure – I’m part of the communications team), taking place April 28-29 in Detroit.

FutureMidwest is the Midwest’s largest digital business conference. Initiated in 2009, the two-day conference is designed for executive management and decision makers from corporate, small and midsized businesses, entrepreneurs, brand managers, marketing, communication professionals, students and professionals in the digital/technology spheres. Presenters offer advice on implementing digital strategies to engage audiences and boost company profitability. FutureMidwest focuses on the impact of technology in five areas: integrated marketing, user experience, mobile, business intelligence/analytics and regional growth.

In two conference sessions, led by digital and marketing professionals, participants will learn about emerging business technology trends and ways to incorporate digital strategies into their marketing and business operations. A third session will be devoted to networking with professionals from the startup community, venture capital firms and other industries.

One new element added to the FutureMidwest Conference this year is Funded By Night, a one-day competition to fund technology startups that will compete to win a $100,000 convertible note from two metro Detroit local venture capital firms.

Not the typical conference you would expect to take place in Detroit, right?

While the conference program differs each year, you can check out the following presentations from 2010 presenters Joe Jaffe and Ken Burbary to get a sense of what you can expect.

I welcome you to check out the FutureMidwest Conference website, Facebook page and Twitter stream to learn more about this technology and digital conference. Feel free to ping me directly on Twitter with questions.

What technology events or movements are happening in your neighborhoods that you want the GIT community to know about?

Photo credit

Tags: Art X Detroit, business, creativity, Dan Gilbert, Detroit, digital, entrepreneurs, facebook, Funded By Night, FutureMidwest Conference, Girls in Tech Detroit, innovation, Joe Jaffe, Ken Burbary, Michigan, Quicken Loans, technology, twitter
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In a discussion revolving around passion for innovation, Mark Zuckerberg was asked several questions by Sen. Orrin Hatch in front of a crowd at the Brigham Young campus — all questions which had been submitted via the BYU Facebook page.   Specifically, the theme was based on having a passion for your product which allows businesses to succeed.

One of the questions provoked a discussion on which climates or environments promote said innovation.  To this, Zuckerberg replied:

“…we believe there will be much better services for all the people who use Facebook if millions of people around the world can develop those services.” This ties to many of the company’s efforts to facilitate experimentation on the Platform, such as its Girls in Tech developer garage and college hackathons, and his own commitment to improving math, sciences, and technology education.”

To read the entire article, click here.

Thanks for the shout-out, Mark & Josh!

(quote via: insidefacebook.com)

Tags: Developers, facebook, innovation, Mark Zuckerberg, passion
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Just a few day ago—in my ongoing futile “smuggling” efforts to introduce innovative concepts behind enemy lines—I attempted to give students a new platform from which to express themselves and show off their school. The platform was Prezi. In the United States it isn’t necessarily a new thing. Nonetheless, here in Greece it would have been—particularly at a school that espouses innovation. It would have been a leading change.

The idea was to model the prototype and open access to students who could then collaborate and compete to create the best Prezi from their perspective of what makes their school great. The winning presentations would become the new embeds on our homepage. Together, the students and I discussed the fact that the z-axis is visibly at work within Prezi design—it is not just a two dimensional plane like traditional slideshows (if I am not mistaken, I think such a discussion falls under a topic called mathematics). We went on to search for whether it was designed in HTML5 or Flash (I think that falls under technology)—but, of course, these conversations have nothing at all to do with education.

My release of this tool, was introduced to the backdrop of a parent (in an open meeting) stating that Facebook was an abomination, unnatural and that all students needed to take a week away from it during our Wellness Week. So, needless to say, as traditional school populations so often do, panic sets in with unrecognizable learning tools. The line is drawn and the walls go up. My Prezi idea that excited the students, well, it was targeted and shot down in less than three days of its release.

This battle over introducing innovative concepts brought to mind a blog I posted a year-and-a-half ago about the ‘virtual’ iron curtain and watching the ironic shutdown of online social media outlets during the 20-year commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. With a little creative thought, many of these modern technology tools could be used as great educational tools. Also, I was reminded why, just a few months ago, in December, I went on a quest to find an academic institution modeled on the Sili-Valley concept of innovation as opposed to the traditional paradigm of education (meaning that, ideally, to change the way innovation and education are delivered, education has to be a by-product of innovation rather than individual educators developing creative projects and attempting to “smuggle” innovation through enemy lines—aka educational institutions designed for mass training and memorization).

Dr. Beatrice Cameron

During my quest, I interviewed Dr. Beatrice Cameron, Regional Education Officer of the US State Department’s Office of Overseas Schools. Of the vast number of American Schools stationed throughout the world, she had not seen very many “innovative” models of education. It appears, by and large, that the students still face a board and the teacher is still at the front of the classroom. Her definition of innovation for our educational institutions is that schools must create a new paradigm that shows dedication to “systemic change” over time. The one school that fits her definition of a public school leading and maintaining an innovative direction was also a 2010 recipient of U.S. News’ Top Schools Gold Medal—the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, VA. This school offers students everything from Astronomy and CAD design to Neuroscience research. Not surprisingly, in 1985, this high school was developed specifically with private sector industry leaders and educators to form an innovative institution for research; thus, avoiding the need to fight a cold war battle, but rather, use its resources for the advancement of the students.

NuVu Studio, Cambridge, MA

During my quest, I also stumbled-upon a jewel of an up-and-coming educational model: Nuvu Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school was founded by MIT architects, Saeed Arida and Saba Ghole, who understand the need for: letting students collaborate, having open carpeted rooms where students can stretch-out and think, having large windows with natural light and having access to the greater world through social media and blogging. The founders also understand the positive subconscious effect of being housed in a professional office building with Sili-Valley-based companies like Google, and they understand that ‘experts’ with a passion can be educators who coach students through a learning process. Currently, this startup entity serves as an appendage of sorts to the local educational community. Again, it’s on the outside of the iron curtain and need not waste resources on internal battles. It is a great model to watch.

Finally, my experience from introducing Prezi’s technology tool reminded me of my immediate thoughts when hearing the news of young girls’ socially taboo activities at Memphis’ Frayser High School. My thoughts: Given years of hearing students’ dissatisfaction with design of content delivery, lack of real-time interaction with the world and the inability of districts to update technology at the pace of its change, it came as no surprise that as many as 90 young ladies would seek to fulfill the human need for self-validation and creativity by choosing pregnancy as the greatest form of individual expression and creation. The apex of creating is the creation of life. The quality of the product—no matter one’s social economic class—as of yet, still surpasses the quality and precision of a robot created in the world’s best robotics labs and graphically designed images created by tech grads.

The means of creating a unique little bundle of life are more easily accessible to many than obtaining a computer, a 4G phone, networking and gathering resources to create robots, apps, computer-aided and graphic designs and even easier than buying software to create a simple SIMS avatar. To top it off, girl-manufacturers can guarantee that their product will come out different and more unique than another’s every time—switching fathers is like switching phone covers. It’s that easy.

Thus, the need to “smuggle” new ideas and innovation into the hands of students behind enemy lines is much more critical than may appear to those who enjoy the liberties of daily technological access; and, innovative technologies often serve a much greater purpose for creativity, self-expression and validation than parents of old-school thoughts often realize.

Girls in Tech, by its very nature, represents a modern underground railroad allowing girls to peer out through a network of elongated tubes crossing waters and nationalities to see that there are successful technological creations on the other side of the iron curtain. Yet, until that reality becomes real and “systemic” for the majority of our nations’ students, we, smugglers of technology, will continue to pursue efforts towards change while we wait for our own escape or the crumbling of a virtual wall…

Signing out…from behind enemy lines…
Desiree Michael
School Web Administrator

Tags: Frayser High School, GIT, innovation, Memphis, Prezi, Thomas Jefferson High School
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