Girls In Tech

Guest Post by Sara Czyzewicz: Sara Czyzewicz is a creative technologist and Co-Founder of DandyID.org – a service for managing online identities. Learn more about her on Olive Juice.

A few weeks ago I spent one Tuesday evening participating in lesson on building with microcontrollers. I arrived with no experience , and after 3 hours left with my own mini video game console running a simplified version of Space Invaders. The workshop was put together as a part of Maker Faire RI and Mitch Altman (creator of TV-B-Gone) lead our group. Mitch taught us how to solder recognize LEDs and resistors, and handed out the kits for building our chosen projects.

It was a wonderful learning experience and everyone had a blast. It reminded me how fun “hacking” is, and how everyone can participate – and should! It isn’t defined by being technically challenging – projects can involved soldering and circuits, like mine did… or glue and cloth, or food and household items. Get together with friends or kids for an evening or weekend afternoon, and enjoy some creative DIY time learning, exploring and playing!

Need ideas? Make Magazine, Instructables and Lifehacker have extensive and diverse projects, and many submitted by community members.

- Have an old clock? Take it apart and recreate this version using an Altoid’s can!
- Can you sew? How about a Where the Wild Things Are hat!
- Stop wondering what’s in your soda. Make your own Ginger Ale!
- Prepare for flu season! Make your own eco-friendly hand sanitizer.

Electronics kits like the one I used at the faire can be purchased online, and usually come with step-by-step instructions. Check out:
- Projects and kits by Ladyada
- Fundamental components kit from Sparkle Labs

DIY hacks are guaranteed fun and great practice for thinking “out of the box” in all realms of life.

Tags: DIY, Do it yourself, Instructables, Maker Faire, Mitch Altman, Sara Czyzewicz, Space Invaders, TV-B-Gone
Posted in Boston | 1 Comment »

Guest Post by Sara Czyzewicz: Sara Czyzewicz is a creative technologist and Co-Founder of DandyID.org – a service for managing online identities. Learn more about her on DandyID.

YOU CODE GIRL!

Or don’t you? Well maybe you should! In fact, many more girls should.

Here’s why.

A large portion of users (Internet and desktop) are women — and in some cases, a dominating portion. “More females are online than males—although males tend to spend more time once they go online,” says Lisa E. Phillips, author of the new report US Internet Users. Men and women encompass diverse sets of values, expectations and usage patterns; thus, engineering efforts representing both genders during product development more equally could lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and acquisition – key for business success.

Additionally, it is not a lack of relevant skills or viable disinterest keeping girls away; in fact, cultural bias, mythical stereotypes, and lack of exposure are found to be heavy influencers.

“The nerd factor is huge,” Dr. Cuny said. According to a 2005 report by the National Center for Women and Information Technology, when high school girls think of computer scientists they think of geeks, pocket protectors, isolated cubicles and a lifetime of staring into a screen writing computer code. And then there is the home environment. “Overall, the women we interviewed had done less hands-on exploration of the computer than the men”, from Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing – “They gave fewer accounts of working beside their fathers and more stories of watching from the sidelines. Computing and tinkering had not been their main childhood activities.”

Computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates. And while the industry as a whole is changing its mindset about women in IT, they are still poorly represented in the world of code. This is a concerning trend, not only because young women should share the field’s challenges and rewards, but also because the relative absence of women is a troubling indicator for American computer science generally – and for the economic competitiveness that depends on it. “Factors driving women away will eventually drive men away as well”, says Lenore Blum, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Unless we change the way that we educate our children, there will always be a gender divide in the most important area of 21st century life. And women will always be on the wrong side of that divide, the have-nots in the real power centers of our culture”, says Jeannette Cézanne , Technical Writer, IBM, in her book review of “Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing”.

As Girls in Tech community members and readers, here is our call to action: Talk, mentor and teach.

Engage girls you know – Show the young women in your life how to link to an image or use an FTP client. For many the “attachment begins at home”. Talk about career opportunities: check out NCWIT’s “Talking Points” for encouraging young women to consider careers in IT“.

Toy with electronics – such as Snap Circuits (build your own burglar alarm, anyone? I had something like this, and what a blast! Especially with a sneaky brother to keep out of my room.)

Be gender unbiased – We need men included and supporting these efforts too!

Communicate the Cool – Shun the outdated stereotypes of anti-social code monkeys! “So maybe it’s not accurate to say geeks today are better looking — but they’re certainly better dressed. With hipper haircuts. ” With events such as Geek Dinners, Open Coffees, New Tech Meetups, Tweet-ups, and the numerous un-conferences, socializing and collaboration are more prevalent than ever.

What are your ideas for supporting women in technical careers and academia? Share your thoughts – we won’t byte!

Tags: code, computer, computer science, girls and technology, Lenore Blum, Lisa E Phillips, Sara Czyzewicz, technolog, Unlocking the Clubhouse, women and technology
Posted in Boston | 2 Comments »