Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Relive the ‘Hack the Gender Gap’ Women’s Hackathon and Symposium

Relive the ‘Hack the Gender Gap’ Women’s Hackathon and Symposium:

When PBS MediaShift began planning the bi-coastal “Hack the Gender Gap” event with WVU’s Reed College of Media, we knew this would be a complex undertaking. A women’s panel at Google HQ in Mountain View, Calif. with top tech and media people in attendance? Check. A women’s hackathon on wearables at WVU focused on female college students, faculty and pros? Check. But could we bring them together?

With the magic of Google Hangouts on Air, we were able to have a panel of top women discuss current issues as well as how they had succeeded, with students at WVU watching, being inspired and asking questions. The entire weekend event, from Oct. 24 to 26, was a huge success not only because of the great participation and smart ideas at the Hackathon — but because it showed just how powerful women can be when given the space and time to show their skills.




Relive the ‘Hack the Gender Gap’ Women’s Hackathon and Symposium

Relive the ‘Hack the Gender Gap’ Women’s Hackathon and Symposium:

When PBS MediaShift began planning the bi-coastal “Hack the Gender Gap” event with WVU’s Reed College of Media, we knew this would be a complex undertaking. A women’s panel at Google HQ in Mountain View, Calif. with top tech and media people in attendance? Check. A women’s hackathon on wearables at WVU focused on female college students, faculty and pros? Check. But could we bring them together?

With the magic of Google Hangouts on Air, we were able to have a panel of top women discuss current issues as well as how they had succeeded, with students at WVU watching, being inspired and asking questions. The entire weekend event, from Oct. 24 to 26, was a huge success not only because of the great participation and smart ideas at the Hackathon — but because it showed just how powerful women can be when given the space and time to show their skills.




Communication Is Key To Getting More Women Involved In OpenStack [Video]

Communication Is Key To Getting More Women Involved In OpenStack [Video]:

At the Women of OpenStack working breakfast this week at OpenStack Summit Paris, women got together to share their experiences, support each other and discuss ways to increase the number of women involved in OpenStack. Currently, only about 10 percent of OpenStack Summit attendees are women.

One way to get more women involved in OpenStack is through communication with the community about upcoming events and the roles women play in OpenStack and technology.



In the video above, we hear from some of the Women of OpenStack.

Check out more coverage from OpenStack Summit Paris.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Stanford President Has 4 Ideas For Boosting Women In Tech -FORBES

Stanford President Has 4 Ideas For Boosting Women In Tech: Stanford President John Hennessy acknowledges that women are underrepresented in technical fields, and offers four changes that might help fix the problem.

1. better role models and inspiration for girls, aimed at “getting them to believe that they can create a better world.”

2. the rise of a “gamification culture” that put heavy emphasis on “killing people and killing monsters.” Boys may like such on-screen diversions, but, as Hennessy noted, “it’s not what girls found attractive.” That problem may be fixing itself, he suggested, as computers now provide a gateway to social media, with high levels of engagement by girls.

3. the “isolation effect” at universities, particularly for students who end up being the only woman in a tough math or science course of 30 people. In such situations, a woman getting a disappointing B or C may become discouraged and lack any peer encouragement to bounce back. His remedy: better support networks for female students.

4. the risk that female students see computer science as a lonely pursuit that involves “sitting in front of a terminal for 10 hours a day, coding all the time, without any interaction with anyone else.”

Room for Debate: Hacking Sexism in Tech

Room for Debate: Hacking Sexism in Tech: What can be done to eliminate both subtle and blatant discrimination against women in the tech industry?

FIRST® Women in Science and Technology Forum to be Held on November 7, 2014 in Manchester, NH

FIRST® Women in Science and Technology Forum to be Held on November 7, 2014 in Manchester, NH: --(BUSINESS WIRE)--FIRST® Women in Science and Technology Forum to be Held on November 7, 2014 in Manchester, NH. 300+ High-School Girls Network and Learn from 40+ Successful Women in STEM.







Where Are All the Women Execs?

Where Are All the Women Execs?:



shutterstock max sattana


How many U.S. companies have at least one female executive on staff? According to a new report from marketing-data company Infogroup Targeting Solutions, a mere 27 percent fit that description.

The one region bucking that trend is the San Francisco Bay Area, where Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Emeryville all boast higher percentages of women executives. “Silicon Valley is actually faring really well [in] comparison to the balance of the U.S.,” Andrea Haldeman, Infogroup’s senior vice president of sales, told Fortune magazine. The study looked at companies with at least 10 employees, in cities with at least 100 companies.

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Among the nation’s tech giants, women still make up a minority of employees. Earlier this year, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and other firms all released diversity reports that suggested men make up the substantial majority of their respective corporate ranks. At Yahoo, for example, women constituted 37 percent of the company’s global workforce; at Google, the number was 30 percent.

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And it’s not just the C-suite: Whereas women make up 47 percent of the total workforce, they’re only 20 percent of all software developers. Although many tech executives have blamed the education system for the lack of women entering highly technical industries, some analysts and pundits place the blame squarely on company cultures and lack of mentorship for women.

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Image: max sattana/Shutterstock.com

The post Where Are All the Women Execs? appeared first on Dice News.

Italian to become first woman head of CERN physics centre

Italian to become first woman head of CERN physics centre: GENEVA, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Italian physicist Fabiola Gianotti was chosen on Tuesday to head the CERN particle physics research centre that houses the giant LHC "Big Bang" machine, making her the first woman nominated to lead a top global scientific institution in the field.
















Kenya’s female graduate students to benefit from mentorship programme courtesy of Microsoft and other local partners

Kenya’s female graduate students to benefit from mentorship programme courtesy of Microsoft and other local partners:

NAIROBI, Kenya — Nov. 3, 2014 — Over 150 female graduate students from 24 universities across Kenya have been selected for the EmployMentor programme starting Monday. The programme is a partnership between Microsoft Corp., its 4Afrika Initiative and the African Centre for Women in Information and Communications Technology (ACWICT) to promote skills development and job placement for young female graduates in technology and business.

The program consists of one-on-one Skype sessions and on-the-field EmployMentor week training. The Skype component will demonstrate the effective utilisation of technology to gain information worker knowledge for 20 of the mentees for eight months.

The candidates will benefit from a combination of Microsoft’s skilled talent base and Microsoft finance mentors around the world. Already through the MySkills4Afrika programme, Microsoft employees are volunteering their time and talent to provide personalised mentorships in several countries across the continent, while gaining a better understanding of African markets.

“Unemployment is a challenge for many youth, and initiatives such as EmployMentor can bridge the skills gap between academia and the working world,” said Kunle Awosika, Microsoft Kenya country manager. “Through the 4Afrika Initiative, Microsoft aims to play an active role in the evolution of Africa from a labour-based economy to a knowledge economy, by empowering local innovation, up-skilling youth with 21st century ICT skills and providing Internet access.”

During the EmployMentor week, all participants will engage in exciting mock interview and business case challenges, coupled with financial-modelling training that will help them experience a real-world business pitch and interview scenario. This could also lead to an interview for a position at Microsoft. In addition, a mobile app development and guest speaker series will be included in the weeklong event. Skills training, content development and support will be provided through the recently launched Kenyan Employability Portal, Tukoworks and the Microsoft Virtual Academy during the EmployMentor week. The curriculum will be localised to ensure it is in line with the requirements in Kenya and complemented by the ACWICT’s Life Skills curriculum.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, youth unemployment rates in Kenya are several times higher than the rates among adults and particularly high in cities and among females. “There is a huge opportunity for women to fill the growing demand for ICT and business skills in Kenya, but many still face limited access to training and education,” Awosika said. Women are underrepresented in high-growth fields such as science, technology and engineering, key drivers of a country’s innovation, connectedness and competitiveness in global markets.

“When women are included in the mainstream economy, the spinoff effect is social uplift for their families and surrounding community,” said Olive Mugenda, vice chancellor of Kenyatta University. “All women mentees from Kenyatta University demonstrate a positive attitude, strong work ethic and passion to impact their community positively through business-oriented IT solutions. We are looking forward to what they will achieve in a few years’ time, and they will be ambassadors for more women who aspire to succeed in the business and IT fields.”

The ACWICT’s mission is to promote women’s access to and knowledge of ICT as tools for social, economic and political development by partnering with universities to source candidates, providing staff and space for the management of the mentor program, and assisting in content development. Mentees will be provided with job placement follow-up support from ACWICT. “The future of the ICT sector is exciting. These are unchartered waters open to creativity, innovation and entirely new ways of working, interacting and learning that should appeal to women and men alike,” said Constantine Obuya, executive director of ACWICT.

Microsoft BizSpark, an online platform providing tools, resources, networking and training opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs, will be connecting successful startup owners to mentors to help them create business plans. The EmployMentor participants will also be fielded as prospective talent for established BizSpark businesses.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft employs more than 16,000 people in over 64 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in more than 139 countries and territories.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft in EMEA, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/emea or the EMEA Press Centre at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at the time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact the appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre/contactus.mspx.



How the Women’s Hackathon on Wearables Inspired Students to Lead

How the Women’s Hackathon on Wearables Inspired Students to Lead:

The results of the Women’s Hackathon on Wearables are in. Co-sponsored by West Virginia University Reed College of Media and PBS MediaShift, this hackathon was a pivotal event for the eight teams who participated in an immersive weekend envisioning a startup use of wearable tech from a women-only perspective.

More than 50 women from WVU and other universities including Penn State, Howard, Syracuse and Carnegie Melon participated in the weekend event that launched with a symposium at Google of women leaders in the technology industry who set a clear tone of assertive ambition for the young women.

“You’re not the next generation of women of wearables,” we said to participants, emphasizing the opportunities for women at the beginning of an emerging market. “You’re the first generation.”



The winning team delivers a fast-paced, 4-minute pitch to the panel of judges and an audience of their competitors. WVU Reed College of Media Dean Maryanne Reed and hackathon participants interact with the women leaders in technology symposium at Google. The symposium kicked off the Hackathon Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Photo by David Smith/Reed College of Media.


The winning team delivers a fast-paced, 4-minute pitch to the panel of judges and an audience of their competitors. WVU Reed College of Media Dean Maryanne Reed and hackathon participants interact with the women leaders in technology symposium at Google. The symposium kicked off the Hackathon Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Photo by David Smith/Reed College of Media.

“Patent Now!”

Competition was fierce. Each team delivered an ignite-style pitch to a panel of five judges that featured Lynn Dombrowski, co-founder of STEMPLOY, an initiative to mentor young women in science, technology, engineering and math fields; Brett Carpenter and Brendan Gibat, software engineers for Morgantown company ListHub; Ashley Hardesty Odell, a partner at Bowles Rice LLP; and Michelle O’Connor, an investment manager for WV Jobs Investment Trust. Acknowledging that each team pitched compelling concepts for viable products, the judges struggled to select a winner from ideas that included a hands-free system for journalists to streamline reporting in the field optimized for Google Glass, a bra that conducts regular breast examinations, a fashionable earpiece that sends scheduling reminders and an application young people can use to take a “timeout” from technology.

In the end, judges declared BioBit the winning startup with the most feasible, valuable use case for wearable technology. BioBit is designed as an attachment to the popular fitness wearable, Fitbit, and measures biomarkers crucial to women’s health in real-time. We’d tell you more…but we’re mindful of the judges’ concluding comment to team members to “Patent now!”

Team Spirit

Each young woman was handed a toy mascot at the beginning of the weekend and instructed to find their fellow team members. Team “Ghost” started as awkward strangers and ended up as fast friends, co-conspirators and possible business partners with their winning startup pitch.



process


Meet Team Ghost: Valerie Bennett, a senior advertising student at WVU from Masontown, West Virginia; Alex Garip, a freshman film student at Penn State University from Hackensack, New Jersey; Alise Bundage, a freshman broadcast journalism student at Howard University from Oklahoma City; and Carlee Lammers, a senior print journalism student at WVU from Middletown, Maryland.



The winning team's faciliators Ann Chester and Lindsay Emery observe their team in action.


The winning team’s facilitators Ann Chester and Lindsay Emery observe their team in action.  Photo by David Smith/Reed College of Media.
Ann Chester, assistant vice president/social justice, project director for the Health Sciences & Technology Academy and Lindsay Emery, the former business development manager for the WVU Office of Research & Economic Development, served as the team’s faculty facilitators.

In keeping with the spirit of the Hackathon — adding women’s absent voices to the technology industry and creating a network for women of wearables — let’s listen in as the team members talk about their experience in their own words:

Women First

Let’s start at the beginning. What were your expectations coming into this?

“I thought I was actually going to be coding into a computer. So this was just different. I didn’t know there was going to be this much creativity involved.”  — Alise Bundage, Howard University freshman

“I had no idea what we were going to be doing! I knew it was about women in media, but I did not know that we were going to be competing. And I had no idea how innovative it was going to be and all the creative freedom we were going to be able to have and how much work was going to be involved. But it was great work and fun and now they’re some of my greatest friends…and hopefully business partners in the future.”  — Alex Garip, Penn State University freshman

How did you tackle this? You got the challenge, you took off racing to find a room, then what?

“We actually were weaving all over the place. We were trying to problem-solve for women and thinking about how time is a big factor in their lives. Valerie must have said a hundred times, ‘It’s back to time, back to time.’ I have so many apps on my phone that require me to type everything in, and I’m even too lazy to delete them. And then were like, wouldn’t it be cool if the information we wanted was just right there. And then we had the idea of partnering with a company that’s already established. It just seems so feasible to us. Like we can do this.”  — Carlee Lammers, WVU senior

“…The moment that it all hit, I wish we could have recorded it or something. We were all connected, it was like ‘this is it!” — Valerie Bennett, WVU senior

“…And it was so cool because every time we got a step closer to our final product, we were all ‘high five,’ yes that’s it! We had these problems within the bigger problem, but every bridge, we crossed.” — Alex Garip

You all are used to working in teams, but what is it like to be in a team made up exclusively of women?

“It was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. We come with these different backgrounds, but we all want to tell the same story.” — Carlee Lammers

“We are all passionate women. Everyone here is a fighter, everybody has dreams laid out and working with other women…it was hard to describe. You automatically felt connected, right off the bat. There wasn’t any awkwardness, where it’s quiet for the first minute. It was just straight into it.” — Valerie Bennett

“I think what’s really cool too is that you can look at this product and say, ‘Yeah this is a woman-first device.’” — Alex Garip

How has this event changed your perception as a woman in the technology industry or the media industry? And what lies ahead?

“Doing something like this, win or lose, we felt so empowered all the way through. There’s not enough of that. People always say, you can do whatever you put your mind to. But this showed me that.” — Carlee Lammers

“It was really cool doing this outside of class and actually implementing everything we’ve learned. That’s what made it so beautiful. This is real, this is happening right now. We solve problems all the time in our daily life, but figuring out a way to not just solve them by yourself, but to work with a group. It taught me how to approach things differently.” — Valerie Bennett

“This conference just made dreams tangible. Ugh, that is so cheesy. Oh that is the cheesiest thing I’ve ever said. But I’ve never been so much a part of something made from scratch. This weekend secured my decision that these are the kind of women I want to be working with in my life. — Alex Garip

“This weekend made me feel like I can have more say in the technology industry. We just threw everything out there on the table. I’ve never done anything like that before. It changed the way I view technology. It made me feel like I have a voice.” — Alise Bundage



Team Ghost celebrates their winning pitch for BioBit, from left to right: Alise Bundage, Carlee Lammers, Valerie Bennett, and Alex Garip.   Photo by David Smith/Reed College of Media.


Team Ghost celebrates their winning pitch for BioBit, from left to right: Alise Bundage, Carlee Lammers, Valerie Bennett, and Alex Garip. Photo by David Smith/Reed College of Media.
Dana Coester is an assistant professor at the PI Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University, and also serves as creative director for the school’s media innovation center. Coester’s work focuses on community media and the economic development potential in technology disruption. Her research examines the future of storytelling with special interests in mobile, augmented reality and wearable technology at the intersection of narrative and neuroscience. Coester earned her master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1993.