Are you a Student between the ages of 15 and 21 based in the UK? Well if you are then you have just come to the right website! This is your opportunity to win £500. Imagine what you could do with that... So what do you need to do... well here's all the details! If you aren't a student please pass on the information and give someone you know the opportunity to shine!!! Alternatively put forward a few suggestions for the students here that might just get them started on their video!

Young people in schools and colleges all over the UK are being challenged to create the next `Youtube’ sensation in a major new competition being launched by the University of Dundee.

The Interactive Media Design programme at Dundee is asking 15 to 21-year-olds to make a three-minute video on the theme `Artificially Intelligent’ and post it on the Youtube website (www.youtube.com)

The competition is split into two age groups – 15 to 17-year-olds and 18 to 21-year-olds. The winners in each category will receive a prize of £500.

“Interactive media design is all about matching creativity with the technical know-how to do something like putting together a video and placing it on the web,” said Morna Simpson, lecturer on the IMD degree programme at Dundee.

“Our students do the most amazing work, and are winning some of the best jobs going in high-tech and creative industries. We want to give a big shout about that.”

Young people with creative talent should know that the University of Dundee is the place to come, if you want to do some of the most innovative and ground-breaking work that is going on right now”

Gary Duncan and Andrew Cook, two Interactive Media Design graduates have set the ball rolling by writing, filming, editing and acting in the first “Artificially Intelligent” video.

“It is really good fun!” said Morna, “ A genius piece of work, though I say so myself!.

“Now we want to see what young people around the UK can produce – hopefully we are going to find some real stars through this competition because we are sure there is a lot of untapped talent out there.

“The theme of the competition is fairly broad so the field is wide open to be as creative as possible. We have got some of our students to create an initial video which can be viewed now – the challenge to other young people around the UK is to show us you can do something which really stands out.”

Morna said a site like Youtube gave young people a hugely powerful tool to show off their creative talents.

“The great advantage of something like Youtube is that a project like making a small video can now reach a vast audience very quickly,” said Morna. “ If you look through some of the most popular videos on Youtube you will find that great ideas win over high-tech equipment every time!”

The competition will be open until November. All details can be found on the dedicated website at …http://imd.dundee.ac.uk/competition

The information in this post was sent via Interactive Media Design who is a collaboration between Duncan of Jordanstone College and the School of Computing at the University of Dundee. This unique blend of disciplines gives students the wide range of tools to meet the design challenges of the 21st century.

www.dundee.ac.uk/design/bsc-interactive-design.php.

If you haven't already seen our recent interview with Steve Bannerman, Marketing Director of Ugobe then do take a look... the Pleo's a great example of HCI and early stage AI. Let see if we can get a few girl geeks into this competition! It's a great opportunity!

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to talk with Steve Bannerman the marketing guru behind Pleo the baby dinosaur from Ugobe thanks to the team over at Chocolate Communications.

Initially we started by talking about Ugobe, what the company is all about and where they see Pleo going. Here's what Steve had to say

"Ugobe is Unique – the companies aim is to transform the relationship between technology and the machine and creating a personality for the machine."

I went on to ask who he saw the target market for Pleo and asked why they chose a dinosaur.

"The initial target market for Pleo was the technical enthusiast and create a suspended belief that baby dinosaurs would act as Pleo does, and we chose Pleo as they are based in the location where the dinosaurs were being excavated. There was a lot of local research easily and readily available for us to use."

I went on to ask who came up with the concept of the Pleo and whether the idea was an extension of the Furby. Steve went on to explain that Caleb Chung who was the mastermind behind the furby and the idea of Pleo came from him. He developed the idea along with his business partner John Sosoka who is a behavioral psychologist who has done key research into human machine interactions. You can only begin to imagine just how realistic and how much attention to detail has been put into this little creature.

Steve said something that really made me think: "Dinosaurs aren’t like a dog or a cat… so there aren’t any real expectations, just people’s imagination." It made me think about what I expected a baby dinosaur to be like... I hadn't got my hands on one at the time and lo and behold the barriers between my expectation and what was presented by Pleo weren't far from each other. I was quite surprised. In fact I was so surprised I took him (Smudge) into the office to meet a few of my work colleagues. I'm sure some of them thought I was mad but they did gel with it immediately. The more interesting thing was that it was the men in the office who gelled with it most.

Having seen how people react to Pleo I asked whether there were any other ideas for virtual creatures or even virtual people. This is what Steve had to say: “Most new stuff that we are looking at is radically different from Pleo... more towards robots with more or less human based responses. Things like robots on desks – “lifeforms” to do certain types of work but also breathe life so more human style interaction with lifeforms creating natural communications interfaces.“

Being a software engineer I had to ask the obvious, is there a developer kit for Pleo yet? And where would I find it? “There is a developer interface due out soon with some advanced tools, the developer program will allow the creators to interact and create new emotions and interactions with the Pleo. The program should be available within the next month.” That was a week or so ago, and I’m still looking out for it, however there are more primitive tools already out there to create some basic interactions including Dynamite which you can find on the PleoWorld website.

What made Steve want to join Ugobe… Before Ugobe he was part of the Apple senior management team where he enjoyed human interface work and apple were top of their game in that area. He identified this as an area that he would like to work more with. He went on to explain that Steve Jobs was an inspiration to him along with key scientific figures.

The creative team behind the Pleo product are four 4 hardware engineers and a number of AI software engineers. As Steve like to say they are a visionary team with a unique set of talents.

So what is Steve’s vision for the future of robotics: “personality and character of a robot. Make a simpler interface to interact with and with a soul. Natural extension of humanoid interface interactions for next generation human computer interface. This would provide the ability to unlock new abilities with technology as a result. “

So can you imagine such a change for any technology not just the entertainment devices? Steve Bannerman can… I asked him what it is that has make these things a reality now and what the biggest challenge to them is:

“Processing power, memory, engines, etc are all starting to make the vision a reality. The biggest challenge is the battery life and Ugobe are looking towards wireless power. Mips per watt is a problem currently. We are keeping a close eye on battery technology and in particular wireless power, we are also looking at getting the devices to find themselves a plug socket or power supply. Unfortunately you can’t make assumptions on where the devices interact with people… so for example we can’t assume sunlight and therefore can’t assume to use solar power.”

I have a Pleo for a few weeks so I'll be posting some short video's of what he does and what you can do with him, from the developer sdk through to changing personalities and maybe even having a go at writing a few new personality traits.

In the meantime here’s one from the PleoWorld website as a bit of a taster… I’ll have to find a way of resetting the Pleo to show you that cute little start-up sequence though as I didn’t have my camera charged when I did it the first time.

Jumping right back into the swing of things, there have been many announcements, changes, devices that have come out since my last post. I wanted to touch on something that I can't get out of my mind. Has Vista finally figured out where it can shine? Has Vista finally been given the credit it [may be] due? I think this has been a story only briefly touched... a story ignored for the most part. Let's all put away the iPod 3G (with the limited US 3G coverage and the awful battery life) and move to something much more important... Has Windows Vista finally arrived, but on the platform least likely to succeed? Vista's answer to the marketing problems... the business adaptation issues... the user backlash.... may come thanks to one simple hardware advance... RAM.

I think most people don't realize the importance of this and why Windows Vista 64-bit may be the answer that Microsoft has been waiting for without even knowing it.

Just a few years ago (way back in 2002) Windows XP 64-bit was released... but guess what... no one cared. Now though there is a change in the market that may be the answer that Microsoft has been waiting for and not even realized when it was developing Windows Vista... that the RAM prices have fallen so much that in fact PCs will now come with 3GB, 4GB or more of RAM... but... what good is 4GB when Windows Vista (or XP) 32-bit only takes advantage of 3GB??? Well none silly... that's why Windows Vista 64-bit has become, de facto THE new OS to use. Now I am a HUGE Mac Lover, and by that I mean I have sold many Macs to people even though I do not own own one. That's because I consider myself a logical person. Someone who realized a good thing when they see it and use it. Well Mac OS is truly the OS I recommend to pretty much any user that asks me. BUT Mac OS does not hold 90%+ of the market place, so looking at solutions that businesses are looking at (such as Vista upgrades) I have started to look at promoting Vista 64-bit. And to tell you the truth... I like it.

Is it more secure? YES... is it more stable? YES... does it take advantage of 4GB+ of RAM? YES... are drivers available for it? (and here's the kicker) YES.

Most businesses buy from such companies as HP, DELL and Lenovo and guess what? Each one of these companies offer 64-bit drivers for their hardware. In fact Gateway has moved pretty much exclusively to Vista 64-bit for all their desktops and laptop systems. I predict this is only the start... and in 12-18 month most vendors will offer Vista 64-bit as standard. Mark my words, Vista 64-bit is coming... and it's good. :-)

The Olympics may be on at the moment, but first past the post and reaching for Gold has to be the success of the Girl Geek Dinner in Leeds last night.

Over 70 of you turned up. More than anticipated, and this sparked a great atmosphere for the proceedings. In true geek style, the founder of the Girl Geek ‘movement’, Sarah Blow had a video post for our welcome address. And she has set us all a challenge.

The Girl Geek Challenge

How can we change the technology industry to encourage more Girl and Guy Geeks into the industry?

What are the real disputes, Is there a more positive take, and where are the differences?

Or are the differences too entrenched that it's impossible to remove them?

This challenge is important. Only a couple of blog postings ago, Tim O'Reilly founder of O'Reilly media and general 'web guru', put a measure on Girl Geek attention that equated to a measure of 'success', or rather lack of success,

Now I love the intellect of Tim O'Reilly so i'm a bit disappointed that the above scenario is the case. Clearly there is recognition that there is an 'issue', at the same time this is based on a calculation of how 'worthwhile' this is by site traffic. Hmm this does not sit well with me.

So Girl Geeks, time to step up to the mark and put yourself forward. Our two speakers Lorna Mitchell and Lydia Machall from last night were up to the challenge. As were added contributions from Ruth Wilson of UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, and Hannah Dee, from BCS Women. Together the hot pot topics for the evening included, quite appropriately, Lydia’s personal take on what it means to be a 'Geek'. This entails more than the wikipedia definition of ‘living at home with parents’, ‘bad personal hygeine’, and ‘biting the heads off feathered or scaley friends’. But you’ll have to take Lydia's (or rather wikipedia's) word for that last one.

Lorna’s address was an assertive call for more confident questioning by professional Girl Geeks of our peers and colleagues. To call on the resources that we can utilise everyday for support and training and knowledge. In short, keep questioning, keep making demands, and keep pushing yourself. No-one is going to stand in the way of your geek credentials if you don’t let them.

The rest of the evening was my favourite part of the GG experience. Free to network I met and spoke to some very bright and innovative people. This got me thinking about a possible next Leeds Girl Geek Dinner. With so many talented and pioneering Girl Geeks in one place, it seemed a shame that there was not more opportutnity to hear more from You. I’m wondering if we put together a panel session for next time and invite contributions from the floor as well as our speakers this could spark a fun and ‘mass collaborative’ approach.

Just a suggestion.

For now, a huge thanks to everyone of you who attended last night, and a special shake of the hand to Dominic Hodgson, the lovely Deb Bassett, and the creative and organising talents of Imran Ali and Linda Broughton, without whose input (and emailing skills) none of the above could have happened.

Meantime, lets rise to Sarah's Girl Geek challenge, and see if we can impress upon the likes of Tim O'Reilly the importance of safeguarding the professional status of Geeks. Both Girls, and Guys.

Not if you watch this weeks BBC2’s Dragon’s Den. Up to slay a Dragon, was Peter Hopton of ‘Very PC’, who had valued his company at no less than £5million, and wanted a £250,000 for a 5% stake of his company.

Ok so aside from the Fairly Tale figures, the U.S.P. of Very PC was, its accolades of awards (you can count three displayed in the Den), and its ethos of a greener less ‘mean’ PC technology. Hopton, ran through Very PC’s green credentials saying ‘(…) we make them energy saving’.

Basically, Very PC takes the off-the-shelf PC consumerables and remodels PCs at lower energy saving versions. Which begged Peter Jones's Dragon question, how is this a patented business model, and what’s to stop You or I going out and doing the same? But back to the greener issue at stack, by relying on generic PC parts, Very PC PC’s seem to be no more recyclable or efficient than any other computer out there...

Greener technology is the way to go, hey who doesn’t love the environment? But when ‘greener’ is tacked onto Brand development (£5 million?! Gasped/scoffed Dragon Peter Jones, 'Maybe if you’re IBM'), rather than a proper business model or product, Very PC seems to hold a lot less environmental kudos. Which is a shame, as I’d quite like to champion a British based PC company. Especially one that’s green.

Of Course Dragon Jones will be kicking himself now, what with Very PC's brand potential shooting sky high after the companies sparring in the Den. Still £5million might still be a strech. 'Green' or 'mean'? You decide.

So I was reading through my twitter feeds and came across one of Craig Burton's ones asking why there was no rss feed on the O'Reilly women in technology site... More interestingly the site hasn't been updated for almost a year. Does this mean that the women at O'Reilly got bored of blogging, they were contracted to write for it and contracts weren't renewed or that they are no longer interested in women and IT. (BTW I know the latter isn't true, they got in touch last month about Girl Geek Dinners and doing more in the arena... ) Or is it that they haven't had any new female tech hires in almost 12 months. I'd love to know the story behind this one...

So the big question is why!? Why did it stop, what was the cause... who stopped it. The content was interesting... so it wasn't that... So who knows... I'm wondering if I'll hear a response.

Other interesting posts and news articles from today on Women in tech on a more positive note that have been brought to my attention today: (Thanks to Imran Ali)

• Don't cry for us, Silicon Valley
• The power of female blogging

So it's not all doom and gloom! :)

I wait with interest to find out what the outcome of the O'Reilly site is... Who knows maybe they just forgot about it and it will suddenly revive itself.

Updates:

After asking about whether anyone would be interested in sending us some fun gadgets and toys I've had a fair few turn up for me! Some geeky, and some just practical!

The one that I've been using a lot is this one… the UniRoss battery… And before you ask no I wasn't using them for anything dodgy or bizarre… I decided to put them into my Xbox 360 controllers and see how they lasted. So far they are doing just as well as the ordinary ones! I matched one set up against the other... brand new vs rechargeables.... the rechargeables are still going the others... well the less said about them the better! They died with a month! OK so we play with the 360 quite a bit

When using the batteries you wouldn't know the difference between the two... Well except for the fact that the Uniross ones I can re-charge and reuse. Something that you wouldn't expect from the team over at UniRoss is that they are actually they are really, really geeky mad about batteries. And more to the point about the technology behind them and the use of re-usable batteries (and their impact on "Green"). So I thought I'd delve a bit deeper into the story of the battery. I'm always interested in green stuff and sensibly reducing my carbon footprint. By that I mean not leaving the lights on, turning off the heating when it's not needed and so on. Since I was tiny I've had it drilled into me to use rechargable batteries for gadgets. (although back then they always died really quickly and I was constantly re-charging them - very annoying)

The subject of charging stuff came up the other day in a conversation and someone I know suggested that charging stuff is really bad in comparison to just having stuff turned on when you need it. So when the details about these batteries and chargers came in I thought it would be good to get to the bottom of some of the myths about batteries. Were they right, you should use only what you need when you need it... and charging is wasteful... or are disposable batteries one use only worse or better than re-chargeable ones? I started with Defra... after all they should know they created the Producer Responsibility: Batteries Directive. This was a bit of an eye opener, I didn't realize that there was a whole UK directive on it... and that companies will have a legal obligation to make them greener... You'd never have known that from the way that disposable batteries are marketed these days...

So then I went on to WRAP's site (WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.) They did a recent test to find out what the barriers and the myths of batteries are and it makes for interesting reading... the key takeaways from this are as follows:

Battery facts & figures

Re-chargeable batteries have a lifetime so they don't last forever but they do have benefits... you can re-use them multiple times and don't have to worry about them not being in the house, office etc. The chargers these days have a timeout switch that stops over charge and some chargers have a quick charge function that cuts down the time to charge them. (don't ask me how the magic there works… I just know that it does - that would need an electronics and battery geek to explain further!) Until recently re-chargeable batteries had a faster discharge rate and provided lower power output so didn't always work in all devices (generally this is not the case these days).

So next time you think about buying some batteries, consider spending that little bit extra on re-chargables and a charger unit. It does save money in the long term and is much better on the eco-system!

PS. thanks to Matt Churchill (aka funky pr geek from Grant Butler Coomber) for reminding me about using re-chargeable batteries. :) (I admit I had disposables in the 360 til then! Oops!)

The weekend before last Lu and I donned our geeky outfits and went down to this year's London Film and Comic Conference. We signed up in advanced, sorted our tickets for the Heroes talk and skipped most of the queues for entry. (We were very glad to have signed up in advance! I'd recommend it if you are thinking of going next year!)

The initial thoughts on arrival were that there was a LOT of empty space... There also weren't many artists. However that didn't detract from the fact that Lee Townsend (inker for Marvel & DC Comics) was there along with Andy Tong and David Goulding to name a few. And yes I did get Lee Townsend to do me a drawing. He did me a fantastic Spiderman pic!

There were a lot of film stars, some over from the US and others who reside in the UK, they ranged from Margot Kidder aka Lois Lane (Superman - the original movie), Peter Davidson aka Dr Who through to David Anders from Alias & Heroes.

And on that note we swiftly move on to the talk with David Anders. The talk was a lot of fun, it was quite lively most of the time but had a few quiet lulls whilst he stood up on his chair and shouted the crowds milling around the stands to be quiet... Don't believe me... go take a look at the pictures! Not quite what you would class as expected behavior but it did liven things up... he also sang a few request songs (very well I might add!) and did a short 4 minute interview with us after his session! Yep you read that right. I actually (somehow) managed to persuade the David Anders to talk to me on camera about how he got to be on Alias and Heroes, who his idol's and inspirations are and a few other bits and pieces too!

We also filmed a few other people and some general stuff from the event. Have fun and enjoy the video! Let us know what you think.... Are we totally mad! (BTW David Anders was very, very jetlagged he came straight to the conference from an 8 hour flight!)

Top of the Girl Geek agenda this Monday morning is the subject of good taste and social network decorum. The week has commenced with a noisy foray of commentary about ‘the shank’ on Facebook. This refers to the not-so-super superpoke, where users can choose to ‘stab’ at oneother as a symbolic poke. The story is typical of the summertime lazy journo media as the word on the press street that includes, The Telegraph, Sky and Channel 4 is that ‘Facebook is responsible for knife crime’. But sloppy journalism aside, this topic raises some interesting pause-for-thought considerations.

The implied question is whether we should hold SNSs responsible for other social consequences? This has more to do with the overarching social responsibilities of the individual in terms of their own value judgements. In this particular instance, the potential causality of actions such as ‘shanking’ each other on a SNS has become conflated with the social effects, opinions and assessments of what is good taste.

I am aware that by being a ‘Girl Geek’ this is as much an attitude of mind, as well as the flagging up of my own geek ‘credentials’ and sensibility. On SNSs users believe their profile to represent them 'accurately’. As a natural follow-on, the actions that we portray on our profile must also be indicative of the ‘who we are’. On Facebook, this doesn’t mean that the superpoke shank is responsible for knife crime. But it does fly in the face of all that is good taste and appropriate behaviour.

Another version of this post 'Taking a stab at Facebook' appeared @ Maz Hardey's Web 2.0 MediaTalk blogspot.

I'm very pleased to announce what will be the first of many Girl Geek Dinners will be hosted in the north-east next month.

On the 13th August You are cordially invited to Leeds for first evening of Girl Geekness.

Sandwiched between two other Leeds based Geek events: An Evening With Fred Wilson and BarCamp Leeds {2008}, this part of the country is fast becoming the Geek scene for the UK this side of the M25.

The event takes place 6-9pm The Study @ The Living Room on Greek Street. And you are more than welcome to register here.

Confirmed speakers already include lydia machell; a freelance music software developer and lorna mitchell; a developer, consultant and trainer for ibuildings in Leeds.

Both Lydia and Lorna stand out as high fliers, confident and conversant with the Girl Geek mantra of technology, technology, technology, and are people, people too.

Lydia has a background in the arts and confirms her Girl Geek status as inventor of the Prima Vista Braille Music System (PVBMS). Inspired by the early ringtone formulas (remember how annoying they were) PVBMS transcribes standard print notation into Braille for blind musicians. Very cool. With some more time on her hands Lydia has aspirations to publish: Knit One, Purl Nought - The Smart Girls' Guide to Being a Geek. Meantime we have the pleasure of her company and intellect for the evening.

Lorna compliments Lydia's geek status as a PHP specialist, with interest in databases and Subversion. Lorna's background is in the boys club of electronic engineering. Her other projects include the PHPWomen group, specifically targeted toward the women in the PHP world. Lorna also makes awesome circuitboard cakes.

Our hosts for the evening will be Leeds Metropolitan's Linda Broughton and Girly Geekdom's Maz Hardey (Me).

This is a Girl Geek Dinner, but not at the exclusion of men! Such is the aim of GirlGeekdom the events are to encourage women, and men are more than welcome.

We are all Geeks together after all!

Time to point, click and RSVP now... We look forward to seeing you!

Please note that as this is the first Girl Geek evening in this part of the country there will be a small charge of £10. This is to cover initial outlay costs and to ensure that You enjoy the evening as much as we do.

"Would you like to guest post this : sb :)" <--- Why yes I would love to!

Awhile ago, I bought a HTC Shift UMPC. Initially I was buying one for an american friend of mine, it was not released out in the US at the time (although this may have now changed). So I bought one for him at Tottenham Court Rd in London. Of course, me being me, I had to check it out for myself. It's quite wonderful, so I had to get one.

Moving forward a month or so, I have found the WinMo side of things rather restrictive. If you are not familiar with the HTC shift, it has the Windows Mobile OS (via SnapVue) and also Vista. Vista drains battery like there's no tomorrow, so when I am up and about I switch to SnapVue. I think the reason for the lock down on WinMo is because of licensing issues. So there are no wifi options to tap into, you cannot change the Today screen and you cannot install any applications. This is where I stumbled upon the "Liberate your HTC Shift!" site which I would like to share:

http://www.modaco.com/content/windows-mobile-news/266537/liberate-your-htc-shift/

After liberating your beloved device, you can then start installing some CABs which the author has also kindly included. The Office Mobile one is quite handy. Anyway, enjoy the freedom!

Lu

EDIT: Just to add, you can also sync the SnapVue WinMo Outlook with the Outlook that is installed on the Vista side, using something called USB tool which comes with the liberate pack. It will save you a lot of typing of contact details, and it will also copy your emails etc across. It basically acts as if you are physically docking a PDA to Vista, make sure the wifi and modem is turned off as it works intermittently with it on. The only thing I would like now is WinMo to see the SD card slot, I am sure there is a clever person out there to do it :)

It seems hardly worth the mention, but I've had the following forwarded so much to me in the last 72 hours that it seemed rude not to let the Girl Geeks give it their full attention.

Welcome to the World rated (and slated) HOTTEST blog contest.

Asked by Playboy.com who is the world's hottest blogger?... rather obviously votes win the nominate blogger a topless spread in Playboy.


Joy.

No need to be upfront about blogging now, Playboy does it for you.

The past week I have been casting my eye around for potential speakers for the first Girl Geek Dinner in Leeds. As discussed before at Girl Geekdom the visibility of women within the technology industry time and again leaves myself and others asking, 'Where are all the successful women with a vantage in new media?'

From my own position as a self-proclaimed Geek Chic and social technology strategist, geeky events such as Apple's recent WWDC highlight that the world of technology remains a testerone - based roll out.






Hmm it's like a game of 'where's Wally?' And no commentators before you start i'm not implying that Girl Geeks are 'Wally' affiliated. BUT it is striking how by comparative numbers Girl Geeks are rarely visible at such events. Especially in ways that would allow us to accurately represent ourselves, our images and our ideas.

Which leads me nicely onto Jarkko Laine's post 'NxE's Fifty most influential 'female' bloggers'. Brilliant, there is a formidible force of at least fifty of us 'out there'. One query Laine, why the 'female' in quotation marks?...

Is Laine drawing attention to the label female per se? (which seems odd given the context of the blog). Is this a typo?

Or perhaps Laine is just being deliberately suggestive.

?

Laine also makes the case that 'blogging can seem like a boys’ club'. And so it appears that the rise and popularity of the Girl Geek is being noted. BUT only when she has created her own place amongst the male host of mainstream media.

The NY Times February article Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain, argues that the youngest Internet users and the primary creators of Web content are the 'digitally effusive teenage girls'. Great. Until I realised I had been reading Fashion&Style. So Girl Geeks are visible, but only in a fashion context sweetie darling.

As Karl Martino makes the point on his blog Paradox1x: 'Not Business. Not Technology'.

And certainly not in the most recent issue of Wired, one has to go back to the year 2000 for even a Girl Geek mention. The ironically titled 'Girl Geeks want to be heard'.

And so as Girl Geeks we're back to 'not' again. And I still need to find speakers for a north east based Girl Geek Dinner.

Onwards and upwards...

I bet you are wondering what on earth I'm on and are wondering how I could even ask such a silly question. Well of course they aren't dead yet! Not by a long way... I mean how often do you go to an event or a meeting with outsiders and give/ swap business cards. A few years back people thought v-cards and bluetooth would be the answer but even now that's not the case. Others thought you should only need one business card and just use the camera on your phone to get the details.... That too didn't catch on... they just weren't as simple and practical as the business card.

So why am I bringing it up now? Well it came to light at a recent girl geek dinner that the girls weren't set for networking, they didn't have their business cards with them...

"It was a little difficult networking because no one seemed prepared for it. No one had business cards handy. The women speakers in the panel all kept saying that their business cards were in their backpacks in the back. (Apparently hardcore geek girls carry backpacks instead of purses.)" LauraLovesArt

So I thought about this and being an organizer get asked for my card quite a lot. I even used to have some myself. Then I had this problem of them going out of date and some weirdo getting hold of my number and prank calling so I decided to stop using them... after all out of date details and old numbers aren't exactly useful to anyone. Now I do see the uses of them, and I don't suggest people not to use them but I will say two things that I think are important. Firstly business cards should have a function.... They should give enough information for someone to get hold of you in some way shape or form. This doesn't have to include a phone number. Secondly they should portray you in a way that is appropriate, so if you are in a professional setting then they should be professional. Casual then they can be more fun. However be careful that you don't end up giving out images that you wouldn't want to be a lasting memory of you!

One thing that I usually do with business cards is do a search for the person on the card and find them on LinkedIn. I then add them to my contacts and sync that with outlook so that my contact list is up to date.

What are your hints and tips for effective networking?

Images Courtesy of Flickr CC - nc454/ and gjc_it_guy

Such is the connected up and accelerated presence of the Girl Geek world it is always interesting when one pauses. And can take stock of the consequences of overly excessive (so the media would have us believe) forms of communication. Recently, following such criticism (‘blogging and Facebook, isn’t that just the biggest waste of time?’) I had tried to explain how such an ‘excessive’ focus and attention to social detail was in fact an essential life skill (and style) for the grown up world of the web. And so it is with delight that I'm in attendance of the Channel 4 led 2Gether Festival this week that provides opportunity to take a look at how digital technologies are changing our world. For better or for worse?

One of the major sources of confusion is ignorance over the functionality of blogging lifestyle and a connected social immersion. Misplaced concerns about the lack of quality contact and content in the context of social networking still lacks a clear and workable theorisation. I’ll be speaking on the Thursday and hope to engage with not only the ‘problems’ of such lifestyle, but to offer some solutions too.

The transformations of our culture, social structure and personal identity is as much about the disputed distinction between ‘quality’ face-to-face encounters compared to the ‘poorer’ mediated contact on SNSs and the rest of Web 2.0, as a lack of understanding about how to use such social tools.

So lets define this as a social speeding up of encounters. Communication is of the moment and for the moment. Missed that wall post? To respond two days later you’re either too late, or labelled as ‘neglectful’ of friends and ‘careless’ with messages. The speeding up and compression of actions puts an increased pressure on time. Unlike networks and social networking resources rather than being available in abundance time holds everyone accountable making contact scarce and if we are not careful a more harassed state.

Meanwhile time shifting aside on Thursday I’m going to enjoy the opportunity to meet and greet some of the best in other networks and create possibilities for change.

BlackBerry Bold - Video: "The new BlackBerry Bold™ smartphone is pure innovation. Watch the video to see some of the features included with this powerful smartphone."

I like the way Apple and RIM keep challenging each other. If played well, their innovations will frog leap and prices will drop even more.

The judgement of good taste and social values is something that is usually left up to the individual who is considered to have their own set of ‘good taste’ preferences and can be trusted to know right from wrong.

In the states this might be all about to change. Matt Richtel reporting for the New York Times: 'What's obscene? Google could have the answer', outlines how in the trial of a pornographic web operator jurors have been given insight into most Google’d search terms of the residence of Pansacola. Here they are more likely to Google ‘orgy’ than make searches for tamer and less politically incorrect terms. I had to contain my amusement when ‘watermelon’ was given as the yardstick contrast to ‘orgy’, although perhaps the fruitier connotation is lost on our American counter-parts.

Amusement aside, this case has serious implications for the rest of us in the Google world. Privacy is an obvious area for debate especially in terms of the storing and observing of individual data. Only this week councils in the UK have been reprimanded for using surveillance technologies for ‘minor’ deviant activities such as dog fouling and littering, accused of being; 'intrusive, ineffective and expensive'. The prospect of having measurements and judgements against Google searches can be viewed as invasive. However, it is worth while keeping in mind that the very appeal of Google that is THE ubiquitous search engine is in itself significant and perhaps mean that the site should (rather unsurprisingly) carry the expected insidious inspection of all our actions.

For the record this does not leave me feeling entirely comfortable with how my data is recorded, the loss of control in terms of the where, when and to whom such records are disclosed should be highlighted and are an important topic for public consideration. Of course in the Pansacola community case, it is hard to argue anything against privacy considerations when Internet porn and misappropriate web surfing is involved.

All we can do for now is Google and watch this space…

So sometimes we don't seem to give enough inspiration to our geek guys! So here's one for the guys. Just so that you know that you are special too! And we know the geek guys are just as smart and lovely and geeky as the geek girls! I noticed that some (not all) geek guys were complaining that they get overlooked by the girls in favour of the "jocks". I hope they like this one! I wonder if anyone will do a rebuttal to this one just for the Geek Girls. :)

To warn you ALL this one is a bit close to the line what with a LOT of stereotyping in it. However in amongst it all there are some fun bits. I thought it was quite fun and the Canadian girl (Coco Love Alcorn ) singing got in touch herself to let me know about it!


So I guess this one's a BIG thank you to all the Geek Guys out there for supporting us geek girls we do appreciate it and we're just sharing the geeky love with this one! (what with it being summer and all that)

No doubt some will take the post totally out of context, but the essence of it is celebrating the guy geeks! Try to take it in the amusing and happy geeky fashion it was meant in!

As a way of getting the Girl Geeks more involved with the Microsoft community we are opening up a competition that is running alongside DDD, with a prize donated by me.

Firstly; what is DDD? It's FREE one day events, all about .NET developers learning, sharing and interacting with each other in an informal and relaxed atmosphere. There will be NO Microsoft speakers presenting, just speakers from the UK .NET developer community; although Microsoft kindly donate the space, breakfast and lunch and some of the Microsoft UK Developer Team on hand to help out and chat to attendees.

What's the prize? An MSDN "Team Suite" premium subscription for 1 year; basically everything you need for Windows development; Visual Studio Team System, SQL Server, Windows Operating Systems, Office 2007, SDKs and even four support incidents; which, if you buy it, costs just over £8500. You can find out more details on the MSDN subscription pages.

So what do you need to do? Well if you have something you're passionate about that you want to share with the DDD community submit an abstract. A few things to note;

• DDD only accepts speakers from UK residents, thus this competition is limited to UK residents.
• Only grok talks or 60 minute presentations will be acceptable for this competition
• Because this is to encourage girly geeks in the community you need to be a girl.
• Entering an abstract for the competition does not mean it will be accepted by DDD.
• I only have one subscription to give away.
• You acknowledge that this may be taxed and it is up to you to pay any taxes that may apply.
• This is not an official (or unofficial) competition from Microsoft or the DDD Event Organisers.
• Anyone that moans that it's a subscription for Microsoft software; or comments that Microsoft are the devil or who uses M$ in a comment will be pointed and laughed at.

The prize will be awarded to a girl geek who has her session accepted and presents it at DDD7. In the event that more than one girly geek submissions are accepted I shall draw names randomly from a metaphorical hat. If no sessions are selected by the community I will draw a name from all session submissions from girl geeks. The winner will announced via the girlygeekdom blog just after DDD7, or if no-one had a talk selected by attendees the announcemen will take place after voting closes on the agenda.

In order to keep track of which submissions are from girl geeks please email the details of your talk to MSDNComp@londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk once you have submitted it on the DDD website.

Quest to find most successful female business owners for

2008 NatWest everywoman awards

The search is on for the UK’s most inspiring female entrepreneurs, as the annual NatWest everywoman awards are launched on 1May at the House of Commons. The awards, now in their sixth year, recognise and reward the most successful women, of all backgrounds and ages, who are leading the way in UK business, and acting as role models for others wanting to go it alone.

Women make up 51% of the UK adult population, but only constitute 27% of the self-employed*, and these awards are an opportunity to celebrate those that are bucking the trend and achieving success, to help address this inequality. The government recently acknowledged the important role that women play in the economy in its recent Enterprise Strategy, and also recognised the need for women to act as mentors to others, showing how inspirational role models are pivotal to boosting the number of female entrepreneurs.

The awards are open to women from any sector or discipline, with categories set by age, each inspired by the ancient Greek goddesses – Artemis, Demeter, Athena and Hera – representing courage, determination, perseverance, wisdom and strength. 2007 also saw the introduction of two new awards – the Iris Award for use of technical innovation in business, and the first everywoman Ambassador’s Award, presented to model and business woman, Elle Macpherson, who was rated as one of the leading celebrity role models for women in business by everywoman’s recent research. The Spirit of everywoman award is also presented to a woman who has changed the landscape for women in business, and was last year presented to Dame Stella Rimington, the first female Director General of MI5. The winner of the first Spirit of everywoman award in 2006 was Dame Mary Perkins, co-founder of Specsavers Opticians, who is now Patron of the NatWest everywoman awards.

The awards are free to enter and applications are accepted at www.everywoman.com from 1 May until 29 August and will be judged by an independent panel, including entrepreneurs Perween Warsi, Chief Executive and Founder – S&A Foods and Sharon Hilditch, of Crystal Clear International. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held on 3 December at the prestigious Dorchester Hotel in London, bringing together hundreds of the country’s most successful women in business, politics and the media.

For further information and details on how to enter please go to www.everywoman.com

• About everywoman: Founded in September 1999, everywoman Ltd is the UK’s leading provider of training, resources and support services for women in business, thought leaders in women’s business development and promoters of women in business and gender diversity. Its mission is to Inspire Women to Excel. Everywoman works to increase the number, and raise the status, of women in the UK economy, using their experience and expertise to help women achieve their aspirations and realise their business ambitions. everywoman delivers conferences and events, awards programmes, training and leadership programmes. It developed the UK’s first, and largest, online resource for women business owners (www.everywoman.com), which now has 32,000 members www.everywoman.com
• NatWest is proud to lead the way as innovators. With a network of over 1600 branches and 1660 Business Managers, no one is better placed to help businesses succeed. NatWest recognises the contribution that female business owners make to the UK economy and is proud to work with organisations that promote women’s enterprise.
  

Hmm, not enough background in the title to convince you there? I better justify myself a little.

It's true that a number (probably a high proportion?) of girls, simply do not like playing with toys and gadgets, not many venture into engineering type careers (though that does appear to be changing). Personally, I find it incredibly difficult to imagine, being a nerdo geek myself, why anyone would not want to play with stuff, but then again I find it equally as hard to imagine why anyone would enjoy a more touchy feely type career, more traditionally represented by women, (I know I know I'm hit with a broad generalisation disease).

However, fact is that the majority of sound engineers (one of my themes) are in fact blokes. If you look at that Wikipedia link I entry I posted above you'll see that "Studio Engineers of note" are listed, and out of around 55 there is 1 women listed, I make that (back of fag packet calculation) to be 2% - great representation eh?

This is a crude sample of data, indeed, yet if we spent time and energy into more thorough research I'm pretty sure that picture wouldn't change much. I've worked as a sound engineer, and I've taught the subject in Universities and also in my own Audio School, and it's always the same picture, 1 in 10 of a group are of my preferred gender preference.

So do tell me, if you claim to be a geek (or aspire to be one), why don't you want to make records, huh? Bad career for women who desire families and babies, bad social life, what is it?

Oh and regarding the title, come to MediaCampLondon on July 5 and show some girls how cool it is to be a geek, It's taking place at an audio college!

Over the weekend I was talking to Sarah about the developer day events; and how she had pointed out that DDD Ireland had an all male "cast" of speakers. She's of the opinion that it's because call for speakers aren't announced widely enough; I'm of the opinion it's because the ratio of developers who are willing to speak versus developers that just want to attend is already very low; thin that further with the ratio of women to men in the industry and we have a very small number indeed.

However; just to widen the net a little;

The call for speakers for DDD7 is now open; if would like to give a talk, whether short grok or longer presentation style, at DDD 7 on Saturday 22nd November 2008 please complete the short form.

We are opening the form early to give everyone a chance to think about a topic that you are passionate to share with the community. So whether you are a regular speaker on the community circuit or just want to share your knowledge and experience for the first time with others - we welcome you to submit your session proposals.

And just for giggles this year there is the chance to give a micro presentation;

inspired by the runaway success of Pecha Kucha - the "20 slides/20 seconds each" presentation format created in Japan a few years ago. It’s an incredibly exhilarating, creative experience for both presenters and the audience. Presentations are auto-timed; presenters are up against their own wits and skill to talk for 20 seconds before before their slide automatically moves to displaying the next!

A DDD event is the ideal "first time" experience for anyone wanting to present at a conference; the abstracts are voted on by the community; so there is no mysterious committee somewhere in the shadows who decides in some unknown way that you won't be speaking.

Currently 'on my hols' in SFO , I took the opportune moment as a Girl Geek to head on over to the Moscone Centre for infiltration of Apples WWDC conference and to catch a glimpse of the expected next gen iphone. Hoping that this time Apple would get things like 3G and camera capabilities right, myself and HOARDS of other geeks were not disappointed.

I can now say that i have seen the new iphone 3G, nay nearly touched it! And its a beautiful thing. But then Apple got that part right first time round.

So what about the spec?
Finally Jobs has taken on board the essential need for 3G connectivity and GPS. Plus its smaller, or rather thinner, than its already outdated counterpart and comes with a flush headphone jack (no need for an adapter after you've paid for superior headphones this time round). AND a better battery life. What more could a Girl Geek want?...

Oh, it comes in different colours too; well the 16GB model comes in white as well.

Retailing at $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the geek essential 16G sister; this time round Apple has ensured the iphone is more affordable. Not cheap by any standard, but at this price it will give Nokia a run for their money. Goodbye n95 I'm bored of you already!

BUT if you're not on hols in the USA you'll be pleased to know the iPhone will be available in 22 countries from July 11th and the rest of the countries, up to a total of seventy, in coming months. Then there's always the Apple store that deliver right to your door. Tempting!

btw, thats me in the rather fetching shorts, looking smug in proximity to new iphone... What can i say i'm a Girl Geek Apple Groupie
:-)

The UK editor of Vogue has spoken out about how she deplores any kind of plastic surgery. Talking on Radio Four's Woman's Hour, Shulman identifies the ‘Guinea Pig Generation’ as women who have put themselves at risk following procedures that only ten years from now we will know the consequences of. So, as far as technology has propelled women’s position in what has been the traditional male-led working world, the technology led nips and tucks hide a more gender specific state of associations. The message: Women must be, and use everything at their disposal to stay, young and beautiful. What does this mean for the glass ceiling of the gender barrier; have we broken through or not?

Now we all want to look like Atomic Kittens

Do we? It is not difficult to have an awareness of the pressures on women to ‘look’ young and beautiful, even if on the inside it is OK to stay old and ugly. I recently came across the latest campaign from Dove aimed at ‘real women’ that reveals the ‘touch-up’ processes and how the perception of beauty has been distorted. Ironically, have you ever seen an ‘ugly’ Dove model. ‘Unconventional’ perhaps (they are not size 0), but certainly not ‘average’ by any standard, pre or post the magic touch-up pen.

I have no problem with someone wanting to look their best. And the amount of moisturiser that is sitting now on my dressing table is evidence that I’m as seduced by the beauty industry that cater to my own sense of appearance and that advancements to indulge myself a tweak here and there. According to l’oreal I am ‘worth it’ after all. With this in mind, I would find it hard to defend a position like Shulman’s that deplore’s cosmetic surgery. I may be going to the gym for ‘healthy lifestyle’ reasons, but a big part of this is as much about how I look (fit and toned) as how I feel (fabulously hale and hearty) and there are synergies here with the aesthetic and superficial side of things.

So does there come a time when we should Stop, and take stock of ‘what we have’. Certainly this seems far sooner in a woman’s trajectory than a man’s. And is there a divide between ‘acceptable’ technologies; the creams, lotions and potions from Boots against the unacceptable and more intrusive face of knife pointed technology. Perhaps in ten years time our faces will all look like each other anyway so it won’t matter who has had what. But that would make a Facebook profile page very boring.