Girl Geek Dinners

Margaret Cobb Speaker Bio for December 4th Holiday Dinner

Our December 4 Holiday Girl Geek Dinner is almost here!

We’re excited to have Margaret Cobb as our speaker.

Margaret Cobb, Director of Internet Explorer Consumer Product Management

Margaret Cobb is a wife, mother, sister, daughter and Director of Internet Explorer Consumer Product Management.  She’s been at Microsoft for over 13 years in various functions including Xbox LIVE Product Management.  The last few years at Microsoft she’s spent understanding female consumer audience trends. Specifically, how much money do women control and spend and where do they spend it?  As marketers what can we do to capture the interest and buying power of women worldwide?  Margaret is a graduate of Michigan Tech University where she earned her degree in Mechanical Engineering.  It was working as an engineer that she realized that many of the latest innovations in technology just didn’t resonate with the average female. For over 20 years she’s been working to demystify technology and capture the interest of female consumers.

It looks like we’re going to have a great turnout for this dinner, and we hope to see you there, too! Don’t forget to let us know you’re coming by registering for this dinner at Eventbrite!

Amplified 2008 :: The Future of the Book

Amplified 2008

Amplified 2008, a ‘network of networks’ event bringing together entrepreneurs, creatives, digital media practitioners, and geeky types, was held from 4-8pm on Thursday, 27th November 2008 at NESTA’s offices by Chancery Lane. NESTA did a great job of hosting the event, also providing much-needed refreshments throughout. Amplified 2008 attracted around 200 attendees, followed an unconference format, and covered a wide range of topics, some of which are summarised on the Amplified Wiki. Congratulations to @sleepydog @joannejacobs @DT @loudmouthman and @sizemore on bringing together such a diverse range of people and stimulating some great discussions.

A session of interest to me — as an obsessive reader who absorbs fiction/non-fiction in any form readily available while also collecting first edition children’s books and so appreciates the book as fetish object — was the ‘Future of the Book’ session that had stimulated some debate on Annie Mole’s Going Underground blog, and has been a topic of interest in pop culture for decades, it seems. I’ve posted my notes from the session, below, which I hope might be of interest. Below these notes I’ve also made some suggestions for the dream eReader which it would be fantastic to have your ideas about, perhaps we can send these ideas to a mobile lab so they might start producing the types of eReaders we’d like to use (and not in pink)!

The Future of the Book (rough notes)

Held By: Annie Mole, Billy Abbott, Chris Meade
Details: 4.30-5.10pm session in T2 @ NESTA

Future of the Book :: Introduction & Overview
Annie Mole

Annie sees many reading on the tube each day, wonders if people will be reading differently in 5 years. In November 2005 saw her first eReader (size of the Asus Eee) and yet she’s still not seeing many people with eReaders on the tube. She believes the eReader-centric reading future may not be quite as near as 5 years away. We’re used to seeing scary titles such as ‘The Death of the Book’ (”Publishers are braced for the slow death of the book”, February 13, 2008, Times Online) – often there’s a book vs eReader discussion where it’s considered one will die and the other survive – why can’t they co-exist?

Phillip Pullman currently protesting against a school librarian being surplus to requirements – this has stimulated debate. Whatever happens to books, we still need guides around libraries – in Annie’s blog comments on this topic a contributor made the point that “a library without a librarian is like an internet without search engines”. You can’t make sense of that much information without having someone to guide you through it.

Consuming Books – does the device matter? As long as people continue to read, that’s the primary concern, whatever device they use to read? Whatever you may think about the Richard&Judy bookclub, it’s managed to get more people reading than many similar initiatives in this country (as has its inspiration, Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club internationally).

Entertainment on the move (books versus movies versus gaming) – much discussion is around portability of our entertainment on the move, not necessarily about books. There’s no reason that future media can’t incorporate story-rich elements, for example, ARGs have amazingly complicated storylines, and if children are able to embrace those worlds through gaming that’s equally valid.

Future of the Book? :: Books ain’t dead
Billy Abbott

Tablets with writing on them have over 8000 years of history, it’s quite extreme to suggest books will be replaced by technology overnight. eReaders have only been pushed to the mainstream in the UK for the past few months (Sony readers are currently priced around £200), though for about a year in the States. eReaders vary from Sony readers to full laptops (Asus Eee etc) – there are portability advantages and ease-of-transfer, for example Billy bought Stephenson’s hefty Anaethem in Sony eReader format, while Sizemore has shown him graphic novels on the iPhone. Some eReaders also incorporate interesting interactive elements, for example the ‘Blue Book’ (as shown in a YouTube video uploaded by account simonwardley) enables readers to play with the story, when can flick through the Blue Book printed book and press on particular page sections the ‘book’ triggers blue-tooth connections between the book and your personal laptop nearby and enables readers to interact with their computer.

Re. publishing costs breakdown, distribution and printing total around 2/3 of the cost of producing any individual book, therefore eBooks really should be cheaper. Publishers are currently working on how to price these, however the cost of books isn’t actually about printing&distribution, it’s really about how much consumers are willing to pay. Some retailers are using pricing as an advantage, for example, Sony is selling Anathaem for £8 (my note: the only version available in print, hardcover, currently retails for £20). Similarly, Charlie Stross & Cory Doctorow give books away for free (Accellerando.org was given away by Charlie initially) and are leading the field in different models of author-public interaction and purchasing models.

The Future of the Book Think Tank
Chris Meade

Chris started paying more attention to eReaders/similar following his becoming depressed by the idea of books as objects. Books, in Chris’s opinion, shouldn’t so much be considered as objects so much as an experience through a certain type of platform. Chris recommended follow up on points made by Bob Styne who set up the Institute for the Future of the Book in the States.

As we transfer from page to web, we’re moving from the Gutenberg Press format just as the press moved from hand-printed publications. Gutenberg went bankrupt when he printed the first book (it cost as much as a farm at that time). Websites are becoming physical books – we get so caught up in the screen being the big issue – however we have to think about what a ‘book’ really is, and it would be useful to try to understand the concern people have about the ‘loss’ people are feeling about these changes.

In terms of the writer-publisher relationship – there is a new model emerging – writers may get excited about this as they progress.

Audience Member: Books were initially published through serial magazine publications. Similarly, science-fiction / genre fiction writers are published through those magazines in short form and then using that as the basis for honing their work.

Audience Member 2 – Currently publishing his own work as PDF and focusing on encouraging a community around that work.

Audience Member 3 – How is Piracy affecting the industry?
Chris – Unless someone is buying a work there’s no point in piracy copying it – so it doesn’t change the issue for the majority of works published on the web, but it does affect larger authors. Billy bought Stephenson’s work but actually read them on pirated PDF versions on his PDA.

The Amplified 2008 Future of the Book session provided a great overview with interesting insights into the various issues facing publishers and consumers of eBooks, and was supplemented by some wonderful photos from Annie Mole, documenting reading habits she’s observed on the London Underground.

The Perfect eReader

Further to the great discussion stimulated by the above session and previous posts on Going Underground, I’d like to contribute a starter wishlist for characteristics of the Perfect eReader (you know, kinda like Penny’s Computer Book in Inspector Gadget) – sure I’ve missed many useful features, all contributions welcomed:

• Ruggedised (eg. a plastic enclosure option similar to those already available for those who go sailing, for bathtime reading)
• Light
• Flexible
• Have a screen that opens like a book in the middle of a phone
• Adjustable to suit backlighting preferences etc.
• Instant-opening of eBooks, as we’ll wait only a few seconds for files to open
• Annotatable
• Universal format and DRM-free (eg. PDF)
• Cheaper than real books as distribution costs so low
• Content accessible to kids in developing countries – focus on linking OLPC, Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg etc.
• Don’t want to separate them from other devices – make the reader either an add-on device for existing phones or build into phones
• Possibly enable people to share annotated versions simultaneously so all can share ideas and comment on each other’s point sharinginfo. Ideally a virtual mobile library connected to friends, with friends checking out annotated versions of each others books, imagine the insights shared. This could be started quite readily with a mobile-friendly site linking to out-of-copyright books from Project Gutenberg) that would be fantastic.

As I previously commented at Annie Mole’s Going Underground blog, this topic really isn’t an issue that affects a great proportion of the population at present, however if those in undeveloped countries continue as previously, moving straight to mobile devices (skipping PCs) and absorbing their personal information requirements in that form, with those in developed countries similarly move to smaller and smaller OLPC/Asus Eee style laptops before similarly skipping to amped-up PDAs for day-to-day information needs, then it does seem to be the direction we’re moving in. Many don’t mind how information is delivered, as long as it’s accessible – and books beat most formats for one-to-many efficiency (save text files & MP3 for those of us who don’t mind consuming our info. electronically) — what with books being sold without chains&padlock or ‘this book will self-destruct within a month of reading it’ DRM bombs as most eBook/non-MP3 format publications are currently sold to the few of us who put up with their rubbish.

In any case, only 57% of UK homes currently have broadband (as of earlier this year), presumably it’s mostly those with broadband who bother with eBooks/audio versions (save those who still use CD walkmans), so until we start sorting out mobile phone screens & delivering Project Gutenberg out-of-copyright text through cross-platform readers, around 40% of the UK population won’t find electronic formats very useful at all – perhaps this is exactly what we need to do…

Næsti tæknitátufundur

Okkur langar til að biðja ykkur um að merkja strax við í dagatalinu að þið ætlið að koma á Arctic Girl Geek Dinner þann 11. desember klukkan 18.

Að þessu sinni verður umræðuefnið björgunartátur og hvernig tæknin er nýtt í björgunarstarfi.

Við erum að vinna í því að ganga frá fyrirlesurum og húsnæði og þið fáið fundarboð með nánari upplýsingum þegar nær dregur.

Nú, fyrst þið eruð með pennann á lofti við dagatalið þá skulið þið líka merkja við 15. janúar en þá verður janúarfundurinn.

Hlökkum til að sjá ykkur!

Change of plans: December – Less Political, More Authentic

Girl Geek Dinner

	Girl Geek Dinner There have been a number of Girl Geek Dinners held throughout Europe and now finally also in New York City. itgemgirl.onsugar.com The events are aimed at providing a welcoming atmosphere and a platform for learning in an informal environment. We aim to hold a New York City Girl Geek dinner every 3 months.	From: ITGEMGIRL Views: 35 0 ratings
	Time: 01:45	More in Science & Technology

Girl Geek Dinner in NYC

	Girl Geek Dinner in NYC NYC Girl Geek Dinner Premier Sponsored by:ThoughtWorks is a global IT group with an exclusive focus on end-to-end global software development and delivery. girlgeekdinnersnyc.com	From: walton5 Views: 1148 4 ratings
	Time: 01:59	More in Science & Technology

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane – Dinner 3

This month we’re going to mix it up a bit and have a "Coffee and Chic Flick" night.  We’ll meet at the Cafe next to the Southbank Cinemas for a coffee and chat and follow it up with a movie.

Thanks to Lisa for suggesting Australia – AUSTRALIA is an epic and romantic action adventure, set in that country on the explosive brink of World War II. In it, an English aristocrat (NICOLE KIDMAN) travels to the faraway continent where she meets a rough-hewn local (HUGH JACKMAN) and reluctantly agrees to join forces with him to save the land she inherited.

Register for the event here: http://girlgeekdinnersbrisbane03.eventbrite.com/

Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinners #2

From the Frankfurt GGD Website:

Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner #2 is only 2 weeks away and we want to invite you to join us!
 
Please view our Online Invite.  Links to our blog and the *Official* site can be found on the online invitation as well.

If you are interested in sharing your skills and/or experience (be it career or hobby – and not necessarily limited to the technology industry), we would love to hear from you. If you would like to sponsor a Girl Geek Dinner or parts of it we would certainly love to hear from you.

The Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinners (FGGD) is committed to providing the women of Frankfurt/Rhein-Main area, interactive and engaging dinner discussions. We are looking for motivated speakers who want to share their experience, insights, wisdom and knowledge to groups – for empowerment.

It is often said that ‘technology drives the future’ and yet, it is the very nature of human behavior to constantly try to surpass previous boundaries. The world is changing vastly and it is essential that we work together to understand and learn how best to cope with these changes. Attend our dinners and you won’t feel left behind by technology.

Let’s find positive and useful ways to use new media to improve our lives at all levels. Join us on Monday December 8, 2008!
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at contact@frankfurtgirlgeekdinners.com.

Our Warmest Regards,
The Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinners (FGGD)
Note: Men are welcome to attend but the general rule is: Guys can come ONLY if they bring a girl.

A dinner with Dave Thomas

Come along for dinner, a drink and an opportunity to hear Dave Thomas speak.

Other groups have had to share his time but he is enthusiastic to speak to GGD Sydney members.

Dave Thomas is best known as the founder and past CEO of Object Technology International, Inc., now IBM OTI Labs. OTI was responsible for initial development of the Eclipse open source IDE and the Visual Age Java development environment.

He is a popular, humorous, albeit opinionated keynote speaker with a unique breadth of business experience and technical depth. He is widely published in software engineering literature. Dave remains active in various roles within the technical community including ECOOP, AOSD, JAOO, Agile Development Conference, OOPSLA Onward, ENASE and Dynamic Language Symposium. He is an adjunct research professor at Carleton University and the University Of Queensland as well as a founding director of the Agile Alliance, an ACM Distinguished Engineer, President of AITO and an advisor for IEEE Software. He also writes an expert column in the Journal Of Object Technology.

Montreal Girl Geek Dinner December: Patricia Tessier & Michelle Blanc: A Digital Plan for Quebec/ Un plan numérique pour le Québec

The Montreal Girl Geek Dinners is extremely proud to announce December’s Dinner with “blogeuses extraordinaires” Patricia Tessier and Michelle Blanc.

You’re Invited! #2 Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner

An invitation to a Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner is always OPEN.
You can view our ONLINE INVITE for more information.
For updates and details, please visit our Official Site.
If you have any questions or would like to know more about Girl Geek Dinners in Frankfurt you can send us an email at contact@frankfurtgirlgeekdinners.com.

Girl Geeks Not Immuned to the Concept of BUSY.

Our 1st Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner was a success. October 2, 2008 came and went and all of a sudden November creeped up unannounced. How unfair is that?!
As much as we would have loved to host a November Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner the concept of *busy* kept coming up over and over again until it [...]

Sign up for the December GGD at Eventbrite

We’re already seeing a great response to our announcement of the third Seattle Girl Geek Dinner, scheduled for December 4. Be sure to check out the Eventbrite page and let us know you’re coming!

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices division is sponsoring our Holiday Geek Girl Dinner.

Date: 12/4/08
Time: 6:30pm -9pm

Place: Microsoft, Westlake Terry Bldg
320 Westlake Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98019

Check back here for details on our fun events and speakers! Hope to see you there!

Batteries not included:- A beginners guide to building robots with Emily Toop

When: 2nd of December 2008 starting at 7pm

Where: Star & Sailor, 121 Western Road

Cost: Registration is online, payment is optional. (Guys can come as an invite of a girl).

Join Emily to get a chance to learn about robots! The evening will include a bit of history, some examples of *cool* stuff, some tips to get started on building your own and finish off with having a play.

And for afterwards there will be food up for grabs.

You must register and spaces are strictly limited.

TGGD #9: Innovation Round Table with Connie Crosby, Sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers

The 9th Toronto Girl Geek Dinner, sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, will feature a discussion about how we, as leaders in our respective areas of technology, can continue to innovate during tough economic times.

Connie Crosby has agreed to facilitate our discussion.

Some of the topics Connie will cover include taking smart risks, using a downturn as a catalyst for innovation, finding a solid strategy, and the opportunities for people inside organizations and for entrepreneurs.

Connie helps organizations and individuals start their social networking and knowledge management projects. She is an expert in social networking, communication and information organization. Connie has acted as a leader in the Canadian legal and library industries, blogging, writing and speaking to lawyers and librarians, and has connections with social media innovators around the world. She is an instructor with the Professional Learning Centre at the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, teaching continuing education courses on social networking tools. She is also a teacher with the Special Libraries Association Click University.

To wrap up our Toronto Girl Geek Dinners for 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers has graciously agreed to pick up the tab for everyone’s dinner. We all thank them for their generosity are thrilled to have them on-board and participating in our event!

p.s. I’m thinking about using some new community tools for TGGD next year. Meetup.com is on my short list. Please let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.

Seattle Girl Geek Dinner No. 3 on December 4, 2008

We can’t let 2008 leave without another Girl Geek Dinner. So save the date: December 4, 2008, we’ll have our third Seattle-area Girl Geek Dinner.

This dinner will be sponsored by Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division, and will be held at the Westlake Terry Building in Downtown Seattle.

As soon as the time and additional details are finalized, we’ll post them here and on our Facebook Group.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Vetrardagskráin

Fyrsta tæknitátukvöldið var stórvelheppnað. Um 20 tátur mættu og blönduðu geði.  Við þökkum fyrir síðast og hlökkum til að sjá ykkur á næsta tátukvöldi.

Talandi um það þá er hér dagskráin fyrir veturinn:

Desember:  Öryggistátur – Fjallað verður um notkun upplýsingatækni í björgunarsveitum.

Janúar: Hefðartátur og ungtátur – Þær sem ruddu brautina og þær sem eru að bætast í hópinn segja frá sinni upplifun.

Febrúar: Listatátur – Fjallað verður um notkun upplýsingatækni í listum.

Mars: Rannsóknatátur – Hvað eru tátur í akademíunni að rannsaka?

Apríl: Lífstíll tæknitátunnar – Tölvutöskur, farsímar, tölvur etc fyrir tátur.

Maí: Frumkvöðlatátur – Tátur sem hafa stofnað og rekið sín eigin fyrirtæki lýsa reynslu sinni.

Listinn er örlítið breyttur frá því sem tilgreint var á kvöldinu (eitthvað skolaðist til í minni fortáta fyrir fundinn).

Hljómar spennandi, ekki satt??

Undirbúningur fyrir næsta fund er að hefjast og við sendum ykkur stað og stund eins fljótt og við getum svo að þið getið farið að skipuleggja ykkur.

Montreal Girl Geek Dinner: November: Building a Gaming Rig with Janina Szkut

Welcome, all you Carolina Girl Geeks!

Welcome to Carolina Girl Geek Dinners! We are inspired by the original Girl Geek Dinners and our mission is to create an informal platform where technical girls of all ages can network and learn from others alike. This is a group of women in IT who are interested in networking with other women in IT. The idea is to get a group of women who work in technology together to discuss their experiences and exchange ideas in a comfortable, non working environment.

Girl Geek Dinners are organized all over the world and we are the 5th group in the United States! The events are typically held in restaurants, bars or other common meeting areas and there is usually a speaker who talks for a short while on a chosen subject for the evening followed by networking and good times! Our events will be held in Charlotte, NC.

Are YOU a girl geek?

Girl Geek: A female who has an interest in technology, particularly computing. Not necessarily technically minded.

Stay tuned for more information on the 1st Carolina Girl Geek Dinner event…

Until then:

• Continue to visit this site for updates
• Visit us on Facebook
• We are looking for all your ideas on making this a great opportunity for local technical women to meet - if you have any input or suggestions, contact us here!

We look forward to meeting you! Until then, continue to be a proud girl geek!

Sydney Girl Geek November Dinner @ Bungalow 8

When: Tuesday 18th November @ 6pm
Where: Bungalow 8 on King St Wharf
Booking: Under the name Damana

Come along for an informal unsponsored dinner with all your can eat mussels at Bungalow 8 on King St Wharf.

Come early to hear Pia talk.

You don’t have to eat mussels if you don’t want to. There is a menu with non-seafoody food.

It’s at the end of the wharf, right down the other end from the Cargo Bar.

RSVP on the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52257756880

If you are not on Facebook, email me to say you are coming. I’ve only booked for 10 based on previous responses but will extend the booking if more people are interested.

>100 tæknitátur á Facebook

Vá! Tæknitátugrúppan á Facebook hefur stækkað langt framar vonum og í morgun gerðist sá merki atburður að meðlimir grúppunnar urðu fleiri en 100!

Svakalega erum við flottar

Viljum endilega hvetja ykkur til að koma sem flestar á fyrsta tæknitátukvöldið á þriðjudaginn kemur!

Nú líður að fyrsta tæknitátukvöldinu – látið orðið berast!

Hér er auglýsing fyrir fyrsta tæknitátukvöldið.  Endilega sækja, prenta út, senda og deila með öllum tæknitátum sem þið þekkið.

Sjáumst á þriðjudaginn!

Fyrsti Arctic Girl Geek Dinner-inn

Það er ekki eftir neinu að bíða svo við blásum nú til fyrsta Arctic Girl Geek Dinners-ins næsta þriðjudag 11. nóvember klukkan 20:00.

Umræðuefni kvöldsins verður tilurð félagsins en Kristín Sólveig Kristjánsdóttir mun halda stutta tölu um hvernig hugmyndin kom til og af hverju hún fann sig knúna til að standa fyrir stofnun klúbbsins. Í framhaldi af því mun hún kynna dagskrá vetrarins sem er nú þegar orðin smekkfull og gríðarlega spennandi.

Brynja Baldursdóttir verður fundarstjóri kvöldsins.

Staðsetning: Veitingastaðurinn Balthazar (áður Victor), Hafnarstræti 1-3, önnur hæð.

Fyrirkomulagið verður með hefðbundnu sniði, þ.e. aðgangur er takmarkaður við 1000 krónur sem felur í sér einn drykk og Balthazar býður upp á léttan matseðil fyrir þær sem vilja. Ef þið þekkið tæknitóta sem vilja taka þátt þá eru þeir velkomnir í ykkar boði.

Eftir viðtökurnar á Facebook erum við gríðarlega bjartsýnar að sjá sem flestar! 

Hlökkum til!

UT konur efla sköpunarkraftinn

UT konur standa fyrir mjög athyglisverðum atburði þann 5. nóvember eða eins og segir í tilkynningu:

*Kæru UT-konur! *
Við ætlum að koma saman miðvikudaginn 5. nóvember og eiga skemmtilega og notalega stund saman þar sem við lærum að efla sköpunarkraftinn undir handleiðslu Guðbjargar Gissurardóttur.

Guðbjörg hefur áralanga reynslu af því að vinna með skapandi og frjóa hugsun og verður því spennandi að fá hana til liðs við okkur.

Guðbjörg ætlar að kenna okkur að efla sköpunarkraftinn til gagns fyrir okkur sjálfar og þá sem eru í kringum okkur. Þetta er líka skemmtileg leið til að læra að vinna á skapandi hátt með málefni í daglegu lífi jafnt í vinnu sem heima.

Svo erum við allar konur …. og eins og staðan í dag sýnir okkur er verið að setja konur í ríkara mæli í ábyrgðarstöður…. þannig að það er ekki úr vegi að efla þennan kraft sem í okkur býr enn frekar til að takast á við það sem í vændum er.

Dagskrá kvöldsins verður í grófum dráttum þannig í tveimur liðum:
–        Hvernig nýtum við sköpunarkraftinn daglega í starfi okkar
–        Prófum að nota aðferðina til að koma með nýjar hugmyndir að því hvernig við kynnum ungu stúlkunum störf okkar/starfsumhverfi

*Staður og stund:*
Háskólinn í Reykjavík, miðvikudaginn 5. Nóvember kl.20:00-22:00.

Fjölmennum og endilega takið með ykkur vinkonur ykkar í UT-geiranum

Stjórn UT-kvenna
**

Meira um Guðbjörgu:
Guðbjörg Gissurardóttir útskrifaðist frá MHÍ sem grafískur hönnuður 1990. Hún fór í meistara nám í “communication design„ í Pratt Institute, New York og hefur starfað við grafíska hönnun og auglýsingar bæði á íslandi og NY. Guðbjörg hefur kennt “skapandi hugsun„ bæði í LHÍ og í Pratt. Ásamt kennslunni hefur hún haldið fjölda fyrirlestra og námskeiða fyrir fyrirtæki og einstaklinga, þar sem sköpunargáfann er í fyrirrúmi. Árið 2003 gaf hún út matreiðslubókina “Hristist fyrir notkun” þar sem fólk er hvatt til að nota sköpungargáfuna í eldhúsinu.

Guðbjörg starfaði í tæp þrjú ár sem framkvæmdastjóri Hönnunarvettvangs, sem var kynningar og upplýsingamiðstöð fyrir íslenska hönnun, eða þar til janúar 2008. Í dag er Guðbjörg í fæðingarorlofi.

Tæknitátur ættu náttúrulega ekki að láta sig vanta.

Stofnandi Girl Geek Dinner: Sarah Blow

Stofnandi fyrsta Girl Geek Dinners-ins og leiðbeinandi okkar í gegnum þetta ferli heitir Sarah Blow.  Hún er hugbúnaðarverkfræðingur sem vinnur einkum í hugbúnaði fyrir farsíma og þráðlaus samskipti. Hugmyndin kom til í ágúst 2005 

Hún er persónulega til stuðnings fyrir alla þá sem vilja stofna Girl Geek Dinner klúbba og vill veg þeirra sem mestan.

Meira um Söruh Blow.

Viðtal við hana á BBC Worldservice núna í október 2008.

Fagmannleg hegðun, atferli og framkoma kvenna

Októberfundurinn hjá Girl Geek Dinner í London bauð upp á frábæra fyrirlesara sem fjölluðu um konur í upplýsingatækni og hvaða kröfur eru gerðar til þeirra varðandi hegðun, atferli og framkomu.

Flestar eigum við sögu af vandræðalegum uppákomum sem rekja má til þess að kyn okkar hefur valdið einhverskonar uppþoti. Liðsheildaræfingar þar sem ekki er gert ráð fyrir bæði konum og körlum. Fyrirlestrum um klæðaburð til kvenna þar sem virðist vera í lagi fyrir strákana að mæta í fermingarjakkafötunum. Undarlegar athugasemdir á útlit eða kyn og svo mætti auðvitað lengi lengi telja.

Við mælum með að þið horfið á vídeóið.

Tæknitátur (girl geeks)

Þegar við ákváðum að stofna Girl Geek Dinner á Íslandi rákumst við strax á það að við vissum ekki hvað við ættum að kalla okkur.  Girl geek hafði ekki verið snarað á íslensku og við tengdum ekki við orðið 'kvennörður'.  Á íslensku má alltaf finna svar, kvað skáldið og þess vegna þurftum við að geta nefnt okkur.

Brynja Baldursdóttir tæknitáta býr svo vel að vera dóttir Baldurs Sigurðssonar íslenskufræðings og hún bar erindið undir hann.  Hann brást vel við og eftir nokkra rannsóknarvinnu stakk hann upp á orðinu tæknitáta.

Við vissum strax að okkur langaði að vera tæknitátur og eftir því sem við bárum orðið upp við fleiri tátur þá sáum við að þarna fundum við samhljóm.

Rai 3 Neapolis – Girl Geek Dinners

	Rai 3 Neapolis – Girl Geek Dinners puntata del 14 ottobre 2008	From: coco1x Views: 480 4 ratings
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TGGD #8 Talking Personal Brand with AmberMac

At last week’s Toronto Girl Geek Dinner Amber MacArthur lead a fantastic discussion about creating and managing your personal brand. A huge thank you to Amber for coming out to talk with us. Thanks again to our sponsors from the WHIR. Thanks also to Kate Trgovac, President of LintBucket Media, for the donation of our door prizes.

Amber had a few tips to get the conversation started:

• When you build your online brand, get involved in at least five social sites/services -, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Delicious. She suggests Squarespace is a good publishing system for personal websites.
• Use the same name or your own nickname consistently so you create equity in your brand.
• Put your URL on everything (online and off) and list it everywhere. Make sure everything links back to your site.

Our discussion was lively. Here are my notes. Feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.

Q: How do you deal with negatives, like haters or trolls?
A: Respond to every comment. Remain calm and in control and recognize there may be some truth in the comment. Try not to get discouraged, but the most important thing is to respond.

Q: Is it important to join a new social network service just to claim your name?
A: Yes, I think its important. You should also own your own name as a domain name. If you can’t get your name exactly, get creative with middle initials, nicknames, or other options.

Q: How do you the draw the line between accepting followers and saying what you want?
A: You may want to keep private things private, but be careful of splitting your audience into too many groups. Don’t discount your social circle as a big helper of building a brand.

Q: Is there a diplomatic way to refuse a friend request?
A: I don’t think there is a diplomatic way. Use the limited profile feature where you can.

Q: It is important to monitor your personal brand online?
A: Yes, you follow up to say thank you, nurture relationship and comment back.

Q: Should you be controversial on your blog to drive traffic?
A: Sure, being controversial will drive traffic. If that’s the way your write, you’ve got to be true to your spirit. Some people can’t force it. It can help, but not if it isn’t sincere or authentic.

photo: AmberMac Website 2008 via insidetwit

Girl Geek Picnic in Barcelona

Are you going to TechEd Developer Barcelona? Do you think of yourself as a Girl Geek and fancy catching up with other like minded Girl Geeks?  If so then grab one of those packed lunches from the dining hall at TechEd Developer on Friday 14th November and then come and joining us for some girl geek speak? All you need to do is sign up:

If you would like to do a speech or host a discussion then please mail your suggestions to sarah at sarahblow.com and I’ll see what I can do to make it happen.

Please note that this is only an hours session so please turn up as soon as you can as we won’t be able to wait for slow coaches!

On this occasion due to there being very limited amounts of space availabile we are limiting this event to the girl geeks only.  However do follow our Twitter Feed  http://twitter.com/techedgirlgeeks

We’ll also have details of any fun meetups in the evenings etc on our twitter feed too!