Grace Hopper Bloggers

We are on this Journey Together

2011-12-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

My heartfelt thanks go out to all of the women and men who made the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference a resounding success. It’s amazing how one conference can be so energizing! I was fortunate to attend and participate in several of the conference events.

GHC 2011’s theme of “What If…” was timely – What if we asked for forgiveness instead of permission? What if we used our collective wisdom more collaboratively and effectively? Women make more than 70% of consumer buying decisions. What if we used our voices to influence the products we build and buy? What if we delivered the best products and the best user experience bar none? What if we used our collective buying power to influence what we won't buy?

For those of you who have had the good fortune to attend GHC, take the professional development skills that you developed at the conference and put them to work. Practice your elevator speech, hone your brand, and bring your highest self to work every day. As Sheryl Sandberg put it, “Lean in.” Reach out across corporate and organizational boundaries. Pick up the phone instead of sending email. Build relationships and break down boundaries. Pay it forward, and reciprocate when someone reaches out to you. Use reward systems appropriately to thank those who have helped you hit a major milestone, blow past a roadblock, or facilitate collaboration. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

As you bask in your GHC experience, consider reflecting on the conversations and topics that you found most engaging. What sparks of interest were ignited? What would make next year’s conference even better? What new connections did you make? Now is the best time to jot down those ideas, and send a brief email to people you met that you’d like to collaborate with on a topic for next year, and get started. The 2012 GHC “Call for Participation” will go out in January 2012, and your proposal submission offers a tremendous opportunity to network, share your expertise, your passion and your career path with up-and-coming talent; talent we’d love to bring to our organizations. The theme for GHC 2012 is “Are We There Yet?” This too, will be an opportunity as a community of women in technology to consider what work still needs to be done. As technical thought leaders and change agents, we set the bar for generations to come. We can all put our unique experiences, perspectives and collaborative skills to work to make our companies more agile in a world that is ever-changing.

One more parting thought: If there was one person in your organization that you could bring with you next year, male or female, who would it be? In addition to female leaders like Patricia McDonald of Intel and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, senior male leaders from many companies were present, visible and welcomed: Justin Rattner of Intel, Alan Eustace of Google, Gabriel Silberman from CA Labs, Mark Bregman of Neustar, Mike Shroepfer of Facebook, Tayloe Stansbury of Intuit and Bill Laing from Microsoft. Justin, Alan and Mark serve on the Anita Borg Institute Board of Trustees. Gabriel and Bill participated as panelists for a plenary session, “Partnering with Executive Leaders for Shared Vision and Career Growth”; Mark, Alan, Mike and Tayloe participated as panelists for a session “What If… There Were More Women in Technology? The Business Case for Diversity.” To “get GHC”, you have to “go to GHC.” It’s an experience like no other – especially for men, who are in the overwhelming minority. It takes a strong male leader to move out of his comfort zone for three days of participation, having candid yet engaging conversations over a spectrum of topics, but the rewards are incomparable. Conference participation also creates an awareness of the challenges women still face and opens opportunities for real insights about what it is like to be a woman in technology. We are key to change in our companies, but we need more male leaders to step up and spend time listening to us and learning from us. We are on this journey together.

East or West - GHC is the best!

2011-12-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

If you had told me last year at GHC 2010 in Atlanta that about one year later I would be sitting in Bangalore attending the 2nd annual Grace Hopper Conference India, I wouldn't have believed a word of it. But here I am, one of the few lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend GHC on two different continents!

I first heard about GHC through my fellow WISE members at Carleton University in Canada, where I was completing my Masters while working in the telecommunications industry. GHC 2010 proved to be a great learning and networking experience and when I made the decision to move to Bangalore this year, I regretted what I thought would be the lack of such forums for women in computing here in India. Cue the pleasant surprise at the fact that GHC India had been launched in 2010 and that planning was underway for the 2011 edition. I immediately got in touch with the folks at ABI and they were able to find a way for me to be involved as a volunteer. Woot!

In just half a day's worth of keynotes and sessions, I am already finding that the essence of the conference remains the same whether it be in the US or in India - a celebration of the achievements and capabilities of women in computing, a conference with superior sessions on technology, management, and personal/professional development, and, most importantly, a forum for technical women to meet each other.

I'm so glad to be back at GHC and am looking forward to all the next two days have in store!

I will be blogging and tweeting(@shrutsats) throughout the conference as well as posting session notes on the conference wiki.

What to Pack for GHC North America

2011-11-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

Whether it's your first Grace Hopper Celebration or your fifth, every conference is a new experience, so we've put together a short list of "must pack" items to make sure that you come prepared for this year's conference in Portland!

1. Umbrella and Rain Gear We're expecting rain in Portland in November, so be sure to come prepared with an umbrella, rain coat, boots, or anything else that you need to keep yourself dry on your way to and from the Oregon Convention Center.

2. Layers, layers, layers With outdoor temperatures in Portland currently predicated in the range of 41*F to 52*F (5*C to 11*C) for the conference days, and the convention center indoor temperature set to 72*F (22*C), you'll want to have plenty of layers to keep warm and adjust accordingly. During our planning trip in August, we found the convention center chillier than expected, so you'll want to have layers to wear indoors as well.

3. Business Cards and Resume
In order to follow up on those connections you'll be making at the Grace Hopper Celebration, be sure to bring along your business cards. Take stock now to make sure you have plenty and then don't forget to pack them in your bag. And be sure to bring copies of your resume to have on hand when you visit exhibit booths and speak with sponsors.

4. Comfortable Shoes
With packed conference days, you'll want to have comfortable shoes to keep you on your feet and walking around the convention center. You'll also want to be sure to wear comfortable shoes to Sponsor Night on Friday so that you can dance to our DJ!

5. Camera
Capture all of the memories--don't forget to bring your camera to the conference.

6. Laptop... Or Just Visit the Cyber Center
Many attendees choose to bring their laptops to the Grace Hopper Celebration, and there will be free wireless internet sponsored by Juniper Networks. If you decide not to, you can access the internet and use a computer at the Cyber Center in Exhibit Hall C, sponsored by the Anita Borg Institute.

Are there any recommendations you would add?

Your GH11 Presentation is Ready -- Now It’s Time to Practice

2011-11-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

I’m guessing that most of us have pretty much completed preparations for our Grace Hopper presentations, right? For myself, I have thought a lot about my audience and I’ve made decisions about how much I will be able to say -- and say well -- in the hour that I have been allotted. What now? My presentation is on Friday. I’m done, right? Well --- now it’s time to practice.

There are two fundamental ways to practice: 1) silently and 2) aloud. The first way involves a review of your presentation in your own head. We all do this a lot before we present because it helps us feel comfortable with our story and because we think that we will be less likely to forget what we want to say if we go over and over things in our minds. It is easy to practice this way because we can give ourselves a silent presentation anywhere and anytime.

The second way of practicing asks more of us and leads to different results. I will be very direct here -- I believe that you must practice your talk aloud in order to deliver an authentic and well-paced presentation. And you must practice in a way that simulates the context in which you will speak. (It would probably be ideal if we could all practice giving our talks to a real audience in a real meeting room, but most of us are not that lucky. No worries -- make a commitment to practicing aloud and know that you are preparing yourself for a great result.)

Find a space where you can set up your laptop and project your visuals. I have practiced this way in my living room where the visuals are projected on the wall; and I have practiced this way in a hotel room. Even if you are not able to project the visuals during your rehearsal, you can set up your laptop and use it in the same way that you will use it during your talk. Being comfortable with the physical things you will do during your presentation is very important -- almost as important as being familiar with your story.

Practice introducing yourself and getting into the talk; practice moving around; practice your gestures; practice with the laser pointer if you will use one; figure out when to advance to a new visual and practice the verbal transitions; see how it feels to look around to all parts of the room; play with volume and speed. Also be sure that you time yourself during your rehearsals so that you know where you are and where you want to be during each section of your presentation.

In addition to practicing aloud in a “real” context, you can practice aloud to an invisible listener while riding your bicycle, while cooking, while in the shower. You will be able to hear the speed, the pauses, and the flow in a way that you cannot hear these details when the story is a silent one. Any time you speak aloud, even to yourself, you are incorporating the physical and sensory aspects of presenting, and you are preparing yourself for the real experience of transforming thoughts and ideas into a spoken story.

Have fun with your preparations and rehearsals. I will see you next week in Portland!

Getting the Most out of Twitter for Grace Hopper!

2011-11-02T16:31:00.000-07:00

I admit it, I'm addicted to Twitter. The social media site where you can share your thoughts in 140 characters or less. This tool is a very powerful one for conferences. It's a great way to connect with other people you're attending sessions with, follow along on a another session you just couldn't make it to, and capture great quotes from speakers.

This year at the conference, there's only one official hashtag: #ghc11. Speakers are encouraged to suggest additional hashtags for their session, but we do ask everyone to always use #ghc11, as well.

As you can see on the Grace Hopper Bloggers site, we scroll the live #ghc11 feed on the right hand side. Another great way to see what everyone is saying at the conference is to use TwitterFall and just watch all tweets tagged with #ghc11 scroll by in a tab in your browser.

You can also use your Twitter client to follow the Twitter list of GHC11 attendees.

I've been able to meet up with like-minded women in the industry when I've seen a woman tweet about an evening meet up in a nearby bar or restaurant. This is a great way to network and meet new people. To make it easier to meet people, update your profile picture to something recent.

If you've already got a slew of followers, you may want to let them know you'll be going to a conference, so your tweet volume will increase greatly. A lot of my followers, though, enjoy participating in the conference vicariously through my feed.

If you're new to Twitter, check out Ashley's post to the blog last year that will help you get set up and teach you all of the Twitter lingo! (Note: we don't have all those other hashtags mentioned in last year's post, we've simplified!) BJ also had a great post on Twitter, too.

You can find the official Grace Hopper Twitter account at @ghc and me @bubbva. Stop in and say "hi" to us!

PhDoula: Five do-overs since my first Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing

2011-11-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

This post originally appeared on the blog PhDoula and is re-posted here with permission from the author, Alexandra Holloway.

Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing is an annual event bringing together thousands of women from different technical computing specialties and at different stages of their career. Attendees include undergraduates considering computer science as a major, graduate students choosing their research direction, recent graduates looking for a job, women in industry, professors, researchers, and recruiters. It is a diverse, funky, exciting, inspiring, and nurturing environment of two thousand women, all of whom are smart, brilliant, beautiful, and different in their own right.

This year will be my fourth time attending, which makes me a Grace Hopper veteran. I first heard about Grace Hopper Celebration from my room mate from CRA-W Grad Cohort -- a similar but much smaller mentoring program for graduate student women -- when I asked my room mate how on earth she knew all these people. She was saying "Hi," calling people by name, and giving hugs to everybody!

"How do you know everyone already?" I asked her.

"Some women I know from last year's Grad Cohort," she replied. "But some women I see basically twice a year: at the Grad Cohort and then again at Grace Hopper Celebration."

"What's that?" I asked. Casually hiding her surprise that I had neer heard of Grace Hopper Celebration, she explained it to me, and that night in our hotel room I looked it up and bookmarked it.

When Grace Hopper Celebration came around that year, my advisor asked if there are any women that would like to go, because our university was a sponsor and received a few spaces for student attendees. Of course, I replied immediately in the affirmative, and off I went!

Now that I have been three times to Grace Hopper Celebration (this year will mark my third time as a contributor) and twice to the CRA-W Grad Cohort, I can look back on my first Grace Hopper Celebration visit a bit critically.

My first year, Grace Hopper Celebration was held in Keystone, Colorado, a small resort town situated in the mountains among an aspen forest. The trees were just starting to turn in ones and twos: blots of color among a sea of green leaves. I was driven from the airport in a shuttle and looked out onto the picturesque landscape with wide eyes. I was young, impressionable, and pregnant.

Yup, I was about 24 weeks along in my pregnancy. I knew I was carrying a boy, and I had just returned from a trip abroad -- a delayed honeymoon -- before having time to buy clothes that fit me. My belly had just started getting too big for my pants. It happened so suddenly that I was ill-prepared, wardrobe-wise, for the change in my figure. I was a hot mess, unbuttoning my jeans and praying that my fitted t-shirts did not bust into holes stretched over my growing belly. When my mother saw me at the airport on my return from Grace Hopper, she was shocked at my fashion sense, but at the time, I figured that is just an extension of the typical graduate student lifestyle. Right? Please tell me I am right.

Anyway, back to the point -- I could have done a better job. As an early(ish) graduate student, my main role was to be receptive to mentoring and to meet people that would help me in my career path. I see that now, in hindsight, but at the time I did not recognize these goals. Here were my top five mistakes from the first year. Every year I go back, I get a do-over and do my best to avoid these.

Do-Over #5. Eat lunch and dinner.

At CRA-W Grad Cohort, one of the rules was that no two women from the same university could sit together at lunch. You had to learn to network, and to meet other women. But here, at Grace Hopper Celebration, there was no such rule, and even if there was, there is no way to enforce it with 2000 attendees. So attendees would sit with the people they knew more often than not, and I, seeing this social norm, followed suit. Not a good idea. Now I know that it is best to sit at a table where you know no one. Even better: sit at a table where you know no one, and everyone is different from you. Is everyone older? They have more experience. Is everyone younger? Maybe they have questions. But if everyone is exactly like you, there is no way you can broaden your experience. Challenge yourself.

Do-Over #4. Use the room mate.

I was at Grace Hopper Celebration on an underwriter scholarship, and, like all scholarship recipients, I had a room mate. Actually, in this year, we were in a three-room cabin in the mountains of Keystone, Colorado, and I had two house mates. My house mates were amazing. They asked me about pregnancy and married life, about the proverbial work-life balance (as if there is one), about what I will do once I have the baby (hint: stay in school). On our last night in Colorado, we all went shopping to the outlets nearby and my lovely room mates bought me a shirt that actually covered my entire front. Maybe it is silly, but I was moved.

But most of the day, my house mates (who knew each other) would be off on their own, and, in pregnancy-related discomfort (more on this later), I left them to themselves. I did not go to see their posters at the poster session; I did not ask for introductions to other women; I did not sit with them and their colleagues at lunch. But this was wrong. Use your room mate (or room mates, if you are lucky enough to have two) -- use them as mentors if they are more experienced at Grace Hopper Celebration than you are; use them as friends if they are new like you; use them as a sounding-board for your elevator pitch for your research.

My room mates approached me on the second day and said, with a sly grin, "We are thinking of taking a drive up to the summit, instead of one of the sessions. Are you in?" I considered for a moment, wondering if it is OK to skip sessions, and if we could leave the conference grounds without arousing suspicion among the organizers. Hesitating a little, I said that it sounds like great fun, and that I would certainly come.

As we arrived to the summit, the weather shifted dramatically, from cool and clear autumn to cold and foggy winter. Not another person and not another vehicle was within sight: it was just us. It began to snow in large, fluffy flakes. The electricity in the air made our hair stand straight up, and lightning bolts noiselessly crashed all around us. We giggled and photographed and huddled in our insufficient jackets -- and bonded. We formed relationships which would survive the test of time and geography -- relationships we could later fall back on in our professional and personal lives, because we had this shared experience.

Do-Over #3. Couch potato networking.

During the course of Grace Hopper Celebration, my baby, whom I called Galahad ever since knowing I was pregnant, grew as well. I would like to think it is because of my rock hard abs that, one day into the Celebration, I started getting rib pain. My ribs were expanding to fit my high-carried fetus and I was in pain from the pressure in my ribcage from about noon until I went to bed every night. I did not tell anybody (except my amazing room mates) because I had never enjoyed complaining, especially to strangers. Even strangers that are there for the express purpose of caring for and mentoring me.

Half the day, my ribs would hurt so much that I could not sit up. Sometimes I would go back to my room and lie down; other times, I would sprawl out sideways on one of the low arm chairs in the conference area and try not to moan. Both of these were missed networking opportunities. Now I see that it is OK to sprawl in pain rather than attend a session, as long as I am doing something to further my career.

See, I had no idea where my academic career was going. Here I was, not even half-way through my first pregnancy, not even two years through grad school, and with no idea where my research interests were. Every class I took was fascinating for the first three weeks; every project I undertook was interesting only for the first half. I knew I was a fantastic teacher but had never undertaken any serious research project. I knew I wanted to be a professor eventually -- but a professor of what? How do you find the one thing that really turns you on?

These are all questions that, though they cannot be answered by someone else, they can point you and your mind and heart into a direction. Other women's experiences can influence how you experience yourself. Maybe I am getting a little hippy-dippy. But my point is that I was not using this time to the best of my abilities. I could have been meeting women in a higher position than myself and asking for advice; I could have been meeting my future mentor; I could have been learning with others, rather than suffering alone!

Do-Over #2. Tell your secret.

Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones talking, but I posted an anonymous advertisement on the bulletin board:

Looking to connect with other pregnant graduate students and those with kids.

I added my e-mail address and hoped for the best. The truth is that I did not know what I was looking for. Support? Advice? Encouragement? I did not have any concrete questions but I wanted to know that I was not alone, that my experience was not unique. In some ways, I suppose, I wanted validation. I wanted someone to say, "I know things will get rough, but you can do it, because I did it." Though I did receive a few notes, mainly by other participants pinning replies to the same bulletin board, I never replied to them, in part because I did not know what I wanted to say, and in part because I did not want to give away my secret.

I had only told my room mates, and mentioned it once at lunch. One of the women, another student, lit up: "Do you have maternity leave at your university?" I answered honestly that I did not know. She persisted: "You know, it should be covered by the union. They bargained for it just last year. It is brand new this year. You should look it up." After lunch, she and I both went to the computers and found the relevant sections. She was glad to help me, and I was glad for the help, because until then, I had never considered my rights and my future as an employee of the university.

It was not until the last hour of the last day, when several of us were loading the bus, that I told one more person about my pregnancy. She was a young woman with a large baby, and introduced herself as a professor. We chatted briefly about pregnancy, and exchanged information. It seemed so natural and inconsequential at the time -- especially as I had such a reverence for professors because of what I now see was mild impostor syndrome -- but I was calmed by her easy nature and friendly manner. This small event which I had put out of my mind as an impossibility because of the difference in rank, this easy exchange of words and information, this event was probably the best thing that happened to me at Grace Hopper Celebration that year. Today, the professor who befriended me continues to mentor and support me through my final years of graduate school. I told my secret to the best person I could possibly meet.

Do-Over #1. Meet the speakers.

I had attended a great many talks, but one in particular still speaks to me today. It was a talk I had heard before, at CRA-W, given by a graduate student that had changed direction several times in the course of her studies. She was explaining the same feelings I was having: She would take an introductory class and enjoy it immensely, but not enjoy the follow-up class. It took her a long time to find a dissertation topic. She explained several ways that dissertation topics come into existence: the extended course project, the advisor's list of unfinished work, the stroke of genius, and others. She struck me as someone I would love to be friends with -- but she was so smart! so accomplished! What would I have to offer by speaking with her?

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Now that I am also a speaker at Grace Hopper Celebration, I know that speakers are people too. I love it when people attend my talks, and I love it even more when they stay afterwards to tell me that the talk was useful to them, my nervousness did not show, or even that my animation skills in the slides were top-notch. Which, I assure you, they are not. I love it when people tweet about my talk. I love it when people come to ask me for advice, or ask for my contact information in the case they have questions about something I said. I love just knowing that someone, somewhere, was affected by my talk.

I did approach this particular speaker, and I told her that I had heard her talk before and I really admired her. She was surprised: "What, me?" Laughing heartily, she chatted with me about grad school, clearly expressing that she considered us equals. She and I are still friends today.

Since then, I make it a point to meet every speaker that inspires me. Even if she is the president of some fancy corporation, or the first author of an influential paper, or simply the woman that said something that really resonated with me. I introduce myself and say, "What you said just now, I really took to heart. Thank you for a great talk." If we happen to meet again, I can say, "We met at Grace Hopper last year. I loved your talk." This usually leads to an invitation to join her lunch table, which -- by the way -- I always gladly accept.

Getting the Most Out of LinkedIn at GHC11

2011-10-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

LinkedIn is a great way to connect with other professionals, but what if you're a student with little or no experience? I covered the basics of setting up a good LinkedIn profile last year, but some of my suggestions didn't always work for students.

Good news! LinkedIn has added some new features this year to make it easier for students to have a more complete profile than ever before.

The basics still apply: add a photo, use your full name, add your educational experience. All of those things will make your profile look more like it's owned by an actual human, and not a spam bot, which will make people more willing to connect with you and interact with you on various groups. Also, it will make it easier for someone you've just met at a conference to know, in fact, that your profile matches up with the person they just had lunch with.

If you're a student with little experience, you can still list what type of work you're interested in doing in your summary. You can add a section that lists your favorite courses. You should expand on what some of your favorite courses were and why. You can do this in the summary. Don't just say that you enjoyed your data structures and algorithms class, but talk about how you loved figuring out what the Big O value was for various algorithms, for example.

LinkedIn added volunteer positions and causes this year. Do you tutor high school students? Or help out in a middle school computer lab? Add those to your profile.

Did you get a patent for that work you did with a professor? There's a place for that, too.

LinkedIn has a new section for linking to papers and publications you may have written, as well as a section for honors, awards and organizations.

And don't forget about the skills section!

The more information you have on your profile, the more likely people are going to be to accept you to groups and be willing to link in with you. I love to link up with people I meet at Grace Hopper, as it's a one stop shop for who they are, where they went to school and where they are currently working. It's just a great way to maintain your professional contacts.

And once you get everything set up, join the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology group and the Grace Hopper Celebration subgroup.

Did I miss anything? What new features of LinkedIn are you getting the most value out of?

Keeping up With Facebook for GHC 2011

2011-10-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

With all of the new features and security options facebook now offers it is difficult to know what your options for staying safe, yet utilizing the social network to its fullest extent. The easiest way to see all of the security features available to you is to check out the info graphic released by facebook below, see the facebook security page for a better view of this graphic.

Which of these security features are important and how can you still be visible professionally while at GHC11? Just remember a few simple guidelines before sharing on our facebook page :

Never give your password out to anyone
Never post personal or financial information on a wall or discussion, if you need to share this information do it through a direct message
Be wary of those with incomplete profiles, on a side note, if you are signing up for a facebook account for GHC11 socializing make sure you complete enough information so that it will be useful to socialize with. More on this in next weeks post.
Never make your screen name the same as your email addresses

Do you have some more tips about being safe while social networking on facebook? Post them here in the comments and share.

Until next time!

Charna

Organizing Your Talk for Grace Hopper 2011

2011-10-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the task of organizing a talk seems more challenging than the material that you will talk about. Here are some things that might be helpful as you prepare your Grace Hopper 2011 presentations -

1. Story

Compose a logical story for your audience. Select the precise body of material you want your audience to learn and “know” as a result of attending your talk or panel -- include only the content that is directly applicable to this particular talk. Divide your story into the sections that you will cover, like “introduction,” “concept 1,” “concept 2,” “questions and answers,” and so on.

2. Backward buildup

Backward buildup is a way of thinking about your talk from the perspective of what you would like the audience to understand by the time you finish speaking. Distributing your content in the backwards direction ensures that your story ends where and when you intend, that each section is balanced and builds to the conclusion, and that the story in its entirety “fits” within the time you have been allotted.

Working backwards from the end of your talk, assign a chunk of time to each section of the story. Work all the way back to the first minute of the talk. Example - “My total time is 1 hour. I want the audience to understand 5 aspects of rhetorical positioning -- audience, purpose, genre, tone, and style; I want to discuss a sample text; I will end with questions and answers.” From the end of the talk to the beginning, the sections in the example talk are -

Section

8 Questions and Answers 10 minutes

7 Group analysis of a text 18 minutes

6 Style 5 minutes

5 Tone 5 minutes

4 Genre 10 minutes

3 Purpose 5 minutes

2 Audience 5 minutes

1 Introduction 2 minutes

60 minutes total

As you work through the backward buildup process, you may find that there is not enough time for all of the material you wanted to cover. If this happens, go back and delete the non-essential stuff, and repeat the backward buildup until you have a solid time plan that embraces your material. The sequence of topics in each section and the articulation across sections should have a logical flow.

3. Timing

All of the sections, including the question and answer period, must add up to no more than the total number of minutes allotted for your talk. When organizing the timing, you must account for possible technical problems, ideas that come to you in real time, and appropriate anecdotes, so leave some breathing room in your plan. Your talk should be thorough, interesting, and maybe even inspiring!

4. Selection of visuals

Go back to your story and the timed sections. Ask: “Are there any visuals that will help elucidate this section?” If no, move on and tell that part of the story without visuals -- audiences love this approach. If yes, then select only the visuals that advance your story. Maintain your love and attachment to other slides you may have prepared, but use only the slides that promote understanding and inspiration of your audience’s experience.

5. Visuals

The guiding principles when incorporating a slide into your talk is that the slide must advance your discussion, it must add an illustration and representation of an important concept, and it must be crystal clear. Each visual should be easy to navigate and understand from the point of view of the audience member. Don't crowd your slides -- “Less is more.” The language on each slide should be grammatically perfect; choose a font and use it consistently; build the slide from left to right and top to bottom.

6. Delivery

Have fun and don’t rush. Do not repeat -- keep things moving forward. And think about this perspective: You are the reason the participants are there; your connection with the material and with the audience is the important ingredient. It does not matter one bit if you delete a few details from your talk. It is more important to respond to questions and points of interest that the participants raise -- they have traveled long distances to learn from you and they deserve your direct attention.

7. Enjoyment

Your presentation experience at Grace Hopper 2011 should be as enjoyable for you as it is for your audience members!

Call For Volunteer Wiki Note Takers and Bloggers

2011-10-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

Will you be attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2011? Are you already going to be taking notes or blogging about the sessions you attend?

If you answered yes to these questions then consider signing up to post your notes or blogs for the sessions you are interested in. Here's how to sign up, it's super easy:

Head over to our wiki and create an account if you do not already have one.
Fill out your user profile by talking about what communities you plan on being involved in, see mine or Valeries for an example.
Head back on over to the wiki ghc2011 page and click edit on the day that you wish to sign up for a session.
Replace the Sign Up text with your name linking to your profile in the correct cell of the table for the session you wish to blog or take notes on. (Here is an example of how to link to your profile page [[User:Bubbva|Valerie]] replace Bubbava with your user name and Valerie with your name)
It is a good idea to preview your changes before saving them

And Voila! you are all signed up. We need to get as many of the sessions covered as possible so please take some time to figure out your schedule before the conference and sign up.

In order to give you an idea of what we are looking for, Note-takers will add their notes directly on the wiki using the wiki markup language, and these should be factual notes of what was actually said in the session. Bloggers will blog on their own blogs anything they like and edit the session wiki page to link to their blog from their.

If you do sign up, be sure to post your notes as soon as possible after the session because we have many followers who are not able to make it to this years GHC and we want to keep them well fed with new and updated content as the conference goes on.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Taking Advantage of Flickr for Grace Hopper 2011

2011-10-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Wanna know how to find all those photos people are going to take of you during the conference? Check out the Flickr GHC 2011 Group and the groups from 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010!

If you do not yet have a Flickr account it’s easy to set one up, after all why not share all the pictures you took with all of the new friends you are going to make?

Here are a few how-to's to help you get started with Flickr.

How to get an account on Flickr if you don't already have one:

Go to http://www.flickr.com/
Click on the "Sign Up Now" button
If you happen to already have a Yahoo!, Google or Facebook account you can login with those options, or if you prefer you can click “Create New Account”
Fill in the info and click "Create My Account" and follow any remaining instructions.

How can I upload my photos?

1. By email! Go to http://www.flickr.com/tools and get your very own private email upload address.

2. Through the website http://www.flickr.com/upload .

3. Download a mobile app! Go to http://www.flickr.com/tools/mobile and find apps for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, iPad, or any mobile device using the internet through m.flickr.com

What can I do with Flickr?

Add photos to your own profile.
Join and add photos to a group.
Link to or embed photos into other social media.
Edit photos.
Share photos and more

For additional details you can read last years GHC Flickr blog entry , take the Official Flickr tour, or leave comments on this post with specific questions. I look forward to seeing you all on Flickr.

Great Presentations

2011-10-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow presenters!

Those of us who will be giving talks at Grace Hopper 2011 are starting to think about what we are going to say and how we should prepare. We are checking our submission abstracts to remind ourselves of what we said we would talk about, and we are hoping to deliver on our promises to be worthy of the privilege of addressing a GH11 crowd. Some of us are thinking that we are a bit nervous about the whole idea of standing in front of an audience of brilliant friends and colleagues and sharing our ideas. What a huge responsibility, we think to ourselves. And at the same time, we think -- What a huge opportunity; and how much fun can this whole thing be for me?

For sure, there are a lot of details to consider when putting together a conference talk, whether we are a member of a panel of speakers or presenting by ourselves. And while a laundry list of reminder points is definitely not the way I think about presentation skills (I think about presenting a story as being much like a beautiful tapestry where many individual threads are woven together to produce a unique and creative work of art), perhaps it is helpful to mention some of these threads. So here are three things to think about as you begin your GH11 presentation preparations:

• Perhaps the most critical consideration will be the idea of what you will actually be able to talk about within the specific amount of time you have been given for your presentation. Choices must be made about what you must say to advance your story; which details are absolutely essential; which details are nice but not necessary to say because there is not enough time. Once you have made your choices, your story must be crafted so that it can unfold within your given time frame in a manner that is not rushed. So don’t try to tell a 90-minute story in 60 minutes by speaking faster and whizzing through your visuals. Work it out beforehand and stick to your game plan.

• Think deeply about your audience. Ask -- Who are they and how much do they probably know about my topic? Should I organize my story for a very narrow and specialist group or for a broadly defined group? The answers to these questions will guide you to prepare a story that has enough background and context so that your meaning will be clear. You may have to take time to explain some technical concepts that seem obvious to you but which may be new to many of your listeners. Remember that the people in your audience have traveled from all over the world and have made a choice to attend your talk. Return the respect by communicating a clear, logical, and interesting story that your audience members will understand, enjoy, and remember.

• We must partner our story with excellent delivery. Giving a talk is not simply a chance to unload a bunch of information. Giving an excellent talk is about connecting with your audience and sharing new knowledge that is meaningful to you and hopefully interesting and even inspiring to them. We can be excellent speakers by being as rehearsed and prepared as we can be, and by being our best, most excellent, enthusiastic, and authentic selves. Specifically, we must take care of things like volume; the clarity of everything we say, even the ends of utterances; eye contact; movement and gestures; how we face our audience, our laptop, our visuals, how we use notes to maintain at all times the connection with the audience; um-um-ums and uh-uh-uhs; how quickly or slowly we speak; and whether or not we smile even if we are nervous.

All of the ideas mentioned here are equally important and challenging for both native speakers of English and non-native speakers of English. Being a native speaker does not confer upon a presenter the privileged and automatic abilities of excellent story and excellent delivery. While our non-native speaker friends have the obvious huge hurdles of tackling the creation and delivery of a story in their second language, the underlying principles are the same as for native speaker friends. All of us have the same commitment to excellence and all of us strive to make memorable contributions to Grace Hopper 2011.

Finding a Job at the Grace Hopper Celebration North America

2011-09-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

The Grace Hopper Celebration is a great place to find a job or internship. The conference features a three-hour Career Fair with over 70 recruiting organizations, as well as exhibit booths that are open all conference long and interview booths for job and internship positions. If you are looking for your next internship or job position, here are some tips to make the most of your conference experience.

1. Update Your Resume: Showcase yourself and your accomplishments on your resume. Make sure that is up to date and reflects all of your current experiences and skills. Check out our article with tips on preparing and optimizing your resume.

2. Upload Your Resume to the Resume Database: Sponsors are now beginning to access the Resume Database, so upload your resume now if it's not there already. Conference sponsors look through the Resume Database to find candidates to interview for job and internship positions while at GHC. Don't miss out; upload your resume today.

3. Visit Exhibit Booths and Bring Printed Copies of Your Resume to GHC: Talk to company representatives, find out about open positions, and learn about daily life at these organizations during the Career Fair on Wednesday, November 9, from 7 pm to 10 pm. Stop back at sponsor booths on Thursday and Friday to speak again with recruiters, ask questions, and make an impression. Be sure to bring printed copies of your resume, as well as business cards, with you to hand out to recruiters.

4. Refer to the Conference Job Book: The GHC Job Book is your guide to the organizations recruiting at the conference. The Job Book features company profiles and details about open positions, desired education level of candidates, and more. The Job Book will be published before the conference, so familiarize yourself with it before you arrive at GHC, pick out several organizations to target, and come prepared. We'll feature an article on the Job Book in the newsletter when it is published.

5. Network: With over 3,000 attendees expected at this year's GHC, you will have the opportunity to meet technical women and men from many organizations, in various types of positions, with different specializations. You never know who you might end up talking to or where that connection could lead. Be proactive about meeting other conference attendees. A connection you make at the conference could lead to your next friendship, professional collaboration, or job position. We'll be running an article about networking closer to the conference, so watch for more tips about mastering the skill.

For those of you who have found work at previous Grace Hopper conferences, what advice would you add?

A View from the GHC 2011 Panels, Workshops, and Presentations (PWP) Co-Chair

2011-08-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

Anticipation is building for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2011 Conference! The “What if?” conference theme sparked many, many fascinating proposals. I was fortunate to serve as industry co-chair with Elizabeth Jessup (University of Colorado at Boulder). The challenge for our committee was to whittle down the two hundred or so proposals that spanned a wide range of topics to a bit over forty. I’d like to share some insights into the process and seed some preparation for this year’s attendance.

Diversity in participants/perspective

One of the biggest challenges that the Anita Borg Institute faces each year in preparation for GHC is how to best serve the community of women in technology. We have amazing participation from women who serve in a variety of roles across the spectrum of technology. Industrial attendees come not only from computing and IT backgrounds, but also from financial, insurance, defense, and banking industries, at all rungs of the organizational ladder. Computing itself spans many academic disciplines, including biology, medicine, engineering, and education, and we have undergraduate, graduate, and faculty representation, including many distinguished academics. We have K-12 teachers who are dedicated to bringing computing into the classroom and fundamentally changing the way the world thinks about computation. We have international as well as national participation, and thus our community is quite diverse. That is the beauty of GHC – it is truly a celebration of women in computing. Whether you consider yourself technical or not, whether you are industry, government, defense, entrepreneur, academic or K-12, whatever your gender -- we put our differences and self-interests aside and unite into a community that spans across boundaries, languages, cultures, technologies, and disciplines.

Our tasks as PWP co-chairs and the review process

Liz and I had to first and foremost assemble a sub-committee of PWP reviewers, done in late 2010. We invited women from across industry, academia, and national labs to participate. We chose both senior and junior women, national and international, PhD students, and women of color. Several of our reviewers were working mothers (some very recently so), juggling motherhood, work, and a desire to contribute to the conference in a meaningful way; all have served mentors and advocates, and are very active in their fields and communities. Serving as a reviewer came with a commitment to review around twenty proposals each and provide useful feedback (with a bit lighter load for the new moms). Liz and I did our best to match assignments to skill and interest sets, and our committee worked diligently after the submission deadline in mid-March to hit the review deadline in mid-April. Liz and I took a first pass at the rankings to group proposals into one or two specific tracks and set a bar for acceptance. After feedback and review by the committee (both via email and teleconference calls), we had a program ready to be reviewed by the GHC Steering Committee, who made the final decision on conference content.

One of the first insights into this role was the challenge of assembling a diverse set of panelists and presenters on a short timeline. Second was making good assignments, and third was once the ratings were in, how to put topics that would appeal to a large enough number of attendees into relevant tracks, and together, form a cohesive and engaging program. This is where preparation for GHC 2011 comes into play. You might have had a proposal that was not accepted for a previous conference, but with a bit of tweaking and some diversity, networking, and collaboration, you could turn it into a successful GHC 2012 submission.

Getting the most from the actual conference

The program schedule has been published and one of the things we recommend doing in advance is to plan each day of attendance. Add the sessions you are interested in to your calendar with enough detail so you can make a decision quickly (add the list of panelists, the room, and the abstract; you might consider double or triple booking a time slot). Identify people you would like to meet, and familiarize yourself with the layout of the conference rooms so you can move from one session to another in a timely manner. Make time to sit with people you don’t know rather than staying within the comfort zone of your cohorts or colleagues. It’s just as important to listen as it is to share your voice. Offer your experience, insights, and sometimes, even a shoulder to lean on. Learn from the experiences of others and share these experiences upon your return so that the collective wisdom continues to grow as our communities grow. Take with you your newly expanded network to develop a proposal for GHC 2012.

If you think something is broken, help us fix it!

It was a difficult process to choose program content, because what is best from one perspective may not be best from another. There were many proposals that we agonized over, as we strived for balance across many viewpoints. Harder still was sending out letters of rejection, and responding to specific inquiries, hence our desire to add transparency to the process of identifying compelling conference content. GHC 2012 will bring new opportunities to participate on a variety of committees and in a wealth of roles. Identify a role you would be interested in exploring and talk to us, to the GHC staff, and to people you trust and respect. Roll your sleeves up and make a commitment to sharing your insights and concerns, growing our community, and improving the offerings for next year. We invite your feedback and participation. Help us make GHC even better next year!

Three Ways You Can Take a Deserving Applicant off the GHC Scholarships Waiting List

2011-08-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday 178 happy applicants received the news that they are receiving scholarships to attend the 2011 Grace Hopper Conference to be held November 9-12 in Portland, Oregon. However, another 150 applicants received the news that they are on the scholarship waiting list, dependent on additional funding. That's why I'm taking the unusual step of doing a fundraising post here on the GHC blog.

There are three ways that you can help take a deserving applicant off that waiting list:

Ask your organization to sponsor one or more scholarships.
Make a donation in any amount to the GHC scholarship fund when you register for Grace Hopper North America 2011.
Make a donation in any amount to the Anita Borg Institute and specify that it's for the GHC Scholarship fund.

Why should you invest in a GHC scholarship? If you've been following our Scholarship Spotlight posts on the conference website, you know that these scholarships are high-impact:

Kiara Williams' work as Student Coordinator for the Indiana Celebration of Women in Computing (INWIC) led to a scholarship to attend Grace Hopper 2010 in Atlanta. The help she received on her resume at GHC 2010 led to interviews and a job at Microsoft.
Amantha Lott is minoring in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) so she used her scholarship to attend sessions on the HCI track at GHC 2010, including a tour of the Georgia Tech HCI facility.
Inspired by GHC 2010, Valentina de Rosa helped launched a gender issues commission at her university in Italy. Participating in the conference also led to interviewing for a dream job with Google.
Nanditha Iyer has been an active member of the GHC India planning committee since it began. Her scholarship to GHC 2010 in Atlanta helped her get accepted for graduate work at Georgia Tech.

No donation is too small. I'll keep you posted on how many additional scholarships we are able to fund. 150 deserving applicants are waiting for your help. So what are you waiting for?

Thinking about stories and why you write

2011-08-12T11:40:00.000-07:00

At last year’s Grace Hopper Conference, I organized a panel that focused on the vital connection between the everyday work of computer scientists, engineers, researchers, industry professionals, and academicians, and the mastery of excellent written and spoken communication skills. The topic of the panel was a direct expression of my own experience teaching Academic Writing and Great Presentations at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Columbia University in New York -- It is crystal clear to me that our potential to affect change, mentor, and lead is directly aligned with how well we are able to develop and apply our language abilities.

Let’s begin with writing, and look at both what we write about and why we choose to write in the first place.

When I first started to teach academic writing, I would say to the students --- “The single most important part of the writing process is the writer’s understanding of the story she wants to tell her readers. But you all know the stories of your research work, so we won’t spend much time here -- Let’s move on to other issues of the writing process.” So on we went to discuss other ingredients of excellent writing, like audience, genre, transitions and flow, introductions, data commentaries, abstracts, word choice, grammar, editing strategies, and so on.

It didn’t take long for me to see that my assumption about “knowing the story” was not accurate. Many of us, and perhaps all of us at one point, struggle with the precision of our topics. What is the context for my story and where does my specific contribution fit in? What are the details that are necessary so that a reader will know what I mean? What is the best ordering for the unfolding of these details? What can I leave out? Where am I going with all of this -- what is my point?

Well, now I spend a lot of time talking about stories in my classes. In fact, my view is that it is the unhesitating commitment to your story that is the foundation for the clear communication of your ideas, and without this clarity in communication, you cannot expect your readers to understand your meaning. And why else do we write if not to communicate a specific meaning to our readers?

So having a story to tell is the key ingredient for the writing process. Decisions we make about what to say, how to organize our ideas logically, how to glue the ideas together so there is a flow, which specific words and phrases capture the precision that is required, how serious or humorous or collegial we want to sound and so on -- are decisions made for the sole purpose of advancing our story; making our point; and presenting our ideas so that our readers can follow our meaning and learn, be motivated, be inspired.

But how we approach the actual writing requires another kind of understanding. In my view, before we make the commitment to share our knowledge and ideas through our writing, and before we sit down to compose, we must look at our philosophy of writing. It is vital to examine your thoughts and convictions and develop a personal writing philosophy. You will rely on your philosophy to drive your approach to your composing, and you will find that you will always go back to your personal philosophy as you reflect on each and every choice you make as you write your story for your specific audience of readers.

Consider these questions:

1- Why do you write?

2- Why do your readers read?

3- What does it mean to create meaning and knowledge?

4- How does your writing contribute to the creation of meaning and knowledge?

5- What gives a paragraph its strength?

6- If your intentions in writing are, for example, to inform, motivate, challenge, expand, create meaning, create knowledge, and so on, what principles should you embrace in your writing? For example,

• Clarity - Why is it important in your writing and for your readers?

• Precision in word choice, logic, and expression - Why are these principles important in science writing?

• Readability - What is it and why should we care about it?

• Organization - Is there only one Way?

7- What does excellence in writing mean for science writing?

These questions ask you to consider a number of very important ingredients of excellent writing, including such things as audience and the type of reader you will write for; your purpose and intent; the language you choose; the flow and development of your argument; the standard of excellence that you embrace and the respect that you are willing to extend to your readers. All of these elements are deserving of your careful reflection, so that when you sit down to write you have a clear orientation and framework for the hard work of composing, redrafting, and refining of your story.

Going forward, my idea is to look at The Art and Craft of Writing and Speaking -- to consider some of the universal characteristics of written and spoken discourse that will be useful as we prepare for the exciting events of Grace Hopper 2011. So take some time to contemplate your feelings about the world of words -- and excellence in communication.

‘Amazing Grace’ Hopper’s 2011 Milestones

2011-08-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

This post by Bill Doughty originally appeared on the Navy Reads blog and is reposted here with Bill's gracious permission.

If she didn’t invent the computer revolution in the United States, Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper gave it a voice – and a language in which to communicate.

“Amazing Grace” Hopper (1906-1992) played a pivotal role in developing COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) and creating FLOW-MATIC (the first data processing language to use English).

She promoted computer standardization for the Navy with the Air Force and eventually throughout DoD. A lifelong inventor who preached common sense, she considered herself a discoverer rather than an inventor, according to Kathleen Broome Williams, author of Grace Hopper – Admiral of the Cyber Sea, recommended by the Navy Professional Reading Program.

Always unconventional in her thinking, Hopper scorned the customary and traditional, was impatient with the status quo, and approached problem solving with instinctive innovation.

In 2011, and especially in August, there are some significant Grace Hopper milestones to remember:

Eighty years ago, 1931, Hopper began teaching at Vassar College.

Seventy years ago, 1941, she earned a faculty fellowship at Vassar. On Dec. 7, 1941, there were no women serving as commissioned officers in the Navy, but Hopper wanted to joint the war effort. She became one of the earlyWAVES – Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service – during WWII and began working at Harvard on the Mark I computer (which was formally dedicated Aug. 7, 1944).

At the time, the few computers that existed in the world were the size of a room and were known as “computing machines.” The term “computer” was used for the women who operated the machines, entering data to generate calculations, according to Williams.

Sixty-five years ago, 1946, Hopper was promoted to lieutenant, recognized for her computer programming skills.

Sixty years ago, 1951, she began working on the world’s first compiler, completing it the following year. A compiler is a program or set of programs that transforms complex source code into a simpler code. Hopper’s invention or “discovery” was a fundamental contribution to the evolution of computing.

Grace Hopper helped develop COBOL.

In Grace Hopper – Admiral of the Cyber Sea, Williams takes us through “Amazing Grace’s” career. The author shows us that the biggest challenge Hopper faced was an established bureaucracy’s resistance to change, but many leaders in the Navy began to fully embrace the potential of computing between 1950 and 1960. In the 50s Hopper and her team developed some of the world’s first compiler-based languages for programming: ARITH-MATIC, MATH-MATIC and FLOW-MATIC; by the end of the decade she was playing a key leadership role in developing COBOL.

Fifty years ago, in August 1961, Hopper was promoted and appointed director of research in systems and programming for the Remington Road division of Sperry Rand.

Forty-five years ago, 1966, as Hopper was about to turn 60, then-Cmdr. Hopper received a letter from the Chief of Naval Personnel, asking her to apply for a resignation from the Navy due to her age and length of service. When she then retired, Hopper called it, “the saddest day of my life.”

But, on August 1, 1967, the Navy recalled her from the Reserves to active duty. The computer age was accelerating.

Thirty-five years ago, August 1976

Hopper, who wrote curriculum for the Navy’s “A” and “C” schools (basic and advanced training) and set up an operational analysis division for the Bureau of Naval Personnel, was now a recognized leader in computer science and the information technology revolution.

Forty years ago, in August 1971, 12,000 copies of Hopper’s manual, Fundamentals of COBOL, had been sold – 25 years after she’d worked on the Mark I.

Williams describes Hopper’s principal role working with the Air Force, Secretary of Defense and Government Services Administration to standardize computer language throughout federal agencies.

On August 2, 1973 Hopper was promoted to Captain.

She continued to be a teacher, mentor and recruiter for the Navy in the 70s and early-mid 80s. Then, 25 years ago, on Aug. 14, 1986, Grace Hopper retired a second time, at the rank of Rear Admiral. Her retirement was held aboard USS Constitution in Boston Harbor. She was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal.

Twenty years ago, on Sept. 16, 1991, Grace Hopper was awarded the National Medal of Technology, the highest honor of its type in the United States. (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are other recipients of the medal, now known as the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.) Williams reports what President George H. W. Bush said at the time, that it was Hopper who “pioneered the revolution that put personal computers on the desks of millions of Americans – and dragged even this president into the computer age.”

The voice of Navy’s computer revolution was silenced when Hopper passed away on New Year’s Day in 1992.

Fifteen years ago, during the summer of 1996, Sailors – men and women – began reporting aboard a new guided missile destroyer bearing Hopper’s name. USS Hopper (DDG 70), “Amazing Grace,”was commissioned Sept. 6, 1997. The Arleigh Burke class destroyer, homeported at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hi, is equipped with state-of-the-art computerized systems.

Author Williams achieves both a history of the development of computing in the Navy and a look at the professional milestones of this dynamic woman whose voice continues to echo decades later.

On July 30, 2009 USS Hopper (DDG 70) launches a standard missile (SM) 3 Blk IA, successfully intercepting a sub-scale short range ballistic missile, launched from the Kauai Test Facility, Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), Barking Sands, Kauai. (U.S. Navy photo)

Bring a friend to GHC 2011!

2011-06-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you've attended GHC before, think back about the excitement and inspiration that you came away with from your first conference experience. Remember all the people you met? All the great ideas you thought of? The joy of finding that there were others like you with whom you could share your challenges and insights? Rediscover that first experience by sharing it with someone! If you've never attended, bringing a friend to GHC with you will allow you to find an ally with whom you can jointly seek funding or do fundraising, brainstorm what you want to accomplish, provide support for each other, and most importantly, help you build a community and network of collaborators and mentors that will sustain you long after the conference is over. Here are some ideas on how to do this.

1. Bring a protege. Let her see the wealth of women who are literally changing the face of computing. Let her hear the courageous and heartfelt stories from keynote speakers who are pioneers in their fields and have blazed a path forward. I took my 12-year-old daughter to GHC for three straight years, as noted in one of my earlier blog posts. We worked with her teachers so that she could make up missed assignments. She is now a sophomore in high school, and while she has decided that computing is not for her, she is keeping her STEM options wide open and is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program at her high school. She's developed her own identity and goals and I'm proud of the young woman she has become.

2. Consider submitting a proposal next year with a colleague, based on ideas that percolate during the conference. I worked with a co-worker new to my company to submit a joint proposal, naming her as the first author. We found a topic that we could share externally, iterated over the content, and submitted for the main technical session. While we got a reject for the main program, we were given an opportunity to present as a poster. This enabled us to seek financial support from our company to attend the conference and gain invaluable experience presenting our ideas to other attendees. My co-worker volunteered to work as a Hopper (gaining a registration discount) and served as a session mentor, where she was able to meet several of the presenters and grow her professional network.

3. Work within your organization to advocate for participation. If you are a student, work with your department and student organizations to identify sponsors and gather travel funds. Apply to volunteer as a Hopper at the conference, and get your registration fee waived. There are a variety of additional roles you can volunteer for at the conference, including note taking, blogging, tweeting, community work, and as a Hopper. If you are a professional, develop and present a plan within your organization for attendance and enlist previous attendees and management.

4. Invite a male manager, faculty, or colleague from your organization to attend. This may seem contrary to the notion that GHC is only for women. While a goal of GHC is to create an inclusive environment where women can share their concerns without fear, there is also recognition that we need to enlist male influencers, advocates, and allies in our organizations. It can provide a unique opportunity for your colleague to "walk a mile in another's shoes," so to speak. I've done this with a male manager from work, and it was effective. Being the minority both by gender and by race was a brand new experience for him. He told me that he tried to fade into the background, but women at the conference kept engaging him in conversation and pulling him into participating. The most common question he got was "Why are you here?" He was highly impressed with the intelligent, engaging, and motivated women he met, many of which were students. He came back to our site invigorated, and championed greater future GHC participation to our site management. He said it was the best conference he had ever attended, and actively worked to hire several of the students he met that were seeking employment.

5. Become an agent of change. Consider a role on the GHC organizing committee. I first became a volunteer as the Birds of a Feather committee co-chair in 2009, next as the Technical Poster Session and SRC committee co-chair and Intel Industrial Advisory board representative in 2010, and this past year as the Panels, Workshops, and Presentation Committee co-chair. The roles have grown my technical leadership and my professional network, but more importantly, they've grown my passion and dedication to develop content and best practices that address many of the fundamental challenges that women face in technology. These goals are in alignment with the Anita Borg Institute's mission: recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women. It is a balancing act -- working a full-time job, being a full-time parent of three children under the age of 16, and advocating as much as possible to bring the best ideas forward to each conference program. In an ideal world, I love to work with every author to ensure that they got the opportunity to polish their ideas, and to share their passion and contributions at the conference. While there is content that did not make the official GHC 2011 program, there are nevertheless many ways to deliver this content informally. Social networking tools offer the ability to schedule meetups -- to find a time and place at or near the conference to meet and create your own community.

My GHC experience has been invaluable to my personal growth, helping me define who I am and what I believe in, and bring meaning and satisfaction to my life. Inclusiveness, resourcefulness, persistence, and resilience have become part of my personal brand. I encourage you to take a close look at the conference program and share the experience with a friend by attending. Like I did, you might find that each and every year, you keep coming back for more, and not just for what you can gain, but for what you can contribute. Register now!

How to Contribute to the Grace Hopper Bloggers Via Your Own Blog

2011-05-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in writing blog posts for GHC, you will have to tag each post appropriately and determine the custom URL for an RSS feed with only those posts. Luckily, if you use one of the more popular blogging services, this should be pretty simple.

The tag you want to use will include ghc plus the year of the conference. For instance, in 2011, it will be ghc11. You can add other tags to your post as desired; just make sure to include this one as well.

If you use Blogger, you can get the URL by adding a little bit extra to the end of your RSS feed. The format for the feed is as follows:

http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/ghc11

If you use Wordpress, all you have to do is add "feed" to the end of any category or tag link. For example:

http://blogname.wordpress.com/tags/ghc11/feed
http://blogname.wordpress.com/categories/ghc11/feed

On Tumblr, you can simply add "rss" to the end of a tag link:

http://blogname.tumblr.com/tagged/ghc11/rss

Terri Oda wrote about how you can set up your feed for Dreamwidth, an independent, open-source community-centric service (if you haven't heard of it, check it out!). Here are the templates for your tagged posts:

http://blogname.dreamwidth.org/data/rss?tag=ghc11
http://blogname.dreamwidth.org/data/atom?tag=ghc11

Finally, on Posterous, you would add the tag info to the RSS URL like this:

http://blogname.posterous.com/rss.xml?tag=ghc11

If your blog has a custom setup, or isn't one of those mentioned above, then you'll have to do some Google-fu to figure out how to set up your feed. If you get stuck, try leaving a comment, and hopefully someone will be able to help you out.

GHC Codeathon for Humanity

2010-10-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

I wrote a post about the Codeathon for Humanity held at GHC this year for the Open Source Business Resource (OSBR), a publication of the Talent First Network, in which I talked about the great strategies used by the organizers to ensure maximum participation and engagement.

I’ve just returned from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Atlanta and had the opportunity to experience my first open source mini-codeathon and learn about the humanitarian open source project, Sahana Eden.

Sahana Eden is an open source disaster management platform that can be used in a wide variety of ways to provide organization on the ground in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

Read the complete post here. A special thanks to Terri Oda for the photos.

OSBR also has a great issue on Women and Open Source, which is worth the read.

After the Grace Hopper Conference: There's More!

2010-10-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to the success of the 10th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing! Whether or not you attended, you can benefit from the event and help us make the next even better.

Your Feedback is Important
If you attended the conference please complete the GHC10 evaluation survey. The survey data will be independently reviewed and analyzed, then used both to report on the impact of this year's event and to improve future conferences. If you can't find the email with the evaluation link, look for a reminder from ABI's Caroline Simard early next week.

Session Notes, Slides, Blog Posts
Our speakers, volunteers, and many attendees have been posting their notes, slides, supplementary materials and links to related blog posts on our GHC10 notes wiki. If you presented, blogged about or took notes at GHC10, add your content or links to the wiki, too.

Photos and Videos:

Our event photographer's photos on Flickr
Add your own GHC10 photos to our Flickr group
Watch and share GHC10 videos with our YouTube group
In the coming weeks watch for videos of keynote speakers Barbara Liskov, Carol Bartz and Duy-Loan Le

Stay Connected
Don't lose that great feeling of GHC community! Stay connected with the Grace Hopper Celebration Community through your Poken connections, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Systers and more. Get connected with the parent Anita Borg Institute Community for year round updates on ABI programs, research, and awards.

Save the Dates!
Mark your calendar for the Grace Hopper Celebration, November 8-12, 2011 in Portland, Oregon. Subscribe to the ABI e-newsletter to make sure you don't miss the Call for Participation, scholarship application deadlines and more.

Collaborative Risktaking and Innovation: Value Creation and Measurements

2010-10-09T03:34:00.000-07:00

I received quite a few requests from participants who attended my Collaborative Risktaking workshop on how to create and measure their value both internally (organizational) and externally (customer collaborations, partner projects, conference participation, etc.), so instead of responding individually I've decided to write a (longish) blog post. I do refererence a number of different terms that can be found in the wiki notes, my presentation and supplemental infographics.

Just as there is no one size fits all for personal risktaking, there is no single way for you to create and measure value. It depends on a number of variables:

Your organization's culture
Your natural strengths, experience and expertise
Your circumstances (transitioning into, within or out of a role/position)
Your comfort zone in dealing with the unknowns of a situation (risktaking)

Value Creation - It's All Around You

Your ability to create and sustain value is a key differentiator in a reinvented world, where the new innovation currency requires you to design, manage, and extend the reach of your "career capital".

Value creation includes both the introduction of innovative products and services that create or extend value for the company within a targeted timeframe and innovative process and product improvements that sustain value over time. Companies and institutions need both in order to thrive in the new world of business.

Beginning with your natural strengths and what "hums your heart" are you a builder or do you like to redesign and reinvent? If you're the former, you begin by looking around your department or business unit for what isn't being done, but should be if the company or institution hopes to remain competitive and avoid a missed opportunity.

You're going to view these challenges through your personal experience, professional skill sets, and natural strengths. This means that you could have five builder types in a room and each one would see a different opportunity.

It requires you to use both your Intuition and Peripheral Vision in order to Connect the Dots of what's inside you, what's around you, and what is missing a.k.a. opportunities. By paying attention in new ways and seeing possibilities through new eyes, you'll begin to notice emerging trends and the early curve of inflection points for your greater organization or institution.

If you're someone who prefers to redesign and reinvent, you can do what I did to create value and acquire a personal brand of someone who could "fix it, get rid of it, or reinvent it". I would target projects with promise that ended too quickly, lost funding, or became political hot potatoes that no one wanted to touch.

These Ugly Dog Projects (UDPs) would sometimes have "orphaned teams" still intact--people who were passionate about the project. We used our influencing skills to persuade budget owners to take a chance on us--become heroes for very little funding, no time commitment, and low risk on their part. Because these UDPs were so low on the organization's radar (or completely off the screen!) we were able to take greater risks that resulted in more successful outcomes to the surprise (and shock) of many.

Selling Your Idea

Develop a one-page proposal or succinct business plan that states your case, how you plan to approach this challenge, the expected costs, desired resources and required skills, what the risks and pay offs would be for the organization, e.g., new revenue stream, streamlined process, improved service levels, etc.

Your proposal might be for a new product or process or, perhaps, building upon an existing product or service that rejuvenates and extends the reach to a different market segment or audience.

This is when you want to leverage your Global Decision Network (GDN), your innovation safety network, that hears your pitch first and helps you to "work out the bugs" before you take your idea on the road. Don't overlook the fact that your GDN members might also be potential funding sources or who may know a budget manager with decision-making authority. You may discover that your idea complements something that is already "in the hopper". This is the time for you to vet your idea within a safe environment.

You're now ready to socialize your idea beyond your GDN a.k.a Innovation Tribe once you incorporate their feedback. At this point you're going to ask for funding or resources (sometimes both). Your goal is to make it easy for people to say YES.

Measuring Value - Direct and Indirect

Begin by asking yourself, "How does my organization or institution define value?" You want to start here because this identifies your playing field and how the company defines success. If you're going to break some rules along the way, you first need to know what the formal and informal rules are for your organization.

Then you want to learn how your company / institution measures value. What business models do they use to track and capture this value. Is Return on Investment (ROI) the primary means of quantifying value? Perhaps, your organization uses other means as well, such as Cost Benefit Analysis or Return on Innovation Investment.

This is where the value of having a GDN member on your team who is finance savvy comes in. She can help you to quantify the total value of your project or process improvement. This includes both direct and indirect costs:

Direct costs are those for activities or services that benefit specific projects, e.g., salaries for project staff and materials required for a particular project.

Indirect costs are those for activities or services that benefit more than one project. Their precise benefits to a specific project are difficult to trace. For example, it may be difficult to determine precisely how your contributions and activities benefit a specific project.

It gets tougher to capture the value of your personal contributions when you are not a member of a team responsible for tracking the progress and measuring the direct and indirect cost savings and/or revenue generation of a project.

So how do you quantify your influence for different projects if your involvement is as a subject matter expert (SME)?

Begin by reviewing your top 3-5 areas where you spend most of your time (internal and external). These will likely be a combination of both direct involvement, e.g. you either lead a team or are a team member, and indirect involvement, i.e., advisor/ SME where you spend more than 20 percent of your time. These are the areas where you want to capture and quantify your value.

Your goal is to target the low hanging fruit, i.e., those areas where you are already spending your time and adding value. Quantify your expertise and influence by identifying your direct contributions to a project. In other words, how has your expertise helped the team move the project forward faster, i.e., improved productivity (indirect cost savings) or, perhaps, you've identified a "bloated process step" that through its elimination has resulted in direct cost savings to the organization's bottom line. Your unique insights and contributions might identify an entirely new revenue stream.

You're still able to collaborate as a member of a team and contribute on an individual basis. Far too often, I see professionals extend the reach of their influence across the organization but ultimately dilute their influence, credibility and personal power by failing to capture, quantify and share their total value.

In the reinvented world of business you'll need to know how to perform these consistently in order to extend the reach of your career capital.

Activities That Attract 4th-12th Grade Girls and Women to Computing

2010-10-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

This was one of the most interactive sessions. The presenter was Barbara Ericson from Georgia Institute of Technology. On entering the conference room, the first thing that caught my attention was a number of green toy dinosaurs kept on the tables. I learned later that those were the Pleo Robots. The session was pure fun. Barbara has been working on investigating activities that attract students, and especially girls, to computing since 2004. She introduced PicoCrickets, Pleo robots, Scratch, and Alice to us one by one and we got hands on experience with Pleo Robots, PicoCricket and Scratch.

Pleo Robots : These are toy robots which the children can program. The robots have an SD card in them through which instructions are read and executed. The Pleo robot was a green dinosaur. It had sensors at some places on its body. When we initially got the robot, we started it and observed its behavior. It had a default program already installed which made it sing songs and move its tail. We also got to program the dinosaur through the Pleo software. Barbara had some of her students walk around the hall to guide us with the programming. The software for programming Pleo runs only on windows. It is a very easy interface which has a timeline and an action box. The action box contains actions like rolling eyes, moving feet, singing, jerking head in x degrees etc. One has to put actions on the timeline to program the robot. We programmed it, saved the file on the SD card, put the SD card back into the dinosaur and started it by thumping its back. The dinosaur has sensors and takes about 20 seconds to perform the programmed action in the SD card after starting the battery. Barbara called it "waking up" period of the dinosaur. The Pleo robot dinosaurs cost $349 each and their batteries last unto 60-90 minutes.

Scratch : This is a free program available on http://scratch.mit.edu/. Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art. You can also share your creations on the web. The program has an easy to use interface for creating animations with tabs such as motion, looks, control, sound etc. I had a chat with Barbara after the talk and she mentioned that she observes very different behavior in girls and boys when they program the cat on the opening screen of the scratch software. The animations done by the girls are more on the lines of building a home for the cat or drawing flowers around it. On the other hand, the boys try to somehow kill the cat. This observation is a clear indication that we need to find ways aimed specifically at girls to attract them to computer science. Certain things which boys enjoy may not be enjoyable for the girls.

PicoCricket : This was another fun exercise. http://www.picocricket.com/whatisit.html. This is a commercial product and can be bought online. You can plug lights, motors, sensors, and other devices into a PicoCricket, then program them to react, interact, and communicate. We got a number of pico blocks which are simple hardware pieces such as LEDs and timers. Using the software picoblock, we wrote a simple program which measured our reaction time of pressing a button and displayed it on the timer.

The takeaway from the session was that there are variety of products and softwares available, which can be used effectively to attract school going girls and boys to computer science. Barbara has been organizing summer camps for highschool girls where she uses these tools to attract them towards computer science. One of her summer camp attendees is now a junior at Georgia Tech computer science program. Seeing the effect of Barbara's efforts in the form of this student impressed me the most about the session. In the chat with Barbara at the end of the session, she mentioned that their efforts are currently not targeted to get girls interested in specific areas of computer science. I work in security. I have observed that there are fewer girls in the core field of computer science such as systems, networks and security as compared to human computer interaction (HCI). I think the next step in this research would be a way to attract more girls towards these core areas of computer science.

Career and Economic Opportunity in Open Source Software

2010-10-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

As part of the open source track at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) this year, there was an informative session on career and economic opportunity in Open Source Software (OSS).

The session served two main purposes -

a) to show that participating in open source projects can provide many skills that can be relevant in obtaining a job and building a career, and,

b) that open source does not necessarily mean free software and therefore, there are multiple ways in which to make a living from OSS.

I've provided a summary/transcript of the discussion in this session on the GHC 2010 Wiki, so below I list some of the key takeaways for me.

a) Building Job and Career Skills from OSS projects

1. Online and multi-site, multi-timezone collaboration and communication is perhaps one of the best skills you can pick up from an OSS project. Interacting with people of different cultures and in different physical locations can prepare you to handle multi-site activities that occur in many large companies today.

In my own experience, I find that being able to interact effectively with a geographically dispersed and culturally diverse team is an increasingly important skill in our globalized world. These kind of soft skills set you apart from those who have equivalent technical expertise.

2. OSS is a great way to slowly build up skills, be it programming, organizational etc. and be able to get feedback (it helps to develop a thick skin :)

I think this is something I will keep in mind when I think I need to build expand my technical skill set.

3. Flexible timings can provide women with the work/life balance that they might be looking for.

OSS might be a great way to keep in touch with the industry and keep your skills and experience up to date while taking a hiatus (like maternity leave)

b) OSS Business

1. Making money from OSS projects is not a bad thing, and shouldn't be seen as such. Indeed, many OSS projects become richer (in quality, and in participation) for having had a few high profile customers that were willing to pay for custom development

2. Providing complementary software, services and support is a widespread revenue model adopted by many companies that leverage OSS

In general, I was inspired to see such names as Cat Allman, Leslie Hawthorn, Stormy Peters and Margo Seltzer participating in the open source track and it serves to reinforce the quality of the content that GHC offered this year.

Cross-posted to the Carleton University Women in Science and Engineering (CU-WISE) blog

Managing a Career through the Childbearing Years

2010-10-07T17:09:00.000-07:00

Panelists: Lynda Grindstaff (Intel), Karin Meyer (Intuit), Phyllis Stewart Pires (SAP), Mary Anne Egan (Siena College), Elizabeth Psihos (Thomson Reuters), and Lalitha Ramanathan (Symantec)

The panelists offered up some good tips for traditional two-parent families juggling child care, child rearing, and careers. Adding other "family blends", such as a single parent without a spousal safety net or a mother in a same sex relationship, also managing their careers while faced with the added challenges of their situations, would have likely required a larger room for this already jam-packed session.

An audience member shared her situation as the main breadwinner while her husband was the stay-at-home dad, receiving questions from the floor about managing the guilt of a less traditional child rearing arrangement.

A majority of the audience included students who did not yet have children, but who were in the early stages of planning how to juggle multiple priorities. What they heard from these seasoned working moms was that trade-offs are a part of the decision to have children and raise a family and that learning how to manage guilt early in the game came with the territory.

Lynda Grindstaff who, along with her husband, works for Intel told the audience that they "needed to develop a thicker skin and make a conscious effort to spend time with their kids". She uses quality, focused time with her children and shares with them what she does. She gets creative in asking for help. "I don't want my kids to not experience sports and other activities just because mom works."

"Don't waste time at work--get the job done," said Karin Meyer who works for Intuit.

"Don't worry about the timing of having children while in school. If a company wants you they want you," panelist Mary Anne Egan shared with the audience. Flexible schedules are a big part of the safety net that Egan and her husband share--she works for Siena College and he works for himself.

Panelists suggested researching Working Mother magazine and other resources for more family friendly companies. A shared tip from an audience member was to make certain that if you're looking to work for a start-up company that other women with children already work there--married men with stay-at-home wives won't understand.

Phyllis Stewart Pires of SAP has juggled childbearing three times, each time returning to different configurations within the organization. "I've breastfed all three, have used all forms of childcare, and over the course of their early years all my children experienced on-site childcare."

Stewart Pires offered a number of creative tips for working moms:

Returning from maternity leave - do your due diligence - reinvent your value proposition to the company based on any changes that have occurred while you were on leave.
Create a 360 safety net of different networks--part-time moms, full-time moms, PTA, etc. Become an involved person within a smaller network.
Consider hosting the weekend sleepovers if you're unable to have kids over M-F.
Seize the moments and get your kids to talk to you. Stewart Pires uses a "parking lot strategy" where during the course of the week while transporting her children to different activities, she meets in the car with one while waiting for the other child to finish their activity.
Create a visual cue to pull yourself out of a negative cycle.
Set clear expectations with your significant other at the beginning before you have children.
Find your champions--you may find them in the least likely places, i.e., in your network or at work.

Enlisting Male Advocates in the Workplace

2010-10-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

Moderator: Caroline Simard, Anita Borg Institute
Skits: Patty Lopez, Intel Corporation

Panelists: Colin Bodell, Amazon | Gabby Silverman, CA Technologies | Will Allen, HP | Bruce Bigler, Intel Corporation | Luis Recardo Fraga, University of Washington

This all-male panel moderated by Caroline Simard included skits by Patty Lopez of Intel Corporation and offered the audience a fun poke at all too real situations that still occur for women--sometimes obvious messaging, sometimes subtle language--but the results are the same; behavior that can undermine a woman's personal power and confidence.

The male "actors" were good sports about offering before-after versions of themselves with female advocate Colin Bodell of Amazon, at one point during a skit, stating that he felt he needed a shower after playing the "unenlightened" manager.

The ability to collaborate across gender boundaries for enlisting advocates while in school and later in business is instrumental to your success. Female technologists who develop effective communication and relationship management skills will find the path to enlisting and engaging advocates easier to navigate.

However, it's just as important to recognize early on the potential barriers to your success and to speak up and challenge others when a situation warrants it.

"Faculty and students need support at every stage of their career. Gatekeepers can be biased and too many companies don't double check or validate. Find the person who will give you the straight scoop. People who shut you down shouldn't be considered as an advisor or mentor," said Luis Fraga, University of Washington.

Advocate or Mentor?

Amazon's Bodell described the difference between a mentor and advocate as the former being more of a 1:1 confidential relationship, whereas an advocate will work externally on your behalf as your champion.

"Mentors know how the system works--they have knowledge beyond your experience. Advocates can serve as a mentor, but not necessarily vice versa," according to UW's Fraga.

Why They Became Advocates for Women

What motivated these men to become not just supporters of women but true female advocates?

HP's CTO, Will Allen, hopes that his own daughters will have an easier path. Finding women who are "stuck" and helping them to move into and up within the organization occurs during 1:1 mentoring or as part of HP's larger mentoring community.

Bruce Bigler of Intel felt it was important to create a sense of fairness. It was Bigler's marriage to a technical woman and seeing her professional challenges, while also noting the struggles of a female mentor, which served as eye openers for him and ultimately changed his perspective.

Colin Bodell's daughter developed an early interest in technology and he wanted to continue to feed her excitement. As VP for Amazon, he asked himself, "Why shouldn't everyone have the same opportunities?" Bodell's aha moment came three years ago during the Grace Hopper Conference when he had to admit that his company wasn't as good as it could be in advocating for women. "Not recruiting and developing women is a missed opportunity."

Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement at the University of Washington, Luis Fraga believes that with great power comes great responsibility in leadership. He wanted to make a real difference from an institutional level, realizing now that resistance to change both personally and institutionally has now become his responsibility.

Gabriel Silberman, Sr. VP and Director of Labs for CA Technologies attended his first Grace Hopper conference ten years ago where there were 700 women and 10 men. When he started hearing the dialogue shared by women, it forced him out of his comfort zone--understanding for the first time what it meant to be a minority.

Before - After Skits

Here are a couple of the skits videotaped on the fly...

Skit #1 - University advisor and his underlying biases (before) and how a supporting male advocate would respond (after).

Student played by Tyelisa Shields (HP)
Advisor played by Luis Frago (University of Washington)

Skit #2 - Manager delivering annual review using non-supportive language (before) and male advocate support and career development feedback (after).

Manager played by Colin Bodell (Amazon.com)
Employee played by Linda Apsley (Microsoft)

Cloudy with a Chance of Security – Addressing Security and Privacy Risk at Scale in Cloud-based Delivery Systems

2010-10-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

Panelists: Kore Koubourlis (Microsoft), Gerlinde Zibulski (SAP AG), Linda Bernardi (StraTerra Partners LLC), and Alyssa Henry (Amazon Simple Storage Service)

A panel of women from industry presented their views on security, privacy and compliance concerns in cloud-based applications and Software as a Service (SaaS). The session began with the introduction of the panelists and a discussion on what a cloud is? Cloud was defined as “pay as you go” type of environment without buying the infrastructure. The main characteristic of cloud is that it should be able to elevate you higher by accomplishing your business tasks. It was interesting to learn about the evolution of cloud. Twenty-five years ago you could rent your computer and software. Similarly, cloud lets you use hardware, software, database, and applications without owning them.

There are different types of clouds. For example:
1. Community cloud – for sharing information with millions of people.
2. Public cloud- enterprises let many end-users use the cloud.
3. Private cloud – this is more security-aware than public or community cloud and could have access restricted to certain IP addresses.

As we move into the clouds, the biggest issue is control over system and data. People can get pretty hung up on that. There is a range of security offered by cloud services. The customers have to choose the type of security and therefore share the responsibility for security of their data and applications with the service providers.

Cloud is not just provided by service providers. Many enterprises can expose part of data or services through private clouds that are operated internally. In the cloud computing environment, the end-users define and drive what they need. They can focus on their applications or core competencies and free themselves from the burden of focusing on tasks that don’t differentiate them from their competitors – in essence, the basic and common functionality can be outsourced to the service providers.

The concept of cloud-architecture is very important. The architecture should be designed to be economic, easy and fast. It depends upon what the end-user wants to get out of cloud. For example, if you have to analyze your data, you should think about cross-analysis of data, and cloud should be architected accordingly.

The businesses that want to put applications on the cloud should find the information about how often the security patches are getting implemented and applied? They should be aware about what happens in case of data breach?

One interesting question that the panelists addressed was - "How can we address our compliance need with architecture of cloud?" They said that this is where the room for innovation is because if something happens that is outside of procedures, it has real and high costs. Therefore compliance is a real issue for large companies.
They gave an anecdote that often customers don’t really know what is going on in all their environments. Often the chances of internal threat are higher than the chances for external threat to data and security. Often, the outside is made secure by the service providers but inside is not secure. There are aspects of compliance that have to be taken care on the customer's end and some provided by the provider's end. One should make sure that the provider has given a clear overview of compliance at the time of selling their services.

There are opportunities of further research in the area of cloud computing. For example,
1) Business-process driven monitoring of services or application.
2) Standard to deal with strategies for data back-up.

Collaborative Leadership in Driving Innovation

2010-10-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Listening to these four dynamic women as moderator, Rebecca Norlander, right, asked them to share their paths taken and the roads not taken, there were commonalities between them that has led to success in their respective fields:

Mentoring was a critical component
Perseverance when things got tough
Resilience when things took the wrong turn
Setbacks were viewed as learning opportunities
Widened their perspective by reframing the experience
Reinventing themselves became part of their "human fabric"
Accountability for the personal and professional risks they took
Savvy career transitions and adaptability to changing condition

Amy Alving, Chief Technology Officer, SAIC
Bio

Pivotal Moment in her Career

"I decided to give up tenure to keep my job in government that I loved. It was risky, but it was a commitment to a new path."

What Amy Looks for When Hiring

She looks for people who can recognize a problem instead of waiting for an invitation to solve it--they step up and own it. People stumble at the lack of initiative.

Reflection: What She Would Do Differently

I would get out of my comfort zone more often.

Kalpana Margabandhu, Director of WebSphere Development, IBM India Software Lab
Bio

Pivotal Moment in her Career

Being recognized and awarded for her accomplishments as a woman setting an example in her organization for for reaching beyond what she had considered a limit.

Reflection: What She Would Do Differently

I would take more risks.

Kelli Crane, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomson Reuters
Bio

Pivotal Moment in her Career

When a woman at the company walked up to her and said "We've never had a senior technology leader who was a woman - ever."

What Kelli Looks for When Hiring

Grounded and balance between work and life. I look for a good technologist with good communication skills and the ability to collaborate in driving innovation. People will watch how you handle diversity more than how you handle success.

Reflection: What She Would Do Differently

Have the courage to do the right thing more often and be true to herself all of the time.

Romea Smith, Senior Vice President, CA Technologies, Support
Bio

Pivotal Moment in her Career

When she moved from Texas to Virginia with three children - a big personal and professional risk.

What Romea Looks for When Hiring

You have to want to learn. Someone who is capable without blinders on and who looks for different ways to solve problems. Learning from failure is key. [Dee McCrorey's "Collaborative Risktaking" workshop suggested 15 days to "lick your wounds" and then get back in the game].

Reflection: What She Would Do Differently

I would delegate more.

Panelist Career Tips

You don't need to be the best at everything - it's about breadth and depth
Love what you do and success will follow
Crucial conversations: define governance upfront
You need teams at home and at work. Delegate. You need a team to support you
You have to make your own choices and that include personal and professional boundaries.
Influencing skills are different for everyone - try different approaches, if one thing doesn't work, try something else
Mentors help you when your more junior and when you're more senior you mentor others
You can't wait for companies to come to you - you need to manage your own career

Digital Healthcare at Technology Crossroads

2010-10-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

The complexity and costs associated with the current U.S. healthcare system, although screaming for standardization, cross-platform integration and extreme reinvention, probably won't happen overnight and not without a fight.

Panelists from Google, Intuit, Kaiser Permanente and Symantec shared their companies' immediate and longer range challenges of implementing technology solutions for the rapidly changing healthcare needs of consumers.

The big challenge is moving doctors and hospitals from paper-based systems to informatics and digital imaging of patient information. But change is imminent with the soaring costs of healthcare and with consumers pushing for more control of their personal health records (PHR).

Tammy Neely, Northwest and Hawaii BI Leader for Kaiser Permanente, spoke about the challenges of helping doctors learn how to use technology better and the benefits to everyone when they do. Storage challenges of electronic medical records notwithstanding--8 terabytes on 600+ systems--the benefits of distilling this information has resulted in a triple win for Kaiser: improved patient quality scores, cost savings of $100M and streamlined processes that now make "doctoring fun again".

Ongoing requests by consumers of its popular Quicken product led Intuit to develop Quicken Health, a product that helps users decipher "medical speak" and reconcile doctor and hospital bills along with the ease of paying online. "We wanted to empower consumers to monitor and manage their own health care costs," says Product Manager, Christina Banta, who made a career shift after a series of hospital volunteer jobs led her to see that the collection of patient data and backend systems didn't flow well for patients/customers.

According to Lisa Rom, Symantec Sr. Product Marketing Manager, 30 percent of the world's data by 2012 will be digital imaging. Symantec is looking to lower the cost of storage by moving digital imaging into the cloud instead of data centers, and thus passing the savings along to doctors and hospitals for medical research and patient improvements instead of storage costs.

Google's footprint into the world of healthcare comes via its Google Health site where patient control over individual data provides consumers with the ability to track their overall health and wellness. The site provides you with the means for aggregating your own information and monitoring the trends of your health over time.

So, Who Owns the Data?

Google's Shirley Gaw shared the challenges faced by the company in offering a service where patients don't always own their health information. "Your PHR is part of your Electronic Medical Health Record (EMHR), but in many states this health data is not owned by you. In certain states you can't get your own health records except through your doctors."

Security and privacy issues associated with PHR vs. EMHR requires a trust factor between physician and patient and between hospitals and health partners. Today, many doctors are wary about making decisions based on incomplete info, concerned that patients will be able to change digital data.

According to Neely at Kaiser Permanente, it's a fallacy that paper-based records are more secure, since paper records get faxed all over the place all the time. Symantec's Rom indicated that one of the top areas of identity theft is health related, which is why health transport and encryption of digital imaging files are critical.

Unfortunately, the level of understanding and sophistication of systems and security isn't there yet--doctors still take CDs home and store patient information on personal laptops. So, even though the technology is available the adoption is not.

Top of Mind

According to the panelists, this is what keeps their companies up at night:

Intuit: The ability to acquire the data, how to bring it together, and aggregating financial info.

Symantec: Medical imaging that isn't tagged with patient data and cannot be easily mapped to the patient.

Kaiser Permanente: The Baby Boom and obesity.

Google: Providing a service where consumers don't own their own health data.

CRA-W Grad Track - How to build my professional network

2010-09-29T12:26:00.001-07:00

Building a professional network is another one of those skills analogous to when we say 'common sense is not that common'. We are naturally social beings and need a network of people to go about our day-to-day lives. However, in addition to a basic social network, it is crucial to build a professional network and guess what.. it does not come naturally to everyone and is in fact a practiced and honed skill. So none of us are born with this knowledge; only as we climb up our career ladder and interact with peers and leaders, do we begin to gradually learn how to go about it.

Whom to network with?

Everyone! You many never know which contact of yours would end up helping you out at a difficult stage or furthering your success. Especially at conferences such as the GHC, you may not even be aware that the person you just casually passed at the escalator, belongs to the same field as yours and could be a great contact to build. So next time, do not hesitate to strike a conversation with the person standing next to you. Or in a general case, be open to making new connections with all the people in your circles. Important pointer - do not exclude social networks to make professional connections. That is a great way to leverage your existing connections to strike a professional chord with.

When you introduce yourself to someone, it is important to make a personal connection every time. You should be confident, cheerful and exuberant to meet the other person. A smile can go a long way and make sure to look the other person in the eye when you're speaking. This ensures that you will both remember each other and not forget this casual conversation at the turn of the hour.

So how does networking further your career?

A good network has manifold advantages. It makes you and your work known in this era of information overload where you need to strive to make your mark. Also it provides a source of recommendation letters from your advisors or managers, co-workers, directors, other areas of your company, and recruiters in industry. Through your network, you can get invites to give talks and interviews, or to be on several program committees. You can find your network useful in joining technical or community service organizations that help you contribute to the progress around you. Essentially, talking to more like minded people leads to new ideas on topics of interest or different slants on old ideas, thus helping you in your work or when forming new collaborations. Last but not the least, networking also ends up creating long and lasting friendships!

Now comes the harder part.. how do I talk to complete strangers?

The approach is simple - have an "elevator speech" ready and practiced. This is a very concise introduction to you and your work, enough to pique interest and limit it to 2-3 sentences with one sentence each explaining what your project is, what is the value, and what problem it solved. Be sure to explain in layman terms as well to make it relevant to the other person. Convince the person in this short while that what you work on is new and cool. That shouldn't be a problem right? Well it can be if you tend to ramble when it comes to explaining your work or research that your whole world revolves around. Hence, practicing the "elevator speech" frequently will keep you on top of your communication skills while meeting new people.

And of course, do not be shy. I can relate to this as I sometimes hesitate ever so slightly before striking a conversation, thinking why would the other person reciprocate? The trick is not to suddenly go from shy to extrovert but simply to believe in yourself and be confident. If they are not able to interact with you directly, more often that not, they will always direct you to some of their contacts who might help you. You can see how this helps to grow your network through mutual connections. Talking about reciprocation, you should equally show interest in their project and discuss about it; be curious and ask questions about how they got where they did today, what was the journey and the joys and challenges faced.

Follow-up without fail!

It doesn't end there. Following up is as important as anything else you do in the meeting. YOU need to initiate the follow-up. Be ready to be out of your comfort zone and ask for definitive replies to achieve closure on your discussion. Making new connections might come easily to some but maintaining them is equally important and tactfully following up helps achieve that. Earlier in the follow-up process, make sure you remind the other person of the venue and context that you guys first met at and as correspondence grows, this might no longer be needed.

Along with the TO DO's, there are also some important DO NOT's to professional networking. Firstly, don't burn bridges - do not inadvertently commit networking-suicidal mistakes that will ruin your relationships. In a company scenario, one way to avoid burning bridges is to always be humble and respectful towards your managers and to adapt yourself to their feedback instead of being arrogantly adamant and doing something unaccounted for. Don't have a low tolerance on constructive criticism or take things personally (being women, that means overcoming our natural tendency!). Don't use too much of people's time (e.g. hold frequent unnecessary conferences instead of covering ground in your work). Secondly, dont treat your professional network as dumping ground for your personal problems, or for gossiping around. Also do not go overboard with including people from all your circles into your professional network and draw the line consciously, prioritizing ur needs. Do not treat your network as "resources for use" but relationships to nurture and do this tastefully.

Equipped with this knowledge, and as you gather more and more new experiences, you will not only enhance your academic and professional network, but also enhance your personality and be a better and successful person :)

Grace Hopper 2010 - The Celebration Begins!

2010-09-27T22:27:00.001-07:00

Less than a day till the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing starts in Atlanta!

I learnt about the conference last year (was too late to register) and ever since then I've been waiting for GHC 2010. Since this will be my first time at the conference, I've been reading blogs from veterans of the conference (check out the GHC blog feed) and following #ghc10 and @ghc on Twitter to get pointers on how to prepare for the week.

And prepare you must! The sheer volume of planned activities is mindboggling, leave alone those impromptu meetings and outings that are bound to happen. I've taken some time to look through the abstracts of the various seminars and mark those that are most interesting to me.

I'm especially excited about the track on Open Source as I am taking a course on Open Source Business as part of my Masters. I hope to share what I learn with my classmates. There will also be a chance to participate in open source development via the Codeathon for Humanity for the Sahana-Eden project. As a facilitator for this event, I'm looking forward to learning more about their disaster management software platform and how I can use my coding skills for social good.

The codeathon is a brilliant example of the conference theme of "Collaborating Across Boundaries" and my aim will be to look at the talks I attend in this broader context.

I'm also eager to meet many of the accomplished women participating this year, especially those interested in mobile platforms and wireless applications and those who (like me) have taken or are interested in a business career path after a technical degree.

The rest I'm leaving to serendipity :)

Originally posted on the Carleton University Women In Science and Engineering (CU-WISE) blog.

Packing for Atlanta! [update]

2010-09-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

It turns out I did have time to document getting ready for Atlanta!

Here's what I packed (click the photo to go the Flickr page with notes):

What are you bringing with you to GHC?

Packing for Atlanta!

2010-09-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Ed here! I wanted to do a quick post about what I'll be bringing with me to Atlanta this year. Usually I do a video episode of Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show, but GHC came up so fast this year! So, I'm going to do some episode-recycling...it's good for the environment, right?

Even though we say GHC 2009, this episode applies to GHC 2010. I'm going to be packing much of the same things this year.

It looks like the weather in Atlanta for next few days will be in the 70s. Like last year, light layers will be really helpful. I think sunglasses and sunscreen are a must if you plan on being outside.

I haven't packed yet, so if I have time, I'm going to post a video of some speed packing! These are things I'm not going to forget to bring to GHC!

Light jacket or in my case an adorable cardigan :)
Water bottle
Business cards (although I'm hoping that I'll get to use my Poken a lot!)
Important documents (resume, schedule, boarding pass, etc.)
Electronics (Egg [my netbook], video camera, digital camera, phone, etc.)
Chargers!
Tons of excitement :)

I can't wait to get to Atlanta and see everyone! I'll be wearing an orange Wheaties hat and I would love to meet you, so please say hello!

Introducing myself - Mona Chitnis

2010-09-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hello all community members!

I am Mona Chitnis, Computer Science graduate student at Georgia Tech. Its great to see the level of preparation and enthusiasm for GHC '10 and to be an integral part of it. And lucky for me, its in Atlanta this time! I'm from Mumbai, India but for these years that I'm at Georgia Tech, Atlanta is my home. So welcome :)

My work and research revolves around Computer Networks, Distributed Computing and Mobile Apps Development. My motivation behind attending GHC, apart from great networking with researchers and employers of course, is getting to attend the various talks by some of the most accomplished women in computing. I am also a Hopper and I believe its one of the best ways to involve myself with the conference and its participants. So you would see me "hopping around" and trying to help out fellows.

I look forward to posting some very interesting articles covering the conference sessions as the GHC advances for a means of information as well as food for thought. Let us all immerse ourselves in this grand celebration of collaborating with women across boundaries! :)

Attending GHC from Afar

2010-09-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

As my friends well know, I'm really passionate about GHC. In person, I ramble on and on about the benefits of attending. Online, I blog about GHC, tweet about GHC, and post countless FB status updates about GHC. This year, I've even been helping out with the GHC Communities Committee to help spread the news about GHC through the various online communities (Flickr, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and here on our blog). You can understand my sorrow, then, when I realized that circumstances would prevent me from attending this year. Undaunted, I figured if I couldn't bring myself to GHC, I'd try to bring GHC to me! Thus, this year, I will be GHC-ing from home.

Due to the early sell-out of the conference, I don't think I'm alone in this. In fact, I think there are probably a lot of people in exactly the same situation. What can we do to keep the GHC spirit alive from wherever we are? Here's a few ideas:

Follow up on sessions by reading session notes on the GHC Wiki

Read our blog to get the latest updates and info

Have a real life meetup (local restaurant, coffee shop, etc) during GHC to network and discuss issues related to advertised sessions.

Are you unable to attend GHC this year in person? Which of these ideas would you use to participate from afar? Do you have other ideas on how to connect?

p.s.: I'm in Seattle and would love to meet others who are missing out on GHC this year and learn about what you're working on! If you're interested in meeting up in Seattle or elsewhere, leave a comment below. I'd love to help people connect no matter where they are.

New to Grace Hopper? So am I

2010-09-16T13:43:00.001-07:00

The Grace Hopper Conference is among us and I am very excited. I have been perusing the website to find interesting talks and sessions to attend as well as picking my blogging assignments for the Community Bloggers. Then it dawned on me, this will be my first GHC experience. Do I know how to make the best of my opportunity to attend the conference?

In undergrad, I attended a conference called ABRCMS (the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students). In fact, after attending 3 times as an undergrad and 2 times as a graduate student recruiting for my University, I consider myself a pretty seasoned ABRCMS veteran. Here are 3 things I've learned from my ABRCMS experiences that I hope to use at GHC:

Plan ahead: There are a number of times when I have gotten to a conference or networking function and realized that I forgot my business cards. Not a good look for anyone. Make sure that you plan out what you will take with you to the conference. If you are presenting, guard your poster/powerpoint with your life. Just recently I managed to accidentally leave my poster at the security gate of the Pittsburgh International Airport. Fellow blogger Gail has a great entry on tips on planning for the conference. You can find her advice at Getting Ready For a Conference
Attend the Conference: Conferences are great places to learn about new fields, meet new people, and connect with potential employers, collaborators, and/or friends. The key to taking advantage of potential opportunities is to ATTEND THE CONFERENCE. Simple concept, I know, but sometimes I feel the need to state the obvious.
Elevator Pitch: You never know when you will find yourself in an elevator with or standing next to a potential employer. Have a short introduction of yourself prepared. Keep it short, sweet, and interesting. If your 90 seconds go over well, maybe you would piqued enough interest to continue the conversation. ~ Make it better ~ Got an iPad (or similar mobile device)? Upload a copy of your most recent poster to display your research if the opportunity presents itself.

Now to all you seasoned GHC vets :-) Please comment on this post with advice for making the most of the Grace Hopper conference. I'm sure all the newbies like myself as well as others could appreciate the advice.

See you in Atlanta!

Photo credits to www.diypuppytraining.com

How to Make the Most of Twitter for Grace Hopper

2010-09-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Short on time? Jump to "Networking Face-to-Face to Twitter (and Back!)"

Twitter has hit mainstream. News anchors suggest following their account for the latest updates, companies updating their online presence create accounts, celebrities use it to create their own press. And it is a norm at conferences.

Grace Hopper is no exception to this rule. Read on to learn how to make the most of it! (PS – Folks to which Twitter is old hat, jump to the NEW! highlights.)

Setting Up Your Account

It’s okay to use Twitter to only follow others. BUT – if you’d like to use Twitter to connect with other people, there are some steps you will want to take.

Personalize your account.

Having a name, profile picture, and bio is your first defense against being assumed a spammer. If you prefer to be more anonymous, you can omit your last name or use a nickname and upload an image that is not a photo. (Keep in mind having a photo allows other conference participants to recognize you.) The main goal is to make you look like a real person. Since, you know, you are. :)

Understand the impact of the “Protect my updates” setting

With this setting on, others must request permission to see your updates. If you would like your updates to show up in the public stream, this setting must be turned off. To do this, log into Twitter, click Settings, scroll down and make sure “Protect my tweets” is NOT selected.

Get out there and tweet!

Most important way to distinguish yourself from spammers? Start updating your Twitter account! People don’t follow people who have never tweeted before. They want to know what you have in common and if you tweet about things they want to hear more about.

Twitter Basics for GHC

Use the #ghc10 hashtag for ALL (before, during, and after) GHC10-related tweets. Doing this ensures your related tweets show up in the conference Twitter stream (provided your tweets are not protected). You can view the real-time stream by searching for #ghc10 on Twitter. To add a hashtag, simply include #ghc10 somewhere in your tweet.

The official conference Twitter account is @ghc. Following @ghc connects you to the latest conference news. It is also the account to which you can direct GHC questions. (Make sure to include the conference hashtag in your tweet to @ghc. If someone else knows the answer, they may be able to respond before the official account can get a chance!) If the @ghc account is following you back, you can also address private messages by starting them with d ghc.

Before, During, After, All Year Round!

Session/Workshop Hashtags NEW!
I've already mentioned using the #ghc10 hashtag, but new this year are session/workshop hashtags. When tweeting during and about session/workshops, include BOTH the #ghc10 hashtag and the corresponding session/workshop hashtag. This provides context for those following your tweets and people looking at the overall #ghc10 conference stream.

Update Your Poken with you Twitter Details NEW!
I just found out about this so excuse my uber excitement, but Pokens are available to all GHC attendees this year! They are FREE for students and $15 for non-students. (Seems reasonable to me!) You simply touch your Poken device to the Poken of the person you’re connecting with to exchange contact info. So make sure your Poken includes your Twitter details!

Twitter Lists NEW!
If there is anyone on these lists that is of particular interest to you, make sure to follow that person so they show up on your Twitter homepage.

@ghc/ghc10-attendees

This is where you can find all the #ghc10 attendees that are on Twitter. If you're attending GHC and would like to be added to the list, tweet or send a direct message with your request to the @ghc account.

@ghc/ghc10-speakers

A great list where you can find all the presenters from GHC10 that are on Twitter.

@ghc/communities-committee

See all the tweets from the members of the GHC Communities Committee.

Networking Face-to-Face to Twitter (and Back!)
Include your Twitter name on your conference badge, so the people you meet know they can connect with you online.

If you pardon me jumping on a soap box a bit, Twitter is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE way to network. The nature of Twitter allows users to loosely stay connected. There is no need for the formal replies email, LinkedIn messages, and even Facebook messages require. Twitterers can choose which tweets to comment on. This leads to awesome scenarios such as receiving a solution from a contact I would not have even thought to ask as a result of tweeting a challenge I was facing. The other general benefit of being connected to your network by Twitter is best described by the video Twitter in Plain English.

Do take advantage of (and feel completely free to!) follow people in the #ghc10 Twitter stream that are tweeting about things that interest you. The main chunk of my network from past GHC conferences was from connecting with the women on Twitter prior to the conference, briefly meeting them in person (if at all), and then getting to know them over the course of the year via Twitter! Now I look forward to meeting up with my tweeple in real life! :)

Glossary

RT – Abbreviation of the word retweet. Retweeting is the action of quoting another user’s tweet. You can either type in RT @username and copy/paste the message or use Twitter’s Retweet button. You would use the copy/paste method if you would like to add a comment.

Hashtag – A hashtag is a word, phrase (no spaces), or abbreviation that is preceded by the pound (#) sign. It acts as a tag in your tweet.

DM – Abbreviation for direct message. Direct messages are private messages. To send one, the recipient must be following your Twitter account. Precede your message with d username.

Tweeple – What I like to call the folks I interact with on Twitter. :)

Any suggestions or tweaks to my suggestions? Add your thoughts in the comments!

Transportation while in Atlanta for GHC10

2010-09-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Some more tips from your local chair.

To and from the airport:
The Hyatt and Marriott do NOT provide complimentary shuttle service to or from the airport.
Marta is the public transportation rail line in Atlanta. There is a rail station at the airport which will take you to within a block of the Hyatt and Marriott hotels. It will run about $3-4 one way from the airport to the Peachtree Center location on the red line. The ride is close to 20 minutes.
If you take a taxi, expect to pay around $30 for one way with extra charges for additional people.
If you call the Hyatt, they will hire a car which runs about $40-50 one way.

All the places I listed in a previous post for sightseeing were within walking distance of the hotels so you would not really need transportation.

Places to Eat while at GHC10 from the local chair

2010-08-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

Well, eating at good places has always been an adventure when traveling. I got to thinking that some of you may want to know about restaurants in Atlanta while at the conference. So my first group of restaurants will be ones that I personally have visited in a random order.

Sun Dial Restaurant Bar & View on top of the Westin Peachtree Tower
American, New American & Specialty Cuisine. The food and ambience are exceptional. Expensive. Reservations are required. 210 Peachtree Street Northwest, Atlanta, GA 30303-1704 (404) 589-7506 sundialrestaurant.com

Ted's Montana Grill on Luckie Street
American & Buffalo Cuisine. I have never had a bad meal at this restaurant. Moderate. No reservations, but sometimes a wait. 133 Luckie St NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303 (404) 521-9796 tedsmontanagrill.com

Azio Downtown Downtown
Italian Cuisine. I do have a weakness for pasta and this did fill the bill. Moderate. Walk-ins and reservations. 229 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30303-1601 (404) 222-0808 aziodowntown.com

Max Lagers Woodfired Grille
American, Continental, Brewpub Cuisine. Burgers and beer, great combination. Moderate. No reservations. 320 Peachtree Street Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30308-3210 (404) 525-4400 maxlagers.com

Hsu's At Peachtree Center
Asian, Chinese Cuisine. Everyone in the party enjoyed their meals. Moderate. Reservations recommended. 192 Peachtree Center Avenue Northeast, Atlanta, GA 30303-1712 (404) 659-2788 hsus.com

Things to do in Atlanta when attending GHC10

2010-08-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

WORLD OF COCA-COLA http://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/
Enjoy a truly unique experience at World of Coca-Cola, a grand museum dedicated to the world’s most popular soft drink. Coca-Cola’s world headquarters is in Atlanta, so it ‘s fitting that there is a museum devoted exclusively to that sweet brown liquid in the bright red can. Along with decades of marketing imagery and product chronology, there are more interactive features such as the working soda fountain and Coke tastings. The exhibits take you on a truly magical tour telling the story of Coca-Cola’s evolution from nineteenth-century beginnings to its global expansion in over 200 countries around the world. World of Coca-Cola is adjacent to Underground Atlanta.

CNN STUDIO TOUR http://www.cnn.com/tour/atlanta/
A fun thing to do on a rainy or steamy day in Atlanta is to take a tour of CNN’s World Headquarters studios. You will get a behind-the-scenes peek at CNN’s off-camera persona, as well as that of some affiliate networks, such as Headline News. The brief but informative 50-minute guided tour will lead you through the studio trenches to show you what it takes to produce and maintain a world-renowned, live, 24-hour news channel. You’ll see a working newsroom, control room, learn the wonders of the teleprompter and meet Ted Turner himself—on video, of course.

UNDERGROUND ATLANTA http://www.underground-atlanta.com/
Underground Atlanta is a historic building containing five blocks of cobblestone streets home to a wide variety of shops, restaurants, bars and special events. There’s even a guided history tour that introduces tourists to the building’s past life, commonly unknown to locals. During the day, an assortment of street vendors and entertainment makes this a great place to bring the kids. When the sun goes down, Underground Atlanta heats up with live music, dancing and the usual after-midnight scene. No matter when you choose to go, there is always something to see.

IMAGINE IT! - Children’s Museum http://www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org/
A child’s heaven! Imagine It! is a place where kids can have fun and learn, without knowing they’re doing both. With everything at kid level, they can touch, explore, create and invent. For kids and adults, boredom is a foreign word. Along with special programs, the museum’s exhibits are innovative, interactive and educational. For those traveling with young children, this is a must-do experience.

How to Make the Most of Facebook for Grace Hopper

2010-08-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have been to GHC know what a great opportunity it presents for networking - and those of you who haven't been before are soon to find out! Facebook is a great tool to help you make new connections and maintain them after the conference, so I wanted to share a few tips on using it to help you get the most out of this year's GHC.

Setting up Your Facebook Account
If you don't have a profile on Facebook, you can set one up by going to the site and signing up. If you have concerns about privacy, there are options on Facebook that let you secure your information. For example, I tend to keep my profile fairly locked down - I don't turn up in public searches and if you aren't my 'friend' on the site, you can't see any of the details of my profile, including photos, my wall, and videos I'm in. I don't list the year I was born or give out my specific address or phone number, either, and I'm pretty careful about who I add as a 'friend'. Facebook's Safety Center has more tips and advice on staying safe on the site.

Just because you've locked down your profile doesn't mean you can't use Facebook to network, however! I'll mention several tips throughout the post, but one neat feature of the site I use is its 'lists' (Facebook has a useful FAQ with details on how to set them up and use them here). For example, you can set up a list called 'ghc10 attendees', and if/when you decide to connect with someone from the conference, you can add them to this list. This is useful for two reasons: first, you can keep track of where you met people and when you follow up with them after the conference, it will be easy to find them in your contact list. Second, you can restrict your profile for that list, so that you only reveal some of your personal information. That way you can maintain your privacy but still use the useful features of Facebook to keep in touch with your new GHC buddies.

Before the Conference
Before the conference you might not yet know any of the other attendees - but you can still interact with them (even without adding them as friends) by perusing our Grace Hopper Celebration page on Facebook and discussion boards. You'll find conversations on all sorts of topics, from introductions, to your favorite memories of the conference, to the very helpful rides & roommates discussion, which several attendees have successfully used already to find accommodations, roommates, and transportation for the conference! Finally, don't forget to RSVP to the GHC 2010 event on our Facebook page to let others know that you'll be attending!

During the Conference
During the conference is a great time to add your connections on Facebook. I found that you meet so many people it can be really overwhelming, so keeping up as it goes along is much easier than trying to do it all later, especially once you are back to your regular work/study schedule. When adding people, Facebook allows you to add a message to your invitation to connect. I strongly suggest adding a personalized message so they can easily remember who you are and the context they met you in - especially since they will likely receive a tonne of invitations during the conference! Something like "Hi ____, it was great meeting you at GHC today and chatting about our careers in networking. Let's keep in touch!"

After the Conference
Facebook provides several ways to keep in touch with your new-found connections. You can send private messages, write on your connections' walls, and of course keep posting on our Facebook group page! Keeping your profile updated can help you too - you never know when you might meet your connections again. I've found that several friends joined my company long after the conference was over - and since they updated their profiles I knew about it and was able to reconnect with them once they had arrived, which has been pretty cool!

All Year Round
Keep in mind that our GHC page and discussions are up long before the conference, and are useful for other things than just logistics. For example, for GHC 2008, I met several other female students from around the world on the GHC page. We discussed presentation ideas and put together a BOF that was eventually accepted for the conference! If you've got a cool idea for GHC, keep it in mind and feel free to share with us. You might just find some great co-presenters or get the perfect feedback to help make your proposal the best it can be!

Do you have Facebook tips, advice, or recommendations? How have you used Facebook to aid in networking? We'd love to hear them, so feel free to share them in the comments below.

You can learn more about other Grace Hopper communities on this blog all week, or by checking out the communities page on the Grace Hopper site!

How to Make the Most of LinkedIn for Grace Hopper

2010-08-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

While Grace Hopper is a great technical conference, it is also a wonderful place to network and find jobs. When you're preparing for the conference, you should consider creating a LinkedIn profile or updating your existing one. LinkedIn is a great professional networking site, ripe with opportunities to reconnect to past colleagues and find new employment.

Once your profile is created, you can join the Anita Borg Institute group and the Grace Hopper Celebration subgroup, where you can join the conversation that's already buzzing about the upcoming conference, start scanning job opportunities posted to the ABI group page, and making connections with the recruiters that will be coming to Grace Hopper this year.

Setting up a basic profile in LinkedIn is pretty easy - the website will walk you through the steps, but if you want people to feel comfortable with you and start connecting, then you need to go beyond just the basics.

LinkedIn is like an online resume, but unlike your resume you don't have to worry as much about going over one page. In addition to listing your past employers, fill in details about the work you did at each place. You should also fill in your education details, listing any activities you participated in at school, like ACM. LinkedIn will then allow you to find connections at your school and employers, which will help increase your network and exposure in the site.

The more you personalize your page, the more it will look like it belongs to an actual human and people will be more willing to link with you. You can do this in several ways. I suggest adding a recent photograph, but make sure you look professional (pictures from spring break doing shots on the beach would probably not make the best first impression :). A summary, or bio, at the top is a quick way to let people know what you do and what type of technologies you're interested in.

Find connections! LinkedIn makes searching for people you may know very easy, as it finds people who worked at the same employer at the same time, or attended the same University at the same time. Once you start making connections, you can go through your connections' connections to find more people you know, and request that they connect with you.

Adding links to your personal website and blog, if you have them, is another great way to let people learn more about you without cluttering your page.

One thing to keep in mind is that while LinkedIn is a great place to find a job, you should also keep your page updated even when you are not actively looking. You never know when you suddenly may need a new job, or when a great opportunity may find you through LinkedIn. Growing your network is valuable all year round!

A word of caution: people generally don't like to see the generic spam from any social networking site when you load in your email address book. So, instead of doing that, send only specific, targeted invitations to people that have not yet joined that you want to connect with - and take time to explain why you want to connect.

Once you have everything set up, join the conversation in the Grace Hopper Group!

Any more LinkedIn tips or tricks? What have you done to grow your network?

You can learn more about other Grace Hopper communities on this blog all week, or by checking out the communities page on the Grace Hopper site!

How to Make the Most of Flickr for Grace Hopper

2010-08-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

With the advent of digital cameras, we can all consider ourselves photographers. But what happens to the hundreds of photos you'll inevitably take at this year's Grace Hopper? Instead of letting them sit unopened on your hard drive, why not share them with fellow attendees and those who couldn't make it? The best place to do this is on Flickr!

Each year, a new Grace Hopper group is set up on Flickr where attendees upload their favourite images. For instance, check out the groups from 2007, 2008, and 2009. There's even a group up there for 2010 already. I still enjoy opening up the group for a year I attended and letting the happy memories return. I think this pool of photos is also an excellent way to get first timers excited about the next conference.

Here are a few how-to's to help you get started with Flickr.

How to get an account on Flickr if you don't already have one:

Go to http://www.flickr.com/
Click on the "Create Your Own Account" button
If you happen to already have a Yahoo! account, you can just enter that in the appropriate text boxes (Yahoo! ID and password); otherwise, click on "Sign up for Yahoo!"
Fill in the info and click "Create My Account" and follow any remaining instructions.

When you have a Flickr account, you can add photos to your own profile:

After you log in, you will see a set of menu items along the top (Home, You, Organize & Create, etc).
Click the little arrow beside "You" and click on "Upload Photos and Videos" near the bottom.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
Add titles, tags (e.g. ghc10 for Grace Hopper 2010), and (if you like) descriptions for the photos. These make it easier to organize and search your photos.
Once your photos are uploaded you will see them when you click on "You" - clicking here brings you to your photostream, which is just a big long list of all your photos.
You will probably want to organize your photos into sets (these are kind of like albums). Play around with the "Organize & Create" menu and be sure to consult the Flickr FAQ as needed.

You can join and add photos to a group:

First navigate to and join a Flickr group (for example, the GHC2010 group).
Once you're in a group you can start participating in discussions.
Above the photos showing on the group's home page is a title called "Group Pool" - this refers to the "pool" of photos members add to the group. You will add photos that are already on your own profile as if the group pool were just another set your photos can belong to.
Beside Group Pool click "Add Something?"
You can choose up to 6 photos from our photo stream to be added to the group pool. You can do this as often as you like.

Link to or embed photos in other social media:

Once you have your photos uploaded to your profile, you may want to share them on other social media sites or include them in blog posts.

Navigate to the photo you want to share. You can do this by clicking on "You" at the top, then clicking on the photo of choice.
If you want to share just the link (say, on Twitter), click on "Share", "Grab the link" and then copy the text.
If you want to embed a photo like I did below, click "Grab the HTML", change the size if needed, and copy that text. You can paste it into any editor that lets you write code. For example, on Blogger, you can switch to "Edit HTML" and paste the code where you want the photo to appear. Your photo will even be linked back to the original Flickr page so people can see it big!

Happy photographing! You'll find more ways to share the Grace Hopper Celebration experience at GHC Community Home.

Meet the GHC10 Communities Committee!

2010-08-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

For months the Grace Hopper 2010 Communities Committee worked behind the scenes. They created Twitter hashtags for GHC tracks, designed GHC speaker badges, determined community volunteer needs, and planned topics.

In the last few weeks they've become more visible as GHC community evangelists. Across our GHC online communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and the GHC Blog they're starting conversations, sharing introductions and favorite GHC memories, and inviting participation by community members.

Many of our hard-working Grace Hopper committees complete their tasks well before the conference: selecting program submissions and scholarship recipients, recommending speakers, and deciding on award winners. Not so for this committee, which is a new addition this year. They'll Keep working right through Grace Hopper to help you connect online before, during and (if I know them) even after the conference. So here's a quick introduction to the committee members:

	Co-Chair Ashley Myers just completed her undergraduate CS degree at DePauw University and will start at Microsoft later this month. She helps with the @ghc Twitter account and will co-moderate the Grace Hopper Celebration 2010 group on YouTube. Learn more about Ashley on the GHC blog in her post Introducing a Recent Undergrad Graduate.
	Co-Chair Erin ‘Ed’ Donahue also started coming to GHC as a DePauw student and now works at Lockheed Martin, a career connection she made at the 2008 conference. Learn more about Ed in her blog post Hi! My name is Ed! With Ashley, Ed helps with the @ghc account and will co-moderate the YouTube group. They also host Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show, featuring interviews with technical women interviewed at GHC and other events.
	Gail Carmichael is a doctoral candidate at Carleton University. Gail is the lead for our GHC bloggers and note-takers again this year, and also taking a leadership role on the GHC10 group on Flickr. Learn more about Gail on the GHC blog and check out her blog The Female Perspective of Computer Science.
	Kate Tsoukalas is a graduate of Simon Fraser University and now works at Microsoft. Kate helps moderate the Grace Hopper Celebration page on Facebook. Join Kate in Discussions on the Grace Hopper Celebration page on Facebook (requires login).
	Valerie Bubb Fenwick is a Principal Software Engineer at Oracle, arriving through the Sun acquisition. Valerie helps manage the Anita Borg Institute and Grace Hopper Celebration groups on LinkedIn. Learn more about Valerie in the Introduce Yourself! discussion on LinkedIn or Facebook.

And watch for upcoming blog posts from committee members on how to make the best use of each GHC online community. Meanwhile:

If you're coming to the conference, introduce yourself to the community.
If you've attended Grace Hopper before, share your favorite memory.
Follow @ghc/communities-committee to connect with these evangelists on Twitter.
Sign up for the ghc10-attendees Twitter list when you register for GHC10.

Come join the discussion here or on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter!

My Favourite Grace Hopper Memories

2010-07-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

My fellow Grace Hopper Communities Committee members wanted to share our favourite Grace Hopper memories over the next few days, and we hope you'll do the same! It's so much fun reflecting back on what has made Grace Hopper so special to me.

I picked a few of my favourite memories to share on my own blog. I hope you'll go check it out, then come back here and comment with your own memories.

Maybe you could pull up some of your past conference photos on Flickr, or find your favourites in the GHC09 Flickr group. Post the photos that give you the fondest memories on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even here on the blog! You can find links to all the Grace Hopper online communities here.

GHC Memories - What's Your Favorite?

2010-07-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

This year I'm working with some wonderful people on the Grace Hopper Communities Committee, and it's got me thinking about why I enjoyed GHC so much in the past and what my favorite memory might be. GHC is such a multifaceted experience; you are challenged technically as you attend a myriad of fascinating talks and sessions, you are inspired as you listen to female pioneers and Computing giants like Fran Allen and Barbara Liskov, and you are supported as you network with top go-getters at all career stages, from academia to industry and nearly any field of Computing you can think of. It's a whirlwind of lunches, panels, and great conversations! As you can imagine, anyone who attends would have a hard time finding the one memory that epitomizes their time at GHC. Nevertheless, I'm going to try.

In 2007 I attended GHC with a few girls I knew from school and through the GHC Facebook group. We didn't know each other very well at the time, but attending the conference created a bond between us and we have since maintained our friendship, even though we are now scattered across the world. We talk to each other frequently about our careers, issues facing women in technology, and life in general, and support each other through all our ups and downs. In 2008 we took it a step further by getting even more girls to come from our school and a few more from around the world. It was thrilling to be able to introduce the new girls to GHC and watch them experience it for the first time, as we had previously - the icing on the cake! So given all this, what's my favorite memory of GHC? Dancing with all of them - and 1500 other women in technology - at the final celebration (I don't think I'd been in the same room with more than 15 technical women prior to that, let alone 1500!), and being one of this gigantic group yelling at the top of our lungs: "I am a technical woman"!

If you've been to GHC before, what's your favorite memory of GHC? If you haven't been, what are you most looking forward to? Feel free to share in the comments below and on our Facebook group, where I've cross-posted this!

Introducing a Recent Undergrad Graduate

2010-07-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm Ashley Myers, and I am the other co-chair of the Grace Hopper Conference Communities Committee. As both Ed and Gail I have done, I am here to introduce myself. If you haven't yet, check out other attendees introducing themselves and introduce yourself on LinkedIn, Facebook, or any of the online communities.

I learned of GHC during my first year of college. It seemed like one of those things that only the lucky would attend. "The largest women in computing conference." I was a broke college student, there was no way.

The following school year, a classmate was awarded a student scholarship to attend GHC07. She came back with a ton of photos of her amazing time in Orlando and was totally energized about all things Computer Science. At some point toward the end of that school year, I came to the decision I was going to Grace Hopper in 2008. I applied to be a Hopper (GHC10 Hopper application closes on July 30th), crossed my fingers, secured funds from my university for the flight, saved cash from my summer internship for the hotel and registration (just in case), got a roommate via Twitter to split the hotel room with (Hi @emilyhowe!), and that was that!

Since I had not participated in the official call for participation, Ed (my forever roommate) and I signed up for pretty much everything asked of community volunteers: Twitter, Flickr, note taking, blogging, and video blogging. This involvement has made my experience these last two GHCs. I have met and most importantly kept in contact with so many women through these online mediums. I encourage you to either informally participate by tagging your tweets and blog posts with GHC10, or to officially volunteer (GHC10 online Community Volunteer application is live until August 24th).

The best thing about the online communities is you don't need permission to get involved. Here are all the places you can find and connect with me!

Twitter: @OrganizeFISH (I will also be tweeting as @ghc, look for my signature ^amm)
Blog: "Let's Eat That Big Fish!"
Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show
YouTube
LinkedIn

This year marks a big change for me. This will be my first Grace Hopper I will attend as a women in industry rather than as a student. I will also be traveling from my new home in Seattle, moving officially for the first time in my life next month.

What's your story? Undergrad? Grad? Industry? Academia? Introduce yourself in the comments below, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, or any of the online communities! I look forward to meeting you!

3 Women, 2 Grace Hopper Conferences, 1 Global Collaboration

2010-07-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Three of the memorable women I talked with at Grace Hopper (GHC) in 2009 were Shikoh Gitau, a student researcher from South Africa, and Mary Hudachek-Buswell and Stefanie Markham, the local chairs for this year’s conference in Atlanta. These women forged a strong connection at GHC 2009 that has continued to develop, resulting in a panel to be presented at GHC 2010. Earlier this year Mary shared how she and Shikoh first connected: through our Grace Hopper 2009 Rides & Roommates discussion on Facebook. It’s such a great Grace Hopper story that I asked them to share it here on the GHC blog.

Mary’s story: Meeting Shikoh at GHC09

Last year was my first time to experience the inspiration of GHC. It was a long anticipated trip since GHC has always been something I wanted to participate in, but had not had the opportunity to do so in the past. I was asked to serve as the local chair for GHC10, and I just had to get to Tucson for GHC09. I decided to immerse myself in the experience of attending before traveling by reading the posts on Facebook and LinkedIn as the time approached. In order to save travel money with the budget crunch, I had to fly into Phoenix and drive to Tucson in a rental car. I kept noticing people posting requests for rides, meetings, or attending some sightseeing events together. I thought it was a great idea to communicate in this way. I liken it to listening in on a huge girls' gab session where they were all discussing going to THE party of the year. I became slightly addicted to reading the blogs, posts, and tweets which fed my excitement in attending GHC09. Occasionally, the thought would enter my mind, "What if GHC didn't measure up to my hopes and vision that I built up in mind?"

I was going to GHC09 with my Computer Science "sister", Stefanie Markham. As the time approached and anticipation mounted, I took the plunge and began participating in the online conversations. There was a post from a young woman in Cape Town, South Africa who needed a ride to Tucson from the Phoenix airport the day before the conference started. I had space in the car with only Stef and me driving down from Phoenix, so why not? It was the day and time we were arriving, and it would only cost sharing a couple of hours with a stranger in a small car in the middle of the desert. So Shikoh Gitau and I began coordinating online how we would meet, since phoning was out of the question. I gave Shikoh my cell number to call the day I would arrive in Phoenix. That was how we left it. Would she actually be there from South Africa? What did she really know about me? We each gave a leap of faith based on our common bond for what GHC could hold for both us.

Stef and I landed in Phoenix, finally got our bags, located the rental car facility, and finally got the car (seemed like hours). All the while playing phone tag with Shikoh. What Shikoh must have thought of the two crazy women from Atlanta. We met in an underground parking lot in Phoenix on what seemed like the hottest day of the year. As we began our drive to Tucson, (yes there were wrong turns as I was the driver) we got to know about each other and how our paths led us to GHC09. Shikoh had the same spirit as Stef and me, and a passion for furthering women in computing. Our new acquaintance with each other was fast growing into a tentative friendship as we filled every minute of the two hour drive with giddy discussion. We arrived at the resort and Shikoh determined she needed to be at a hotel somewhere else in downtown Tucson and there were no shuttles to get her there. Stef and I quickly checked into our room, and then headed out to take Shikoh to her hotel at the University of Arizona, as wel as a couple of other stranded students. Stefanie and I dropped the young women off, and then headed out to explore Arizona after a stop for fast food. We thought this would be our last encounter with Shikoh.

Not so! First thing the next morning and throughout the week, I continued to run into Shikoh and we would share our viewpoints, ideas, and information from sessions. We talked about how we should do something together for a future GHC. As we discussed the important issue of gender based violence after Megan Smith's speech, an idea came to the forefront of what we might be able to do. It was one of those goosebump moments in your life where you realize you might actually be able to make a real change in the world for the greater good. Our idea continued to grow, and plans were sketched out before we departed for our separate parts of the world. Both of us were forever changed by our meeting and connection to GHC. We have communicated electronically over the last 8 months, and our panel Take Back the Tech (Part II) was accepted to GHC10. We have a dream to harness technology in order to end violence against women in third world countries.

Shikoh’s story: Meeting Mary and Stef at GHC09

After receiving the news that my poster had been accepted for the GHC and that I had a travel scholarship to go all the way to Arizona, I was ecstatic. After all the excitement cooled down, I got right into planning how I was going to get myself SAFELY to Tucson. The Cape Town – Arizona flight takes about 24hours, so to beat the 11 hour jetlag I planned to arrive a day early. However, my funding did not cover the extra night so I first scanned my over 800 Facebook friends list to see who among my former classmates and friends lived in the area. The nearest I got was Phoenix, Arizona. They were very kind to host me for the one night. The next problem I encountered was to get to the hotel in Tucson from Phoenix. I joined the GHC fan page to see who was doing what, and posted my need for a ride to Tucson. Being from Africa, I am very wary of this kind of arrangement, Hollywood does not instill much confidence in as far as the great American desert is concerned. I had seen all sorts of imposter and hijacking movies, but I cast away the fears and went to the underground parking lot of the Phoenix Airport. With no pictures to view, I had to work with clothing color in order to identify Mary and Stef.

The U.S. was very new to me, so they brought me up to date with the whole being an American ritual. In that drive, I gained good friends and mentors as we headed towards GHC09 in what I regard as the greatest gathering on earth. Previous to the trip, I read a lot of what was presented in GHC, and came away feeling like an odd ball. My research in computer science was totally different from anything anyone was presenting, and needless to say I felt like an imposter. So as we exchanged our research approaches, I ended mine by saying that I am not “a real computer scientist”. The reaction from both Mary and Stef was not what I expected. They in unison told me to never ever say that, and stated that my research was great. It was good that I met these women and they had told me my work was good, because in the coming days, I continued to experience the “I am not a real computer scientist” thing, and they were there to correct me at every turn. After the keynote speech by Megan Smith (Google), they both came hunting after me with an “I told you so” expression written all over their faces. I have to say they were right; my research is indeed real computer science research. The meeting and discussion thereafter lead to the organization of Take Back the Tech (Part II), a panel at GHC10 that will bring together women from industry, academia, women’s rights activist as well as feminist organizations to discuss technology and gender based violence. We hope to have a concrete technological intervention as result of this panel as well as the continuing conversation.

Join Shikoh and Mary in the Grace Hopper Celebration session Take Back the Tech (Part II): A Feminist and Techie Dialogue on taking control of technology to end violence against women from 4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m. on Friday, October 1, 2010.

If you seek a ride or roommate for GHC, look for Grace Hopper 2010 Rides & Roommates on the Discussions tab of our Facebook page. And make your own pre-conference connections through our GHC online communities.

Do you have a story of a great connection made at the Grace Hopper Celebration? Tell us about it!

Hi! My name is Ed!

2010-06-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Hello there! I'm Erin 'Ed' Donahue and I'm one of the co-chairs of the Grace Hopper Communities Committee. Just like Gail, I'd like to introduce myself.

That's me!

I went to my first GHC in 2008 with my good friend and forever roommate Ashley. Just before leaving for the conference, we decided we want to be video bloggers and so we created Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show. Since then, we've continued to do our 5 minute show, focusing on technical women.

In May 2009, I graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN and moved to Colorado for my first job as a software engineer with Lockheed Martin. Working a full-time job is totally different from being in school, that's for sure! I'm learning new stuff everyday (although that did happen in school too). Out here in Colorado, I organize the Colorado Front Range Girl Geek Dinners. If you're ever in Colorado, please stop by!

I also love to salsa dance, play rugby, swim, and nap outside on my balcony. :)

I'm online! Connect with me!

Twitter: @creepyed (I also tweet as @ghc, look for my signature ^ed)
Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

We want to hear from you! Introduce yourself in the comments or on Facebook or LinkedIn!

All Atwitter About the Grace Hopper Celebration!

2010-06-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Each year more and more Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) attendees are using Twitter. This year we're using the hashtag #ghc10 to identify tweets (Twitter updates) related to the GHC 2010 conference. And we're taking advantage of a new Twitter feature: lists that help you connect with other participants before, during and after the conference.

When you register for the conference, you'll be given the option to add your Twitter name to our list of GHC10 attendees and, if you're presenting, to our list of GHC10 speakers. This will make it easier for presenters and attendees to connect through Twitter. It also makes it easier for the GHC Twitter account (@ghc) to follow you and assist with questions about the conference.

Here's how to make the most of Twitter for GHC 2010:

Follow @ghc for Grace Hopper Celebration updates on Twitter.
Start your tweet with "@ghc" to address a comment (suggestion: introduce yourself!) or question to the GHC twitterer.
Find out what others are saying about the conference using our hashtag #ghc10
Join in by including the #ghc10 hashtag in your conference-related tweets.
When you register for the conference, add your Twitter name to our list of GHC10 attendees and, if you're presenting, to our list of GHC10 speakers.
Complete your Twitter profile with a picture, bio, and link to your website or blog so other participants can tell who you are.

Remember that if your profile is protected, others will not be able to view your tweets by search or through the lists unless they go through the process of getting your permission.

If you've wondered who is behind all those @ghc tweets, our primary twitterer is BJ Wishinsky, Communities Program Manager at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). Assisting from time to time are other ABI staff and, as we get closer to the conference, volunteers from our GHC 2010 Communities Committee. Watch for more information on the committee in an upcoming newsletter.

For those not yet familiar with Twitter, here’s a short video by Common Craft to explain the concept: Twitter in Plain English.

This was cross-posted as an article on http://gracehopper.org/

Introducing a Passionate PhD Student

2010-06-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! My name is Gail, and I'm on this year's Grace Hopper Online Communities Committee. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and hope that you, too, will find a community you can introduce yourself in.

I went to my first Grace Hopper in 2008. We had just started our Women in Science and Engineering group (known as CU-WISE) on campus, and when I heard about the conference, I knew we had to go. My fellow executive members weren't so sure we would be able to get funding, but I pushed us to try, and lo and behold we succeeded! Attending the conference made an enormous difference to CU-WISE and our ability to put on a fantastic program at Carleton University.

In 2009, I wanted to get more involved with the conference. I love blogging, and started to volunteer more and more to help BJ Wishinsky, the Communities Program Manager over at the Anita Borg Institute, set things up. I ended up becoming the Lead Blogger and organized all our bloggers and note takers, ensuring we brought you info on as many session we could!

This year, as I said, I am on the new Online Communities Committee. Our main goal is to "evangelize and promote the Grace Hopper online communities... [by] participating in the online communities, recruiting diverse community volunteers, and evangelizing the communities to all Grace Hopper participants." I'm super excited to help everyone make the most out of the conference with these communities, whether they can attend in person or not!

To wrap up, a bit about me (and why I titled my post the way I did):I finished my Masters last summer and just finished my coursework for the PhD. I am very passionate about education and learning (could it be because my mom is teacher?), and I want my research to tap into that. I am planning on working on educational games, and in particular want to use augmented reality, as I believe there are some real cognitive advantages to the technology. I am also interested in the role of games and technology in the classroom, and want to help revolutionize how we teach computer science.

If anyone is interested in reading my personal blog or connecting with me, here are some useful links - I'd love to hear from you!

My blog, The Female Perspective of Computer Science
Twitter, @gailcarmichael
Linked In
Flickr

Grace Hopper Celebration 2010 - View from the Program Chairs - by Wendy Rannenberg

2010-05-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

You might not realize it, but we started planning for this spectacular conference in July 2009. For us, it is wonderful to see the schedule come together, the letters of acceptance go out to the hundreds of presenters, the keynotes lined up, all just in time for us to start work on next year's conference.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This year's conference theme, Collaborating Across Boundaries, highlights collaboration across boundaries of: academics, industry and government; international borders; multidisciplinary aspects of computer science; K-12 and higher education. There are probably more but you get the gist. It is a very broad set of topics.

This is a milestone conference. Not only is this the 10th celebration, it is the largest and we have responded to your input by adding new tracks, new collaborations, all at an exciting venue. This year the program committee saw an increase in the number of papers, panels and workshops that were submitted for review. Wow. So many great ideas. We have seen an increased interest in the conference from both academia and industry, here in the US and abroad. We are truly getting noticed.

Here, in this first article in our "View from the Program Chairs" series we take a look at many of the conference features and a closer look at a new event, the new Career Fair, and the Open Source track as well as the Technical Papers track.

In response to requests from our industry partners, the committee has added a Career Fair to be held on Tuesday (Note that is a day earlier than usual! Be sure to mark your calendars.) The Career Fair will have simultaneous tracks where you can meet up with our many sponsors who are hiring and also where you can work on your resume. In addition to the Career Fair and Resume Clinic there will be a Women of Color Workshop on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we will have the Phd Forum and New Investigator talks, and lots of career development workshops for both industry and academia. These will be followed by the poster session and opening reception.

After that great start the conference will have 10 tracks for you to ponder on both Thursday and Friday. (remember, it is the10th anniversary). We highly recommend you attend the Newcomers session on Wednesday to get tips for selecting from the wide variety of choices. The tracks are focused on Academia, Industry, Technical, Student, Career, our Theme track, Invited Technical Speakers, a special Steering Committee track, an Open Source track and an HCI track. There are Executive Forums, Leadership workshops and more.

The Open Source technical track is being designed specifically for the conference by a team of women who are dedicated to increasing the number of women involved in the open source community. A series of talks and hands on exercises will lead you through the process of getting started and understanding the tools out there.

In addition to the Open Source track we will be presenting a special track on Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This will be highlighted in our next article, along with some of the other special topics and presenters that we have lined up.

All in all this is going to be a very exciting conference!

Wendy Rannenberg is the Grace Hopper 2010 Program Co-Chair

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

2010-03-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

It's been a while since I posted here but I've been asked to post my contribution to Ada Lovelace Day, the international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. I've posted it below - hope you enjoy it!

Kate

Last year, I wrote about one of my first technical mentors, Lee McIntyre. This year I thought I'd write about someone I didn't personally know, but who is having a world-wide impact and who is behind some of the latest innovations in laptop technology: Mary Lou Jepsen.

I first heard Mary Lou Jepsen speak at the Grace Hopper Conference in 2008. I'd heard about One Laptop per Child (OLPC) but didn't know much about the company or Jepsen herself.

If you haven't heard about it, OLPC is a project to create a low-cost, cheap, durable laptop that could be used by kids in developing countries. The laptops are networked to enable communication over long distances. Here's their mission statement:

"To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future."

Jepsen's talk was inspiring, and we certainly did see examples of children engaged in their own education through OLPC. For instance, Jepsen talked about a young girl who started a 'laptop hospital' in Egypt for her friends, repairing their OLPCs if they got broken.

Not only did Jepsen succeed with her vision, but she was also able to make technical innovations along the way, particularly with the screen of the laptop. She used her background in Holography and Optical Science (she has a Master of Science in the former from the MIT Media Lab and a PhD in the latter from Brown University) to invent sunlight-readable display technology and co-invented the OLPC's ultra-low power management system. At the time, the XO OLPC was the lowest-power laptop ever made. You can even charge your OLPC by turning a crank, which is useful in places without easy access to electricity!

There are other ways Mary Lou Jepsen is inspiring particularly to me. Her degrees in physics-related fields gave me confidence that someone with a background in physics (me) could study Computer Science and be successful in this field. She's also an entrepreneur, having founded four companies prior to working on OLPC, and at least one after (Pixel Qi). I had my own business during my undergraduate years, so it was cool to know that entrepreneurial skills are useful and valued in technology! Jepsen also works on socially-minded projects, and it's wonderful to see that in technology, you can apply your creativity and skills to projects like this and still gain professionally.

What's she working on now? I was so happy to learn that at her new company, Jepsen is working on a screen that has an E-ink AND regular laptop screen mode. One device can do both! I've been waiting for this for years. If you'd like to learn more, check out Mary Lou Jepsen's blog.

Ada Lovelace Day: A Researcher I Admire

2010-03-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

I love Ada Lovelace Day. It's so inspiring to see all the amazing technical women I've never heard of (and some more famous ones I have heard of) being written about all over the world! I participated last year, and sure wasn't going to miss it this year.

I wrote about a researcher I admire. The interesting thing is that she's in the exact same year of grad school as I am, so you might not expect her to be someone I look up to. But, as you will see, I have good reason to.

I met Michelle for the first time at last year's CRA-W Grad Cohort in San Francisco. We were both second year grad students, so we happened to sit at the same table when given time to mingle with our cohort.

I quickly learned that although Michelle was also a second year grad student like me, she was much further ahead in her research. In fact, she had finished her Masters thesis in January! She was going to do her PhD in September and work on cool stuff until then. She told me about the projects she'd been working on, and I just couldn't help but be impressed.

Check out the rest of this post on my blog.

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, GHC celebrates two prominent women in technology

2010-03-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

March 24th marks Ada Lovelace Day, an important date where we recognize women in technology. According to the FindingAda website, we are supposed to "blog to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science". We who plan the Grace Hopper Celebration do this every day! We talk to hundreds of fabulous technical women - we love our jobs!

So to celebrate Ada, this blog is dedicated to two of our GHC2010 keynote speakers who are so inspiring and deserve celebration days of their own: Barbara Liskov and Duy-Loan Le.

Duy-Loan Le is a Senior Fellow at Texas Instruments who started on her journey in technology at the age of 12 coming to America with very little other than a drive to make things happen. At 16 she graduated valedictorian from her high school and a short time later, a BSEE Magna Cum Laude from the University of Texas at Austin.

I knew very little about Duy-Loan until I read her nomination to receive the 2008 Women of Vision Award for Leadership. Her struggle to come to the US, to achieve a stellar academic background and to be the only woman fellow at Texas Instruments in its 80 year history is quite spectacular.

But it doesn't stop there - she has a huge following in the Vietnamese community. Duy-Loan’s service to the community is extensive. Among the many things that she does in America and internationally, she most enjoys providing education assistance for children and supporting social economic developments projects in 12 different countries through two 501c3 organizations, the Mona Foundation and the Sunflower Mission.

I see a lot of acceptance speeches and profiles of great women but her speech and profile are among the best I have ever seen. I have included the links here to her YouTube videos. Married for 27 years with children at that level, she has a lot of great advice for all of us.

Barbara Liskov is a Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT and is the second woman ever to win the Turing Award. Barbara has a long history with the ABI community and was the first keynote speaker at the very first Grace Hopper Celebration back in 1994. Liskov is known for developing not one but two programming languages - CLU in the 1970's and Argus in the 1980's which formed underpinnings for languages like Java and C++. She reminds me a great deal of Grace Hopper herself - a creator of programmung languages and an academic.

We look forward to hearing both of these prestigious women at the 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration in Atlanta in September. Mark your calendars - it's an opportunity to meet and talk with many great women like these.

Let me know who you admire as a woman in technology? Blog about her. Today is the day :-)

-Deanna Kosaraju

deannak *at* anitaborg dot org

#ald10

This is a cross post to the Grace Hopper Newsfeed

Apply for a scholarship to attend the Grace Hopper 2010 Conference!

2010-03-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

In case you missed the press release, applications are now open for the 2010 Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). GHC scholarships cover a combination of registration, meals, lodging and a fixed amount of travel expenses. The deadline to apply for a scholarship to attend this year's conference is May 14th.

Here are a few things you may not know about GHC scholarships.

Last year, 311 Grace Hopper 2009 participants attended on scholarships.
Students are not the only participants who can receive GHC scholarships: Junior faculty and employees of nonprofits and NGOs are also eligible to apply.
Participating in the conference will increase your chances of getting a scholarship. Since some of the program submission deadlines have been extended, take this opportunity to submit a proposal. Deadlines are March 30th for PhD Forum and New Investigators; April 6th for Technical Poster.

For more information or to apply for a scholarship see
http://gracehopper.org/2010/participate/student-scholarships/

Who do you know that we can recognize through our GHC Awards?

2010-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

by Telle Whitney, President & CEO, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

Editor's Note: This was originally posted on the Anita Borg Institute blog. I'm cross-posting it here to help spread the word to our GHC community.

Some of the most important work we do at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is to recognize women who are changing the face of technology. Recognizing women role models is not only important for the award winner, but also for the millions of women who look up and say yes, I can have an impact too. As you read this, recognize that you know some extraordinary women who would be perfect candidates for our awards, and that I need your help.

Our awards recognize extraordinary people, whose work contributes to a changing perception of what it means to create and use technology. We need people who can nominate someone they admire. It doesn’t have to be you writing the nomination, but I bet you know someone who could put together a nomination.

Do you know a man or a woman academic under the age of 40, who has demonstrated leadership capability and who has had a positive impact on the lives of women through technology?

If so, consider nominating them for the Denice Denton Award., which includes a $5K award.

http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/awards/denice-denton-award/

Do you know an outstanding woman who is recognized world wide as a technical leader? Please consider nominating them for the Anita Borg Technical Leadership award, which includes a $10K award.

http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/awards/anita-borg-technical-leadership-award/

Do you know an individual or team who has caused technology to have a positive impact on the lives of women and society? Please consider nominating them for the Anita Borg Social Impact award, which includes a $10K award

http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/awards/anita-borg-social-impact-award/

Do you know technical women from developing countries, who are up-and-coming leaders that advance women’s participation in technology? If so, please consider nominating them for the Anita Borg Change Agent Awards

http://anitaborg.org/initiatives/awards/change-agent-awards/

All of these awards are given out at the Grace Hopper Conference Awards Ceremony, held on September 30, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. Nominations will be accepted until April 29th.

There is no more fulfilling work than nominating someone you admire, and knowing that you are having a positive impact on their life and the lives of technical women everywhere!!

The Long and Short of Answering the Grace Hopper Call for Participation

2010-02-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

You have a great idea for a Grace Hopper conference session. A really really great idea! In fact, as you prepare to submit your proposal, you realize that your idea may be TOO great. How in the world will you and your panelists cover everything that needs to be said in the space of a one hour session? It's just not going to fit! What do you do now? First, know that you're not alone. Others are facing the same problem as they work on their proposals. Others faced the same problem last year, and the year before. So I asked Deanna Kosaraju, the Anita Borg Institute's VP of Programs, what advice she has for those whose GHC ideas won't fit neatly into a one hour session.

Deanna's top recommendation is that you really try to make the session fit into a single hour. Why? Because, based on prior GHC experience, Deanna expects there will be approximately ten times more conference submissions than there is physical space and time available at GHC 2010. In addition, the committees reviewing the program submissions will try to accept sessions from as many different presenters as possible. I'll offer some suggestions below for how to pare your session down. But here are your alternatives if feel you just can't make that work.

Can your idea be broken into two or more one-hour sessions? Divide them up with your collaborators and submit them (separately) as a mini-track. In the submission for each, describe how it is related to the other(s) and request that they be scheduled back-to-back (if that's necessary). But be forewarned: the committee may accept your multiple session proposals but only give you a single one-hour session to present them. This happened to me a few years ago when our two-panels-plus-one-BOF (Birds of a Feather) mini-track was accepted, but we were instructed to combine the two panels into one. We did, and used the BOF for the overflow conversation from the panel.

The other option is to include in your submission an explanation of how long the session should be. You will need to make a compelling case for why the session cannot be condensed into a single hour. You'll also need to show how the agenda will be broken up into chunks no longer than one hour, so that attendees will get regular breaks. Even if you do, the committee may accept your session proposal but only give you a single hour to present it. Deanna assured me this also has happened before.

Remember: The program committees will try to accept sessions from as many different presenters as possible. And they will receive many more great proposals than they can possibly fit into the available space and time. So let's go back to Deanna's original recommendation.

How do you condense a great session idea so it will fit into a single hour? Here are a few of my own suggestions, then I would love to hear yours:

One reason that sessions get too big for one hour is by having too many speakers. Limit the number of panelists you invite, so that each will have adequate time to share her contributions.
Select a subset of your topic to focus on. That might mean narrowing the problem space, e.g., focus on one special case or ignore special cases and focus on the general. It might mean selecting only the most important aspects of your topic, or perhaps the most popular (like a top ten list).
Move some of your content into a reference area in the back of your slides. You won't have time to present it but you can let attendees know it's there. Post your slides on the conference wiki for attendees to download. Or create an online resource area where attendees can go to find and/or share more ideas (this can also be done on the conference wiki).

Now let's hear from you. Have you streamlined a large session idea to make it fit? Have you combined multiple sessions into one? What tactics have worked well for you?

Close Encounters with Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

2010-02-17T21:36:00.000-08:00

"I met Admiral Hopper, at Penn, but have lost my nanosecond."

The nanosecond referred to was one of the 30 cm pieces of wire that Grace Hopper famously handed out at speaking engagements. And this rueful admission by David Klappholz was part of an unexpected harvest reaped since launching the Facebook page for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing: Fans of the page immediately starting posting stories of their personal encounters with her.

It began when one of the page's new fans posted a variation on a famous quote from Adm. Hopper: "It's easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission." The quote prompted Joan Deaderick to recall, "I actually heard Adm. Hopper speak at a DEC (Digital Equipment Co) symposium in the '80's. She told some wonderful stories including the quote ... mentioned."

Esther Massimini, a Principal Engineer at Honeywell, shared her own story. "Back in the early 80s, I was stationed at the Pentagon (in the USAF). I often found myself right behind Adm. Hopper in line for the credit union! Occasionally also found myself with her in an elevator in the DC area." It's notable that Adm. Hopper was so well-known that Esther still remembers these brushes with greatness.

Ann Finnie drew a flurry of responses to her story: "My dad was in the Air Force and he worked with Admiral Hopper in Philadelphia in the early 50s. They had the Univac 1, serial number 1 and my dad was learning how to use it so he could train the AF on how to use s/n 2. He wrote the first compiler for the electronic computer on the Univac 1 in Admiral Hopper's lab. She helped him get a job at Lawrence Livermore Labs when he moved to California. I never met her, but I wish I could thank her." Ann later told me that the Univac 1 with serial number 1 is now on display in the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, DC. After Ann's father died, she found in his office both documentation of his compiler and the original operating manual for the Univac 1. She and her mother brought these to the curator in DC and donated them to the Smithsonian.

Alfred Thompson of Microsoft reported that "I met her first in college. A bunch of us students had lunch with her. One of the students asked her why she joined the Navy. She blinked a couple of times and said 'There was a war on.' That was it - the whole story. I never forgot that. She had a sense of duty." This same sense of duty led Adm. Hopper to return to service in the Navy after retirement -- not once, but twice.

Sue Allen shared, "I was a Computer Science Major at Brigham Young University in about 1970 when I first heard Commander Hopper speak. She told us that the time would come when we'd work on small desktop computers and share storage. This was in the days of big mainframes and punch cards. We all thought she was a little crazy!"

"I have always admired this woman. What a gift she was to all women in math and engineering disciplines. WAY ahead of her time," posted Pat McGowan. And of course when Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women In Computing conference to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront, they were inspired by the legacy of Adm. Hopper.

Many thanks to Sue, Pat, Ann, Alfred, Esther, David and Joan for their permission to share their recollections outside Facebook. To see more of these posts, become a fan of the Grace Hopper Celebration page on Facebook.

Do you have a personal story about an encounter with Adm. Grace Murray Hopper? Please share it here or on the Facebook page. My hope is that there will be enough stories for a follow-up blog post.

Note: This was also cross-posted on the Anita Borg Institute blog.

Grace Hopper 2010: Collaborating (Online) Across Boundaries

2010-02-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

The Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) 2010 conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from September 28 - October 2. The conference leadership and staff are very excited about this year's GHC theme: Collaborating Across Boundaries. As Communities Program Manager for the Anita Borg Institute (the nonprofit that presents the conference) I know our GHC online community members and volunteers will be right at home with this theme. That's because they have always collaborated across the boundaries of geography and institutions using our online communities to collaborate on conference sessions and to find answers, panelists, rides and roommates.

Are you working on a proposal for a Grace Hopper conference session? Thinking about how to convince your boss to send you this year? We’ve got something for everyone in our GHC online communities. Our new Grace Hopper Celebration page on Facebook is attracting fans and, currently, stories of interactions with Admiral Hopper herself. The Grace Hopper Celebration group on LinkedIn is a great place to make professional connections before the conference, whether you’re looking for a job or putting together a conference panel.

Follow our GHC updates on Twitter and connect with other conference twitterers. Subscribe to this blog and review the great content from last year’s conference. If you’re new to social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll find everything you need to get started on the Community Home and Getting Started pages. And don’t forget that the Anita Borg Institute’s email communities like Systers, LGBT and LiC (Latinas in Computing) are excellent sources of GHC collaborators and advice.

The Grace Hopper 2010 Call for Participation is open, with submissions due March 16. Don't be shy! Use our communities to find the information and collaborators you need. Oh, and see How To Ask Your Manager If You Can Attend GHC for an email template you can tailor for your own request.

I'm happy to answer any questions here on the blog or in the various communities. See you online!

What a Web We Weave: Enhancing Conferences with an Online Community

2009-10-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

I gave a lightning talk at MidWiC09 on how online communites are used at GHC. Below is my abstract and script.

In 2008, I decided to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC). SInce I had not submitted a BOF, technical paper, or poster during the call for participation, I volunteered to contribute to the online community. THe GHC online community includes blogging, note taking via a wiki, tweeting on Twitter, sharing photos and videos via Flickr and YouTube respectively, and utilizing the social networks of Facebook and LinkedIn. This participation absolutely made my GHC experience, and I returned again in 2009 as one of the YouTube group coordinators. In this Lightning Talk, I will explain how the different online mediums are used and the benefits they provide beyond the conference.

LinkedIn and Facebook allow distribution of information over pre-established networks. More importantly it allows interaction between those in the networks that wouldn't happen if the info was solely sent in an email newsletter distributed via blind carbon copy.

Mediums used before the conference in addition to LinkedIn and Facebook were the GHC Blog, YouTube, and Twitter.

Before the conference, bloggers posted advice on how to make the most of the exhibits and recruiters, on what to pack, on networking. The blog allows for sharing of personal perspective, and bloggers shared why they feel GHC is so important, how GHC has affected their life, and what they hope to get out of the conference. Organizers also blogged to share some of the behind the scenes work done at the conference.

I was a coordinator of the YouTube group this year. I started a video blog with a classmate at GHC08 where we did two pre-conference videos introducing ourselves and going over what to pack. This year we did a five episode series that included introducing ourselves for anyone new to our show, providing tips to first time attendees, and going over the eight session tracks.

Twitter was used to distribute announcements of new blog posts or video or new information about the conference. It's also used as a networking tool. Many of the GHC09 official Twitterers did not know each other. At the conference, when we ran into one another (and realized it), we weren't meeting a stranger. I discoverer a Twitterer who works for Sun is from my home town after I tweeted about a Fort Wayne issue.

At the conference, all these mediums were used as was a Wiki for note-taking. While at the conference, a conflict arose, and I was unable to attend a session I felt would be beneficial to my career. However, I was able to access the Wiki at a later time to see notes not just from the presenter, but also the audience Q&A.

The blog was used to share personal reactions to sessions, as well as session summaries.

The YouTube group was used to video record attendees that may not be presenting as well as interview presenters.

Twitter was used extensively. The conference center actually had a Twitter account that followed those using the hashtag, and responded to requests for stronger WiFi, turning down A/C, and providing other venue-related q's. It also allowed people following the back channel at one session to tweet questions to people at other sessions to ask. For example, I was note-taking one session, and someone tweeted an interesting quote from another session. I replied with a question, which the woman was able to ask on my behalf.

Beyond the conference I use Twitter to keep in touch with the new members of my network. After seeing one woman invite my old roommate to a Girls Geek Dinner, I tweeted my jealousy. In response, the Su employee from my hometown declared we would have a geek dinner of our own over the winter holiday.

This post was originally published on Ashley's personal blog, Let's Eat that Big Fish, at http://organizefish.com/blog/archives/149.

How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? Hint: it doesn't.

2009-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of people saying, "Oh, it's statistically proven that women are worse in math than men, so that's why there aren't more women in computer science."

My first degree is in mathematics. So I looked up the studies. I did the math. And it just didn't add up. Biology doesn't explain our gender gap.

I used to do this presentation on whatever paper was handy when someone tried to spout this misconception in my hearing. But I thought it might be more useful if I put it online, and I'm sure lots of other women from the Grace Hopper Celebration would like these slides to use and share.

So here it is. A quick presentation that explains why biology cannot explain the gender gap in computer science:

How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? Hint: it doesn't.

View more presentations from Terri Oda.

Like it? Hate it? Catch the Mathnet reference? Let me know.

The slides have also been posted to My personal blog and Geek Feminism... Feel free to pass them on!

Motivación e Inspiración: Latinas en GHC09

2009-10-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

El grupo de Latinas participó en GHC09 activamente con: 1F2W4Pa1R3P4B1L1T. Pueden decodificar este número en un blog anterior de Gilda.
Una de las primeras actividades fué el día Miércoles, justo con mi presentación en el PhD Forum 3, en la cual ahondaré mas en otra nota.
Una de las charlas mas esperadas y con mayor asistencia (incluso hubo asistentes que se sentaron el el suelo) fue la impartida por Cecilia Aragón y Justin Cassell titulada Para Investigadores que inician su carrera: Cultivando/Aumentando tu programa de investigación (For Early Career Researchers: Growing Your Research Program).
Cecilia Aragón nos explicó la importancia de tener una red de profesionales para mejorar nuestra visibilidad y nuestra investigación. Nos dió varios consejos para comenzar/aumentar esta red, informal o formalmente en conferencias, congresos, etc.
Algunos tips fueron:

Participar en discusiones con conferencistas después de su charla.
Hacer planes para el almuerzo o la cena.
Hablar, no tener miedo de usar el micrófono si es necesario.
Conocer a la gente que está sentada a un lado tuyo o se te acerca.
Dar seguimiento a los contactos después de un evento.
Dar pláticas y conferencias en tu departamento/escuela.

También nos dió consejos para formar equipos de colaboración y cómo escribir propuestas para solicitar financiamiento.

La presentación de Cecilia puede ser consultada aquí.

Posteriormente, Justine Cassell nos contó algunas anécdotas personales de cómo inició sus colaboraciones y redes de investigación y nos compartió un ejercicio que realiza con sus estudiantes y colaboradores: Hacer una lista de 20 personas que entiendan/estén interesados en tu área de investigación e ingeniártelas para conocerlas. Algunos tips para concerlos es enviándoles correos acerca de tu investigación, compartiendo con ellos extensiones o nuevos resultados obtenidos con su investigación, enviar estudiantes graduados a visitar colegas, etc. El objetivo es disminuír la lista cada año. "Pasión es algo que compartimos como investigadores" mencionó Justine.

Algo que no deja de sorprenderme es la honestidad con la que investigadoras exitosas como Justine y Cecilia nos comentan que no fue del todo fácil para ellas comenzar a crear su red de colaboración. Esto es muy común en GHC y aliciente para las asistentes el saber que no somos las únicas con un poco de temor al comenzar este tipo de actividades.

Una de las actividades que más disfruté fué el almuerzo de Latinas, para el cual se registraron 119 asistentes. Curiosamente, lo menos que hicimos en este almuerzo fué almorzar. Como buenas latinas, hablamos, hablamos y hablamos. Fué realmente enriquecedor conocer a otras mujeres con las que comparto las mismas metas, inquietudes y preocupaciones, no sólo a nivel profesional, sino también a nivel personal. Motivación, inspiración y alegría definen el ambiente que se vivió en cada una de las mesas. Un buen lugar para formar nuevas amistades y nuestra red de colaboración. Ésta es una imagen con algunas de las Latinas con las que almorcé, cortesía de Natalie Gil:

No puedo dejar de mencionar la actividad Speed Mentoring, organizada por Dilma Da Silva, Nadia Anguiano-Wehde, Cecilia Aragon, Claris Castillo, Gilda Garreton, Patty Lopez y Mara Silva. Siguiendo la idea de Speed Dating, en esta sesión se asignó a cada una de las participantes una mentora durante cierto período de tiempo para discutir algún tema de nuestro interés. Al término de este período una nueva mentora era asignada y aquéllas que no tenían mentora dado que el número de participantes era mayor que el de mentoras, esperaban fuera de la sala mientras discutían temas mas generales. Esta actividad me pareció fabulosa.

En este blog encontrarás otras actividades organizadas por Latinas que omití por motivo de espacio, pero no por ello menos importantes. Mi participación en GHC09 se enriqueció con las actividades de Latinas. No sólo encontre inspiración en otras mujeres, sino que fué muy emotivo el saber que algunas de las actividades que realizo pueden inspirar a otras.

Si tu eres una Latina en Computación, únete al grupo Latinas in Computing a través de la lista de distribución de correo electrónico o en Facebook. Te aseguro que no te arrepentirás.

Publicado orignalmente en mi blog.

Valerie's Thoughts on GHC09!

2009-10-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

I knew in advance that the conference had sold out, but that did not prepare me for what I encountered once I arrived: the largest, most diverse, most intelligent gathering of women I've ever been surrounded by. The women were students, industry luminaries, open source hackers, coders, program managers, managers, CEOs, directors, mothers, and everything in between. I swear the age range of attendees was probably 16 to 80. I met more women from Africa during that conference than had ever in my life before. Several from Nigeria and Kenya, in particular.

The conference schedule, as always, was intense. There just are not enough hours in the day for all of the stuff we all wanted to do.

I attended a full day of sessions Wednesday, each room just as packed as the last, even though official conference launch wasn't until 7PM that evening. I met with most of my panelists on Wednesday night, which did mean I missed most of the poster session, which was disappointing - but I had so much fun talking to the interesting women that were going to present with me on Thursday, that I couldn't see any other choice! The conference was off to a fantastic start!

On Thursday, I was lucky to catch up with Dr. Susanne Hambrusch and the students she had brought from the Purdue Computer Science Department. As a graduate of that great university, it is always so rewarding to meet these ambitious and intelligent students. For some of us, we have met at other Grace Hopper Celebrations - others, it was our first time. We all had so much to talk about and I really could've spent a lot more time with them, too!

You can see my blogs for most of the sessions I attended for the rest of the week, but I just wanted to say something about both receptions.

Thursday night's dancing was deejayed in the style of 80's Wedding Dance Party, but sometimes it's a lot of fun to just get out and dance to those old silly songs! He did mix in some fun Indian and Arabic music to mix it up, and I've never before seen a woman dancing the Macarena with a baby strapped to her front in a snuggly. Dancing with hundreds of women with total abandon is good for the soul!

Friday night was sponsor night! Thank you Microsoft, Google and Intel for the delicious dinner, t-shirts and additional opportunities to meet and talk with amazing women from all over the world. This evening's deejay was playing much more current music, and you could see the college students dancing like there was no tomorrow. Well, as this was the last evening of the conference, that did kind of fit the bill...

I was very impressed with the technical support staff in the conference center at the JW Marriot Starr Pass Resort. One of their staff members followed tons of women at the conference on Twitter, so he (or was it a she?) knew instantly if there were networking or temperature issues and they were addressed so quickly! Everything just worked and help was always a tweet away. The resort itself was lovely with lots of nice dining choices, and even free tequila shots on the patio every evening. I was very impressed with all of the staff and would attend another conference here in a heartbeat.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is more than just a professional skills and technical conference. It is a place where I can reconnect with old friends and companions from industry and academia. I get to meet so many interesting women, that every one of them inspires me in some way.

This year, I even got to meet a lot of the women I follow on Twitter right there at the conference!

I've seen a lot of blogs and tweets lately on Women in Technology vs Women Who Do Technology. Personally, as a women who designs and developers software, I am happy having women around me in any capacity. Yes, it is very nice to have technical conversations with other women, which I find often focus more on how a solution to a problem was found instead of what the final solution was, but at least knowing I'm not alone in the organization or on my team is worth something, too. I'm lucky, I know. I work with several women who are also developers on my team, as well as females on the management team. The last project I was on, 2 out of 3 developers were women. :-) I met lots of women at the celebration who are not so fortunate.

I am thankful for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing that it brings me closer to my peers and more women like me. I've been inspired to try to start an affinity group for Women in OpenSolaris, and to try to inspire younger women to investigate technology careers. Any suggestions or any one that wants to help, please share or let me know!

Valerie Fenwick

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges Faced by Women in Computing

2009-10-10T16:18:00.000-07:00

Communication skills are very important. I can't stress that enough. I recently graduated with a master's degree and have been looking for a job for several months now and I've seen it: employers want you to have communications skills. If you are very smart but you can't communicate or get along with others, you are of no use to them.

In my opinion, you can read about communication all you want but it still won't be the same as actually putting it into practice. What I recommend is, whenever you can, do presentations, network, write blogs or e-mails or articles... even if you don't want to. That's why I decided to become External Affairs Executive of CU-WISE. I did it because I was an introvert and I wasn't a great communicator. Not to mention I never liked speaking to someone for the first time. It drained me. But after 2 years in that role, here I am writing blogs, speaking at high schools, networking at conferences, and promoting CU-WISE everywhere I go. By the way, a great way to socialize is to wear something goofy (like a funny hat), to be a photographer (approaching people by taking their pictures), or carry something funny (like the duckies in the picture). The CU-WISE executives approached her just because of those silly things!

My notes on this session don't give the panelists justice because I couldn't always keep up with typing what they were saying. They did spend a fair bit of time speaking about different kinds of communication norms in different kinds of cultures. That is definitely something to watch out for. I remember I met a young Iranian lady through CU-WISE and she told me about a concern she had. She asked me why the males in her classes didn't take her seriously. She was in engineering. I asked her to explain because I never felt that way in my undergrad. She told me that when she asks a guy a question about a course, let's say about a formula or something, he always ends up laughing or joking and never answers the question. I thought about it and asked her to explain exactly how she asks these questions. She was a very kind young lady with a very low voice so I thought that maybe she just didn't speak loud enough. In the end I found out that it was in her culture to not look a man in the eyes while speaking with him and to many people here that could show anywhere from lack of confidence to disrespect. I personally feel uncomfortable when someone doesn't look me in the eyes when they are speaking to me. I would assume that they just don't respect me or the conversation we are having.

So I would like to close by reminding you all again to practice, practice, and practice! Does anyone have any comments or suggestions about this topic? About the notes?

The Fight or Flight Moment: Understanding Why We Leave or Stay in Industry

2009-10-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

This session was a lot to take in (in a good way) but I did my best at writing notes. The presenter was Sue Dorward from Sudo Coaching. I could tell she knew what she was talking about and I am thankful that she took the time to present her data to us.

First off I would like to mention that both industry and women benefit from retaining women in industry. Companies are starting to work more at retaining women because there is more demand than supply and it is expensive to replace us. At least that is the short version of the answer.

Sue highlighted three studies that were done on women in industry. They were the Athena Factor by Harvard University, the Catalyst, and a study called "Climbing the Technical Ladder". They are available online except for the Harvard one. Check out the notes page for where to find them.

Like I mentioned, there was a lot of awesome data to take in, so I will briefly mention what these studies concluded.

Why do women leave industry?

extreme job pressure and they feel isolated, lacking mentors and so on
culture not women-friendly and they are still experiencing sexual harassment
compensation and they feel their careers are stalled by mid-career

What can women do?

work in a company with >= 10% women in management positions
get mentors, sponsors (who make your accomplishments known), role models, and figure out your career paths
work in a company with more flexible career track timing, on-ramps, etc.

My notes also go into more details about how mid-level women are more likely to have a partner working full time than mid-level men, what companies can do, and so on. So check it out and I encourage you to write your comments below!

The “F word”: The Uneasy Relationship Between Feminism and Technology

2009-10-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

I am sorry for the late post on this session. But like Serena said on another post: better late than never.

In my experience, this session started a day early. You see, the day before this session I presented a BoF about support groups for women in STEM with my fellow executives of CU-WISE (Ottawa, Canada). My group presented in conjunction with MENTE (Mexico) and WICS (Vancouver, Canada). During the question period, someone asked a question I always dread to answer. It was about feminism and how it affects student groups. What surprised me next was that the first thing that one of my fellow executive members, Gail, did was pass the microphone to me. "Oh boy" I thought, and started getting nervous because I had so much to say and I didn't know where to start.

So here's my chance, but I'll keep it short. My notes on the session on the uneasy relationship between feminism and technology are included in the ghc wiki which also includes a report from a "Climbing the Technical Ladder" study. This blog includes my personal perspectives.

Let me start with a definition of feminism. It is defined as "the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men". It is not defined as hating on men, trying to gain more power than men, or anything inventive anyone may think. So let's clear the air. Feminism is what gave you a better life: gave you the right to vote, protected you from sexual harassment, and gave you more equal pay. And women suffered and fought to give you those rights. This is how I see feminism. To me it is a gift that was given to me before I was born and it is my responsibility to appreciate it and to continue attaining those equal rights. By the way, when I say "equal" I don't mean the "same". Women and men are different, they're just not quite equal yet.

It looks like I've already written a lot so let me finish off with something I don't usually talk about because I'm so busy defending feminism. I would like to talk about what I think feminists can do to shed a brighter light on the "f word":

Join a local support group like WISE, MENTE, and WICS. I don't know what I would do without my awesome support group here in Ottawa.
When you are ready, pass it on. Recruit and mentor others. Make your voice heard. Make sure their voices are heard too. Don't judge other women, support them.
Help men understand feminism. Men are part of the solution and we need their support too. Marry a supportive husband. Talk to you brother or father. I know I talk about feminism with my brother's friends who are all in their 20's and in engineering. Right now they're busy going to class, reading textbooks, and writing tests, but they'll be in much closer contact with us in the workplace.
Consider the possibility of scrapping the word and adopting a new one. It is much too difficult to change how people perceive it and I would rather if we spent our energy somewhere else.

There it is folks. Those are my brief thoughts and I encourage you to share your thoughts and experiences too. The room for this session was completely filled so I can imagine that there are a lot of women who would appreciate talking some more about it.

Why, as a technical woman, you might want to attend the GHC conference?

2009-10-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

I was doing this post for the "women in computer science" group at my school and thought of sharing my views here as well .

In this year’s conference there were over 1600 women from diverse backgrounds, right from sociology to cloud computing. It feels great (and secure) to be surrounded by so many technical women! When I am at the GHC conference, I don’t have to worry about admitting to the person sitting beside me that I feel really technically-challenged when it comes to gadgets - I actually admitted this to a woman sitting beside me when I couldn’t get my camcorder to work the way I wanted and she echoed the same sentiment. I felt awesome about not being alone :-). It is this feeling that you are not alone which is so comforting and you can get this feeling only by being at the GHC! You are not alone when it comes to the “Imposter Syndrome” and you are definitely not alone if you find it challenging to be a person of influence.

There is a bright chance of finding support groups at GHC- for example, I got in touch with people who support Information, Communication & Technology for Development (ICTD) and we are now working together towards starting a collaborative virtual project that has immense potential of creating social impact. You can find a mentor or a cool buddy at GHC to share your concerns about issues that you don’t have courage to discuss at your workplace or school. Also, if you are interested in learning about the kind of work that the top notch IT companies are doing (right from Intel to Facebook), you might get a chance to interact with their employees at their booths.

Surprisingly, some people (I met them during different legs of my GHC trip) call this conference as sexist as they feel that the focus is primarily on women in technology, the challenges they face and how they can overcome those challenges. I don’t really care about this sexist/non-sexist thing - the main thing is that I end-up having a good time at the GHC. Such conferences are a chance to feel motivated and do well in life despite the challenges, because you hear so many success-stories when you are there. When you come across stories which are not “success stories”- read failures- they keep you grounded and propel you to do extremely well in life and make the most of the resources you have.

Some of the unique features of this conference (as compared to the other conferences that I have attended) are:

Free Childcare
CONNECT scanners to network with other conference attendees – this makes your networking experience really convenient (http://gracehopper.org/2009/community/connect/)
Awards ceremony and sponsor nights are extremely enjoyable
Soft-Skills enhancement sessions
Awesome community volunteers who blog and take notes of sessions so that if you couldn’t attend them, you can always refer to the online material to know what it was all about!
Number of women participants- greater than 1600!
Ahem…cute swags - for example umbrellas, tote bags, and chocolates

Anita Borg Social Impact Award Winner 2009

2009-10-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

(Note: I just realized I had this post saved on my desktop and not posted on the blog yet! Sorry for delay. Got caught up with the amazing Sponsor night on Friday and traveling back home. Better late than never?)

This year's Social Impact Award Winner, Ekaterina Fedatova, is the Director of the Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA Project).

The goal of the project is to foster information literacy and culture throughout Russia by bringing free access to computers and the internet. The program also provides a training program and workshops on job search and building employment skills. The curriculum gives hands on practical knowledge and provides the opportunity to overcome barriers of fear in technology. As a result of the project, there are now 60 centers in 52 cities, and thousands of people trained!

Here in Canada and America, majority of us are so used to having access to the internet everywhere we go, that we forget how privileged we are sometimes. It's interesting to see how much we've come to rely on technology these days. The importance of the internet and computers have skyrocketed drastically over the years! Remember the days of dial-up? I can't wait to sit down with my kids one day and say "Yknow, back when I was your age we had this thing called dial-up internet... ".

Girls, Computer Science, and Games / Computer Games to a Career in IT

2009-10-05T12:23:00.001-07:00

Gail Carmichael hit upon the idea of doing a 1 week course on games for girls when her university was soliciting proposals for "enrichment mini courses." These courses are largely attended by grade 8s (~13 year olds), typically the advanced students from the local schools. They're intended to give the students a one-week taste of the university environment. If you are interested in running such a program, Gail suggests that there are often similar programs in other cities, local summer camps, local WISE groups, the Girl Guides/Girl Scouts and many others who could help set something up.

The idea was to do a "head fake" -- get the girls excited about learning games, but manage to teach them computer science topics at the same time. The students seemed to crave the harder stuff, and really were excited about being told things like "they don't learn this until second year university!" once the girls had shown that they understood this difficult concept. Gail suggests that we shouldn't be afraid to give students complex concepts.

She notes that another thing the girls craved is Starbucks coffee... who knew?

When teaching younger students, variety seems to help a lot: Gail incorporates videos, lecture time, small groups, whole class discussions, lab time, and the activities from CS Unplugged.

It's interesting to note that Gail's advice for engaging younger students is very similar to the advice offered during the Best Practices for Introductory Computer Science session, which focused on university-aged students: get the students to work together, use interesting themes to motivate problems, and don't be afraid to give the students hard stuff.

The girls created games using the free tool GameMaker, chosen because it is relatively easy for the girls to make games from the drag-and-drop interface without learning programming. (As someone else who has taught students both with and without this interface, I'll add that for first year students, syntax errors can be a huge stumbling block. Tools like GameMaker allow them to create programs without typos making them frequently feel stupid and inadequate, which is a pretty huge advantage for beginners.) Some other (similar) game-creation tools that might be useful include Alice, Kodu, and Scratch.

So, how successful was it? Gail has run the course twice, and did informal surveys at the beginning and end of the course. Most of the girls thought computer science was a reasonable career for a woman, even before they took the course. This is perhaps not surprising, since they were at least interested enough to sign up for the course. But the real payoff was seeing that the girls really did like computer science more after having had a week to try it out.

Gail ended up having the entire hour to herself, since the second speaker, Anne Marie Agnelli, was unable to attend. This gave an opportunity for Gail to showcase one of the games created by her students, as well as have a longer question/discussion section. In fact, the second half of the presentation became much more like a Birds of a Feather session where a variety of women talked about their questions and experiences.

For more notes, including those from the question session, and links to Gail's course materials and slides, see the excellent notes on the girls and games session on the Anita Borg Institute Wiki.

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - GHC09, Round 2!

2009-10-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to announce that all GHC09 episodes of Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show are posted! Once again, I'm only going to embed two of our videos in this post, and will provide links and descriptions to the rest. Ed and I will be attending Microsoft's PDC conference in November, so if you know of a woman who is attending, we'd love to interview her! Shoot Ed an email at donahue.edd@gmail.com!

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - Ep 46 (GHC09)

Deidre Straughan a Community Specialist and (Video)blogger at Sun Microsystems discusses why video is effective. You can find her video at http://blog.sun.com/video and her blog at http://blog.sun.com/deirdre.

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - Ep 47 (GHC09)

Deidre Straughan and Theresa Giacomini, both with Sun Microsystems, discuss growing the community behind the OpenSolaris Open Source project.

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - Ep 48 (GHC09)

Valarie Bubb Fenwick of Sun Microsystems explains what open source is and her role as a developer on the Open Solaris project. She also blogs at http://blogs.sun.com/bubbva/.

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - Ep 49 (GHC09)

Rebecca Norlander of Microsoft talks about the super powers involved in being a person of influence.

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - Ep 50 (GHC09)

Diane Curtis of Microsoft tells us, well our viewers, what the Imagine Cup is. Find out more at www.imaginecup.com or www.imaginecup.us for students in the US.

Ed & Ashley's 5 Minute Show - Ep 51 (GHC09)

Erin Chapple, Group Program Manager for Windows Server at Microsoft, talks about Technical Mentorship and Sponsorship.

Mastering the Art of the Technical Interview

2009-10-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

Panelists
Gabriel (Gabby) Silberman, CA
Erin Chapple, Microsoft
Traci Wicks, Intuit
Ellen Spertus, Google
Lindsey Fowler, Amazon
Nancy Amato, Texas A & M University
Beverly Walker, Lockheed Martin
Lynn Pastorius, Vanguard

This session was broken into 4 parts: technical questions, behavioral questions, questions for the interviewer, and questions from the audience. Here are the main points from each section.

Technical Questions

Take control of the space [use the white board or any note paper provided]
Show your thought process, think aloud [the interviewer knows your thought process. Thinking through things can help you come up with an answer you didn't think you knew]
Don't be afraid to ask for further clarification of a problem/question
In general, it is expected that you write compileable code although for complex solutions it is sometime acceptable to use pseudo-code

Behavioral Questions

Used because past performance is good indicator of future performance
When discussing team projects, be sure to include your individual contributions [Interviewers also observe how you speak of your teammates]
You can use an example when things didn't quite work out, but be sure in talk about what you learned and what you will do differently in the future

Questions for the Interviewer

Use this time as chance for self-reflection [if you made a mistake earlier in the interviews, perhaps with a different interviewer, you can use this time to correct yourself. Interviewers will most likely meet as a group to discuss their impressions]
Ask how decisions are made in the organization and what the core values are [Make sure the core values align with your own]
Get different perspectives of the company by asking the same question of different interviewers [Remember, you're interviewing the company too!]

Keynote, Fran Berman

2009-10-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Keynote, Fran Berman, Vice President for Research, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The keynote focused on the future of the information age. Specifically how we're going to keep and archive current information. We need to archive the information because "access tomorrow starts with preservation today. You can't access tomorrow that which you don't have." Together we much decide what we want to save. Even before that, who is we? There are so many groups of we, society in general, the research community, individuals, and each group wants to save different information from census information to the digital copy of home movies.

Along with what to save, we also need to decide how to save it. Whatever archival form we decide to use, we need to stick with. The amount of data that we want to save is massive and it would take copious amounts of time to change the format of all the information. Think of how long it takes to put a VHS movie on DVD or to make a digital copy of an LP. When we save it, we have to make multiple copies and be sure to tag it so we remember what it is (good advice for any information anyone saves!).

In order to deal with the future of the overwhelming information age, we need to create the next generation of leaders; the students of today! We have to make sure they have the right knowledge and experience:

There is no answer key for the real world
The problems will be hard and the solutions won't necessarily be elegant
Experience with failure
Experience with international cultures

We have the power to create positive change. We have the power of:

Asking the question; you can't improve what you can't articulate
Creating explicit goals and metrics of success
Recognition and encouragement
Policy, resource allocation, and prioritization