:: Netwoman ::

:: Friday, April 30, 2004 ::

Goodbye to the IA

From Torill - Many people were faithful readers of the Invisible Adjunct, visiting frequently to read about her journey through part-time sessional hell, and to participate actively in the discussion. IA blogged it - people came.

"Her site became a home for people who were dissatisfied with the system, but also a forum for others to participate in the discussion without, as Mr. Burke says, "being subject to a nuclear attack." The site, he says, "became a place for academics in good situations to have reasonable conversations and not get caught up in right-left stuff or the bitterness of people on the outs."

IA felt like she was invisible in the departments she taught in, but she certainly wasn't invisible in the blogosphere. She had voice and used it. She wasn't the shy person in the Chronicle interview. She was strong and assertive with her ideas. Is this the real IA? If only the hiring departments knew who the real IA is - it might change their decision.

"The Invisible Adjunct, though, worries that showing her face would allow those she knows in real life to see her as a misfit, a malcontent. She imagines that eventually she will write again about some of the issues she dealt with on the blog -- this time under her own name. For now, she's just trying to get out without making any trouble. "The academy, on the one hand, puts a very high premium on originality," she says. "But in certain areas you're supposed to go with the flow."

While blogging anon maybe be a good way to say whatever you think and feel about issues, it also has the potential to hide a very important part of a person's identity. Though I guess many people may want to keep this part of them private and to themselves.


"I've also received more support than I ever could have imagined or expected. Indeed, the response to the blog has been, quite simply, overwhelming. Since I can't even begin to express what this has meant to me as I've struggled over the past year or so to make sense of my experience in the academy, I won't even try. Instead, I'll just take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who participated in the transformation of what began as "yet another me-zine" into something like an online community. To everyone who has read, linked, commented, and emailed: I thank you. "

:: Netwoman 8:37 PM [+] ::
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Where have you been?

Ok - I will follow the meme about what states you have visited. Other's are doing it - like Liz and Alex and others here.
Now, being a Canadian - I am amazed at how much traveling I have done in the USA.....26 states.



create your own personalized map of the USA

What would really be interesting to me - is if people were to do this (not only for the USA but Globally) for the blogs that they read - where do they come from...I think it would give us a useful overview of the US-centric (and state specific) blogosphere.

:: Netwoman 9:46 AM [+] ::
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Power of Blog Voice

Library Boy wins fame and a room at NYU
Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
April 27, 2004

"Steve Stanzak's woeful, crazy, even courageous story of his last eight months as a homeless sophomore at New York University, sleeping six hours a night in the subbasement of the Bobst Library, showering in the gym or at friends' apartments, doing his homework at a nearby McDonald's and subsisting mostly on bagels and orange juice.

As he put it on the Internet, where he has spent four or five months recounting his strange adventure, it was "the tale of a penniless boy and his quest to gain a college education." He said he took refuge in the library after being denied adequate financial aid and described himself as "a furtive figure amongst dusty stacks of books, below the offices of the elite administrators of the university."

His blog isn't available anymore though, too bad....

UPDATE: Liz left me the URL for him - it's here. Thanks! Apparently he is getting quite the fan mail!!

:: Netwoman 10:01 PM [+] ::
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What do women want?

From Misbehaving - Liz blogs about a comment left here.

"I'm a television producer/journalist from Vancouver Canada and a newbie to the 'blog' world. I'm not sure how this works but I thought this might be a great resource to find out what women are interested in learning/exploring in the world of technology. I produce a national TV show on technology that is primarily product heavy in content. I want to develop a show geared toward women and how technology impacts our lives. What subjects would you like to see profiled in a TV show? What would you watch and why? Thanks so much for your input. "

If you are interesting in commenting - go leave your thoughts....
I am giving this some thought because much of my dissertation research addresses this.

:: Netwoman 9:58 PM [+] ::
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Is anyone listening?

Jeneane talks about the value of comments if no acknowledges them or listens. Tom agrees.

"Why do we have comments if we aren't going to weigh what is said in comments within the larger discussion or theme? Yes, comments are different from posts, but they're also the best place to STOP hearing the sound of our own voices and in some cases to join a more tightly-joined discussion with others--some who blog and some who don't. And why isn't that gathering in and of itself sometimes enough? And if not, why do I bother commenting? Sometimes I don't blog over here for a few days because I'm participating in other blogs within comments. I consider that as important as posting."

Tom says:
"A good idea should be recognized for what it is, not for who offers it."

I agree. Often commenters are little fish in a big stream of popular bloggers. Their insights go unnoticed or are overlooked. What's the point of having a voice if no one listens? "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" The point is that there are people around - but no one is hearing.

:: Netwoman 9:15 AM [+] ::
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Blogging, Inequality and the Future

Though Danah hates to be called an A-lister, she makes some excellent comments in an article called "Linked Out: blogging, equality and the future" found here.

"According to Boyd, one of the most obvious barriers is time. "Which groups of people can take time out of the workday to read/write in blogs? Which groups have free time after the workday?" she asks. Boyd argues that our inability to recognize some of the more invisible issues, like time, is the product of focussing too much on the wrong issues, like status and money.

"Arguments for blogs being "a great equalizer" rest on the assumption that money is the only aspect of technology that creates a divide," says Boyd.

"In addition to time there is the matter of ego and voice," says Boyd. "Who feels confident about their perspective in a way that they're willing to announce it to the world? Confidence is not the same as expertise. Some people are far more confident than they deserve to be; others are afraid to speak up even though their expressions are so valuable."

Boyd complicates conventional notions of power as the product of external forces, illuminating how the internalisation of existing power relations has a hand in our sense of personal agency. From this more critical perspective of power, not having a voice is contingent upon one's sense of entitlement to speak at all.

Mastery of language, technical, or compositional skills are another set of barriers for those who do not have them. "Those who don't speak English are rarely heard by those who do," says Boyd. And what good is it to having entre into the blogging world if one does not have the requisite skills to participate? "


It's a great piece - go have a read.

:: Netwoman 12:41 PM [+] ::
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Privacy and Women's Safety

Tracking the homeless in databases may seem like a good way to count the number of homeless people, but there are risks.

"Cindy Southworth, technology director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, told conference goers that the mandated databases would endanger the lives of women fleeing a violent partner. She argued that there are simpler, cheaper and less-invasive ways to achieve the goal of a homeless census. "

Yes, how about just counting the number of people coming in?

"It is a fabulous tool for stalkers," she said. "We are taking the exact location and other information about a victim and sticking it in a central server that's not very secure."

:: Netwoman 12:18 PM [+] ::
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CyberStalkers Beware!

"Murphy was arrested earlier this month and charged with 26 counts of using his computer "to annoy, abuse, threaten and harass" Joelle Ligon, 35, of Seattle, who saw him in court for the first time in 13 years."

More details found here.

"Murphy began sending obscene and sexually explicit messages and pictures to Ligon and her co-workers in 1998, tracking her from his computer as she moved from state to state and job to job.

Ligon said she deleted and ignored the messages for four years, then began saving them as evidence and approached police, eventually gaining the help of the FBI, U.S. attorney's office and King County prosecutors."

:: Netwoman 12:14 PM [+] ::
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The Mommy Candidate

This isn't about women and tech really, but it certainly applies to my life - and other female academics who are mothers and are trying to land decent jobs. We often wonder why there are not more women in certain fields - tech in particular. This article may address why this may be the case....

"Maybe the interview process would have been more pleasant had I been able to explore each opportunity and make a decision based on the substance of the job alone. But with each option, I had to carefully weigh the overall happiness of four different people, and of our family as a whole. I was not Lone Candidate, I was Mommy Candidate. "

:: Netwoman 10:45 AM [+] ::
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Girl Tech

I just found this link in an old email. GirlTech has been around for while, complete with a Girls search engine.

A letter to parents (here) talks about how when young girls search for information, they often find porn. The site provides links, essays, and a place to chat. Though I am not sure if this site is still being maintained or not. The idea is good - just need more like this.

:: Netwoman 10:25 AM [+] ::
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Broadband Adoption at Home...

Grows Strongly in Winter Months of 2003 & 2004

55% of Internet Users Have High-Speed Either at Home or Work

WASHINGTON - Broadband Internet access is increasingly being woven into the work and home lives of Internet users in the United States. According to the February 2004 survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 55% of American Internet users have access to broadband either at home or in the workplace. Fully 39% of U.S. online users have broadband access at home.

Much of the growth in broadband adoption at home is attributable to users' unhappiness with the dial-up doldrums - that is, people growing frustrated with their slow dial-up connections. Nearly 60% of home broadband users say that impatience with dial-up connections or a desire to download files faster is the reason they switched to broadband. Price of service plays a relatively minor role in the home high-speed adoption decision.

"People do more things online the longer they have been Internet users, and the additional waiting sours them on dial-up," said John B. Horrigan, Senior Research Specialist at the Pew Internet & American Life Project and author of the report. "Paying more for broadband thus has big efficiency payoffs for many dial-up users. The extra monthly cost is well worth it for high-speed home users, and this is why they tell us price is not a big factor in their move to broadband."

Here are some highlights from the Pew Internet Project's February 2004 survey:

-68 million Americans - or 34% of all adult Americans - have access to high-speed Internet connections either at home or on the job.
-48 million Americans - or 24% of all adult Americans - have high-speed access at home.
-Home broadband adoption is up 60% since March 2003, with half of that growth since November 2003.
-A surge in subscription to DSL high-speed Internet connections, which has more than doubled since March 2003, is largely behind the growth in broadband at home.
-DSL now has a 42% share of the home broadband market, up from 28% in March 2003.
-For the first time, more than half (52%) of a key demographic group - college educated people age 35 and younger - has broadband connections at home.
-Only 10% of rural Americans go online from home with high-speed connections, about one-third the rate for non-rural Americans.

The February 2004 survey interviewed 2,204 Americans age 18 or over (1,371 Internet users). Margin of error is +/-2 percent points for the full sample and +/-3 percentage points for Internet users. 63% of respondents were Internet users in the survey.

For the full report, please go here.

:: Netwoman 9:54 AM [+] ::
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Websites 'failing' disabled users

Geoff Adams-Spink
BBC News Online disability affairs reporter

An investigation by the Disability Rights Commission shows that most websites are unusable by disabled people.

This means that many everyday activities carried out on the internet - booking a holiday, managing a bank account, buying theatre tickets or finding a cheaper credit card - are difficult or impossible for many disabled people.

Bert Massie, DRC Chairman described the situation as "unacceptable", and said the organisation was determined not to allow disabled people to be left behind by technology.


GOOD WEBSITE DESIGN CHECKLIST
Provide text equivalence for non-text elements
Ensure good colour contrast between foreground and background
Pages must be usable when scripts and applets are turned off or not supported
Avoid movement in pages
Avoid pop-ups and don't change window without telling user
Divid large blocks of information into manageable chunks
Clearly identify the target of each link
Use the clearest and simplest language possible
A thousand websites were tested for the survey using automated software, and detailed user testing was carried out on 100 sites, including government, business, e-commerce, leisure and web services such as search engines.
The results showed that the worst affected group were those with visual impairments.

Blind people involved in testing websites were unable to perform nearly all of the tasks required of them despite using devices such as screen readers.

"The web has been around for 10 years, yet within this short space of time it has managed to throw up the same hurdles to access and participation by disabled people as the physical world," said Mr Massie.

"It is an environment that could be made more accommodating to disabled people at a relatively modest expense."

Mr Massie warned website owners to improve accessibility or be prepared to face legal action.

The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act requires information providers to make their services accessible.

The problems most commonly encountered by the disabled website testers were cluttered pages, confusing navigation, failure to describe images and poor colour contrast between background and text.

Businesses have a social responsibility as well as a legal duty
Julie Howell, RNIB
Researchers at London's City University, who carried out the study for the DRC, also found that many web developers were unaware of what needed to be done to make sites accessible.
Government should act

Welcoming the report, the Royal National Institute of the Blind said there was a clear need for government to raise awareness of the issue.

"Businesses have a social responsibility as well as a legal duty to ensure that disabled people can use their websites," said Julie Howell, RNIB spokesperson.

The organisation provides advice on how to make websites more user friendly, and is planning a series of events to raise awareness of the needs of disabled web users around the UK.

There are signs that some website owners are getting the accessibility message.

Left-wing magazine, New Statesman, recently announced that it was making its web pages available as speech by using new software called Browsealoud.

The system was developed by Northern Ireland-based Texthelp Systems.

The company hopes that its system will soon be more widely adopted especially by government sites.

Story from BBC NEWS located here and here

Published: 2004/04/14 08:30:37 GMT

:: Netwoman 10:42 PM [+] ::
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Tripping the Rift

I am a big fan of Sci-fi, I have been since I was a kid. One of my favourite stations to watch is the Space Channel - complete with Buffy, Angel, Outer Limits and a good friday fright-night flick.

I have to say I am bit 'thrown' by a new show coming out called "Tripping the Rift". I don't know what to do with it.

"A 3D sexy sci-fi spoof for teens and adults, the series portrays the adventures of the crew of The Free Enterprise. A bizarre gang of conflicted and extreme shipmates travel the universe, looking to make a quick buck and avoid getting thrown in jail! Based on an award winning webfilm on LEVEL13.NET"

Sounds harmless enough until you see the previews, in particular the character called "Six" who is a very curvy female android.

"Six is the hottest, sexiest and most advanced android ever created. Designed to have more sex than a dorm full of college freshmen, her programming enables her to fake more than 2,000 types of orgasms in over 600 languages.

Six's efforts to become better respected and be taken more seriously are what inspired Chode to add to her programming and make her the ship's science officer. Though she is smart enough not to have to resort to innuendos or lewd come-ons as the solution to every dilemma, it is a testament to her seductive prowess that she manages to copulate her way out of trouble as often as she does.

LIKES:
* Sex
* Foreplay
* Being offline when Chode wants sex or foreplay
DISLIKES:
* Being treated like a slut: She's a professional, not an addict
* Always having to be the smartest person on the ship
* Being taken for granted, especially by Chode
SECRET AMBITION:
* To be a science 'droid that has rockin' sex, instead of a sexbot that knows how to spew technobabble"

Now, I haven't seen the show yet - it's brand new. I am hoping that this droid, the voice is Gina Gershon - (but I doubt Meg Tilly is nearby - see the movie Bound), who is very comfortable with her heterosexuality and is incredibly smart will be empowering to women and not some teen boy's fantasy. Somehow I doubt it - but it's possible. The show's other characters are interesting - Gus is a in-the-closet gay android, Chode is a power hungry evil clown, Tnuk is an ugly female pilot who wants to have as much sex as Six, and some other colourful characters. If they play it out right, it could be a witty satire of society.

:: Netwoman 10:59 PM [+] ::
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Digital Youth Consortium

The Global Junior Challenge is a global award promoted by the Digital
Youth Consortium a non-profit organization founded by the Municipality of Rome and six major ICT companies. The intention of the award, dedicated to young people and to schools, is to identify and reward best practices on the use of new technologies in education and training of youngsters.

Rules
Which type of projects?
All projects that are using ICT for education and training of young people.
The deadline to submit the projects is the 30 th of June 2004.

:: Netwoman 10:47 AM [+] ::
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The Importance of Women to the IT Industry

Good article about the lack of women in the IT field located here.

"Unfortunately, according to a U.S. Office of Technology Policy report, women, who comprise 51% of the population and earn more than half of all bachelor-level degrees, earn only about 25% of the bachelor-level computer and information sciences degrees. In 1984, nearly 36% of all computer science degrees were awarded to women. Today, according to the Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), the number of women among all computer science degree recipients stands at about 26%.

Regrettably, the absence of women in the high tech field extends beyond the classroom and corporate labs, and into the boardroom as well.

According to a recent study conducted by Catalyst, a nonprofit advisory group that works for the advancement of women in industry, there are even fewer women today at the highest ranks of high tech than there have been in years past. Women account for almost 16% of corporate officers in all Fortune 500 companies. Among Fortune 500 companies in the high tech industry, however, that number is only 11%."

:: Netwoman 11:55 AM [+] ::
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ITU (International Telecommunication Union)

is hosting an online survey on ICTs and development, in the context of the WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) process.

"World Telecommunication Day celebrates the founding of the International Telecommunication Union in 1865.

As one of the activities in support of the theme of 'ICTs: Leading the way to sustainable development' we are conducting a survey to obtain views on the perceived importance of the targets for improving connectivity and access in the use of ICTs as determined by the World Summit on the Information Society.

The survey will remain open for responses until 10 May 2004. The results of the survey will be posted in the newsroom of the ITU website as of 17 May 2004."

The survey is very short and you will find it here.

:: Netwoman 10:25 AM [+] ::
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Gender and Wikis

Culture Cat blogs about issues of safety for women who post to wikis.

Nearly There writes about some thoughts and experiences. She notes that few women use wikis, and has been reluctant to post her personal information information online. She once received a strange and disturbing snail mail, and mentions how women are often harassed.

Here are some discussions she refers to:
UseRealNamesForWomenDiscussion
WomenAndMenAndWiki

:: Netwoman 10:16 AM [+] ::
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Female Characters Created by Men

Game Girl Advance blogs about a Gamespot post.

"I'm sure we all agree that today's games (notwithstanding casual games and a handful of other exceptions) are predominantly malecentric, and their depictions of women, by and large, are embarrassing. For me, certain female characters in games make me feel embarrassed to be a gamer, especially when I'm otherwise enjoying the game. Female characters in games are even more superficial than male characters (I should note, though, that most male characters in games also leave a lot to be desired), and I'm going to argue that even when they're supposedly being portrayed in a sympathetic light or cast as strong, respectable characters, they're still mostly just being objectified and are presented to suit an adolescent male audience...... In short, I think men are inherently incapable of doing an adequate job of properly presenting female characters in games, which leads me to my hunch. "

The comments about it at GGA are quite interesting too.

I agree that there are some problems how female characters are represented - usually hyper-feminine with unrealistic body parts. The same goes for men in the games. Women often need to be rescued by men, though there are some exceptions.

But are men not capable of creating more realistic (and less problematic) female characters? I don't think so. I am sure their sisters, mothers, aunts and grandmothers could act as excellent role models. The question is - do regular, everyday women (and men) sell in video games? Likely not. Superheroes such as Batman and Daredevil often appeal to people because they are average men with no 'real' superpowers. Why can't video game characters be the same? I wonder how different the characters are if women create the video game - are the male and female characters more realistic and less stereotypical?

:: Netwoman 9:54 AM [+] ::
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Gay Couples in Sims 2

Game Girl Advance blogs about same-sex Sims.

"the game should show that gay marriage can be as fulfilling and often unglamorous as het marriage. Excluding the ultra-insecure, I think most gamers will dig gay marriage, for the simple reason that it opens up new play options, new stories, new possibilities."

Here's an interesting piece about gay characters in video games.

"How's this for virtual reality? Even as President Bush tries to squash gay marriage with the Constitution, same-sex unions are beginning to crop up in video games."

"Still, while gamers enjoy campy characters, not everyone is comfortable with openly gay ones. When news of the marriage in Temple of Elemental Evil spread online, several discussion boards exploded, with a few players complaining that the Elemental Evil game was "trying to force this gay crap down our throats." It will be interesting to see the reaction when The Sims 2 launches because while The Temple of Elemental Evil and Final Fantasy are certainly path-breaking, they're still niche games aimed at the geek-core audience. Middle America doesn't know they exist. The Sims, in contrast, is the biggest family-friendly game of all time. Soccer moms in Idaho play it, and so do their kids. What happens when little Johnny wants to have his boy Sim marry the neighbor's son?"

Read about some other here - some are pretty disturbing. This one makes a decent point:

"I am a media studie's major and it really is a problem that white straight males dominate media, including video games. Larger representation of women and people of color is definatly needed. There are a couple small problems for putting homosexuals in media first of all when they do it they tend to turn homosexuals into a joke, and rather than really representing them they just turn them into a joke. Secondly often the media simply sensationalizes lesbians to turn on the white male audience. Thirdly, as pointed out above when any sexual oriantation (gay or straight) is pointed out in a video game, sexuality has the tendency of becoming a major theme in the video game, thus making the game innapropriate for young children. I would like to see women, people of color, and homosexuals protraid more often as active members of society in all forms of media".

ICK - "Dont force things that we dont want to see down our throats...when the majority of the gamers are straight white males, we dont care about diversity in the game, a game is a game." I think these folks are kidding themselves on the sexual preferrences of gamers.

Many of the straight white men don't like the idea of gay characters - Lesbians on the other hand seem to be quite appealing...and non-threatening to their sense of masculinity.

:: Netwoman 11:29 AM [+] ::
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Blindly Accepting New Tools

Liz Lawley blogs about blindly accepting new tools over at misbehaving.

Liz talks about some problems with the visual thesaurus.
Meanings of women:
1. An adult female person (as opposed to a man)
2. Women as a class
3. A human female who does housework
4. (informal) A female person who plays a significant role (wife or mistress or girlfriend) in the life of a particular man.

EEK! What's interesting is that men seem to mean much more than a cleaning lady - humanity, mankind, and human being among other things. Really makes me think about how gendered language is, and how the word man seems to men and represent much more than woman does. Hmm.

What's even more troubling is that this is available to people for information - Liz is right:
"Let's be careful about blindly accepting new tools--from thesauri to search engines--without thinking about the information within them, and their ability to shape perceptions."

:: Netwoman 1:15 AM [+] ::
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Faith Online

64% of online Americans have used the Internet for religious or spiritual purposes

WASHINGTON, April 7 -- Nearly two-thirds of online Americans use the Internet for faith-related reasons. The 64% of Internet users who perform spiritual and religious activities online represent nearly 82 million Americans.

Among the most popular and important spiritually-related online activities measured in a new national survey by the Pew Internet & American Life
Project:
· 38% of the nation's128 million Internet users have sent and received email with spiritual content.
· 35% have sent or received online greeting cards related to religious holidays.
· 32% have gone online to read news accounts of religious events and affairs.
· 21% have sought information about how to celebrate religious holidays.
· 17% have looked for information about where they could attend religious services.
· 14% have used email to plan church meetings.
· 11% have downloaded or listened to religious music online.
· 7% have made or responded to online prayer requests.
· 7% have made donations to religious organizations or charities.

In sum, 64% of Internet users said they had done at least one of these things online and many had done more than one. This figure represents a substantially higher number of online faithful than the Pew Internet & American Life Project has measured in the past. The Project worked with scholars from the University of Colorado at Boulder to devise a new battery of questions to prompt Internet users' recollections of the things they do online on matters related to religion and spirituality.

"There has been much speculation about the impact of the Internet on religion, particularly as increasing numbers of Americans have been turning to sources other than their own traditions and clergy," said Prof. Stewart Hoover of the University of Colorado at Boulder, the lead author of the Pew Internet Project report.

"The survey provides clear evidence that the majority of the online faithful are there for personal spiritual reasons, including seeking outside their own traditions," Hoover added, "but they are also deeply grounded in those traditions, and this Internet activity supplements their ties to traditional institutions, rather than moving them away from church." The survey found that two-thirds of those who attend religious services weekly use the internet for personal religious or spiritual purposes.

The report, "Faith Online," says that those who use the Internet for religious or spiritual purposes are more likely to be women, white, middle aged, college educated, and relatively well-to-do. In addition, they are somewhat more active as Internet users than the rest of the Internet population.

"The online faithful are quite serious about their spiritual journeys, and they are committed to those in their social networks who accompany them on those journeys," said Prof. Lynn Schofield Clark of the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-author of the report. "Most of the online faithful describe themselves as spiritual and religious and that is a perfect characterization of their use of the Internet. They probe for information and network with others in order to enrich their spiritual lives."
· 28% of the online faithful said they had used the Internet to seek or exchange information about their own religious faith or tradition with others.
· 26% said they had used the Internet to seek or exchange information about the religious faiths or traditions of others.

Online Evangelicals are a significant subgroup of the American religious landscape. This study found them to resemble other Protestants in terms of their Internet behaviors in some ways, but to be unique in other ways. They are slightly less experienced in Internet use than other categories of religious affiliation. But they are more likely than others to engage in all categories of online religious activity.

The full report can be accessed from: here

:: Netwoman 8:22 PM [+] ::
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Susan Herring

Wednesday, April 21, Susan Herring, Professor of Information Science at Indiana University, will give a talk at UMBC entitled "Feminism, Pornography, and the World Wide Web." Part of CWIT's Speakers Series, the talk will take place on the 7th floor of UMBC's Albin O. Kuhn Library, 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Professor Herring is one of the world's foremost experts on gender and computer-mediated communication, a field she helped to create in the early 1990s. After receiving her Ph.D. in Linguistics at UC Berkeley, she taught at the University of Texas at Arlington before moving to Indiana University Bloomington in August 2000. She is the editor of four collections on computer-mediated communication, the author of numerous articles on gender and the Internet, and a frequent speaker nationally and internationally. Her current research focuses on the representation of women and men in multimedia computer interfaces, including the Web and multi-user virtual environments
(MUVEs). More information about Professor Herring and her work can be found on her website .

Co-sponsored by the English department, Professor Herring's talk is free and open to the public. For a map of the campus and driving directions, see the campus map here

For more information, contact Mary Shacka, CWIT's Administrative Assistant, at 410-455-8432 or shacka@umbc.edu .

:: Netwoman 11:11 PM [+] ::
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Do you Google?

Article by Eszter Hargittai called "Life beyond Google" located here.

"I am not anti-Google and in fact use its services daily, but it is important to remember that it is a privately-held company with no obligation to serving the public interest.
We should tread with caution when thinking of it as the be all and end all of access to information online.
Google is not the only way to find information online and not everyone uses Google."

I am a guilty Googlite but Eszter makes some good points.

:: Netwoman 10:08 AM [+] ::
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Anita Borg Award

Call for Nominations: Anita Borg Award for Social Impact
Submission deadline: April 15, 2004 **extended**

In a world that she saw as rapidly using technology across all borders and human boundaries, Anita Borg spoke out on behalf of a large, underrepresented segment of the world's population - women. She believed emphatically that women's lives must benefit from technology. Anita Borg stressed that women's voices, representing multiple approaches and priorities, are essential and that where women define the benefits, technology is developed for the good as well as for profit. Throughout her life, she worked to make her vision of relevant, valuable technology become the norm. This award was created to honor those who fulfill her vision.

The Anita Borg Institute will present this award at each Grace Hopper Conference. The first award will be presented at the 2004 Grace Hopper Celebration, October 6-9, 2004 in Chicago, Illinois. In addition, the award recipient will receive a cash grant of $10,000.

This award identifies achievements by an individual or team who has increased the positive impact of technology on the lives of women.

* Impact will be measured by the degree and type of social change, amount of women's increased empowerment through the technology or increased influence over technology.
* The award recipient may have developed the technology, motivated social change and empowerment through that technology, or increased women's influence over and decision-making about technology.

Submit nominations to socialimpactaward@anitaborg.org by April 15,
2004.

Required Nomination Materials:
* Title of nominated achievement
* Name of nominee(s)
* Brief summary (maximum of 700 words)
* Statement of merit (3-5 pages) - Must include short bio of person(s) responsible and address the following issues: Describe the impact and how it was measured. Was the action taken with respect to a specific situation? What motivated the nominee to take action?
* Letters of recommendation (maximum of 3 letters)
* Nominator's name, e-mail address, postal address, phone number and relationship to nominee.
* How did you hear about this award?

Please send all nomination information in a single e-mail message if your mailer supports attachments. Include names and contact information in the e-mail message and attach the statement of Merit and Resume/Vitae to the message. If you are unable to send attachments, send the Statement of merit and the Resume/Vitae as separate messages.

Questions may be emailed to the Chair of the Anita Borg Social Impact Award Committee, Ellen Lapham, at elapham@aimhigh1.com

:: Netwoman 11:17 AM [+] ::
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Video Games = Tech jobs

From TechDirt - Video games are a primer for tech jobs, study says
April 2, 2004 - BY MIKE WENDLAND located here.

"Early involvement with technology opens up opportunities for future entry into high-paying, high-technology jobs," says Bradley Greenberg, an MSU distinguished professor of communication and telecommunication, information studies and media.

"But right now, because boys typically spend twice as much time gaming as girls do, most of those jobs are going to males, the study suggests. Greenberg believes that if more girls played more video games, maybe they'd get more of those high-paying tech jobs."

I think this is a bit simplistic. They are missing other social contexts that may discourage women getting jobs in tech fields.


"The study found that boys prefer games that feature fighters, shooters, sports, fantasy, role-playing, action adventure and strategy. Girls typically choose classic board games, card-dice games, quiz-trivia games, arcade games and puzzles. "We need to do more than simply slapping a bow on Pac-Man," says Greenberg. "Games need to be designed that tap into tasks that female brains are better at, such as matching, memory and verbal skills."

Female brains? Ouch. Again, they seem to be relying a lot of biological determinism and ignoring other social processes.

"Greenberg says that besides designing more games for females, the games should engage players for longer periods, thus forcing them to become more familiar with the technology behind the games."

Forcing women? The language is a bit problematic!

"The next frontier involves transferring video game technology to educational settings and using the young people's fascination with the games to involve them more with innovative teaching technologies," he says.
Among other findings of Greenberg's research:
-Eighth-graders of both genders play video games the most. Boys average 23 hours a week and girls 12 hours.
-College-age males are at the low end of the time-spent-playing scale, averaging 16 hours a week.
-Eleventh-grade girls spend the least amount of time playing video games: six hours a week."

If only it were as simple as getting women to play video games....

:: Netwoman 12:26 PM [+] ::
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Violence in the Media

Terra Nova blogs about "Violent games, violent kids: The evidence" in reference to The American Psychological Society summary of the report, The Influence of Media Violence on Youth located here.

"Research on violent television and films, video games, and music reveals unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts"

"Certain characteristics of viewers (e.g., identification with aggressive characters), social environments (e.g., parental in-fluences), and media content (e.g., attractiveness of the perpetrator) can influence the degree to which media violence affects aggression, but there are some inconsistencies in research results. This research also suggests some avenues for preventive intervention (e.g. parental supervision, interpretation, and control of children’s media use). However, extant research on moderators suggests that no one is wholly immune to the effects of media violence."

Oh brother. Now, I am a sociologist. I study the bigger picture and I just don't buy a lot of the arguments that Psychological researchers purport. There is just too much missing. What about historical and cultural context? What about violence in pre-media days? What about other social institutions? What about the war in Iraq? Has Bush been watching violent films? What about the millions of people who watch violent movies and are not violent at all? Let's look at the social context of violent actions.

:: Netwoman 4:00 PM [+] ::
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Blog Buzz

Mamamusing's blog is buzzing.

I'm not sure what is more interesting of these posts.

First there is Liz's comment on comments (there's that phrase again).

"Don't like what I say? Then debate the ideas. Think what I say is rendered worthless by my very existence? Then stop reading. But don't poison my comments with venomous, hurtful remarks. From now on, personal attacks on this site will be deleted without comment. Repeat offenders will be banned from the site."

This seems to be a growing trend and concern among bloggers. I am thinking that many more people will turn off their comments, or start deleting furiously.

Then there is post about "confessions of a backchannel queen". Liz talks about some 'negative' comments that surfaced, and how she was approached about them.

I am guilty of backchanneling, and mean no disrespect to the presenter. In fact, I often get some clarification of the material, additional information and can even look up sources that are referenced in the presentation.This often helps when I ask questions. Also, just because I am doing three things at once, doesn't mean I am not listening - quite the opposite, I am engaged with the material. I have had speakers ask that participants NOT backchannel, which I don't agree with.

Liz then started a back-back private channel for some critical and reflective discussion - not for public consumption that could be construed as rude or distructive. Liz blogs about negative comments that can surface in these backchannels. Negativity surfaces in backchannels, it happens. While it easy to say that these comments are not personally directed at the presenter, it can and does happen. These kinds of comments are going to happen regardless. Unfortunately, it's what people do. But to think that this only happens in the backchannels is incorrect. Try gathering around the coffee machine after a session and listen to the chats. There's negativity everywhere. F2F and CMC it's all the same.

It's an interesting discussion, leaving me with much to think about. Also, the comments on Liz's post are interesting too, much controversy. Have a read.

:: Netwoman 11:26 PM [+] ::
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