:: Netwoman ::

:: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 ::

Better Late then Never - ASA Conference

A tad of a hypocrite - with my "I'm Blogging This" T-shirt on. I made notes on things I wanted to blog about at the American Sociology Association Conference in Philadelphia, and then never posted anything. I am now redeeming myself!! But with less detail...



This is me and Joanna Robinson who is studying Video Games. Note the glasses of wine - one of the reasons that no blogging was done! Here we are at the CITASA reception with wine, snacks and great conversations and networking.

Friday:
Friday was the CITASA Mini-Conference. Here a number of ICT researchers talked about their research with everyone offering comments and feedback on theory, methods, data and so forth. It was a useful exercise and we talked about how to legitimize this field of study among Sociologists.

Saturday:
Saturday were the roundtables for the CITASA section. Presenters at my table included Katie Bessiere who is at Carnegie Mellon. Good discussion.

I have some pics posted over at Flickr - check out Netwoman. You can also look at some pics from others with the tag asa.

:: Netwoman 3:12 PM [+] ::
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Blogging Katrina

My good friend Kaye Trammell teaches at LSU and lives part-time in Baton Rouge. I have been really worried about her here in Canada, and I emailed her to make sure she was ok. Kaye emailed me the link to her new blog, which talks about her hurricane experiences. Not only are the posts interesting, but the comments from readers, supporters, TV stations and people looking for loved ones is both interesting and moving. MSN is also talking about the Katrina Blogathon. Thanks to the internet, and Kaye's handy Blackberry - I now know she is ok.

:: Netwoman 2:30 PM [+] ::
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Smart Spam

The amount of spam is increasing at my main email address. Even though my filters catch some, I still get more than my share of spam. But spam is getting smarter.

The other day I noticed an email from who appears to be - ME! Granted the subject line was a bit of a giveaway, but I was quite annoyed and offended that spammers are using my name in their return address. My mother called me last night and asked me why I sent her an email about getting mortgage. She said she responded to the email asking what it was all about - then phoned to ask me why I didn't respond. I informed her that - it wasn't me, and not to respond to anymore strange emails like that.

So Spam seems to be getting Smarter. It won't be long before they start using my email in the return address. Can 'they' impersonate people like that? MIT had a spam conference last January - would have been an interesting thing to talk about...

:: Netwoman 1:11 PM [+] ::
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Gender and Website Differences

Differences between the sexes: Research shows a website's appearance matters
BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER Sun Aug 14,12:40 PM ET

BOSTON (AP) - It's no secret that men and women tend to spend their time on the Internet quite differently.

But British researchers suggest it's not just a website's subject or function that determines whether it will draw more men or women. The appearance of the site also might play a subtle role.

In a recent study at Glamorgan University Business School in Wales, test subjects rated the personal web pages of 60 people for usability and aesthetics.

Not surprisingly, male subjects tended to assign higher ratings to pages designed by men, and females preferred sites made by women. But the researchers said they gleaned important tidbits by looking more closely at the ratings.

Women seemed to like pages with more colour in the background and typeface. Women also favoured informal rather than posed pictures.

Men responded better to dark colours and straight, horizontal lines across a page. They also were more pleased by a three-dimensional look and images of "self-propelling" rather than stationary objects.

With those standards in mind, the researchers checked out the websites for 32 British universities and determined that 94 per cent had a "masculine orientation." Two per cent showed a female-favoured arrangement.

Gloria Moss, a Glamorgan research fellow, said the project should be instructive for organizations that aim for wide audiences. The research - which was repeated in France and Poland to rule out British cultural bias - is being published in European journals on consumer behaviour and marketing.

So should websites consider having two faces, one for male users and another for female visitors? Moss said more research is needed.

"At the very least," she said, "we think there ought to be a combination of aesthetics."

:: Netwoman 5:14 PM [+] ::
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Gender and the World Summit on the Information Society

ITSLC QuickStart, in collaboration with PRMGE, GICT, and the e-Development Services Thematic Group would like to invite you to a videoconference seminar on Gender and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) summit.

Wednesday, September 14, tentatively scheduled 11:00 a.m. - 12:45p.m., Room I 1-200

As the UN WSIS summit taking place in Tunis in November is approaching, international development communities have been discussing ways to ensure that gender equality is integrated into WSIS and its outcome processes.

Through videolinks, we are inviting Steering Committee members of the WSIS Gender Caucus---a multi-stakeholder group consisting of men and women from government, civil society, the private sector, and UN organizations-- to brief us on their activities surrounding WSIS. They will report on outcomes of recent conferences on women and ICT, including finance resources, Internet governance, role of the private sectors, and links between the Millennium Development Goals and WSIS.

Speakers:

Florence Etta, Knowledge Analyst, IDRC 's Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa, Kenya Lettie Longwe, Program Director at The World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) Africa, South Africa Eva Rathgeber, the Joint Chair of Women?s Studies for Carleton University and the Université d'Ottawa

Discussant:

Claudia Morrell, Executive Director, Center for Women and Information Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Chair:

Samia Melhem, Senior Operations Officer, infoDev, World Bank

Introduction:

Kayoko Shibata, Knowledge Management Analyst, Gender and Development Group, World Bank

:: Netwoman 2:57 PM [+] ::
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Virtual Birth

Soldier in Iraq Sees Daughter's U.S. Birth
By JENNIFER BUNDY

Sgt. William Hamrick II witnessed the birth of his daughter Monday. That may seem unremarkable — except that Hamrick was 6,000 miles away in Iraq.

When doctors induced labor Monday morning at Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital in Parkersburg, Hamrick was virtually at his wife's side via live Internet video and satellite audio link.

The 25-year-old soldier could see and hear everything as it happened in the hospital room. The satellite audio link let him talk his wife through the contractions. And at 4:04 p.m. in West Virginia, just after midnight in Baghdad, he was able to watch as Elaina Jo Hamrick came into the world.

Angela Hamrick could only hear her husband, but she had a framed photo of him at her bedside.

"Just being able to hear his voice was well worth it," the new mom said.
"I knew he was around me somehow."

Hamrick has been serving in Iraq for eight months as a heavy equipment operator with the Army Reserve's 463rd Charlie Company's Engineering Battalion.

His wife back home in Parkersburg had asked the hospital if there was some way he could see pictures of his daughter's birth.

"I didn't know it was going to go this far," she said.

Hospital information specialists put the system together at no cost to the family and talked to the Army to set everything up, said hospital spokesman Greg Smith.

Hamrick, a construction worker, said he was excited to see his family.
Before the birth, while he and his wife talked, their 2-year-old son Chance came in to say hello to his dad.

"I did kind of wish I was home," Hamrick told WSAZ-TV in a brief interview over the satellite audio link. "Sometimes there's not a whole lot we can do about it."

:: Netwoman 2:06 PM [+] ::
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