:: Netwoman ::

:: Monday, September 26, 2005 ::

The Great Canadian Blog Survey

The Canadian Economist is pleased to announce its latest project: The Great Canadian Blog Survey, aimed at anyone who has ever heard the word 'blog' in any sort of media.

If this survey receives a substantial amount of respondents, the data set will prove useful for two purposes: a free, globally available report on the state of Canadian Blogging, as well as a more technical paper that will examine the differences between those who read blogs and those who choose to write them.

Please tell everyone you know and link to CanadianEconomist.com. We will have a pop-up window implemented, so don't be scared.

Alternatively, you can copy and paste the following as a link to our survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=909061330424

It is a link only and will not result in pop-ups on your blog.

The more respondents this survey gets, the faster I will be able to turn out the final report for other researchers, media and the general public.

The link to the survey is in the upper-left hand side of this web page.

If you link to my survey and help generate awareness of it, please email me at aaron[dot]braaten[at]gmail.com so I can acknowledge you in the final report for your gracious assistance.

Thank you in advance for your time, and I hope we can make a big deal out of this.

Cheers,

Aaron Braaten
M.A. Candidate,
Department of Economics
University of Alberta

:: Netwoman 9:00 PM [+] ::
...

Mousewives

'Mousewives' drive the net revolution

"TIME was when the matriarchal role involved educating the children through teatime TV, taking them to the doctor to treat a mystery malaise, and administering the odd clip around the ear.

But the traditional housewife has been transformed into a 'mousewife' as women drive forward the increasing use of computers in the home, according to a new study by a leading think-tank.

The research, carried out by Demos, and based on a six-month anthropological study of five families combined with nationwide polling, reveals how the mother's domestic role has evolved in relation to the internet.

It shows that half of all women who go online have moved the home PC into the living room so it can play a central role in family life.

Two-thirds of women now research their families' health online, it says, while one third have replaced Watch with Mother with Surf with Mother as they accompany their children online to do homework or play.

Women with a computer in the household also turn out to be 'all-hours' users, with half logging on before breakfast and a fifth getting up in the middle of the night to access the internet. The main reasons cited are that the PC is becoming the social hub for gossip with family and friends as well as a means of bargain hunting, without leaving the living room. "

Good tid-bit for my thesis...most of the things they talk about here is similar to what I am finding in my data.

:: Netwoman 8:58 PM [+] ::
...

Universities: more women in tech needed

Article by Catherine Dominguez:
As the door for the technology field opens and more women enter, stereotypes and different cultural beliefs are still the root of why many women stray away from the industry. But local universities are taking steps to change that.

Mauli Agrawal, interim dean of the college of engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), says that although more women are going into the technology field, those numbers could be increased further with more mentoring in our public schools. In fact, Agrawal says UTSA is working on outreach programs that will help reach girls in middle and high schools to show them the opportunities in the technology industry.

UTSA is also hiring more female faculty members, Agrawal adds.

"(The stereotypes) need to be altered at the middle school level where (girls) start turning away from science, math and engineering," he says. "We are going to try and reach young folks before they graduate high school. There is no reason why women shouldn't be in this profession. Some of the brightest students I've seen (at UTSA) are women."

John Howland, chairman of computer science at Trinity University, explains that many girls are convinced early on that technology fields are not a place for women. A recent nationwide study completed by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles showed that less than 1 percent of incoming college freshman women listed computer science as a major.

Howland says that needs to change and focusing on those students at an early age is vital.

"There is something about society that this is the field they are not flocking to and they should be," Howland says. "I wish I knew the magic formula to attract them."
Cultural hurdles

Although making a career in a male-dominated field can be a challenge, women such as Janie Martinez Gonzalez, president and CEO of Web Head Group, agree that cultural beliefs, especially in the Hispanic culture, have been the biggest hurdle.

"(Hispanic men) still want (women) to be very humble and not want money," she says. "They still expect women to be submissive. The pressure of my business, I've got that nailed down and I love it. The pressure of me still having to be traditional in my culture is where I get the most grief, the most heartache."

Locally based Web Head Group specializes in all aspects of the Internet, from the creation of Web sites to the maintenance of databases.

Despite her struggles, Gonzalez says it has been worthwhile and adds that the technology industry, unlike other business fields, is making it easier for women to get ahead. Gonzalez says she works to find the balance between her career and being a wife and mother of three boys.

"I feel the Internet and technology in general is the fastest and best way for women to create their own career ladder," Gonzalez explains. "In (my business), its not about gender or ethnicity, it's 'can you deliver.' Business is cruel, but it can be rewarding. It's been tough, mentally and physically, but I wouldn't change a thing. Ten years later, against odds, I am still here."

Anne Thompson, chief operating officer and director of enterprise services at the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI), a local tech-advocacy group, echoes Gonzalez and says technology-based businesses have been, in the past, predominately male-dominated.

Today, Thompson says, things are shifting and more women are making the move toward the industry. She adds the number of Hispanic women in technology fields is also on the rise.

"I'm beginning to see a change, slowly but surely," Thompson notes.

One place to look for signs of that change is in college enrollment figures. The total number of females enrolled in the computer science program at UTSA, for example, is still very small, but that number appears to be trending upward.

In fact, the number of females graduating with master's degrees in computer science from UTSA jumped from two in 2003 to eight last year. This occurred even with total enrollment in the program dropping from 135 in 2003 to 105 in 2004.

On an undergraduate level, the number of female graduates jumped from 10 to 13 between 2003 and 2004. Total enrollment in the computer science undergraduate program at UTSA stood at 527 in 2004, down from 648 in 2003.

At Trinity University, on average, the school sees about 35 computer science graduates each year. Of those, 10 percent are female.

Of the nine computer science faculty members, three are female.

:: Netwoman 7:44 PM [+] ::
...

CWIT Webcast

A webcast on "Success Strategies for Engaging Girls and Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)" brought to you by the NSF ITEST Learning Resource Center at Education Development Center, Inc (EDC).

This webcast will take place on Wednesday, September 21st 2005 at 2:00 pm, Eastern Time. Details on how to join both the web and accompanying phone conference are at the end of this email.

The Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program was established by the National Science Foundation in direct response to the concern about shortages of information technology workers in the United States. The ITEST program funds projects that provide opportunities for both school-age children and teachers to build the skills and knowledge needed to advance their study and to function and contribute in a technologically rich society. In communities across the United States, student and teacher ITEST project participants work hand in hand with scientists and engineers on extended research projects that carry them beyond the classroom, using technology to explore topics ranging from biotechnology to environmental resource management. The ITEST program also funds a National Learning Resource Center at Education Development Center, Inc., to support, synthesize and disseminate the learning from the program to a wider audience.
Currently, in the third year of the program, there are 50 ITEST projects in over 25 states. Together, these projects reach more than 39,000 students, 1,700 teachers, and 750 parents and other caregivers. Several projects focus specifically on reaching and engaging girls and this webcast will share some of their work to address the obstacles and stereotypes around the engagement and achievement of women in STEM.

DISCUSSION THEMES
We have assembled an expert panel of speakers from the ITEST community, private sector and research and policy communities. Together, they will
discuss:

- Strategies for the recruitment and retention of girls and women in STEM
- Promising practices for effectively engaging girls in STEM activities (design of activities, environments, forms of interaction)
- Ways of fostering persistence through youth and self efficacy development

The webcast will end with questions and feedback from the audience.

SPEAKERS
Carroll McGillin, National Initiatives Manager, Cisco Networking Academy Program, Cisco Systems.
Cisco Systems, Inc. and the Cisco Learning Institute, recognizing the current gender gap in the IT field, partnered in April 2000 and developed the Gender Initiative project. This initiative seeks ways to increase females' access to IT training and career opportunities, beginning with the Cisco Networking Academy(tm) Program which is aimed at helping narrow the gender gap and increase female participation in the Internet economy.

Marcia Kropf, Chief Operating Officer, Girls Inc.
Girls Incorporated is a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. With roots dating to 1864, Girls Inc has provided vital educational programs to millions of American girls, particularly those in high-risk, underserved areas.
Today, innovative programs help girls confront subtle societal messages about their value and potential, and prepare them to lead successful, independent, and fulfilling lives.

Speakers from the ITEST Community:
Claudia Morrell, Principal Investigator (PI), Enhancing Science and Technology Education and Exploration Mentoring (ESTEEM) project, Center for Women and IT.
In this project, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County's Center for Women and Information Technology, the Shriver Center, and the Chabot Space and Science Center are partnered to implement and beta test Chabot's TechBridge curriculum in six middle schools. Activities include an after-school program, weekend fieldtrips, and a four-week summer program. The ESTEEM program focuses on encouraging girls' interest and involvement in elective information technology (IT) classes and supports their pursuit of IT careers.

Randal August, PI, Robotics: Fundamentals of Information Technology and Engineering project, Northeastern University.
TechBoston and Northeastern University are working collaboratively to integrate an innovative robotics curriculum into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses in the Boston Public Schools and in other racially diverse and economically disadvantaged Massachusetts school districts. The project targets 90 STEM teachers in grades seven and eight, each of whom receive summer professional development and follow-up support in leading yearlong after-school robotics programs.

Deborah Muscella, PI, Technology at the Crossroads project, Simmons College This project engages middle school youth (with particular emphasis on girls) in the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) and HTML programming for use in conducting environmental research in Boston. The program is comprised of a spring after-school component, three-week summer camp (held on the campus of Simmons College) and a fall after-school component.

TO JOIN THE WEBCAST
On Wednesday, September 21st 2005 at 2:00pm Eastern Time, click this
URL

The password is: itest

Please plan to log in 5-10 mins early, to allow the log in and any necessary downloads to take effect.

TO JOIN THE AUDIO CONFERENCE
Please use the following phone numbers and passcodes for the audio conferencing part of your ReadyCast hosted meeting.

Conference toll-free phone number: 1-800-453-7412 Conference toll/international phone number: 1-719-867-3420 Participant Passcode
number: 190897

To hear a menu of audio enhancement options, press *1 at any time during your conference.
Options include the following:

To mute or "un-mute" your line, PRESS *6.
To increase conference volume, if you are having trouble hearing others, PRESS *4.
To decrease conference volume, PRESS *7.
To increase the volume of your voice, if others are having trouble hearing you, PRESS *5.
To decrease the volume of your voice, PRESS *8.
To hear a Help menu, PRESS *1.
To reach a reservationist, PRESS *0.

:: Netwoman 12:41 PM [+] ::
...

Diversity in Gaming

Interesting Post over at Joystiq about "Girl-on-Girl" Gaming that talks about whether Lesbians need to create their own gaming spaces. Should separate 'safe' spaces be created? Or do we need to examine why these spaces need to be created in the first place. If you read the comments on this post, you'll begin to think about the hateful ideologies that (still) exist out there - perhaps we are still at the stage where separate spaces are needed.

Sticky Crow talks about the problems with labeling people and their experiences stating "The only true meaning comes from your own direct experience". Granted if we categorize people into little boxes and categories, there is little room for diversity. However, we can't discount the experiences that people have because of these labels, which is the whole point of creating diverse spaces. Unfortunately, we still live in a society that his little or no respect for those who are not (in this case) heterosexual. Playing a video game with characters you can't identify with, or playing a game that reproduces the status quo is not always engaging, and often times insulting and marginalizing...so what do we do?

:: Netwoman 12:16 PM [+] ::
...

Keep your eyes on the Road

Toyota Computer Makes You Watch the Road
"TOKYO - Japanese automaker Toyota has developed a safety technology that it says will keep the driver's eyes on the road.

An image-processing computer system developed by Toyota Motor Corp. and a Toyota affiliate uses a camera near the steering wheel to detect when the driver stops looking straight ahead.

The system flashes a light on the dashboard display and emits a beeping noise when the eyes start to wander. If the driver still doesn't respond, brakes kick in, Toyota said Tuesday.

The feature will be offered in Lexus luxury models set to be sold in Japan in spring next year. Toyota won't comment on whether it will be offered in models sold abroad, company spokeswoman Keiko Nakajima said.

Research shows that most accidents happen because the driver isn't paying attention, according to Toyota."

It seems to me that there are numerous technologies that are being used to 'correct' human behaviour, which says to me that people think about technologies in ways to improve people's characteristics and behaviour.

Here it's clear that people need reminders that they are not watching the road. What are they doing? Talking on cell phones? Sending text messages? Changing the CD in the car?

Some questions that came to mind: What about when you are checking your mirrors? What about checking over your shoulder when you are making a lane change? What happens if you have a sneezing fit? So, I wonder how long the timer takes before the car starts flashing, and then the auto brakes come on? If you have to respond to the flashing light, doesn't this take your eyes off the road as well?

Given that many people are now multi-tasking at any moment, perhaps we need to think about our lifestyles and the need or expectation to cram so much into our days? Perhaps we need to JUST be driving when we are in the car? Maybe we need more stringent driver's tests?

:: Netwoman 9:22 AM [+] ::
...

Issues of Privacy - What is privacy?

There is an interesting thread going on on the CITASA and AoIR list servs right now about people blogging private conversations, or things they overhear.

The story starts with this posting:

"I was surprised when I did this recently to find my name mentioned in
two blogs:
-- A purported quotation from me from a dinner table conversation a few years ago.
-- A side comment that I purportedly made to the blogger who claims to be sitting next to me at another conference.

This has gotten me to thinking.

1. Is it ethical to publish private conversations without the speaker's approval?
2. Or has the nature of networked community become such that just as the public has become personal, the personal has become public?
Secret police types would concurr: If you have nothing to hide, why worry? But I have had enough experiences in America, China, Russia and Bulgaria to know I don't want to live that way. And neither do my friends who have lived in these countries. Surely there is a matter of private discourse among friends and colleagues. Or has blogging by scholars merged with gossip columns? My own feeling is that my papers, lectures and perhaps even public conference utterances are publishable. My side comments over dinner and in informal groups are not -- unless I explicitly agree."

This post sparked much debate on both list servs about the ethics of blogging, and the care we should take - as bloggers - to ensure that everyone's privacy is respected.

Notions of public and private spaces are usually contested amongst scholars. Researchers take numerous measures to ensure their research participants remain confidential or/and anonymous - if we overhear a conversation at dinner, or at the next roundtable, should we mention names? What if the comment is taken out of context? If the person who spoke those words is taken out of context, and it is published to the web - it can come back and bite you in the ass.

Here are some things we might need to consider:

As scholars, celebrities and everyday people:

1. Be careful what you say in any kinds of spaces - whether in a group or F2F with others near by. Perhaps we need to say things like "Don't quote me on this..."
2. Don't say anything to anyone that you couldn't, wouldn't or shouldn't want published to the internet. Eventually I suspect we will be doing some self-policing and self-regulating (see Foucault) given the ease of internet publishing.

As Researchers and bloggers:

1. If bloggers choose to post conversations overheard, or private conversations they are privvy to - don't post names/identities.
2. Use pseudonymns and don't give details that would give away the identity of the speaker.
3. Be reasonable and ethical in the sense that you don't blog about things that might be harmful to the speaker, or be wary of snip-its that can be taken out of context.
4. Get permission from people to blog about them or conversations that you have.

I think that as more people start blogging, these issues will continue to surface. My hope is that as academics, we can all apply our knowledge of ethical research techniques to the world of internet publishing, specifically the blogosphere. For the everyday person, my hope is that people will be wary of what they post and respect the 'privacy' of others, whatever that may mean.

Here are some pertinent links:

Regarding blog ethics, from the bloggers' perspective, there is a piece on CyberJournalist called "A Blogger's Code of Ethics"

Blog ethics was also a hot topic of debate on dailykos.com, a left-leaning political blog, early this year, and probably on other blogs as well.

From a scholarly perspective, Andy Koh et al recently posted a
summary report of a survey they conducted on weblog ethics.

Fernanda Viegas has a recent article in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication on bloggers' expectations of privacy.

Alex Halavais Blogs about his viewpoint.

Ezster Hargittai blogs her thoughts last year about privacy and blogging at Crooked Timber. Here is an interesting passage:

"Since I do not blog anonymously there is more social control over what I decide to make public. After all, everything I say reflects on me in return. Outing information about others that many may find inappropriate will have negative repercussions on me. So even if I had no concerns, whatsoever, about the privacy of people around me – but I do – a solely self-interested approach would still dictate that I keep information about others' lives private in order not to upset people and in turn lose credibility and trust in the future. However, such social control operates much less effectively among those who can hide behind the veil of a pseudonym."

:: Netwoman 9:45 AM [+] ::
...

I couldn't imagine teaching without the Internet

Interesting article at First Monday
"Professors online: The Internet's impact on college faculty"
by Steve Jones and Camille Johnson-Yale

Abstract:

"This paper reports on findings from a nationwide survey of Internet use by U.S. college faculty. The survey asked about general Internet use, use of specific Internet technologies (e-mail, IM, Web, etc.), the Internet's impact on teaching and research, its impact on faculty-student interactions, and about faculty perceptions of students' Internet use. There is general optimism, though little evidence, about the Internet's impacts on their professional lives.
The findings show that institutions of higher education still need to address three broad areas (infrastructure, professional development, and teaching and research) to assist faculty to continue to make good use of the Internet in their professional work."

This is a good article that outlines some of the key issues and ideas involved with teaching and using the Internet. In particular, the communication process between faculty and students. The authors discuss how some faculty members in their study note how casual emails can be from students. I have noticed this as well. Not only can students be very demanding, but also at times rude. This is not something that would happen in a F2F situation. As well, I have had students email me in 'text-message' language where words are vowel-less and there are no sentences. What encouarges students to use this e-language to people in positions of power (such as faculty)?

Plagiarism is also discussed. Students have always plagiarized but with the Internet, much more is going on. I always wonder why students think they won't get caught plagiarizing from the Internet, especially since I use Turnitin.com and Google extensively. It's no surprise, I tell them right away, but it still happens and they are caught. Generally this is where I start to get rude and demanding emails from students screaming injustice - how dare I accuse them (which I never do). It boggles my mind.

The Internet is a huge part of my courses, even when the course is not about tech & society or Cyberculture. I use Blogs, email and the WWW for each course I teach. I really wonder how different it would be without the Internet....

:: Netwoman 1:24 PM [+] ::
...