:: Netwoman ::

:: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 ::

Does Gender Matter? Examining Conversations in the Blogosphere
At the recent AoIR, Joanna Robinson, Kaye Trammell and I presented a paper on whether the comments that people leave on blogs are gendered. We used 'gendered' categories based on Deborah Tannen's work (among others), and found that the comments women and men leave are indeed gendered.

I am posting the Power Point Presentation here in case anyone is interested. We are working on finalizing the paper for publication.

:: Netwoman 4:03 PM [+] ::
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Digital Homes on the Brain
As I am writing my thesis (which is about the household internet), I find myself thinking a lot about the digital home, or smart home. I've been re-reading media articles and finding new ones so I imagine I will be posting a lot on this in the future months. This one I just stumbled across again.

"The Xbox and the digital home
But it’s the Xbox 360’s talents beyond gaming that really peak our interest. On its own, the Xbox 360 can rip CDs to its 20GB hard drive (an optional buy); connect to iPods, PSPs, PMPs and all manner of USB-based storage devices. This PC-like connectivity is instantly appealing.

Incorporating an Ethernet connection, Microsoft is also pushing the Xbox 360 to be a key part of a home network. On a basic level, it can be plugged into a router and linked to the Xbox Live service via broadband. Microsoft also plans to supply an 802.11g USB device so that people can integrate the Xbox 360 into a wireless network."

This sounds so appealing, even though this is a PlayStation Household. Hope they don't drop the ball and wait too long to release their next version.

:: Netwoman 11:31 PM [+] ::
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Social vs Individualistic Digital Homes
I stumbled across this article about "Dumbing down the digital home" and they made an interesting comment:

"Have you noticed how the digital home concept seems to be veering away from converged devices towards home networking? "

In my own techno-media-homescape, most of my things are together, and I constantly think about and envision what my ideal 'smart home' or 'digital home' might look like. In my hallucination (which might be concentual), everything is together in one area. Open concept floor-plans will make a come back, and the only separate room will be the bedroom (and bathroom). Perhaps I'm describing a loft, but I like the idea of an open mulit-tasking area. Convergence is good.

In this quote, they are arguing that the whole digital home idea is moving away from a social communal focus to a more individualistic household. That is to say that rather than having household members in one place using multiple gadgets, household members are in their own private spaces but linked together and perhaps even doing things 'virtually' together.

The notion of communality changes here. You don't have to be in the same room to be spending time together. We've had these academic discussions about chat rooms, virtual rape and so on. Granted we haven't talked about it in the context the household yet. It's a new direction that we should think about, especially if large corporations continue to promote this vision of the smart/digital home. Separate but together and networked.

Regardless of their vision, I still the idea of being in an open space with computers, television and PlayStation 2 all in one place, with everyone together sharing the techno-media experience.

:: Netwoman 9:50 PM [+] ::
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Rosie the Riveter
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Action Figure
I bought this Rosie the Riveter 'action figure' when I was in Chicago for the AoIR. The 'we can do it!' logo is supposed to inspire me to continue writing my thesis. I want to prop her on my monitor, maybe that will help. Note though that this depiction of Rosie differs from the one that Norman Rockwell created - his version shows a woman who has much more muscle and more attitude - less 'feminine' than the pop culture icon shown usually.

:: Netwoman 1:03 PM [+] ::
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Proud new Momma
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

What I did this weekend...
I had to house sit for my mother this weekend, who was at a dog show in Pittsburgh. My mother is a German Shepherd dog breeder - Alpenhof - and one of her females - Occa shown here - was scheduled to give birth in two days. Of course she couldn't wait, and went into labour while I was there! I have never done this before so I called Pittsburgh in a panic and my mother rushed home. However, in the 4.5 hours it took her to drive back, six pups were born. What a scary, fascinating and rewarding experience. My mother gave me some last minute instructions over her friend's cell phone; maybe this post should be how cell phones can help deliver babies.

:: Netwoman 11:25 AM [+] ::
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Sexism still rife in science and tech jobs, research says
Holding women back
By Lucy Sherriff
Published Wednesday 12th October 2005 12:16 GMT

Women working in science and technology still face major barriers to career success, according to researchers at the University of Newcastle, with many women emphasising the struggle to balance family and professional life as a significant problem. So-called institutionalised sexism and male dominated boards were also highlighted as major problems.

The Newcastle research team surveyed 60 small businesses, in the science and technology field in the North East region, and spoke to 30 women employees.

It found that some women had elected not to have children, specifically because they felt it would impede their career development. Women with families said that they could not attend as many conferences as they would have liked to, and had to pass up opportunities to travel because childcare was a problem.

Figures from industry appear to bear this out: a survey from BT Conferencing showed that 84 per cent of men stay in hotels at least once a year, on business, compared to 57 per cent of women.

"There have undeniably been numerous developments for women in the workforce over the past decade, though it seems many are still hitting glass ceilings, and it is not just in male-dominated industries," said Nigel Stagg, CEO, BT Conferencing.

He went on to say that women engage far less in business-related travel, opting to use technology "to support their meeting requirements" instead.

The Newcastle research also found that many women felt they had been "weeded out" of the career structure before they had reached their potential. Others still felt their positions did not adequately reflect their skills or experience.

The findings of the report are familiar: firms employ on average four women for every ten men, and although 40 per cent of firms did have at least one female manager, women are still over represented in support or administrative roles.

Many of those surveyed mentioned low confidence and a lack of female scientist role models as particular barriers for women working in the industry, while others said institutionalised sexism and male-biased incentives (such as away days to football matches) were significant professional barriers.

:: Netwoman 1:56 PM [+] ::
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The Acceptance of Women-Centric Websites

ABSTRACT

Cyberspace has shown a growing number of websites that are meant for female visitors. This paper studies the acceptance of the appearance of such gender-specific service based on an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). In other words, this is a study of TAM as affected by women-centric sites. An online questionnaire survey of Internet users who have visited women-centric sites was conducted. Six factors were extracted from the design features of women-centric websites, forming 3C3O constructs: context, content, community, orderliness, originality, and outreach. It is concluded that context, content, community, and orderliness are the four key factors that affect users' perceptions on the sites. The originality of themes and the outreach of service, however, present no significant benefit to forming positive perceptions. The results further show that TAM and the extended TAM are subject to modification in the women-centric context. Perceived usefulness no longer contributes to the intention to visit. Furthermore, perceived ease of use is less important compared to perceived usefulness and perceived playfulness. This is distinctively so for the male visitors, as the path between perceived ease of use and the attitude toward women-centric sites is statistically insignificant.

:: Netwoman 1:20 PM [+] ::
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Shaping the World Around You
There's a long feature in Sunday's Toronto Star about how iPods and mobile phones are affecting public/private boundaries of community. It includes parts of an interview with Barry Wellman.

Kenneth Kidd, "It's All in Your Head." Toronto Star, October 9, 2005. Ideas section: pp. D1, D8.

"The iPod crew, or iPeople, if you will, essentially shape their own perceptions of the world around them, like movie producers applying different soundtracks to the same film script. Whether you're looking at people lining up for the subway or a beggar on the street, what your mind sees — and consequently your mood — is bound to be affected by whether you're listening to, say, Gershwin or Tom Waits."

This struck me as something useful for my dissertation:

"It's easy to imagine the iPeople being the polite ones, especially when you consider the oft-repeated tale of the woman talking on her cellphone aboard a crowded New York bus. She's having a loud and extended discussion with her husband regarding whether they should have salmon or steak for dinner. Finally, an exasperated man across the aisle yells, "Salmon." At which point, everyone else on the bus (and in the spirit of Seinfeld) starts chanting, "Salmon, salmon, salmon." It's a tale apocryphal in its details, perhaps, but not in its spirit."

This is the Networked Individual - showing how family members are networking, communicating and planning using mobile technology. Notions of home are changing; it's not just in one locale anymore, but rather home can be anywhere your mobile phone is. I am writing a book chapter about this for Jim Katz, about how households utilize the mobile phone for 'family' things.

:: Netwoman 10:35 AM [+] ::
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Smart Women Inspire Me
While I was in the sessions for AoIR, there was a woman who kept making very intelligent comments, and asking really good questions. I checked her name tag of course and proceeded to Google Stalk her and learn more about Naomi Baron. How ironic that is in retrospect.

I found Namoi Baron's website and looked at the kind of research she is doing. Not my area of expertise, but very interesting. One title in particular caught my interest, and luckily there was a link to the power point presentation. The title is “You Are What They Post: Identity Construction on the Internet”.

The presentation is about how Naomi Baron searched her name on various search engines and talks about the various dopplegangers that emerged and what that means to our online identity. What can we really learn about people online? I won't spoil it for you, so go have a look at the presentation slides.

This really got me thinking about how I have Googled myself (haven't we all?) and strangers surfaced from cyberspace. I remember feeling odd - reading about another Tracy Kennedy somewhere else on the planet. Following the lead of this presentation, I am going to look into my dopplegangers a little closer and I'll report more on that later. This all really reminds me of a very strange Arnold Schwarzeneggar movie (but I really like them anyway! sssh)

:: Netwoman 12:46 AM [+] ::
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Netwoman Presenting
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Netwoman Presenting
This is me presenting my "Private Spaces and Communal Places: Exploring the Ecology of the Household Internet" paper. This is the slide where I am talking about gendered household spaces, and giving the example of "The Kitchen Computer" from 1965 Neiman-Marcus ad with a slogan of "If only she can cook as well as Honeywell can computer".

:: Netwoman 12:35 AM [+] ::
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Belated AoIR Blogging

I am back from Chicago where the AoIR 6.0 was held. It was a good conference, aside from the usual internet glitches. Steve Jones worked really hard trying to fix the wonky wi-fi access making numerous trips to the Apple store - so thanks to Steve for the hard work! Also thanks to Caroline Haythornthwaite for all the conference planning (and of course all the other organizers).

It was a busy conference as it always is - lots of good sessions, presenting papers, and of course catching up with people I generally only know or speak to in the virtual world.

Presentations:

I had three papers submitted to Aoir. One stems from my dissertation research "Private Spaces and Communal Places: Exploring the Ecology of the Household Internet" where I talk about how households make decisions about where to put the internet access point.

Another paper stems from a group of graduate students who attended Webshop 2003 -
Evan Golub University of Maryland, Barbara Stroope Tulane University, Kerk Kee San Diego State University, Alison Powell Concordia University, Sean Zehnder Northwestern University - "Wireless Communication in the Classroom: A "Back Channel" to the Learning Process?". We discuss the use of Instant Messenger during the graduate workshop and the kinds of things that were talked about in the backchannel.

Also with Joanna S. Robinson and Kaye Trammell - "Does Gender Matter? Examining Conversations in the Blogosphere". Joanna did a nice job talking about our research where we talk about how the comments left in blogs are gendered.

My supervisor also talked about the Connected Lives Project - "Connected Lives: How the Networked Transformation of Society Affects Communication, Community and Domestic Relations", where he talked about my dissertation research.

I also chaired two sessions: Interface I: Race,Class and Gender and Interpreting the Interface II: Gender and Sexuality - both very interesting sessions with good discussion. I actually took handwritten notes, which I can't seem to locate at this time.

The notes I take some notes on a couple of presenters:
Christopher Paul
-How does hypertext affect text
-Google – the whole purpose is to direct you to somewhere else
-It's a Hub
-How is it designed to get people to where they want to go
-Terminal Sites; sticky, forestall movement/designed to keep you there; limited external links
-For example, Microsoft – gives you a strong sense of what Microsoft is all about – designed to keep you moving around the entire site – keeps you within it
-Terminals allow comparative analyze sites; analysis by focus on function
-Recognition that sites can be insulated
-New York Times; advertisers, stories, internal links
-It’s a controlled hub; wouldn't link to a competitor; political economic design
-Internal links – hyperlinks to TiVo, NDS, NewsCorp – stock information, background on the business – the purpose of this site is the same as Microsoft – they in their goal of info provider, could spend people outwards, but keep internal and support interests of readers – need to benefit NYTimes
-New Times is a Hub
-Townhall.com – 1995; politically conservative; member sites/partner sites – 115 of other sorts of conservative organizations that give them info
-Membership; articles; meetings IRL; dating service ads
-They push you to other places, both partner sites – it's a heavy hub – it's structured to connect
-Penny Arcade – blog comic; blog with stories; links to develop narrative
-Linking assumed, knowledge needed for narrative
-Connections beyond PA
-Makes you go away and come back (*do they open in a new page, or same page?)
-They actually open in the same page because of loyal readership – people will press the back button

Hillary Bays
-Comparative linguistic structure
-Subjective and profile – researching people’s use of IM; smiling, laughing, gestures etc – these were video taped
-Screen capture to show that there’s multitasking going on
-Multiple recording techniques – getting the whole environment in sync (this is interesting)
-How might we be able to use this data? Interesting watching people use IM and their reactions.

Once I find my other notes, I will post them!

:: Netwoman 8:53 PM [+] ::
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ACTiVATE

The Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, in partnership with many of you and several programs at UMBC is once again recruiting women for it’s second class of technology-transfer entrepreneurs. To date, our first class of almost 30 women have begun their second semester and at least three new companies are being formed! This impressive group of business and technically knowledgeable women are setting the world on fires by demonstrating their superior knowledge, skills, and abilities that are allowing them to take on these challenging technologies and create real financial opportunities for themselves. This innovative program, entitled ACTiVATE, is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. We now need your help to identify future participants.

What: ACTiVATE is an innovative program that trains and supports women to start technology-based companies.

Who: The program is recruiting women with a strong business or technical background; both biotech and IT are options. The ACTiVATE group will once again be limited to approximately 30 participants.

How: Participants will access technology innovations from universities and research institutions in the region, put together plans to commercialize suitable technologies and, potentially, start a company. ACTiVATE will provide technologies, training, and a support infrastructure for participants that includes entrepreneurs-in-residence, instructors, and advisors from the local business community.

The program provides two convenient open houses and an opportunity for a one-on-one interview which allows you to ask lots of individual questions to see if the program is right for you!

Where: techcenter@UMBC, just minutes from the Baltimore Washington International Airport.

We are currently accepting applications for a year-long program, which begins in January 2006. For more information about the ACTiVATE program visit us at

Please send your participant referrals to Barbara Breslau, program manager, at breslau AT umbc DOT edu or give her a call at 443-543-5594.

We appreciate your assistance in forwarding this information today to colleagues, friends and family who might be interested in the ACTiVATE program.

Best,
Claudia Morrell
Executive Director
Center for Women and Information Technology
UMBC
410-455-2822

:: Netwoman 10:03 PM [+] ::
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Women, Gender and Science is topic of Women's Studies conference

NEW PALTZ The Women's Studies Program at the State University of New York at
New Paltz will host a one-day conference that will examine the ways gender
relations affect the world of science. The conference, titled Women, Gender
and Science, will take place on Saturday, Oct. 22, and is open to the public.

This year's conference topic was recently highlighted by the controversy
surrounding the comments of Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University,
that suggested the under-representation of women in scientific careers might
be rooted in genetics. The conference will examine the wide range of social
and cultural factors contributing to the under-representation of women in the
sciences. Discussions will focus on the many challenges, as well as the
opportunities, facing girls and women in science.

The keynote speaker for the conference will be Evelyn Fox Keller, professor of
History and Philosophy of Science in the Program in Science, Technology and
Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Keller is a widely
published feminist scientist who has done extensive work in physics,
mathematical biology and the history of science.

The day will include panel discussions with women scientists and educators, as
well as workshops for teachers and students of the sciences. There will be 16
workshops addressing a variety of topics, including: Women and Big Science;
Teaching and Learning Science in High School; and The Birth Control Movement
and the Politics of Science and Medicine in the Interwar Period. A special
feature of the conference is a workshop, Science for Girls, designed for
children between the ages of 7 and 12.

In the evening, performer Jane Curry will put on her one-woman show, titled
Miz Wizard's Science Secrets. In her presentation, Curry tells stories of
women's contributions to science, engineering, invention and math, in addition
to the obstacles faced and overcome by women whose passion is discovery. Curry
is an author, storyteller and performer with a knack for provoking both
thought and laughter with her woman-centered shows.

Deadline for registration is Oct. 12. You must pre-register for lunch, child
care and the Science for Girls workshop. Conference facilities are wheelchair
accessible.

For a complete list of programs or more information, call the Women's Studies
Department at (845) 257-2975 or visit www.newpaltz.edu/wmnstudies. For
registration information, contact (845) 257-3033.

Note to editors: A photograph of Evelyn Fox Keller may be downloaded from the
SUNY New Paltz Web site at www.newpaltz.edu/news/images/foxkeller.html.

The State University of New York at New Paltz is a highly selective college of
8,000 undergraduate and graduate students located in the Mid-Hudson Valley
between New York City and Albany. New Paltz is ranked 5th among the best
public universities and 42nd among public and private universities in the
North that offer bachelor's and master's degree programs, according to the
U.S. News & World Report's rankings for America's Best Colleges 2006.

Degrees are offered in the liberal arts and sciences, which serve as a core
for professional programs in the fine and performing arts, education,
healthcare, business and engineering.

:: Netwoman 9:54 AM [+] ::
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