:: Netwoman ::

:: Saturday, March 25, 2006 ::

FemmeVox Ezine

...engaging women to advance equality through technology
Web Version: Volume 4 23 March 2006
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WHAT'S NEW

Fledgling forum seeks dynamic women for stimulating conversation. Now that the Womyn's Voices forum is ready to roll - we invite you to dive in. The forum is a place to interact with others on topical issues, spark a debate, call for help, and meet people. Online tools like this forum are only as successful as the extent to which they are optimized. In a coming issue of FemmeVox, we promise to take you on a detailed tour of the entire Womyn's Voices site with ideas of how to get the most out of it. Meantime, why not sign up and wander around in there? At best, you'll learn something new about ICTs. At worst, you'll make a new friend. Sounds pretty good, don't you think?

Links:
Womyn's Voices
Sign-Up

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WHAT'S HOT

The BC Rural Women's Network recently launched an Online Safety Toolkit - a user-friendly guide on being critical, informed, and safe online.

Created in response to findings from the Online Safety for Women Project, the toolkit attempts to fill a gap where little information is directed towards the growing risks facing women who use the internet. The BC Rural Women's Network sees the Online Safety for Women Project as important in addressing the rise in violence faced by women via the internet and in helping decrease the vulnerability of online users, in particular, marginalized rural women.

The Toolkit is available at www.onlinesafetytoolkit.com. For more information, visit the BC Rural Women's Network.

Links:
BC Rural Women's Network
Effect

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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

. about the digital divide and gender

Divide and conquer. Around the world, the Digital Divide widens, particularly where women and girls are concerned.

Trends indicate that the digital divide is following that familiar path towards inequality and exclusion, putting women and girls at a disadvantage in the digital context. The divide is further enabled by the masculine image attributed to science and technology. A smaller percentage of women deliver or work in technology. What's more, women are conspicuously absent from decision-making processes on issues regarding information technology.

Indeed, ICTs have the potential to offer exciting opportunities for women and girls. Yet access remains one of the most important issues facing women globally, after the feminization of poverty and violence against women. So what can we do about it?

Click to learn more about this topic and for links to other resources.

. about young women and technology

Sisters getting wired. Here's what we know: Young people go online more than
anyone else, stay online longer, and have more diverse online activities.
For many girls, the internet is a key source of education, news, and
entertainment. A majority of schools in Canada offer computer and internet
access to students, yet girls are less likely to use them than boys. The
number of women pursuing studies in technology is low, as too is the number
of women working in the field.

Even with statistics pointing to the fact that young women are often among
the most marginalized and disadvantaged groups in the field of ICTs, there
is reason for hope.

Girls and young women are staking claim in the male-dominated environment of
the internet. They are participating in online communities, creating their
own websites, connecting with one another, and finding ways to use the
computer as a social tool. Even for youth, the web is emerging as a key tool
for capacity and network building, news analysis, and resource sharing.

Click to learn more about this topic and
for links to other resources.

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WHO TO WATCH

Pack your bags and go global. With a membership of over 100,000 and growing,
TakingITGlobal.org is a popular multilingual online community for young
people who want to make a difference, who want to change the world. Highly
interactive and informative, TakingITGlobal.org uses tools like discussion
boards, blogs, and event calendars (many of the same engaging features at
Womyn's Voices) to "inspire, inform, and involve" youth to take action in
their local and global communities. From poetry to geo-global politics, this
is one inspiring example of youth in interaction

Taking IT Global

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STAY IN TOUCH

The success of the Womyn's Voices initiative will depend on you. We are
looking forward to making this an integral part of your activities. As the
title of this project implies - we need your voice. Throughout this
initiative, we will examine a variety of topics through a range of
interactive formats. We welcome your participation and feedback!

Here's how you can reach us:

Womenspace || Espace des Femmes
302-1066 Somerset St West
Ottawa, ON K1Y 4T3
tel 613-729-0746
info AT womenspace.ca

RAISE YOUR VOICE . Email kathy AT womenspace DOT ca to tell us what you think of
this e-zine and how it might better meet your needs.

:: Netwoman 3:59 PM [+] ::
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Internet's Gender Gap Narrows

Wired News has an article about how the internet's gender gap is narrowing.

Marketing consultants and demographic researchers believe they have found some answers. In the online world, at least, their findings indicate that although men and women behave similarly, some distinctions exist. Websites that fail to draw a sizable female audience, they say, ought to incorporate the following:

* More sources of information: Typically, women have a longer wish list of what they want from a website than men, says Johnson. Preferences include having information put in the context of a story and getting information on a topic from multiple sources in one place. These are qualities men like, too, Johnson says, but about which women are usually pickier.
* A sense of connection: Websites and online advertisers appeal more to women when they create an emotional connection, says Catherine Stellin, vice president of research at The Intelligence Group, a marketing consultancy. That doesn't mean bonding with the Energizer bunny. It's a bit more subtle, says Stellin, who cites as an example financial-planning companies that include profiles of executives or successful retirees in their ad campaigns.
* Time-saving features: Male and female shoppers typically behave in opposite ways online and offline, says Marty Barletta, author of Marketing to Women. In brick-and-mortar stores, Barletta says, women are more apt to spend time browsing and men are more likely to quickly make a purchase. Online, that behavior reverses itself, with men likely to spend more time perusing and women tending to make a purchase quickly.
* Better explanations: Barletta has much disdain for the way automobile and PC sites sell their wares. Her primary objection is that most presume a prospective customer already understands the technical details of the product she's eyeballing. In reality, customers may not know whether it's worth paying extra for a 1.7-GHz PC over a 1.4-GHz model, or why axle ratio is important. "They assume an engineer's knowledge," Barletta said.

Some nice commentary on "thinking pink" when marketers are trying to tap into the needs/wants of the female audience. We can't just make the site "gurly" with lovely shades of pink or post recipes on the site. Really, we have to consider people's lives - their contexts - what's going on around them that will shape what they want from the internet?

:: Netwoman 11:14 AM [+] ::
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The uneasy relationship between gaming and gender

by Nadia Oxford 06.29.2005. An article from June that I somehow missed...

There's a rumor going around that men are interested in the opposite sex. These curvy "females," as they're called, have held males in thrall since the beginning of time. Their allure has changed the world, caused the rise and fall of empires. At the very least, their mere presence can cause men to stop and take notice. (Rumor has it that women may be interested in men as well.)

"Oh well," said Man and Woman. "The eggheads can figure out the hard stuff. Let's go do something fun together."

Leisure and entertainment have evolved alongside humans. Even in more primitive times, life couldn't be all about clubbing saber-toothed tigers. And while men and women usually enjoy the same forms of entertainment, it doesn't mean they always enjoy the same kinds of entertainment.

Next to well-aged media such as movies, video games are comparatively new. Although the first arcade cabinets and computer programs probably weren't designed with the exclusive enjoyment of males in mind, it was men who created them, and men who were drawn to those bleeps and bloops. Since then, video games have mostly catered to male tastes and have mostly starred male characters. After all, it's easier to make a pixel-man than it is to include the extra attributes that would make a pixel-woman.

But anyone who is interested in games will tell you that nothing in the industry is constant. Slowly, this is even proving true of the belief that games are for guys only. Video games may one day prove to be a truly unisex pastime, but there's still a bit of a way to go. Half of the problem is in how games are advertised, but the other half lies within the games themselves. Console technology is evolving fast enough to put a permanent dent in our bank accounts, but the gender roles presented in the games we play sometimes seem mired in an 8-bit tar pit.

The article also talks about stereotypes of masculinity...good stuff - have a look.

:: Netwoman 1:30 PM [+] ::
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Weekends With Dad, Courtesy of D.S.L.

Interesting article from the New York Times that talks about uses of the internet for divorced or separated couples with children.

WITH work and the school week behind them, Charles A. Mason III and his daughter, Arielle, who live more than 1,500 miles apart, prepared for their scheduled weekend visit. There was no packing involved, no plane tickets, no car rides or drop-offs. All it took was some instant messaging on their home computers and a little fidgeting in front of their respective Webcams, and father and daughter were chatting, playing checkers and practicing multiplication tables.

"It's funner than talking on the phone, because I can see him," said Arielle, 10, who lives with her mother in Longmont, Colo., but has regular "virtual visits" with her father as part of the custody arrangement her parents worked out after her mother moved eight years ago. "It's just like being in front of him, but with games and computer stuff added."

As for Mr. Mason, who lives in Warrenton, Va., the video chats are a vast improvement over telephone calls, during which his daughter — like many children her age — is often monosyllabic and easily distracted.

"I can barely hold her attention on the phone for five minutes," he said. "When we can play checkers and look at one another, I can keep her talking about school and life for an hour or more."

Of course they talk about the potential 'dangers' of having virtual time replaced with physical time - and how you can't replace physical with online. We know this, and it doesn't really happen. This is a creative way of utilizing the internet to maintain social contact with loved ones.

:: Netwoman 1:23 PM [+] ::
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Gender & Interaction

Call for papers for Gender & Interaction - Real & Virtual Women in a Male World (23-26 May, 2006 - Venice, Italy)

Gender differences in computer adoption have been investigated since the '80s. Back then, research described computers as a male world and warned of a serious digital divide attributed to different aptitudes towards mathematics and to sex-role stereotypes. It was believed that the design of new applications addressing women's interests would have helped to solve the problem. This prediction was partially fulfilled with respect to Internet adoption, but women are still severely underrepresented among computer scientists and software developers. An impressive unbalance in video-games usage is also reported and associated to sex-role stereotypes in design.

As HCI moves from a materialistic (computer as tool for cognition) to an experiential vision (computer as medium for emotion), the understanding of gender-related differences assumes greater importance. The metaphor of computers as social actors and the anthropomorphisation of the interface (often embodied by attractive young females) are important triggers of research on gender and interaction. Sexism, sexual harassment and the tendency of misreporting sexual identity are well known aspects of on-line communication which deserve further attention from the design community.

Cognitive psychology suggests that females and males process information and solve problems in different ways and recent studies link these distinctive styles to neurological differences. Gender differences in spatial ability are also documented. Social psychology underlines important behavioural differences: men and women obey to different norms which relate to gender stereotypes. Gender is routinely controlled in usability evaluations but little is known yet on whether and how differences in gender should influence the design of interactive software and personalisation engines.

Some of the larger questions we hope to address during the workshop are:

* What is the current status of the digital divide in computer adoption and usage between males and females?
* How do different interface metaphors (embodied conversational characters, windows, desktops) affect gender related differences?
* What is the effect of gender on the perception and usage of educational software?
* Does gender affect navigational knowledge and strategies (e.g. in VR or Web-browsing)?
* Does gender affect the acquisition of sensory-motor tasks in the use of multi-modal interfaces?
* Should machines (embodied characters and robots) have gender? How should 'artificial'gender be designed and how would it affect the interaction?
* Do sex-role stereotypes apply to embodied characters?
* Does gender affect the way human empathize with embodied characters and robots?

:: Netwoman 1:20 PM [+] ::
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International Symposium on Women and ICTs

The proceedings of the International Symposium on Women and ICTs can now be accessed at this link.

The First International Symposium on Women and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) took place June 12-14, 2005 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Two hundred and fifty participants representing six continents and 28 developing and developed countries, including leaders from business, government, non-government agencies, and education, gathered to explore concrete ways to increase girls' and women's participation and leadership with Information and Communication Technology in order to effect economic, social, and political change.

The symposium was organized and co-hosted by the Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT) at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country (UMBC), the World Trade Center Institute, the World Bank, and Women in Global Science and Technology (WIGSAT); it was held in cooperation with the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). The U.S. Ambassador to the UN Commission for Women, Ellen Sauerbrey, served as honorary Chair.

Through the exchange of ideas and experiences, the symposium's participants created an action agenda to significantly increase the international participation of girls and women in ICT - including leadership of women in technology business - in the next five years.

:: Netwoman 1:14 PM [+] ::
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Rumble Roses XX

Joanna's Adventures Blog talks about the release of Rumble Roses XX on Xbox Live. Jo and I are fans of this game despite the problematics of the characters:

Nevertheless these images simultaneously depict a world where very desireable and competent women are at centre stage. These are women who are unafraid, tough and self assured. When representations of women are still so lacking and omitted in video games, each image that can be read as empowering and positive by audiences needs to be appreciated. I would argue that these images are not entirely, or necessarily negative...
Granted, the game is full of 'money shots' and their outfits and breast jiggle action are outrageous...but I do find the game fun, playing with men and especially when playing with other women, when we frame the characters are silly, idealized stereotypes.

Well said! We will be looking into this game and let you know what we think :)

:: Netwoman 2:40 PM [+] ::
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Video Game Voters Network

While this is pertinent to the USA, it's a good initiative:

The Video Game Voters Network exists to empower Americans who play video games to take action against threats to this entertainment medium and to stay informed about the latest issues that could affect our choice in video game entertainment. Video games are a modern form of entertainment entitled to the same creative and free speech protections afforded by the US Constitution to older media such as movies, music, and books.

Does anyone know if there is anything similar in Canada?

:: Netwoman 2:38 PM [+] ::
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Gender Equality in Gaming

From Gamasutra - Study Shows Gaming Gender Equality in Asia

Global Digital Living, a consumer survey on international responses to various topics from Parks Associates, has published a report indicating that Asian men and women are on par with one another when it comes to playing online video games. 50% of respondents from Asian nations who answered affirmatively to playing online games were male, which 49% were female.

The report also covered other regions of the globe, each of which was more weighted toward female online gamers. In North America, the male to female ratio was 39% to 52%; in Europe, it was 28% to 39%, and in Australia, it was 27% to 53%. (No South American or African nations are included among the 13 that Global Digital Living surveys.)

"The revenue-generating genres such as first-person shooters and fantasy games are still dominated by a small group of hard-core male gamers," said Parks Associates analyst Yuanzhe Cai, interpreting the results. [The type of online game played by the parties was unspecified, and likely spanned casual web browser-based titles all the way to MMOs.]

Cai concluded: "The gender parity in Asia is unique and may offer insight on how to expand the gaming industry in the western world. Gamers in Asia tend to value the community aspect of the online gaming experience, and the dominant game genres appeal to males and females alike."

I like the cultural context that they note in this post, and i think it's a useful tid-bit to take with us as we continue to investigate the experiences of female gamers...

:: Netwoman 2:25 PM [+] ::
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AOL, Common Sense Media Launch Family Gaming Guide

From Gamasutra - AOL's continued efforts to filter internet content and situate the internet as a dangerous scary place...

Major Internet firm America Online’s AOL Games web site has announced that it has launched a new Family Gaming Guide, apparently "designed to help parents make informed decisions when deciding which video games are appropriate for their children", in association with non-profit Common Sense Media.

According to AOL, the Family Gaming Guide will also offer the latest news and research about the effect of video games on children's behavior and learning abilities.

Common Sense Media, AOL's partner in this deal, is notable for having supporting Leland Yee's California legislation against violent video games in a very public fashion, with James Steyer, CEO of the firm, commenting at the time of the bill's signing, and before it was injuncted: "We applaud Governor Schwarzenegger for signing this landmark legislation. Even though he's a major figure in the entertainment industry, he's a father first. In that role, the Governor understands that ultra-violent and sexually violent media content is harmful to kids' development."

Good God! Where do I begin? Legislation? Arnold a father figure?

And what is common sense? Whose common sense are we talking about here? My ideology bells are ringing here folks! If you go to AOL's site, it says 'knowledge is power' yet here they are talking about filtering and monitoring and so forth. Yes - knowledge is power, so why are you limiting it and constraining it?

:: Netwoman 2:16 PM [+] ::
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Limiting Time Spent Gaming Online

China imposes online gaming curbs

The government in Beijing is reported to be introducing the controls to deter people from playing for longer than three consecutive hours.

The measures are designed to combat addiction to online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft and Lineage II.

More than 20 million Chinese play games regularly, mainly in net cafes.

Extreme devotion

Games are serious business in China. Last year, Chinese players spent almost US$500m on online games.

The government has been encouraging the growth of online gaming. It is hosting a two-day games conference in September in Beijing in the hope of attracting more foreign investment.

But the phenomenal popularity of online games has fuelled concerns that some people may be losing themselves in the virtual worlds of massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG).

In one extreme case, a player killed a fellow player who had stolen his virtual sword. The gamer received a suspended death sentence in June.

The measures announced by the Chinese authorities are due to be introduced from October.

Central control

The new system will impose penalties on players who spend more than three hours playing a game by reducing the abilities of their characters.

Gamers who spend more than five hours will have the abilities of their in-game character severely limited.

Internet users in China (courtesy New Synergy Consulting)
More than 20 million people play online games in China
Players will be forced to take a five-hour break before they can return to a game.

"The timing mechanism can prevent young people from becoming addicted to online games," said Xiaowei Kou, of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), the body which regulates online gaming.

All the biggest online game operators in China have said they will adopt the new system.

According to the Interfax-China news agency, the gaming firms said they were prepared to sacrifice short-term revenues to create a healthy environment for online gamers.

The operators face little choice as they need government approval to offer online gaming.

Among the games affected in initial trials of the system is the MMORPG game, World of Warcraft, which has 1.5 million players in China alone.

Interesting and disturbing at the same time. There's a lot of assumptions here, particularly the concern about 'video game addiction' whatever that means. You'd think with all the research regarding television viewing that we have moved beyond pathologizing media consumption. But, there are still people talking about internet addiction, so I shouldn't be surprised that Video Games are subject to the same scrutiny. There will always be extremists who push the boundaries of media consumption, but we can't generalize their experiences to the entire gamer population.

:: Netwoman 2:01 PM [+] ::
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Who is Tom?
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Who is Tom?

I recently joined MySpace, given all the hype I thought I might see what all the fuss is about. When you join, Tom is automatically added as your first friend.

I want to know - Who is Tom?

Then I found this pic on 'Brary Web Diva's Blog. I LOVE this pic!

If you're on MySpace - you can search for me using my email address netwoman AT gmail DOT com. Though I haven't spent much time adding all the info about myself - it's a work in progress ;)

:: Netwoman 1:56 PM [+] ::
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A Long Way from Ms. Pac-Man

She's a long way from Ms. Pac-Man - Mar. 14, 2006. 01:00 AM

NEW YORK—By day, 27-year-old Scott Whittmore works as a mild-mannered banker in Iowa. By night, in front of his 71-inch high-definition home computer screen, he transforms into Ivy, the daughter of the evil pirate Servantes.

Leather swatches decorate Whittmore's alter ego's tiny waist and torpedo-shaped breasts — hardly enough to protect her from her opponents. With Whittmore at the controls, Ivy's favourite move is to smash her opponent with a head-splitting lift kick. "She knocks herself around the character with her legs," he explains, "and then cuts them with her sword."

But what Whittmore finds exciting isn't so much her kick, but rather the sight of Ivy's rear end jiggling on his screen. "On the breast side, she has pretty big cleavage, that's moving most of the time," he observes.

The original generation of video game players from the 1970s and 1980s has grown up, and so have the once-demure female characters who populated the games — much to the delight of millions of gamers, mostly men between the ages of 18 and 34.

Ever since the advent of the curvaceous heroine Lara Croft in 1996, "virtual babes" have become an increasingly popular component in gaming, an industry that raked in $10 billion in sales last year, according to Forrester Research.

Now, female characters are leaping off the screens and into the pages of magazines more akin to a men's monthly than a techno-geek journal. Girls of Gaming, an annual magazine published by Play magazine, has become the Sports Illustrated swimwear edition of the gaming world. First released in 2003, its circulation doubled to 300,000 last year.

Mike Eisenberg, the magazine's publisher, estimates that half of the readers don't even play video games. But the magazine speaks to the big-spending young male demographic. "If you're a 20-, 30-, 35-year-old guy, who would you rather be controlling — some guy or looking at the backside of some beautiful voluptuous female heroine?" asks editor-in-chief Dave Halverson. "I mean, it's kind of obvious who you are going to want to control."

But some women see the issue from a different perspective, and find the "virtual babe" phenomenon disturbing. "Women's bodies are the site upon which gender is played out in a very different way than men's bodies," said Mary Kirk, a professor of women's studies at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis. She cites the growth in eating disorders and the rise of cosmetic surgery as examples of how women are being hurt by imagery.

Hmm, it's kind of obvious who you are going to want to control? Wow, if that isn't a feminist nightmare, I don't know what is! It's not about identifying with a character, it's about controlling the female character, situating her as an object for consumption and manipulation. Indeed, some women are not comfortable with the image of women in video games and it certainly might have some effects on younger audiences. But truthfully, many of these images are so hyper-surreal that it's really hard to take it seriously. I'm more concerned about the images of women in other media, particularly women's fashion magazines - the anorexic looking waifs that are sprawled out in compromising positions. What message does this send to young women?

We also have to remember that one social institution isn't responsible for shaping our perspectives on the social world (and ourselves). There are many other institutions (peers, family, educational system, work place etc etc) that contribute to our understanding of women's sexuality and our daily performances of gender and sexuality. Focusing on only the media isn't enough.

This article refers to the Girls of Gaming magazine - have a look - I'm thinking of ordering issues 1 & 2, might be good for some content analysis.

:: Netwoman 1:08 PM [+] ::
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Which type of Gamer Girl are you?

From Joanna's Adventures Blog, I found another fun quiz from Quizilla asking which type of gamer girl I am. I'm not surprised by the results:

Explosion Fanatic. If it goes boom, you've beat it. If it goes boom and has multi-player, you've dominated everyone and their grandmother. Blow Shit Up.
Which Type of Gamer Girl are You? brought to you by Quizilla

What's interesting is that only 8% of the respondants are Explosion Fanatics like myself. hmm. I really want to research the kinds of games that women REALLY like to play...funding anyone?

:: Netwoman 12:50 PM [+] ::
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More about Online Dating

Online Dating is certainly becoming very popular, especially given the fact that people are so busy. We also don't have the same avenues open to us that we might have had decades ago; rarely do communities plan events where people can meet, we aren't marrying our high school sweethearts and we aren't staying with who we marry in university. The obvious solution might be to head to the internet - a place where we can connect with people in the cracks and crevices of our busy routines. But do we want to pay for online services when we can get them for free elsewhere? Is it worth the bucks?

Nate Elliot talks about it at his blog:

JupiterResearch Finds Rising Prices Keep New Subscribers Away from Online Dating

(New York, NY - February 8, 2006) -- JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), today announced that the U.S. online dating industry failed to grow its paid subscriber base in the last year. According to a new report entitled: "Online Dating in 2006: Pricing Strategies to Drive Subscriber Growth" authored by JupiterResearch Analyst Nate Elliott, industry growth in the last twelve months has been driven by higher monthly fees rather than an increasing number of subscribers.

A January 2006 JupiterResearch consumer survey found that 5% of Internet users paid for online dating subscriptions in the last year, down slightly from 6% in 2005. Industry-wide user conversion rates fell for the first time since JupiterResearch began tracking that metric.

"Although online dating revenues continue to grow, rising prices have kept a large number of users from converting to paid subscribers," said Nate Elliott, JupiterResearch Analyst. "Thirty seven percent of visitors who don't convert say dating sites cost too much, making it their leading complaint," added Elliott.

The JupiterResearch report also concludes that social networking sites pose little threat to the online dating industry. Just 14% of dating site visitors who don't pay for subscriptions say they use free sites, like social networks, for online dating instead.

"Only one-third of Internet users who went to dating sites in the last year became paying subscribers," said Elliott. "Our research shows there is an opportunity for dating sites to use targeted discounting strategies to convert more of their visitors into paid customers," added Elliott.

I wonder who pays more - men or women. My guess would be that more men pay for dating sites then women, but I don't have any research to support this.

I recently went over to Lavalife to check out what's been happening. They had a neat little survey going on (March 2nd):

Have you ever Googled a Date?

Men: Yes 43% No 56% Total male votes: 4290
Women:Yes 48% No 51% Total female votes: 3457
Total: Yes 45% No 54% Total votes: 7747

It seems there are slightly more women then men Googling their dates, but there's no test for significance so we can't really make any solid conclusions here. Also, perhaps Googling is limiting the answers - does everyone Google? I am an avid Googler and yes, I have Googled potential dates as part of the screening process :)

:: Netwoman 12:32 PM [+] ::
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Are you a Hollaback Gurl?

I heard that you were talking shit
And you didn't think that I would hear it
People hear you talking like that, getting everybody fired up
So I'm ready to attack, gonna take you out
That's right, put your pom-poms downs, getting everybody fired
up

Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl Lyrics

I just came across this amazing Blog - Hollabacknyc.com. Here is what it's about:

Holla Back NYC empowers New Yorkers to Holla Back at street harassers. Whether you're commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some turd's fantasy. So stop walkin' on and Holla Back: Send us pics of street harassers!

This site was recently featured on Good Morning America, and there's a media article about it HERE.

Hey macho men - say Cheese! By GIGI STONE
March 12, 2006 — It's one of those things you always hear women complaining about: Men catcalling to them on the street.

Now there's a way women can fight back against street harassment: A new Website, hollabacknyc.com, asks people to use camera phones to snap a photo of anyone who hoots or hollers at them. Then, they post the leering faces online for all the world to see.

But some men seem to have little shame about their leering ways. In fact, ABC News interviewed men on the street who admitted they whistle, hoot and holler all the time.

"It's just part of being a man I guess," one admitted catcaller said.

Women interviewed didn't seem to be thrilled with the ritual.

"It's so demeaning, I can't imagine any woman who had any self respect actually responding," one said.

"They will start going 'Psssst psst.' What does that mean?" another woman said. "Am I supposed to look? 'Pssst psssst.' That's not my name."

The Girls Strike Back

Maybe that's why the Website has gotten responses from women as far away as India and North Korea.

"We're trying to create a community where women feel safe speaking out against street harassment," said Emily May, one of the site's founders. "I think that's been exceptionally empowering for a lot of women."

But will this attempt to out the louse really work? Will it actually stop men on the streets from hollering?

"On the one hand, maybe many married men who are doing this will be a little more scared to think that their wife could see their picture on the Web," said Dalton Conley a professor of sociology at New York University. "On the other hand, my guess is most of the men that are doing this are quite proud they're doing it in a big public setting."

Here is a great example of women utilizing technology in ways that empower them. Take back public spaces and resist heternormative harassing discourses! My only concern with women doing this is the safety factor - like the one man who follows the photographer home. That's a little too close for comfort for me. But I really like this approach to activism and resistance - but importantly the feminist cyber-community building! Hollaback Gurls!!

:: Netwoman 12:19 PM [+] ::
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Landmark Net hate ruling
White supremacists were spreading hate via Internet, rights tribunal finds
Mar. 10, 2006. 07:18 PM - COLIN PERKEL - CANADIAN PRESS

Two white supremacists were spreading hatred when they posted highly offensive material on their websites about blacks and Jews, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled Friday.

In a landmark decision, the tribunal ordered the men, one of whom ran the web-hosting service that carried the websites, to cease their hatemongering, levied penalties totalling $13,000 and awarded the complainant $5,000.

It is believed to be the first time Canadian Internet web-hosting service has been found liable for hate messages.

Bernie Farber, the CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress was ecstatic with the decision and fines.

"It makes a huge and important statement," said Farber. "It shows the seriousness with which the tribunal viewed this matter."

The complaint was launched in February 2002 by Ottawa lawyer and human-rights crusader Richard Warman against Toronto resident Alexan Kulbashian, who is in his early 20s, and James Richardson, of London, Ont., who’s in his early 30s.

Warman also named the Canadian Ethnic Cleansing Team, of which the two were members, as well as Kulbashian’s web-hosting service Affordable Space.com and the defunct tri-cityskins.com, a website with neo-Nazi and white supremacist material.

Messages posted on the website included Holocaust jokes and songs about blacks, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities.

"The material found on the tri-cityskins.com website is likely to expose persons who are non-Christian or non-Caucasian to hatred or contempt," the 48-page ruling states.

"Black persons and people of the Jewish faith are particularly laid open to ridicule, ill feelings or hostility, creating the right conditions for hatred or contempt against them to flourish."

:: Netwoman 12:12 PM [+] ::
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The Implications of Automated Technology

Long ago I blogged about my reaction to changes in my local grocery store - the introduction of automated self-check-out areas. I commented on how interesting it was (and fun to some extent), but that ultimately automation in this respect meant that women's jobs were being cut (as most grocery cashiers are part-time workers).

Here is something I came across on one of my many lists about automation:

The Province (Vancouver BC), Feb. 19, 2006 Grocer counters with new checkouts, With employees on strike, he installs automated scanners Article here

Ian Austin and John Bermingham, The Province:

"A West Vancouver grocery-store owner locked in a bitter strike battle has unleashed his latest weapon -- automated checkout machines. ...
Sanderson's 100 employees went on strike Jan. 13. Since then, eight managers have done the grunt work. The six machines, now a permanent fixture in the store, can be operated by a single employee who assists shoppers and makes sure they don't steal, aided by a camera installed in each self-scanner. "It's the first I've ever heard of it," said Andy Neufeld, spokesman for Local 1518 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. "

It is yet 'another' reason we need a Guaranteed Livable Income and why Marshall Brain and Dr. James Hughes have written about the need for a guaranteed income so we can send "humanity on a permanent paid vacation"

Retails outlets will be changing to RFID tags in the near future which will make self-serve even easier. This technological change could affect huge numbers of people working in the service sector (mostly women).

Background information on RFID tags:
Scientific American article, Jan 2004 which stated:
"Already common in security systems and tollbooths, radio frequency identification tags and readers stand poised to take over many processes now accomplished by human toil."

USA Today article, 2003 "think of RFID tags as high-tech bar codes...
[they] only need to come within 10-30 feet of a reader and don't have to be pointing a certain way."

Canadian RFID Centre RFID simple explanation of the technology here.

More on automation here.

This is yet another reason why the Women's Livable Income Working Group (c/o Victoria Status of Women Action Group) has been interviewing 40 women for our project (funded by Status of Women Canada) to examine how women would benefit from a Guaranteed Livable Income.

We could be happy that cashiers can be liberated by technology from the painful tedium of a soul-sucking machine-like job (and having to Smile and be Happy while getting repetitive stress injuries) -- only *if* we demand that the benefits of technology are distributed through society with a guaranteed livable income.

In spite of what the experts say, wealth does not come from production, if this were true women would be the wealthiest people on the planet since they "produce" the entire human species which makes up all the workers and all the consumers upon whom all the "producers" rely. Any talk of not having enough 'money' for a guaranteed livable income is a full out attack on the 'productivity' of women. If reiterates the lie that people are poor because they are 'unproductive'.

Cindy L'Hirondelle - Coordinator, Women's Economic Justice Project

Public Meeting to release the report from the Women's Economic Justice Project Saturday, April 29th, 2:00 pm 1415 Broad St. , Victoria Event Centre, Victoria BC (Coast Salish Territory) phone 250-383-7322 more info

:: Netwoman 11:59 AM [+] ::
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Americans work more, seem to accomplish less

Study finds technology partly to blame, workers stressed out

NEW YORK - Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago, according to newly released research.

Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers Inc., an East Texas, Pennsylvania-based maker of organizational products.

The biggest culprit is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier, experts say.

"Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it's slowed everything down, paradoxically," said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

"We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you’re on to the next thing," Challenger said on Wednesday. "It's harder to feel like you're accomplishing something."

Unlike a decade ago, U.S. workers are bombarded with e-mail, computer messages, cell phone calls, voice mails and the like, research showed.

The average time spent on a computer at work was almost 16 hours a week last year, compared with 9.5 hours a decade ago, according to the Day-Timer research released this week.

If we look at feminist literature regarding domestic technology, we can see that technologies in the home were not "labour saving devices" for women. In fact, domestic technologies raised the standards of household cleanliness and actually added to women's daily workload. Why are we surprised then that with all the technologies available to us at work and school - that we are not necessarily saving time, but actually doing more. While people would argue that our productivity has dropped (I wonder how this is measureed), I would argue that companies are just expecting more and more from their workers. Have the standards for 'productivity' changed over the last 10-15 years? Are employers expecting people to be able to multi-task at their jobs?

:: Netwoman 10:59 AM [+] ::
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Teens & Technology
Show and tell online
Thursday March 2, 2006 - The Guardian

"Social networking sites have gone from being the next big thing to the thing itself. But, asks Sean Dodson, can they continue to hold the fickle attention of today's teens? After decades of devotion, the British teenager is falling out of love with the television. For many, the old TV set is no longer the first thing they turn to after a day at school. Sadly for teachers, it's not always homework that kids are turning to as a substitute, but rather a group of fast-growing websites that let them watch - and communicate with - each other.

In the past 12 months, "social networking" has gone from being the next big thing to the thing itself. Last month, MySpace, the site that famously propelled the Arctic Monkeys to pop stardom, overtook the BBC website in terms of visitor numbers. Along with competing sites Bebo and Facebook, MySpace has formed one of the fastest growing sectors on the internet. Latest data from the internet traffic monitor Hitwise reports that visits to MySpace, the market leader, have grown sixfold year on year, while those to rivals Spaces.MSN.com are up 11-fold and to Bebo.com an amazing 61 times more."

Connected and cut off

By Jeff Gammage - Inquirer Staff Writer

It's a modern quandary for adults: Technology keeps teens in touch with one another - and their parents totally in the dark.
Back in the Stone Age, that is, the 1990s, if a young man wanted to date a young woman, he had to work through her parents: Call the house, be polite when mom or dad answered the phone, make small talk when he arrived at their door.
No more.
These days, technology is excising parents from the equation - and they don't like it a bit.
Today the interaction is more often conducted teen to teen via cell phone, text messaging, and instant messaging. That makes it harder for parents to know who their kids are spending time with - not just as dates, but as friends.
"He's telling me he doesn't have to go through the parents, when he has such easy access through the phone," says Lawrenceville, N.J., mother Vicki Russo, whose 13-year-old son, Max, is beginning to discover the opposite sex. "I say, 'It's out of respect, so they know who their daughter is seeing.'
"I am definitely considered a dinosaur."
Of course, teenagers have talked on the phone for as long as there have been phones and teenagers. And there have always been kids with private lines in their bedrooms. What's changed is that the technology of personal communication has become relatively cheap, infinitely varied and nearly universal.
"Gone are the days when parents can at least hear the voices, if not see the faces, of the company our kids keep," says Jenifer Lippincott, a Boston-area learning consultant and coauthor of 7 Things Your Teenager Won't Tell You (And How to Talk About Them Anyway).

Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media - An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures

Since the early eighties, digital media have held out the promise of more engaged, child-centered learning opportunities. The advent of Internet-enabled personal computers and mobile devices has added a new layer of communication and social networking to the interactive digital mix. While this evolving palette of technologies has demonstrated the ability to capture the attention of young people, the innovative learning outcomes that educators had hoped for are more elusive. Although computers are now fixtures in most schools and many homes, there is a growing recognition that kids' passion for digital media has been ignited more by peer group sociability and play than academic learning. This gap between in-school and out-of-school experience represents a gap in children's engagement in learning, a gap in our research and understandings, and a missed opportunity to reenergize public education. This project works to address this gap with a targeted set of ethnographic investigations into three emergent modes of informal learning that young people are practicing using new media technologies: communication, learning, and play.

:: Netwoman 10:40 AM [+] ::
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What kind of feminist am I?

I've always wondered this...interesting, but not sure if I agree or not ;)



You are Emma Goldman! You are the mama of Anarchist/Communist feminism and you inspired millions to embrace the labor movement.

Without ever directly saying so, you directed efforts toward saving wymyn and children from exploitation. Oh yeah, you were also a total sexpot!

Which Western feminist icon are you? brought to you by Quizilla

:: Netwoman 2:32 PM [+] ::
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Catching Up - Link-o-rama
Just trying to catch up on all the goodies I've tabbed over the last week or so...

New Lara Croft Body..."Former shop worker Karima Adebibe is today unveiled as the latest face — and body — of Lara Croft"...

Blog of Note - socialstudygames.com - research, news and resources on video games.

Gamer Girls on GamerGod has an interesting piece on Microsoft Maidens, asking whether Xbox is the gaming console for women. I blogged about the potential demographic differences in the types of games a few days ago, and this is somewhat similar in that it talks about female characters in Xbox games. Interesting!

Games User Research at Microsoft Game Studios

more links to come...

:: Netwoman 10:09 PM [+] ::
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New Game Plus Blog
Via link love, I came across a new blog on women, gender and video games called New Game Plus. The blogger is Ariel Wetzel, an undergraduate college student with some interesting feminist insight into the gaming community. Have a look. I also found a link to Heroine Sheik - Video games, gender play and skirts who wear the pants. Great find!!

:: Netwoman 9:41 PM [+] ::
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