:: Netwoman ::

:: Saturday, March 31, 2007 ::

The Iris Network: Women Gamers' Forum Launch

From the blogs of some of my favourite female gamers: New Game Plus, Guilded Lilies & Official Shrub - I heard through the grapevine there's a new Women Gamer's Forum! w00t! The IRIS Network, 'a new gaming site focused on helping to give women in the community a bigger voice'.

"After yet another bout of the “where are all the women gamers?'''' on the internet gaming communities, The IRIS Network (TIN) was finally born. Though there are many individual women gamers who write about their experiences, and many sites for women who game to connect and play with each other, none of these sites are there for the express purpose of highlighting gamers (both in the industry and outside of it) and bringing women's perspectives into the mainstream. Though it may be a lofty goal, that’s exactly what we here at The IRIS Network aim to do."

Labels: "women and gaming"

:: Netwoman 8:03 PM [+] ::
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Go ask Alice - I think She'll know

eWeek (03/19/07); Taft, Darryl K.
A program called Alice, originally conceived by Carnegie Mellon's Stage 3 Research lab, has proved effective in getting young women excited about computer programming. Alice allows those who do not have high-level programming abilities to try their hand at creating 3D computer animated stories, using characters, scripting tools, and pre-existing graphic elements. Originally designed to help build virtual environments, Alice was eventually given a drag-and-drop interface, which has made it an effective tool in introducing both women and minorities to computer programming, according to CMU. A study was conducted to see what impact a version of Alice with storytelling support had on girls, compared to a version without storytelling support, and the "Results of the study suggest that girls are more motivated to learn programming using Storytelling Alice; study participants who used Storytelling Alice spent 42 percent more time programming and were more than three times as likely to sneak extra time to work on their programs as users of Generic Alice--16 percent of Generic Alice users and 51 percent of Storytelling Alice users snuck extra time," says CMU graduate student Caitlin Kelleher, who developed Storytelling Alice. Using Alice in middle school, where many girls are found to lose interest in math and science, provides students with positive exposure to programming. The program has also been used in colleges and high schools.

Labels: "girls and technology"

:: Netwoman 7:01 PM [+] ::
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The 50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History

From - Rob Wright Feb 20, 07:

"A quick note about this list: it's for the greatest female characters, which means it's not a list of the "hottest video game chicks" or "top video game vixens." Sure, looks count. But these female characters have to make an impact beyond their appearance. To measure greatness, I looked at how each character made a significant impression on the game play or narrative, whether they are central characters, playable characters or supporting characters."

You can view the slide show HERE.

Labels: "women and gaming" "female characters"

:: Netwoman 7:25 PM [+] ::
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What My Flickr needs...
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

What My Flickr needs...

What My Flickr needs is some colour, some life - something.

I don't know if this already exists - but Flickr needs to have some sort of template change available here, I guess something like MySpace....hmm. Are all these sites blurring into one? If I could pile them all together somehow - or maybe just choose one?

Even these colours would be more appealing to me then just white background...yay purple! Horray for paint!

:: Netwoman 11:03 PM [+] ::
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Participatory Surveillance Society
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

Participatory Surveillance Society

I joined Twitter yesterday thanks to Liz, and actually used it today. I posted what I was doing and vainly went to see if I was listed in the public timeline. Naturally I was - and here you can see what I - and many other were doing including getting newsfeeds thru digg and the BBC.

This is another good indicator of web 3.0 - participatory, interactive, co-creative internet(s).

:: Netwoman 5:51 PM [+] ::
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seduction & s1mulati0n
Originally uploaded by Netwoman.

seduction & s1mulati0n

The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none.

The simulacrum is true.

Jean Baudrillard (June 20, 1929 - March 6, 2007).

hyperreality

:: Netwoman 11:25 PM [+] ::
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