[south african president fires deputy health minister who actually made a difference]

Former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, an amazing, genuine, and driven person seems to be (or actually, was) one of the few forward-thinking and proactive people in politics in S.A. right now (certainly neither the the health minister nor Thabo Mbeki fall into either of these categories).

Madlala-Routledge put into place and fully supported a radical aids/hiv treatment plan in S.A. which enabled sick people (free!) access to treatment. Now, with the "health" minister in charge (known as "Dr. Beetroot" because she champions beetroot in the fight against aids) numbers of suffers will surely rise beyond the already epidemic proportions and not only because she sees antiretroviral medicine as poison. I'm stunned and dismayed that the South African president would cut off his and the country's line of hope and positive action in the aids fight.


Read the excellent Independent article A President in Denial, a Ravaged Nation Denied Hope which features Madlala-Routledge's own response.



For an idea of the idiocy that Madlala-Routledge has been up against take a look at this crazy response which supports Mbeki's move (if only because the former deputy health minister has an "unnecessarily complicated name" and that she's a woman!)







NB I met Nozizwe on a trip to South Africa a couple of years ago but knowing her only makes it more explicit for me how wrong Mbeki's move is.

[sk*rt: like digg but better]

According to design mom aka Gabrielle Blair, sk*rt is like digg but "she-inspired."

From the sk*rt site:

The Real Dirt on sk*rt
What is sk*rt anyway?
Plain and simple, sk*rt is the female version of Digg. sk*rt is the place to find and/or link to anything and everything on the Web that you'd like to share with other women. If sk*rt users like what you submit, they'll vote for it. The more votes, the more likely your link will make it to the front page. Links on the front page are seen by everybody and get lots of love. The front page content is ever-changing and always cool.

Of course, no one person can keep track of every cool thing out there. So sk*rt users bring the content. Vote for the content. Determine what's good and what's bad. sk*rt works to make sure you don't miss any of the good stuff.

Who's behind the sk*rt?
From the East Coast. West Coast. And in between. Read all about the 4 lovely ladies behind the site here.

What is sk*rt-worthy?
Anything and everything you think women will love. A new Web site. A sample sale announcement. An essay on body image. A pair of gorgeous red peep-toes. The latest on the elections. The best new hair-straightening tips. World news. A funny blog. Environmental updates. A hot recipe. An addictive online game. A party idea. And on and on and on."

From design mom, sk*rt is:

"an online media ranking site created for and by women, featuring topics women dig. Sk*rt was designed to promote sites, blogs, video, products, articles, ideas, art — anything online, really — to women and to the men who want to get in our heads. Sk*rt is basically a filter of cool stuff on the Web. If you aren't familiar with the concept of Digg, it goes like this. Any item (site, product, idea, video, blog, article, etc.) can be submitted by anyone. Readers can vote for the items by clicking the "Love It!" button on the left hand side of each submitted item. The items that get the most votes raise up to the front of the site. It's actually a great design, because it's organized so that if you only have a few minutes, you can scan through what's new, what's highly ranked or what's interesting to you; or you can search more specifically by category."

One word: fabUlous!

[blogging is good]

Less than two weeks until the Women, Business & Blogging conference! There are a few bursaries left so go ahead and apply.

The aim of the conference, as the title suggests, is to talk about the role blogging can play in business and yup, the focus is on women. As I'm thinking about this I've come across Penelope Trunk's popular post "Blogging Essential for a Good Company." A few interesting bits:

"Employers regularly Google prospective employees to learn more about them. Blogging gives you a way to control what employers see, because Google’s system works in such a way that blogs that are heavily networked with others come up high in Google searches."

"And coming up high is good: “People who are more visible and have a reputation and stand for something do better than people who are invisible,” branding consultant Catherine Kaputa" says.

Here are Penelope's eight reasons on why exactly blogging is good:

1. Blogging creates a network.
A blogger puts himself out in the world as someone who is interesting and engaging — just the type of person everyone wants to meet. “A blog increases your network because a blog is about introducing yourself and sharing information,” says Kaputa.

2. Blogging can get you a job.
Dervala Hanley writes a quirky literary blog that got her a job is at Stone Yamashita Partners, a consulting firm that “tries to bring humanity to business.” Hanley told me that the firm was attracted to her ability to put her business experience into personal terms on the blog.

3. Blogging is great training.
To really get attention for your blog, you’re going to have to have daily entries for a while. At least a few months to get rolling, and then three or four times a week after that. So you will really get to know your topic well.

4. Blogging helps you move up quickly.
To escape the entry-level grind, you can either pay your dues, working up a ladder forever, or you can establish yourself as an expert in the world by launching a blog. High-level jobs are for people who specialize, and hiring managers look for specialists online. “Decision-makers respect Google-karma,” writes Tim Bray, director of Web technologies for Sun Microsystems — on his own blog, of course.

5. Blogging makes self-employment easier.
You can’t make it on your own unless you’re good at selling yourself. One of the most cost-effective and efficient ways of marketing yourself is with a blog. When someone searches for your product or service, make sure your blog comes up first.

Curt Rosengren, a career coach, periodically Googles “career passion” — words he thinks are most important to his business — just to make sure his blog, Occupational Adventure, comes up high on the list. He estimates that his blog generates at least half of his coaching business.

6. Blogging provides more opportunities.
Building brands, changing careers, launching a business — these endeavors are much easier once you’ve established yourself online. Rosengren told me, “My blog is a foundation. I’m building an awareness that I can leverage to do other fun things with my future, such as product development, or public speaking.”

A blog gives you a leg up when you meet someone new. Dylan Tweney, a freelance writer, told me his blog, the Tweney Review, gives him instant legitimacy with clients.

7. Blogging could be your big break.
Visually creative types can blog beyond just text. Mark Fearing has a cartoon blog. “Cartooning and illustration are very crowded fields,” he says. “My blog has gotten me more notice than any other publicity tool I’ve used. Plus, the blog gives me a way to have a new conversation with potential clients about other work.”

8. Blogging makes the world a better place.
“Blogging is about giving stuff away to a community,” says Day. “For years, as a junior developer, I would go to the Internet for solutions and I would always take, take, take. Now I am happy to be a contributor and give something back.”

[women, business & blogging - reminder for bursary applicants]

***APPLY BY 27th APRIL FOR A BURSARY (if you live in the East Midlands)!!!***

*****************************************************

Women Business
and Blogging Conference




Free bursary places are still available for conference delegates living in the East Midlands but the deadline for applications is FRIDAY 27 APRIL




Just tell us in 100 words why you want to come. Full details at http://www.hum.dmu.ac.uk/blogs/nlabwomen/2007/02/bursaries.html




Come to the Women, Business and Blogging Conference on Friday 8 June 2007 at De Montfort University to find out how blogging by women and for women builds networks, improves customer reach, monetizes creativity and infuses your business with Web 2.0 goodness! Speakers include:

Eileen Brown, Microsoft Technology Evangelist
Jory Des Jardins, Media Consultant & Co-founder of BlogHer
Meg Pickard, Head of Communities and User Experience for Guardian Unlimited

Business is becoming increasingly interested in social media and especially in blogs. In Europe
over the last year several conferences have explored the potential of Web 2.0 networks to increase business opportunities - see LIFT07 (Geneva) and Le Web (Paris) for just two examples. But there have been no European events focusing specifically on women and social media - until now.

Women, Business and Blogging is organised by NLab at De Montfort University, Leicester. NLab was developed in the Faculty of Humanities by Professor Sue Thomas to connect creative businesses with writers
and generate pioneering partnerships. In 2006 NLab ran a series of professional workshops and seminars on blogs, wikis, games and new media writing. In 2007 NLab is proud to present this first-ever European conference for and about women who read and write blogs.




Who should come?
This event is for small businesses, individuals, researchers, nonprofits, artistic and educational organisations interested in:
- women bloggers
- women in business
- women customers
- social media and networking
- creative communications
- innovation and cooperation
- customer relationships
- opportunities of Web 2.0 and the Long Tail
- usability

And, just to be clear, men are definitely invited. All the speakers are women, and we'll be talking about women users, readers and bloggers. But everyone is welcome to attend the conference and participate in the sessions.

Join the conversation
We'll be blogging right up to the day and beyond it too. Join the conversation at Tracy Harwood's
Biz Benefits and Jess Laccetti's Blog This

How much does it cost?
The conference fee includes refreshments, lunch and a delegate pack

Full Rate: £60 GBP including VAT
Concessionary Rate: £40 GBP including VAT
Bursaries: A limited number of Full Rate bursaries are available for delegates living in the UK East Midlands.

Where is it?
Bede Graduate School, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. A 5-minute cab ride from Leicester Train
Station. Leicester is in the heart of the UK, less than 90 mins from London by train and 30 mins from East Midlands Airport. We hope to see you there!

See the website for more information and how to register http://www.nlabwomen.com


For all enquiries, including press and sponsorship, please contact:
Margaret Barton
Short Course
and Conference Co-ordinator
De Montfort Expertise Ltd
De Montfort
University
Innovation Centre
49 Oxford Street
Leicester
LE1
5XY
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 116 250 6213
Fax: +44 (0) 116 257
7982
mbarton AT dmu DOT ac DOT uk

['net gender stats]

So, in the US it seems women outnumber men in terms of online use:
"eMarketer estimates that there will be an estimated 97.2 million female Internet users ages 3 and older in 2007, or 51.7% of the total online population. In 2011, 109.7 million US females will go online, amounting to 51.9% of the total online population."



The University of Southern California's Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future reported that in 2006 the percentage of females who went online had, for the first time in the six years the center has conducted the survey, surpassed males. It reported that 78.4% of the female population ages 12 and older go online, vs. 76.7% of males.

However, from the CBC, "women don't appear to be as enamoured of online video as their male counterparts, the study found. Only 66 per cent of the estimated 97.2 million females online watch videos, compared with 78 per cent of the 90.9 million men."

"A Statistics Canada study of adults conducted in 2005 found a minuscule difference in usage between the sexes, with 68 per cent of men versus 67.8 per cent of women counting as internet users" (CBC).


Links from Slashdot.

[blogging pedagogy]

I've just joined this blog hosted by the Computer Writing & Research Lab at University of Texas at Austin. The blog caught my eye because it's about (go figure) "pedagogy and English studies. It is a space to share resources, stories, successes, and failures." Jim Brown, (who seems to be the site govna) writes an interesting post on Fora.tv:

FORA delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world's most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation. It provides deep, unfiltered content, tools for self-expression and a place for the interactive community to gather online.

The interactivity seems to come in the form of posting comments, tagging videos, or even posting your own video content. Essentially it's YouTube with less Numa Numa kid and more Noam Chomsky.

From the fora.tv site for those slightly dense but still interested in breaking "discourse, discussion and events" there is this explanation:

"The word fora is simply the plural of "forum." The dictionary definition of forum is: the public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity and public business."

Whew....I was like so wondering what that was...

I did a bit of a search and found this recording of a journalism conference: "The Coming Media Monopoly. Here is the blurb:

Jun 1st, 2006: Society of Professional Journalists and Media Alliance - San Francisco, CA

The Society of Professional Journalists and Media Alliance presents a panel examining The Coming Media Monopoly: Concentration of Press Ownership and Its Effects featuring moderator Erna Smith and panelists Linda Foley, Tim Redmond, Stephen Buel, Brad Westerhold, and Sandy Close.

The last year has seen dramatic shifts in Bay Area media ownership:

MediaNews, the new owner of the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, will soon control nearly two-thirds of local daily newspaper circulation; the two largest weekly newspaper chains, Village Voice and New Times, merged; and there's been an escalating scramble by several large media companies to control the expanding market for ethnic and foreign-language readers.

Can journalism survive in an era of Wall Street mergers and acquisitions?

What about public service and community needs?

What can be done in response to these trends to strengthen the quality of our news media workplaces?

Hear from journalists and media reformers who are responding creatively to the evolving media landscape.

Fast forward to about 8:00 minutes in and you'll hear Linda Foley (president of The Newspaper Guild) firstly give thanks that the conference is taking place in "the heart of America where people actually think about what matters" (8:50 minutes). Then at 10:56 minutes Foley argues that a pressing challenge in this "digital media age we're in" comes down to the worry that "journalism just becomes blogging." Someone shouts out something (unclear in this video) so Foley explains, "by blogging I mean if it just becomes free blogging..." This is detrimental because then "we won't have an umm...ahhh...system of providing credible information" (11:14) (emphasis mine) (You'll be using the fast forward button as umms and ahhs abound). Hrm....and apparently blogging is just opinion while reporting is "just the facts"...really? Are journalists not human then... (I know some would beg to argue).

Personal Note: annoyed it had to be a woman...



The video link is here.


NB: after fast forwarding this video a few times I managed to crash explorer and then the fora site itself seemed to go down (update for clarity: as in I couldn't get to the site: "cannot find server, the page cannot be displayed)...don't think it's really going to be competing with youtube.

[cyberbullying or so this is what you get for being a woman?]

BlogHer asked where the women bloggers were - and found them.

We know gender diversity at techy conferences "still sucks." Jason Kotte collected these statistics:

"Future of Web Apps - San Francisco September 13-14, 20060 women, 13 men. 0% women speakers.
Tokion Magazine's 4th Annual Creativity Now Conference October 14-15, 20066 women, 30 men. 17% women speakers.
PopTech 2006 October 18-21, 20068 women, 30 men. 21% women speakers.
Web Directions North February 7-10, 20075 women, 16 men. 24% women speakers.
LIFTFebruary 7-9, 200710 women, 33 men. 23% women speakers.
Future of Web Apps - London February 20-22, 20071 woman, 26 men. 4% women speakers.
TED 2007 March 7-10, 200712 women, 41 men. 23% women speakers.
SXSW Interactive 2007 March 9-13, 2007147 women, 378 men. 28% women speakers.164 women, 373 men. 31% women speakers. (updated 2/22/2007)
BlogHer Business '07 March 22-23, 200743 women, 0 men. 100% women speakers.
An Event Apart Boston 2007 March 26-27, 20071 woman, 8 men. 11% women speakers.
O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference March 26-29, 20079 women, 44 men. 17% women speakers.
Web 2.0 Expo 2007 April 15-18, 200717 women, 91 men. 16% women speakers.
Future of Web Design April 18, 20072 women, 12 men. 14% women speakers.
GEL 2007 April 19-20, 20072 women, 11 men. 15% women speakers.
MIX07 April 30 - May 2, 2007 0 women (UPDATE: now 8 women, see comment below from Beth - thanks!), 4 men. 0% women speakers.
The New Yorker Conference 2007 May 6-7, 20073 women, 21 men. 13% women speakers. (updated 2/28/2007)
Dx3 Conference 2007 May 15-18, 20075 women, 48 men. 9% women speakers. (updated 3/2/2007)
An Event Apart Seattle 2007 June 21-22, 20070 women, 9 men. 0% women speakers.

Dori Smith responds to Kotte and adds this: "great list of women speakers for your conference:
here

An InfoWorld Special Report on "Why are women exiting IT professions?". That's a good question; sadly, the articles don't even attempt to answer it. But I suspect that there's a correlation between the lack of women at these conferences and the declining numbers of women in tech.

And finally, just because it's a great article and I felt like I was looking in a mirror when I read it: Why some women just can't fit in. Go read it. And yes, again, I think that it's related to the bigger picture here."

BlogHer just held the BlogHer Business Summit: "How to Succeed in a Social Media World"

NLab is holding a conference with the focus on women, business & blogging where all speakers will be women (although men are invited to attend).

But then a few bloggers have to go and ruin it.

Scobel weighs in: "It’s this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don’t care if you attack me. I take those attacks in stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn’t happen if the interviewee were a man.

It makes me realize just how ascerbic this industry and culture are toward women. This just makes me ill."

----- but is silence really the best answer?

[go geeky girls!]

At any press conference plugging sci-tech, it's an all-balls affair. Fat chance you'll find many women in the male-dominated world of inventing and reporting on new technology. But beneath the surface, gender equality in this area is quietly gaining ground.

Apparent to insiders in the industry, female geeks are finding a home in their various pursuits, from blogging to engineering to tech journalism. Press conferences today might not reflect that upswing; it takes some digging to find the women who are bringing technology to the masses.

ABC News predicted an instant page-view spike for its online home when it lured vidcaster Amanda Congdon from her online show, Rocketboom, to report on Web happenings for ABCNews.com. Bringing a humorous perspective to tech news, Congdon is one of the first female crossover stars from the Web-video era.

But she's not the only one. Closer to home, Toronto's Amber MacArthur is doing triple duty in the tech arena: she's Citytv's new media specialist, she hosts the weekly vidcast CommandN, and she also co-hosts net@nite, a podcast on all things geekified. She hopes her 24/7 work in the digital world will inspire other women to do the same.

"Sometimes people think that a woman doesn't know her tech stuff," she says. "But as soon as you show them that you do, you should just hold your head high and support other women who do the same."

From Now Magazine - Toronto.

Now I can surreptitiously slip in a link to the NLab Women, Business & Blogging conference.

[hen weekend]

The Seminar by the Sea for Female Artists, Writers and Curators

Hen Weekend is a new format networking event set-up by artist Ellie Harrison. It aims to facilitate discussion and encourage collaboration between its participants - who (at each event) will be a mix of 16 high-profile and emerging artists from around the UK and abroad.

Hen Weekend has just received funding from Arts Council England and the pilot event will take place at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea over the weekend 30 March - 1 April 2007. Over the course of the next two years, further Hen Weekend events will take place at a number of seaside arts venues around the country.

Hen Weekend is funded by The National Lottery through Arts Council England, with support from De La Warr Pavilion, ARC and the Networking Artists' Networks initiative (NAN) through a-n The Artist Information Company.

For more information visit the site.