Women && Tech: Strategies for Commending the Awesome

This was presented on June 13, 2013 at North by Northeast Interactive.

We’ve pledged to post 50 in-depth interviews about women in tech doing awesome things on our blog, womenandtech.com. Along the way, we’ve learned a few strategies for building a personal project that kicks ass and engages a worldwide audience.

Yes, we’re going to talk about the women in tech issue, but we promise: no pink, no curly script typefaces, no bullshit. This is a topic that affects everyone in our industry, and we’re going to share what we’ve learned from talking to heavyweights like Nora Young and Amber Mac as well as young women just beginning their careers.

We plan to share all our secrets:

- How to build a committed team with volunteers from around the world
- Why we would interview men for a women in tech series
- How to build relationships and create opportunities
- Negative feedback and what we’re doing about it

Transcript

1. Strategies for Commending the Awesome @cassiemc Cassie McDaniel
2. Story Inspiration How-to
3. www.womenandtech.com @womenandtech /womenandtech
4. “” I don’t want to be the token woman speaking at a conference, but I do want to be a woman speaking at a conference to show other women it’s not scary. – Pearl Chen
5. For me, the way in to technology was not through science and math, it was through making. It was through art, it was through design. “” – Martha Ladly Beginnings
13. writing Writing
16. www.webmaker.org
17. Gender issues are so often just under the surface that they aren't visible and therefore fester or change dynamics in unseen, indescribable ways. “” – Ayla Newhouse What is Women && Tech?
20. How do you open source design? ?
28. mauricio calero
29. rachelle sabourin
30. rachelle sabourin
31. David waldman
32. David waldman
33. pam lau
36. Jon lim
37. jon lim
39. You just get so much more out of a project by having a network effect, rather than just working alone on something. It’s nice when collaboration makes something better. “” – Pearl Chen The team
40. 40 OUT OF *** Audrey Kuo *** Brenna O'Brien *** Brett Bergmann *** Cassie Kaiser *** Cassie McDaniel david waldman *** Ivonne Karamoy katrina keilhauer keith loo kelly seagram *** Lucia Mariani-Vena 22 volunteers
42. 3am / launch night
45. Twenty years from now, it would be great to say that we built this thing and it had a positive impact in the world. “” – Dessy Daskalov Building a committed team
46. = $€ £
49. 611 subscribers
50. 2300 followers
51. My stance towards technology is engaged; it's critical but not fearful. “” – Nora Young Feedback
53. I'd prefer a slightly different slogan. [...] I feel like "We're really not complaining" is a bit insulting to those who really are highlighting the problems with sexism in technology fields. “ ” @gilrain Thanks! We think you're right and we're already looking at changing that bit. @cassiemc “ ”
54. PeopleAndTech.com? If they are celebrating awesomeness? “ ” @timc ... “ ”
55. Sharing stories from startup women is great, although I’m not a fan of the reverse sexism. “ ” @mibbitier We do have several men on our team (more men than women, in fact) and don’t at all intend “reverse sexism”. @cassiemc “ ” Reverse sexism? Check your privilege. “ ” @mediacrisis “Privilege?” Check your cultural Marxism. “ ” @NotMyMorals
56. WomenAndTech.com – I wholeheartedly approve of this message. Awesome. Now how do we New York this? – Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit “”
57. Twitter feedback
73. It seems so obvious to me, [science is] how the world works! Why wouldn’t you be fascinated with the mechanisms that create everything? “” – Ariel Garten The process
76. 30 hours per interview
79. Design-centric Free-flowing Beautiful Inefficient Time-consuming Unicorns make babies here Humans, elves and dwarves live happily together. There are trolls, though. Must work with rules Efficient use of time Limited set of beauty Inflexible Beauty = loss of data sharing Unicorns are for hippies Middle Earth CMS Heavy
80. Design-centric Middle Earth CMS Heavy Where we live is outside in another dimension, timeline and reality. x “ ”
81. If you don't have the confidence and the courage to take risks in your own career you're not going to get very far. “” – Martha Ladly Funding
82. $1000. In cash. In a paper bag. To do something awesome. ... That's it.
85. rachelle sabourin
86. Yay sponsors and supporters!
87. Income Microsoft Camp Tech Supplies Food Marketing/promotion Domain and hosting Parking Tickets 4000 500 427.68 282.84 112.56 66.95 21.50 Total Total Expenses $4500 $911.53
89. People talk about having it all, but I just said I’m not gonna think about that anymore. I’m just going to do what I do. “” – Lucia Mariani-Vena Think lean
90. Hack for Her
93. Think lean Scope Events Scholarships Art-directed templates Podcasts Swag School presentations Poster series Infographics for every post Pay writers & photogs Animations World’s best app Connect mentors T-shirts Chapters around the world
94. Think lean Scope Events Scholarships Art-directed templates Podcasts Swag School presentations Poster series Infographics for every post Pay writers & photogs Animations World’s best app Connect mentors T-shirts Chapters around the world
95. Distributed responsibility Distributed responsibility Think lean
96. Think lean established hierarchy Mutually
97. Honest and realistic time-frames Think lean
98. Listen to your audience (but not too hard) Think lean
100. Will we be around forever? No. I think once the industry is more equal, we’ll stop having the need for groups like Ladies Learning Code. “” – Heather Payne Next Steps
101. How can you help?
102. www.womenandtech.com/contributor-guidelines Start a W&&T Chapter!
103. @cassiemc www.womenandtech.com volunteer@womenandtech.com contact@womenandtech.com Thank you