Category: culture-and-politics

The Gender Un-balance of Web 2.0

So Maz really has shaken the gender teapot. First the post Me Tarzan. You Jane, then Geeks can be Chic(K)s.

Some quotes,

Add to this my return from a recent visit to the San Francisco to the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo where I was struck by the uniformity of the male technology enthusiasts – As one of the few females in attendance, I stuck out like a PC at a Mac convention, so much so that another woman with whom I met remarked how few ‘skirts there were amongst all the suits’. Well that’s certainly one way to put it!

It does sadden me to think that amongst my daily little foray into the Web 2.0 world, there is little realisation, nor concern about such a gender imbalance. It seems ironic that where we are very savvy at collectively contributing and sharing information there is a lack of attention about the formation of such user knowledge, shares and application creation.

Maybe the way the world is Tarzan build tools; Jane gets to use them…

Perhaps the Web 3.0 jungle will bring with it a more egalitarian gender balance?

Yep there's certainly no real argument there. Some of the comments are also interesting, including this one which points out that there more women in the less programming led fields. Human computing, interaction and even xml seem to be fields where woman are more common that straight programming.

But whats really interesting is…

It seems that gender is not the only issue here, but also the geek image. You are only allowed into The Club if you possess an in-depth knowledge of coding and more structural aspects of web development. Ok so here my own level of ‘geek ability’ does rather fall short. I do, do HTML (when forced), Javascript, Flash and so on… but hell Web 2.0 fluidity makes this less of an ‘essential’ special power – especially as I am not by ‘trade’ a web developer. However, there are
important assumptions that are being made about the types of knowledge one should (and can) possess and the association of such abilities along gendered lines.

Case in note, one of the biggest issues that a (female) friend of mine has come across is that people assume that she is not a web developer. No, not that she is not capable, but simply that she does not fit the ‘image’, that that particular role calls forth. Now where’s the equality in that?

The Geek image is certainly something which I've touched on before but I've never thought about how the poor geek image is affecting women.

I'm going to avoid the current comments about special treatment just to say if the environment and people are inherently corrupt how do you reverse that? The answer isn't simple and its something most people hate but most people have never faced such corruption.

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Can the rest of us have our planet back?

Cutting edge comedy from the BBC's Now Show. Found via Richard Sambrook's blog.

If you missed Marcus Brigstocke's comic rant against the Abrahamic faiths on The Now Show, you can find it here. It's seven minutes in total – but the first three are inspired. Strangely not as many complaints as one might have anticipated – that's the benefit of being even handed I guess….

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Just watched Good Copy Bad Copy

I saw this come up in Particls but only just watched it. Its really good and comes highly recommended

Good Copy Bad Copy is a terrific new documentary about copyright and culture, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke. It features interviews with Danger Mouse, Girl Talk, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Lawrence Lessig, and many others with various perspectives on copyright.

Check out the film’s trailer below (via blip.tv) and download the torrent for the XviD version of the whole movie at goodcopybadcopy.net.

 

meta-technorati-tags=copyright, ip, film, torrent, music, creativecommons, goodcopy, badcopy

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The findings of the Open Rights Group Election Observation

Read ORG's e-voting report

Ok I actually flicked through the document linked and I'm officially very scared.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) believes that the problems observed at the English and Scottish elections in May 2007 raise serious concerns regarding the suitability of e-voting and e-counting technologies for statutory elections. E-voting is a ‘black box system’, where the mechanisms for recording and tabulating the vote are hidden from the voter. This makes public scrutiny impossible, and leaves statutory elections open to error and fraud.

The Government has prioritised the introduction of e-voting because of the perceived convenience of new technologies, ignoring other vital considerations such as confidence and trust in the electoral system. ORG considers that the problems observed and difficulties scrutinising results delivered by e-counting systems bring their suitability for statutory elections into question.

meta-technorati-tags=democracy, openrightsgroup, evoting, elections, pdf, org

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I don’t think we’re going to make it – John Doerr


Click To Play

I was actually watching this TED presentation on my xbox last night and had to watch it twice because the first time around I was so transfixed on what was being said. Its a raw emotional talk about climate change without all the jokes of Al Gore's presentation. Then Blip.TV's Twitter Bot recommended the exact same video a couple of hours later, so I had to blog it as 12mins of video that everyone should see.

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Event Etiquette

Sarahs published some guidelines for event etiquette. I have to say I quite like these guidelines and will be publishing them to the geekdinner website in the near future too.

Event Etiquette for Attendees

  1. When attendees sign up, put the details for the event in your diaries and ensure that the date & time is kept available for the event.
  2. If something comes up that clashes with the event, make sure you un-register for the event as your place can go to someone else that does want to attend the event. (this is very important when events are over subscribed)
  3. If something comes up last minute that can't be helped, apologize for not being able to make it to the organizers. (It lets them know that you do actually care that you missed the event and often the organizers can give info about what happened at the event if you missed it and this is the case. No apologies shows lack of care or support for the events and disrespect for those on the waiting lists.)
  4. Give feedback on the events that you attend. This helps make the events better for each subsequent event. You shape how you want your events to be run! (Feedback should be positive, negative and things that should be kept as they are.)
  5. If you think you could help to make an event better in some way then offer your advice, help and support. (especially with community run events, any help is always appreciated)
  6. If you see something wrong (like no glasses for water) don't complain about it, find a solution (or at least help to find a solution) and do let the organizers know.

Event Etiquette for Organizers

  1. Organizers should send out reminders prior to the events reminding attendees of the details of the event including maps, dates, times etc.
  2. Organizers should ensure that attendees know what they are signing up for. No hidden agendas.
  3. Where possible the un-registration for events should be kept as simple as possible.
  4. Changes to the event details should be highlighted and given to attendees as soon as possible.
  5. Announcements of events should be in a timely manner giving people time to arrange their schedules around the events where possible.
  6. Organizers should be able to be contacted by attendees with any questions and queries about the events. (these should not be ignored)

Don't get me wrong, I'm terrible for saying I'm going to be at a event then something else comes up. For example I was meant to be at Wikiwednesday today, but instead I'm on a train to Swansea due to work commitments. I do try my best.

But back to Sarahs guidelines. Geekdinners has moved from commenting in a blog post to using upcoming.org for a signal of how many people are coming. This has the advantage of people being able to change there mind and take themselves off the list. But it has the disadvantage of requiring people to sign in using a Yahoo ID now. This is a real problem and hence why I still check the comments in the blog post just in case someone rejects using upcoming.org.

This is all fine but for example the last event we did had about 30+ people signed up via upcoming, blog comments and emails. But we had almost half as many people actually come, so guess who had to pay for those people who didn't turn up? Yes moi.

So actually before the guidelines were up, I have been thinking about setting up a email list for geekdinners. This has advantages on both sides and to be honest, the geekdinner community is very adhoc right now which is fine but a shame sometimes. For example Tom Morris posted up a question a while back for the geek community. That was the only way to get in touch with the community really.

So yes as promised a while back, theres changes a foot, so look out…. and don't forget your event etiquette.

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Math is hard. Scaring ignorant people is easy?

So I recently watched the Panorama programmes on the White flight, WiFi and Scientology.

The most recent one was the WiFi one, and its caused once again a huge stir online. The programme tried to delve into the world of radiation but failed badly. For example there was never a mention that Mobile phone signals operate on a much lower band (850 – 1900 Mhz) that wireless (2.4 Ghz). This was critical mistake when assuming the women who were sensitive to mobile phone towers would also be sensitive to Wireless. I also never heard anything about the fact Radiation is all around us all the time. For example the Sun gives of radiation which is very dangerous but some of you still bake in the sun on a good day.

What then bothers me is the school arguments. Its a obvious trick. Don't you want your children to be safe? Yes maybe there might be some long term side effect to wireless but by the time we know we'd have moved on to ultrawideband type communication, etc. This isn't going to be in our lives forever. Even if I'm wrong and next week someone does the maths and works it all out, I'm sorry but the Panorama programme was an obstacle not a helper.

Anyway, Miles found an excellent cartoon of the whole debate.

Very brief comments on the other programmes. The White flight one was quite worrying but interesting none the less. I don't think the problem is as bad down south. Maybe because the property prices are so high you can't be picky. The scientology one I felt was very good. You can see how the team tried to be balanced and open with the documentary but how it got hi-jacked by the scienctolgies in the end. When the reporter snapped my instant reaction was no don't let them do this to you, this is the reaction they wanted and yes I bet it made all the scientology videos this year. It also became clear how much money and resources this cult at its disposal. Its going to require much more distributed efforts to get the low down on whats going on in this cult.

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The BBC should be dissolved says Mike TechCrunch Arrington

mike arrington at fowa

Video: Mike Arrington thinks the BBC should be dissolved

Taken from the Backstage Blog,

Yesterday (21st Feb) at the future of webapps there was a Panel Debate about what Europe could learn from American in regards to the startup culture. We captured the whole debate on a small camcorder. Including the part where one of the most prolific voices of the valley, Michael Arrington from TechCrunch.com. Showed his true feelings for the BBC's efforts online. He added…

The BBC should be dissolved

And then started to make a joke about the office, which showed his lack of knowledge of what the BBC really is about. He then wax lyrical about CBBC World and how we were distorting the industry. Daniel Morris a developer at BBC Manchester finally debunks most of Mike Arrington's rant about the BBC by pointing out that everything the BBC does has to pass the Public Value Test.

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