Category Archives: Mentoring & Other Business

November 11, 2012 · 7:30 am

Mentor Cloud

Last week, in between cleaning up my office and final responsibilities to Huawei (where I have been Director of Operations for the Enterprise Global Competency Center), I started working on MentorCloud with Dr. Ravishankar Gundlapalli (CEO, MentorCloud), Tanya Jankot (my co-author for the Sun Mentoring 1996-2009 report), and Dolly Parikh (Founder, Aloki Design Studio).

MentorCloud is a mentoring startup company: “…a peer-to-peer platform purpose-built for people to connect as mentors and mentees, share expertise and drive mutual professional growth”, with offices at the Plug and Play Tech Center in the Silicon Valley. Ravi attended the Global Women’s Journey event at which I spoke earlier this year and we have been talking ever since.

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October 12, 2012 · 8:01 am

TechWomen’s last day in Washington DC

The TechWomen enjoyed their last day in Washington DC and are now slowly making their way home to either the Silicon Valley area (mentors), or to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen in the MENA region (mentees). I miss them already!

Wednesday was full of TechWomen-normal activities: networking, exchanging ideas and experiences, and taking pictures. It is usual for me to be given three to six cameras and smart phones and asked to photograph a posed group of lovely intelligent women. The group I am photographing may start small but if the setting is good, it often doubles and triples as other TechWomen join in. Taking TechWomen group pictures is an enjoyable if frenetic experience. My daughter Jessica lives in Washington DC and was invited to two of the TechWomen dinners – which made picture taking even more enjoyable.

We met in the morning in the Loy Henderson conference room at the US State Department for a political discussion, then had a magnificent lunch in the Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room. The TechWomen were welcomed and honored by Ann Stock, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, and Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. We regretfully did not get to meet the program sponsor, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ann Stock was patient and a very good sport – she stayed after the lunch to take dozens of pictures with the TechWomen. I love the diplomatic rooms at the US State Department, with cases full of china and silver (some by Paul Revere), and walls covered with portraits of American historical greats. The copy of the Declaration of Independence is my particular favorite.

After lunch, we returned to the Henderson room for Sheila Casey (Deputy Director, Office of Citizen Exchanges at U.S. Department of State) and Heather Ramsey (Director at Institute of International Education) to give the mentees their participation certificates (signed by Secretary Clinton). Our going away party was around the very windy roof pool of the Donovan House hotel (the party eventually moved downstairs since we were all freezing!).

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Tagged as Algeria, Egypt, Geeks, Jessica, Jordan, Lebanon, Mentoring, Middle East, Morocco, Palestine, technical women, TechWomen

October 11, 2012 · 6:01 am

What TechWomen Should Read

Yesterday morning, the TechWomen mentors and mentees returned to the Henderson Room of the US State Department in Washington DC for a discussion of American politics and the Presidential election. The Mentees from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen have been hearing election discussions since their Silicon Valley arrival in early September – this was to put that experience in context and to allow them to ask questions.

The presenters were Linda Moore Forbes (a Democrat working at Harvard’s Institute of Politics) and Ellen Yount (a Republican working for Management Systems International). Much of their presentation was about the current campaign but there were also fascinating side comments about politics in general and particularly on how women participate in politics. One of their themes was that extreme views of “women’s issues” (and social discussions) are the often focus of a campaign but elected officials actually govern based on the economy. “Women’s issues” during a campaign often include:

birth control, contraception, in-vitro fertilization
abortion (voluntary, as well as in cases of incest and rape or when the mother’s health is in danger)
equal pay for equal work

My question to these remarkably experienced and politically-wise women was: what do they read to keep current, and what do they recommend that the TechWomen Mentees read when they return to their homes in the MENA region (in addition to Al Jazeera and BBC News)? Here are the US news sources that Ellen Yount recommended:

“The Cable” blog by Josh Rogan
The New York Times
Politico
The Washington Post
Twitter feeds from: Associated Press, Reuters, International Herald Tribune

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October 10, 2012 · 4:51 am

TechWomen at US State Department

The TechWomen visited the US State Department and New America Foundation yesterday here in Washington DC. It was interesting to hear about the electronic social media policies and practices of the White House from New Media Director Macon Phillips, manager of WhiteHouse.Gov, and of the State Department from Victoria Esser (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State). At the New America Foundation, we enjoyed a panel including representatives from the United National mHealth Alliance, Grameen Foundation, and the Innovation Labs at The World Bank.

A group of us went for a long dinner last night at Zaytinya which features wonderful food from Greece, Turkey and Lebanon.

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October 9, 2012 · 5:10 am

TechWomen Leadership Workshop

Yesterday, the TechWomen spent a day at Georgetown University in a leadership workshop with Barbara Fittipaldi. Barbara Fittipaldi was one of those who inspired Dr. Anita Borg to start what is now the Anita Borg Institute.

Afterwards, some of the TechWomen spent the evening exploring Georgetown. My daughter Jessica and my mentee and I went exploring on the mall to see the sights at night, particularly the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. We were moved by Dr. King’s words carved on the curving wall behind the big statue. Jessica and I sang “We Shall Overcome” – the anthem for the African-American Civil Rights Movement. We also visited the Washington Monument and White House to see them wearing lights in the dark.

MLK door mural on the Luther Place Memorial Church (Washington DC), seen 9 October 2012:

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October 7, 2012 · 6:08 am

TechWomen in Washington DC

Yesterday very early, the TechWomen mentors and mentees arrived in Washington DC. Starting tomorrow, we will participate in workshops and meetings and events at the US State Department. This weekend, we are exploring the American capital.

We started with a short self-guided walking tour of the White House. I had not been there since I was a little girl – it seems smaller now! The symbolism and discussion of each item and decoration in every room – both by the visitors (and reportedly by the White House Historical Association started by then-First-Lady Jacqueline Kennedy) are intense. There was no object that the guard-guides in each of the few rooms on the tour could not discuss in fascinating detail – except the rugs and curtains which apparently get worn and swapped out too often for much to be said about them. I only have not-very-good cell phone pictures because no cameras (or almost anything else) are allowed in.

Yesterday afternoon, I visited the charming Folger Shakespeare Library and garden (and bought an addition to my Shakespeare garden book collection). Then my mentee and I walked to the historic and lovely Islamic Center. A small TechWomen group enjoyed dinner at Mio Puerto Rican Restaurant.

Last Day of Hopper Conference 2012

After some very promising networking and fascinating presentations, the TechWomen mentors and mentees enjoyed dinner together and then walked to the final party of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing – held at the Maryland Science Center on the harbor in Baltimore MD.

I particularly enjoyed yesterday’s talk by Jane Margolis about changes in the technical world in the ten years since her publication with Allan Fisher of the groundbreaking book Unlocking the Clubhouse. There has been both growth and retreat for the community of technical women during that time. Some of the advances are in:

Visible Leadership: Exemplified by Maria Klawe becoming President of Harvey Mudd College, Shirley Tilghman becoming President of Princeton, Ginni Rometty becoming Chairman and CEO of IBM, and Meg Whitman becoming President and CEO of HP. (See the Famous Women in Computer Science list for more…)
Growing Role Models: Exemplified by the Spelbots, the African-American Women’s Robotics Team of Spelman College.
Successful Education and Networking: Exemplified by the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing growing from a few hundred attendees in 1994 to 3,600 participants this year – and GHC being sold out in advance for the third year running. 2012 is also the 25th anniversary of Systers – the world’s largest email community of technical women in computing. Another notable success is the National Center for Women & Information Technology organization and NCWIT’s Aspirations in Computing award program for technical girls.