Tag Archives: Geeks

February 14, 2012 · 9:14 pm

TechWomen 2012 Applications

The Institute for International Education and Anita Borg Institute are again working together on the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen mentoring program for women in the Middle East and North Africa. Yesterday, Microsoft hosted the Mentor recruitment kick-off event, including a video of invitation and welcome by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, plus an in-person address by Lee Satterfield, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Professional and Cultural Exchanges at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Dozens of technical women from Silicon Valley technical companies attended. It was wonderful to catch up with the 2011 mentors, listen to the panel, and meet potential new 2012 participants.

Women working in technology fields from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, and Yemen are encouraged to apply to be TechWomen mentees – Applications are due February 15, 2012. The TechWomen Mentor Application Opens March 1, 2012

It was fun to see the What is TechWomen? video (in which I was one of the speakers!) and to discover my picture at the top of the 2012 mentor handout for the event. This year’s TechWomen mentees will all be going to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (3-6 October 2012 in Baltimore Maryland).

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Tagged as Geeks, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

December 15, 2011 · 4:10 pm

Bamboo Keyboard and Mouse

In September, John brought me a present from Shenzhen China – which has now been installed in my office at Huawei: a bamboo keyboard and mouse! I think it looks lovely next to my bright purple “I am a Technical Woman” mouse pad from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC11). I have the best in geeky office-ware!

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Tagged as China, Geeks, Huawei, John, technical women

December 14, 2011 · 1:02 am

Christmas in Silicon Valley

We are working our way through our annual Christmas activities and traditions:

Jessica and Sally and Lorene and I went shopping for Christmas presents in San Francisco’s Chinatown
John and I hosted the Silicon Valley Lines model train club holiday party at our home – and let the littlest geeks build a train line around our living room
We visited the Living Nativity in Santa Clara
We admired the holiday decorations going up all over the Bay Area

This weekend, we join family and friends at the Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace. Next week we sing Christmas carols on the cable car in San Francisco. It sometimes feels strange following our usual paths through the holiday season so soon after my father’s death.

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Tagged as Charles Dickens, Geeks, San Francisco, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Lines, Willow Glen

November 16, 2011 · 12:21 am

Family Friendly Technical Conference

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing (GHC11) is not only the greatest technical women’s conference in the world, it is also a wonderful event for families. My daughter Jessica and I have attended together for the last five years. The first year, I invited her to join my Girl Geeks panel but each year since, Jessica has proposed her own a poster (and this time, both a poster and panel) and been accepted. The Hopper Conference always provides childcare but many Dads come along to watch kids while the technical Mom attends talks and networks. This was the first year that my husband John attended GHC.

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Tagged as Geeks, Jessica, John, technical women

November 12, 2011 · 11:20 am

Hopper Conference, Portland Oregon

This is the final day for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing here in Portland, with a focus on Open Source. As usual, the Hopper Conference has been an exhilarating experience, recharging me for another year of technical business in an overwhelmingly male industry. Also, as usual, the 3,000 attendees with several computers each regularly overwhelmed the local net, so I have mostly been tweeting rather than blogging this week.

My husband John and daughter Jessica are both here. Jessica presented a panel and poster. Jessica asked me what was my favorite GHC11 event. The most memorable was yesterday’s keynote by The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Jackson’s talk was not flashy but I came away with several new ideas and energetic motivation to follow up. The other conference highlight was the celebration of the TechWomen mentees, mentors, and program. I am so proud of my sisters from MENA!

I am proud that Huawei joined NetApp and Google in sponsoring TechWomen mentees to come to the Hopper Conference (and Huawei paid for the third Huawei-Santa Clara-hosted mentee to come too). Corporate community support at its best!

Yesterday, on behalf of the ABI Advisory Board, I was honored to introduce the presentation of two-time GHC award-winner Anne Ikiara of Kenya. She gave an inspiring talk about her organization NairoBits, which has given computer training to 6,000 poor young women in ten years for a cost of about $100/each. So impressive – I want to be her when I grow up.

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Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, Jessica, John, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

November 9, 2011 · 11:51 pm

Hopper Conference – Day 1, Portland Oregon

Today is the opening of the sold-out GHC11 – the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing here in Portland, Oregon. My contribution to the world’s greatest conference for technical women came early: attending the ABI Advisory Board meeting this morning and inviting Janet Abbate, Assistant Professor, Science and Technology in Society, Virginia Tech, to be one of the panel at the Hopper Conference Newcomer’s orientation this afternoon. Other than that, I am mostly hanging out with my daughter Jessica and the TechWomen mentees and mentors and staff. I am also representing Huawei, one of the sponsors of the scholarships to bring some of the TechWomen mentees to GHC11.

The flight north from the San Francisco Bay Area this morning was spectacular: we flew directly over a massive, cloudless and snowy Mount Shasta and smaller wintery mountains. Between GHC events, we plan to sample the delights of this pleasant town: this morning we ate Voodoo Doughnuts and tomorrow we plan to go to Powells City of Books. Jessica presents her panel and poster tomorrow afternoon.

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Tagged as Geeks, Huawei, Jessica, Mentoring, Middle East, San Francisco, technical women, TechWomen

November 6, 2011 · 12:58 pm

Pictures: El Camino Real 31st Convention

The 31st annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real was held this weekend in Salinas, California. Bishop Mary Gray-Reeeves and the convention were honored to host two guest Bishops, the Right Reverend Sadock Makaya (Diocese of Western Tanganyika) and the Rt. Rev. Michael Perham (Diocese of Gloucester) and their delegations. My husband John and Rev. Stephenie Cooper ran the electronics and I participated as part of the delegation from St. Andrew’s (Saratoga). We prayed, celebrated, sang, ate and drank, laughed at the picture of Bishop Barbie, and passed resolutions on strategic planning, use of scents in church, and started a study on poverty and unequal wealth.

I just updated Bishop Mary’s Wikipedia entry to include information about the successful companion diocese relationship started in 2008:

At the 2008 meeting of the Lambeth Conferences of the Anglican Communion, Bishops Mary Gray-Reeves of El Camino Real , Michael Perham of Gloucester , and Gerard Mpango of Western Tanganyika formed a Partnership of their Dioceses. This successful Companion Diocese ^[5] relationship has resulted in an annual round of visits between the bishops and delegations to each other’s home countries and the 2011 book The Hospitality of God^[6] by Mary Gray-Reeves and Michael Perham. On 30 June 2010, the three Bishops wrote a joint letter ^[7] to Rowan Williams , the Archbishop of Canterbury about what they were learning. In 2010, Bishop Sadock Makaya succeeded Bishop Gerard Mpango in the partnership.