Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg describes the dearth of women in high-level leadership positions in corporations, non-profits and government, and offers three pieces of advice on how to keep women in the workplace, help them rise to the top, and change those numbers. Her awesome TED talk is a must-see for parents, college students, and women already at work. It's only 15 minutes—watch it.
Increasing female leadership isn't just about evening out the numbers or equal rights. Layar co-founder Claire Boonstra argues competitive companies and sustainable governments today demand it. She writes:
"It takes more intelligence to build a joke, tell a funny anecdote or narrate a gripping story than it takes to nitpick." Of course I've been guilty of it myself, but Well, Actually is one of my biggest conversational pet peeves, especially online.
An online sportswriter tracks down an internet troll who called him an "f--ing retard." On the phone, meek and apologetic, the troll says, "You know what? I enjoy your writing. But I disagreed with you and I got caught up in the moment. When you read something you think is bull----, you're gonna respond passionately. Was I appropriate? No. Am I proud? Not even a little. It's embarrassing. But the internet got the best of me." Tracking Down My Online Haters [CNN.com]
I didn't know Bill Zeller personally, but Lifehacker covered at least two of his projects—Graph Your Inbox and myTunes. This week he hung himself and published his suicide letter on his web site to explain why. The letter is an intensely personal missive that gives a brutal look into what it's really like to live with a history of child abuse. Pre-web, that letter would've been written on paper and read only by Bill's closest friends and family. But this week, to make sure his death and experience was not in vain, I found myself calling and writing friends and family who have suffered that kind of abuse to tell them how much I care about them, and how grateful I am that they survived. (Here is the suicide letter, but before you click, be warned that it's heavy reading which could turn a workday on its head.) Thank you, Bill. Rest in peace.
Big thanks to iTunes Rewind for including This Week in Google (video) on their Best Podcasts of 2010 list. Two years ago, if you told me that I'd ever love doing a web show as much as I love TWiG, I would've never believed you. But Leo has built an unbelievable network of shows for and by smart people who love tech at TWiT, and it's a privilege to be a part of it. Congrats to Leo and Jeff, and thanks for 72 great episodes to far. To many more!
How to Use Your Tech Power for Good
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Last week Leo Laporte did a Gov 2.0 special show on TWiT with Tim O'Reilly and Jennifer Pahlka, a must-listen for programmers who want to use their skills to make the world a better place. It opened with this Code for America spot, which features Tim, Mark Zuckerberg, Caterina Fake, and Biz Stone. The Code for America fellowship application deadline has passed, but if you want to use your coding skills to help our government make better policy decisions, you can do so by contributing to ThinkUp. ∞ September 3rd, 2010, 2 comments
My greatest hope for the hotly-rumored, might-launch-any-day-now social networking app "Google Me" is that it will not merely clone Facebook in a weak attempt at parity, but that it will innovate and solve problems that plague existing social networks.
Last month, a senior user experience researcher at Google, Paul Adams, gave a presentation entitled "The Real Life Social Network." The 224 slides, embedded below, describe some of the problems and common user behavior on existing social web sites, and suggest how to better design that experience. While the presentation is targeted towards businesses who want to use social media to get their message out, it also serves as a roadmap for what Google will attempt to do with Google Me.
Hilary Mason: How to Replace Yourself with a Very Small Shell Script
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Just stumbled upon a YouTube clip of one of the best Ignite presentations I've seen, by Hilary Mason, a computer scientist at Bit.ly. Mason wrote a series of scripts that auto-respond to email with particular content, and auto-nag folks she's emailed but hasn't gotten a response from yet. Hit the play button to hear more. She says once the code's fit for sharing she'll put it up on GitHub. Cannot wait. ∞ May 25th, 2010, 6 comments
In the past three months Anil and I have been to events in six different cities talking about Expert Labs and how the White House used ThinkTank to compile feedback on the Grand Challenges initiative. At Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored event in New York City last month, Anil absolutely killed it in a 12 minute presentation that hits the nail right on the head. Press play to check it out.
Almost every interview I do these days for podcasts or magazines involves the inevitable question: "What are your best productivity tricks?" That's why it was so refreshing to do an interview with Dan Benjamin on his excellent show, The Pipeline, and never have to answer that question. Instead Dan wanted to chat about my progression from a day coder and no-name night blogger back in 2001 to a "pro blogger," about what made Lifehacker a success (hint: it's not talent, it's a big platform and LOTS of posts over the course of years), about self-publishing books, and about what I think an aspiring blogger these days has to do to make blogging a full-time job. Good times. Check it out: The Pipeline 10: Gina Trapani
It's Ada Lovelace Day and I haven't had time to write up something profound about women in tech, because, well, I've been too busy coding. Appropriate, no? I've been jamming on ThinkTank, a new webapp that will help the White House crowdsource ideas for our country's scientific and technological goals. It's also one of the youngest, pluckiest, up-and-coming woman-friendly open source projects around. My partner at Expert Labs Anil Dash explains why:
Besides being created by a woman (Ed: that's me!), we've been able to start up an active, vibrant community that is supportive and inclusive of new members. I think that our habit of mentoring our newest contributors is part of why we were one of the youngest apps to be selected for Google Summer of Code students to participate in, and I think it also explains why we have a mailing list and community that's never had a single flame war, personal attack or ego battle. It also helps that we're doing meaningful work that helps government make better decisions every time we fix a bug in our application. Even if you've never considered yourself a coder, there are instructions on how to participate that make joining the project as easy as editing a file in Google docs.
ThinkTank hasn't been around long enough to have accumulated any cruft--either in the source code, or in the community's politics. If you join now you have the opportunity to make a major impact on early decisions that will shape ThinkTank's roadmap. I hope tomorrow's Adas will consider getting in on the ground floor and help us grow these seeds into something amazing in a helpful and supportive environment. Interested? Join the mailing list and dive into the code on GitHub.
TWiG Live from SXSW
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Had a blast recording the latest episode of This Week in Google in person with Jeff Jarvis and Leo Laporte in Austin at SXSW this past Saturday. We had a live audience in-studio of friends and supporters there too, with guest appearances by Matt Haughey, Adam Pash, and Jake Jarvis rotating in on the fourth mic. It was so cool to see what happens beyond my Skype headset every Saturday and finally get to give Leo a big hug in person. Speaking of Leo at SXSW, if you haven't seen him crowdsurfing at the Diggnation party, you must get yourself to the YouTube clip of that stat. ∞ March 16th, 2010, 2 comments
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