So, my gut level response is to compare Microsoft with Apple... (read on) to see my conclusions.]]> 2010-01-27T08:16:00-05:00Ben Langhinrichshttp://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/archive/20100127-0816College English classes spend lots of time analyzing works that the authors may or may not have wanted analyzed.  I generally hated the exercise, but often wondered what the authors would have felt at hearing the conclusions drawn.

Well, today I got a taste of it.  An on-line literary magazine called The Foundling Review posted a poem of mine, Another Badger, More or Less (one of my favorite poems, actually).  Each week, they post two stories and two poems.  It turns out that every once in a while, they ask a prominent writer or editor to critique that week's issue.  They did this for the current week, so Miriam Kotzin, professor, author and editor, gives her critique of the two stories and two poems, including mine. 

If you go to the link above and click on the left on the title you can read my poem, but if you click on the right where it refers to THIRD EYE - a current issue commentary, you can read what Miriam Kotzin thinks about my poem. It is a weird sensation, although I have to say I appreciate the compliment in the first sentence about my poem:

"We can only hope that Ben Langhinrichs will not confine his future writing to technical work. "

What author would mind that analysis?

It is Tuesday, so I decided to go to my first session.  I chose NERD101 "Nerd Girl": The Panel's Revenge, partly because they are giving out buttons and partly because I know most of the women on the panel.  I will say that, despite the irony, I cringe a bit at the term Nerd Girl.  I have fought most of my life for women to be called women.  Sigh!

Anyway, I am sitting in the middle, wondering if any Disneybots will come in to escort me out for not having a badge.  My guess is that now that I am in, I am safe.

11:20 - Gab starts the questioning by asking why we need this session.  Isn't it just women deciding not to go into the field?

The answers are generally that women feel shut out by being the "one woman at the dinner".  It all starts in 5th or 6th grade when boys don't think "nerdy girls" are cool.

11:27 - Global implications of women in technology and business?

Some cultures have long histories of being male dominated (e.g., Latin America)

Francie talks about her process of starting a technology business on a small Caribbean island where the traditional culture doesn't encourage women-owned businesses.  The panel encourages women to blog and hold panels where they live to encourage and support other women.

11:35 - The strengths women bring to the technology business?

Communication skills, collaboration skills, social networking, conflict resolution, etc.  Panelists relate stories about how many men in tech companies are not really "customer-facing-ready", but also that as one of very few women in a company full of awkward men, it is hard to collaborate internally.

11:40 - What to do as a woman working at home with kids and no other professional women close by?

Advantages of blogging, Twitter, Facebook both for communicating with those far away and discovering those close by.

11:42 - Mentoring?  How to find other women mentors?  How to encourage mentoring?

Sandy Carter talks about having multiple mentors, often one or more women AND one or more men.  This gives different perspectives to help you understand how to deal with things.  She also talked about sponsors as well as mentors.  Mentors will spend more time working through things for you, but sponsors are more like advocates.  It is often helpful to have a male advocate or a higher-up woman advocate so that when opportunities and promotions are suggested, there is somebody to say "How about Mary Beth?  She might be perfect for this."  This helps break through some of the old boy's network.

Other panelists encourage people to ask, ask someone to be a mentor, ask for a seat at the table, etc.

Successful men and women treat networking as a priority.

11:50 - Finding the backbone?

Susan Bulloch talked about having female bosses vs. male bosses.

Woman from the audience asked about the difference between women in management vs. lower down.  Panel says that even high up, the rules feel different.

Gab talked about not being afraid the "B" word (as she put it)

11:55 - Find ways to challenge the tendency to ask the man, even if the woman knows more.  It is important to make it explicit if tis is going on.  Sometimes the man has to support the woman so that it is clear that both agree the woman is more of an expert.

The pre-talk off-line back conversation and agreements which makes going into the meeting work.

12:00 - Being part of the team.  

12:02 - Marie Scott talked about the power of finding her voice, writing her blog and learning to get out there and share her knowledge.  This year it led to speaking at Lotusphere, a book offer, etc.

They encourage women to blog, whether they are super technical or newbies or marketing or whatever.

12:05: Kristen Lauria talks about formal vs. informal mentors.  Finding people who are very different than you serve as good informal mentors.  Gab talks about the "voice of reason"

12:08 - Sensitivity to joking, teasing.  How to react when people make fun of women (or this session).  How to deal with "It was just a joke."  Gab talked about having long conversations about having Nerd girl sessions and how some meen found the whole thing silly.

12:11 - As a woman in IT, do you need to turn into a man?  Woman from the audience says No and that she is a speaker here now because she stayed true to herself.  Kristen Lauria says "You can't be successful if you are not true to yourself."

12:15 - Akiba - You can do anything you want to do.  Encourage your children, encourage your daughters.  Believing and communicating that belief is critical to womeen (or anyone) believing they can do it.

Respectful disagreement and debate are critical to getting a better result.

Somewhere in there, Sandy Carter talked about showing the practical, proven results of having women on the board.  Since results are what count, proving that having women improves the bottom line helps convince people.

And we're done.  Thanks for tuning in.

Cheers!

Of course, the Lotusphere folks may still give it a different session id, in which case I guess I'll have to change it, but for now, I like the id this way.

Now for my request.  It would be very handy if the agent could check your calendar and query if you had a conflict in the time slot or overlapping that time slot.  I am fine with allowing you to add the conflict, but you should be notified.  If I get the time, I will write this, but with all the stuff going on right now, it is not my highest priority.  If anybody wants shared fame and glory, I'd be happy to let everybody know you were responsible for adding that (if you do).  Just let me know if you have coded something like this or if you do so now.  Your fellow attendees will be grateful!

If you want to suggest that people pose questions for a specific session, there is an easy URL to direct the user to get to the session and see the existing questions (with the Ask a Question action at the top):

I think you really do need the trailing period, but the BP201 can be replaced by any session or BOF id.  Both from the web and from the Notes database, there is a Questions/Ideas view which shows every session with its questions/ideas as responses.  When answers (or follow up comments) are allowed, they will appear as response to responses.

For now, I am cleaning up any SPAM manually, but if it gets annoying, I may have to add logic.  Any suggestions for how to improve this further are welcomed.

As you get ready...

I put a rough version up earlier, but this has speakers, showcase pedestals, layered views, more sessions, rescheduled sessions, etc. etc.  Get them all at:

Version 1.0 is ready for you to download.  I'd strongly encourage you to replicate with Tranquility (using the handy view action if you like) frequently over the next few weeks.  I should point out that frequently does not mean every fifteen minutes.  It means once a day or so.  In mid January, you can move to every fifteen minutes if you have ADD, ADHD or ADOS (attention deficit ohh shiny).

The good news is, the real times and dates are now recorded into the documents, so the "Add to my Calendar" button will work, the iPhone/BB synchs will work, etc.  I am still scrounging for a source for BDD schedules (any little birds who want to clue me in?) and BOF schedules, and will soon start adding the showcase information and correcting/adding/deleting people.  All a pain in the ass, but this is what it takes to make a working sessions db.  You all get to see the dirty pots behind the pristine restaurant.  Enjoy your meal!

For those who can't do anything but dream of Orlando in January...

A few people have deduced the super secret URL.  Unlike last year, where the URL was http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/LS2009_SessionsDB or the year before when it was http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/LS2008_SessionsDB (and so forth back nine years), this year the super secret URL is... wait for it...

Anyway, Version 0.1 (meaning a lot of sessions have times and rooms, but some don't, and lots of other stuff is only partly there) is ready for you to download.  I'd strongly encourage you to replicate with Tranquility (using the handy view action if you like) frequently over the next few weeks.  I should point out that frequently does not mean every fifteen minutes.  It means once a day or so.  In mid January, you can move to every fifteen minutes if you have ADD, ADHD or ADOS (attention deficit ohh shiny).