- A bicycle-powered trip, from the top of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina, to raise $19,500 for the research of macular degeneration. (via LAist)
- Some coats labelled faux-fur are actually made of dog fur; some of these were sold by Tommy Hilfiger and Nordstrom. Gross.
- Whole Foods is buying Wild Oats! Sad! Wild Oats is a much stronger supporter of fair trade than is Whole Foods. “An undetermined number of Wild Oats stores will be closed once the deal is completed.”
- Kottke figures out what % of speakers women make up at web conferences. “From this list, it seems to me that either the above concerns are not getting through to conference organizers or that gender diversity doesn’t matter as much to conference organizers as they publicly say it does.”
My friend Dori Smith, a conference speaker, programmer and tech author, has a response on her blog:
http://www.backupbrain.com/2007_02_18_archive.html#a005015
Comment by Lisa — February 24, 2007 @ 11:35 am
I’d rather say the numbers reflect the distribution in the industry. I don’t see many female programmers, and only slightly more web designers.
Yes, I see Dori’s point – they’re probably not actively hunting down women. Then again, 10 of the top 100 books in her field are written by women – and many conferences have more than 10% women.
Honestly, I’m not sure which way I lean on that. I do think the field needs more women, and at the same time, I think it’s unfair to the men who actually do good work to underrepresent them. (I’m a sort-of believer in meritocracy… But then again, if you’re never invited to speak it’s hard to leave a mark)
Comment by Robert 'Groby' Blum — February 24, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
Here’s an interesting update from Jeff Zeldman. (Design guru and organizer of “An Event Apart” )
http://www.zeldman.com/2007/02/25/gender-and-ethnic-imbalance-in-web-design/
He’s announcing they’ll do something about it soon, so I’d keep watching that space.
Comment by Robert 'Groby' Blum — February 25, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
It’s interesting that the comments seem widely split, from some saying that women aren’t interested in becoming programmers (whether due to disinterest or other reasons) and other saying many women are becoming programmers (one person says 40-50% of people he works with). If the latter, the lack of female conference speakers seems an even more glaring issue. If the former, the issue needs to be attacked at the bottom level, as Jeff sez. I’m guessing it’s a combo of both –
Comment by Siel — February 25, 2007 @ 11:14 pm