tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1511495483709277802024-03-13T13:22:27.948-07:00Open Carefully. Contents may have shifted in travel. Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-91793606040217689832016-03-03T08:27:00.000-08:002016-03-03T06:36:26.987-08:00My Nerd Story - Revised for 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
[My then-Mozilla colleague <a href="http://skinnywhitegirl.com/blog/my-nerd-story/1101/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Crystal Beasley</a> started this thread of women in tech/hackers posting our stories, in response to some comments out there.... This is my nerd story, shared with you because I do believe in role models, and I do believe that there are many paths one can take.]<br />
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I am, among other things, a daughter of Silicon Valley. Mine is not a story of arriving at tech from the sidelines, or of dedication from childhood. it is more a story of how exposure shapes you, how marinades work, if you will. This is not the story of a straight path, or a clear dedication from childhood to one goal. It is a story of intense privilege, I am aware.<br />
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I was born in Manhattan, but we lived in New Jersey while my dad was working on a pHD at Rutgers in Computer Science. When I was four, someone at school asked me what my dad did for a living and I said "he watches tv and hunts for bugs, but I never seen em". He had a dumb terminal at home, presumably by then for his job at BBN. I was watching. I did not get to play with dad's bug hunting TV, but I was steeped in tech from an early age, and I value the gift of that early exposure. Early exposure is one of the things we must give to the future nerds... take time to talk to the kids you know (it takes a village to raise a child) about what you do! <br />
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<i>Similar, if not identical, to this one.</i></div>
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When I was six, we moved to California, dad was taking a job at Xerox Parc. I went to school in Palo Alto, where, after a year of public school, my sisters and I were sent to Peninsula School... at school, we rarely saw anything one would call a computer, in the early to mid 80s. I do remember cranking the mimeograph machine. Home was another story. Following his days at Xerox Parc dad went to Apple, where he worked on and brought home the first computers I played with.... to wit the Apple II and the LISA. I remember that he made us "play" the mousing tutorial over and over - he wanted my 3 year old sister to be comfortable with it.... and she was. Maybe it was a bit like... <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/a4BlmsN4q2I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<i>OK maybe not quite like that. But close. </i></div>
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At the same time, in school, while I was great at conceptual math, I floundered in basic computation. One teacher told my parents I was bad at math because while I excelled in our "regular" math program, understanding logical puzzles beyond what one expects of a seven year old, I could not successfully complete the math "drills" we had to do at the beginning of each day. She called me stupid, and I didn't forget it. My parents quickly moved me to another school (lucky us, with the resources for private school) where that did not happen again...<br />
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Years of playing with dad's computers followed. He went from Apple to EA to SGI, and I played with all his machines. Eventually this led to us having what we thought was the coolest house in town, because we had an SGI machine on which to play Doom, in our garage. I didn't code much at all... what I got from those years, I see now, was a measure of fearlessness about trying out new technologies. At the same time, my mom, whose background was literature and education, became a technical writer, showing me both that careers can change, and that it is possible to manage a technical career and motherhood together. She was leaning in way before it was hip. It might follow that all of this early exposure might send me straight into a technical degree and career. It did not.<br />
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I thought I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, and I enrolled at Mills College with every intention of doing that, and instead was moved toward Women's Studies and later theology, primarily driven by one of my great desires in life - to understand human motivation, and another, to work for a better world. At the same time, I was for the first time being exposed to the full power of the internet, in 1991 a very heady thing, to have your own unix shell account and a world of people to talk to. I learned a lot from just "playing" online, and more from having people around willing to answer my many questions, and it turned out that these same explorations led me down my career path at least as much as any formal academic education. All information is useful. I do not think it is *any* accident that this critical period of learning and exposure happened at a women's college, where a brilliant woman ran the CS department. We were not just allowed but encouraged to explore many paths in that rarified atmosphere of empowerment (we had access to lots and lots of technology and to smart people who wanted to help), and I did. I've always been grateful for it. It was also where I learned about geek culture... <br />
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I went to grad school in feminist theology, but technology was in my blood by then, and when I realized I didn't want to be a professor or an academic ethicist, I left academic life and came home, with a lot of school debt and not a lot of ideas. I was stunned, in 1995, at the power I saw in the world wide web, to connect people and share thoughts and information (I still am stunned by it). I wanted in on it. It occurred to me that I could go into the "family business" but not really *how*. I started working as a temporary contractor, at offices in the valley, and I tried a few things (writing very basic databases on semiconductor data, pre-press work for technical manuals, filing payroll stubs) before I landed my first "real" tech job, at Sun Microsystems (a very exciting place to be... we were, after all, "the dot in dot-com" heh)...<br />
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At Sun, I stuck my neck out, trying as many new things as I could... I worked first hand-htmling (what, it's a word) white papers, then hacking basic surveying tools (perl, mostly) for beta programs, then became a program manager for Solaris beta programs, and at last, got my first whiff of open source in running beta programs for Open Solaris. The biggest thing I did was learn. I found it to be an atmosphere where engineering and education were both valued, and where my questions were not "stupid", and I was lucky in my choices of mentors and friends. I took every class I could, read every book I could, and tried to give myself the technical, business, and project management skillsets I hadn't obtained in school, before deciding to take the oft-discussed "mommy break" to prepare for the birth of my second child. When I was ready to go back to work Sun was no longer a viable place to go, so I gathered my contacts (networking is your friend) and my consulting skills and ended up with a rather long term contract release managing a web "portal" (in 2005, everything was a portal) and exposing myself to everything I could about CRMs, release methodology, localization, networking, and more. I explain all of this background, mostly because my biggest lesson was that the education I got was in what I tried, and in what I failed to do, as much as in what I succeeded at... and I think we need role models for that, too. In many respects, the entire first part of my career was my technical education. It was a different time and place - I worked on supporting women in the organization, and other underrepresented minorities, but it was not as overtly difficult, to be a woman in tech, then. Maybe (certainly) we were less aware, but I also saw less direct misogyny and racism in the industry then than I do now. <br />
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After all of this, I still did not see myself as a role model, or as highly technical. I was quite shocked when a geek friend encouraged me to apply for a job as product manager at a very obscure seeming and highly technical nonprofit open source infrastructure shop (Internet Systems Consortium, makers of BIND, the widely deployed open source DNS nameserver, and operators of one of the 13 root nameservers). For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why they hired me! I knew very little about DNS, infrastructure, or protocol development, but I found my mentors again, and I found that I flourished, traveling, working on critical processes, figuring out how to work with highly international teams, solving hairy problems, and most of all, embracing open source and the vibrant community that loved and supported our efforts so very much. I learned most of all again, by making mistakes. I learned what it takes to build a vision for a product, and how building things in the open and in community takes all sorts of specific skills, talent, and patience, but how much value it brings.<br />
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It was while I was at ISC that, through the amazing <a href="https://www.techwomen.org/mentorship/why-i-keep-coming-back-to-mentor-with-techwomen" target="_blank">TechWomen</a> program (which brings technical women from the Middle East and North Africa to Silicon Valley for mentoring), that I got hooked on mentoring other women in tech, and mentoring in general, and supporting women in tech, particularly in open source and open culture. It was really when I started mentoring, that I started believing in my own abilities, too. That was a long lesson to learn. When I first read the advert for TechWomen mentors, I didn't think they would even want to talk to me! My impostor syndrome was so strong. I was so shocked when I was asked to mentor the first cohort, and that I've continued to be asked every time for six years, and when that led me to leadership positions on the TechWomen Alumna Board and the WAKE board... but I am learning to believe that I earned these things.<br />
<br />
In the end, I had to leave my job at ISC for reasons to do with the leadership there at the time. Luckily, my work and my values brought me to Mozilla, where I've been both perseverant and lucky enough to have several meaningful roles, following my passion for empowering people to find meaningful ways to contribute to the internet I believe the world needs, an expansion of the one that excited me so long ago, (and changing open source culture in ways that it needs) and I get to see a lot of the world while I do it. Now I work full time on building a more diverse and inclusive Mozilla, standing on the shoulders of giants who did the same before me, and in partnership with many of the smartest and kindest people I know. It's a new challenge every day, and I guess that's what I love most about working in tech and in particular on the open web. The very pluralistic nature of the web that first drew me in is the same possibility I still seek - a world where there actually is opportunity for all and where there are resources for them and role models and mentors and resources. This is not too much to seek, if we do it together.</div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-26720226254680283742014-12-02T16:36:00.003-08:002014-12-02T16:38:13.898-08:00Radical Participation – Scaling the Human Network<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://tiptoes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/15642323376_f7f16bb1d5_b-1024x540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://tiptoes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/15642323376_f7f16bb1d5_b-1024x540.jpg" height="168" width="320" /></a></div>
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Co-written with <a href="http://tiptoes.ca/radical-participation-scaling-the-human-network/" target="_blank">Emma Irwin</a><br />
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<br />
At Mozilla we’re always thinking about how to improve our products,
how to continue a legacy of innovation and quality while shipping often.
That said, we can’t talk about <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/history/">Mozilla’s history</a>,
or future without acknowledging the critical role of our global
volunteer community in our success, and of it’s importance to our
future. Software is made by people, and community is made both by and of
people.<br />
This year’s learnings around the challenges of contributor growth and
retention, come with a recognition that we have two very different
tracks of ‘shipping Mozilla’: How we ship product, and how we grow
community are distinct, and there is no doubt that the betterment of
both lies in the scaling a human network.<br />
<br />
Designing for participation is really about designing for people ,
it’s about building an ecosystem of empowerment. We’re learning that our
most successful pathways reflect diversity of community background,
skill-set, available time and motivation.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Teaching</h2>
The aha-moment of open source contribution is when someone feels
successful in ‘doing a thing’. Be it connecting to a chat room with an
IRC tool, or building a local copy of Webmaker.org, it’s that first
success that drives the next. These successes need to happen long before
a first pull request, even before taking a ‘mentored bug’. We need to
get better at helping people reach their first ‘Mozilla moment’, through
deliberate and predictable teaching and learning ‘by doing’
opportunities. We’ve already started doing this in person with <a href="http://tiptoes.ca/open-hatch-mozilla">Open Hatch </a>events and curriculum, but scaling this means building <a href="https://p2pu.org/en/courses/2654/hacking-open-source-participation/">online opportunities.</a><br />
<br />
We need to provide ongoing, predictable, transparent and inclusive
educational opportunities for volunteer community and product teams
working with volunteers<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Mentoring</h2>
Mentoring is core to the success of our community. Staff AND
volunteers, go farther when someone is there to encourage their success,
to answer their questions and to help strategize for the future. The
Mozilla Reps program is a great example of how we can scale
participation through thoughtful and ongoing mentorship .<br />
<br />
The <a href="https://guides.mozilla-community.org/">Mozilla Guides</a>
project is proving that by offering a searchable, scale-able, organized
resource for brand new Mozillians who need encouragement, coaching, and
mentors, to take their first steps and find the projects they want to
make an impact on .<br />
<br />
Mentoring is done well already in some places at Mozilla. The Reps program has done an incredible job of building a <a href="http://mentorship.mozillareps.org/">network of mentors</a>,
and mentoring is at the core of its success. We need to make mentors
and mentoring easily available and usefully structured for all
Mozillians at all levels of skill and participation.<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Designing Participation Tracks</h2>
Designing participation for a college graduate is much different than
designing for an experienced C# engineer interested in transitioning
strong technical skills to open source ecosystem. Making pathways as
simple as possible for the <a href="http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2014/10/10/episodic-volunteering/">episodic volunteers </a>,
is as important as providing long-term opportunities. What other types
of participation should we be considering? Is Mozilla contribution
accessible for those with disabilities? How do we plug one into the
other?<br />
<br />
What does it look like to show up as an organized group effort? How
do schools and companies interested in lending skills to a project on an
single, or ongoing basis get involved?<br />
We suggest that we framing Mozilla contribution as an opportunity for
individuals and organized groups. Corporations can lend time and
technical talent for skill & team building , while universities
across the world can their better help students for the job market
through the opportunity that is – contributing to Mozilla. Mozilla in
kind, can define on-ramps for organizations (corporations, universities,
other open source projects, and more) to be able to easily find
opportunities and make an impact – and develop mutual benefit.<br />
<br />
<h2>
A Community Building Community</h2>
We’ve been saying that community building is everyone’s job at
Mozilla, but what we haven’t explicitly said – is that we’re building a
community around ‘community building in Mozilla’. This means, we need to
get better at sharing resources across the project. We need improved
communication mechanisms to help avoid duplication of efforts. We need
to be more deliberate about reaching out with what we’ve learned.<br />
<br />
Designing for humans ensures that those who want to go fast (move
fast and break things, if you will) – can, and those who want to be more
deliberate in their process will get there too. Our collective speed of
innovation, development, and impact will increase when we are
deliberate about mentorship, teaching and growing a connected community
of community designers – as core tenets of participation design, human
infrastructure, and volunteer empowerment at Mozilla.<br />
<br />
Emma and I would love your feedback on these thoughts around radical participation at Mozilla.</div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-87766199286393018222014-11-02T08:56:00.000-08:002014-11-02T08:58:51.678-08:00Our web will be inclusive, open, diverse, and free: Tales from the TechWomen/Mozilla/Internet Society/ Peer to Peer Womens Network Mixer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
By 6:00 on that Monday night the heat of early October had lessened - the Embarcadero was breezy with a blessed return of traces of fog. A large group of technologists gathered, many of them women, to share lighting talks and stories - and build relationships. They came together for a <a href="http://www.techwomen.org/" target="_blank">TechWomen </a>program mixer hosted by Mozilla and the SF Bay Internet Society, featuring talks by:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Dorothee Danedjo Fouba, IT Journalist and TechWomen Emerging Leader from Cameroon </li>
<li>Leah Symekher, Konstantin Kalaitzidis & Michael Snell, <a href="http://wwww.sfbayisoc.org/" target="_blank">San Francisco Bay Area ISOC Chapter </a></li>
<li>Rachel Leventhal, <a href="http://www.womensp2p.org/" target="_blank">Women's Peer to Peer Network</a></li>
<li>Haben Girma, Eritrean-American, Skadden Fellowship Attorney, <a href="http://www.dralegal.org/" target="_blank">Disability Rights Advocates</a></li>
<li>Dave Steer, Director of Advocacy, Mozilla Foundation, lead of the <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/advocacy" target="_blank">Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellowships</a></li>
<li> Larissa Shapiro, Contributor Development Lead, Mozilla Community Building </li>
</ul>
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You missed it? Don't be sad, <a href="https://air.mozilla.org/mozilla-techwomen-internet-society-mixer-and-lightning-talks/" target="_blank">there is a video!</a><br />
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Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-56216455806334857652014-10-15T13:32:00.001-07:002014-10-15T19:20:59.674-07:00Evolution of a systematic and traceable, robust and scaleable system for onboarding volunteers. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WvW4SUbslkA/VD7ZYyZbhhI/AAAAAAAAD6c/lIWplmwT7dk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-10-15%2Bat%2B13.29.52.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WvW4SUbslkA/VD7ZYyZbhhI/AAAAAAAAD6c/lIWplmwT7dk/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2014-10-15%2Bat%2B13.29.52.png" height="150" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I want to make sure everyone has seen the all new <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/contribute" target="_blank">Get Involved pag</a>e and to give a huge shout-out to the
many, many Mozillians, including many of you, who have been involved in
setting this up, along with <a href="https://guides.mozilla-community.org/" target="_blank">Guides</a> - our new community forum
designed to support brand new Mozillians.<br />
<br />
(Note that localized versions
of Get Involved are coming soon! Many people here have been involved in
getting the locales up, and that is critically important. Thank you. We
can't wait to share that work with the world.) <br />
<br />
<a href="http://davidwboswell.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/investing-more-in-community-building/" target="_blank">David blogged about it too</a>, including some history of the page and the importance of this system in what we do as a community here at Mozilla. <br />
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This set of improvements will allow us a far more robust tracking and
followup system for community as well. I look forward to growing and
learning with all of you. The metrics we will get from this new system will allow us to trace volunteers from signing up for an opportunity through becoming an active member of our community - and all the places people could get lost along the way can be addressed. This is a huge opportunity for improvement.<br />
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Thank you to every one of you who made this happen. Especialy big thanks to Jennie Rose Halperin, Emma Irwin, Matthew Zeier, everyone on the mozilla.org team, our Stewards, all the community who helped and were interviewed and reviewed prototypes, and our dedicated localizers. Building programs and tools like this with all of you is my sincere pleasure and joy.<br />
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This is how we will build the internet the world needs - with the power of a scalable way to help people figure out what they want to do - and support them in doing it. <br />
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Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-19195086891601706842014-07-02T21:06:00.001-07:002014-07-02T21:12:55.473-07:00The Web We Want is Private: Building a global community of Privacy Contributors and Advocates through Mozilla<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>[This is the first of a series of blog posts related to my new-to-2014 role leading Contributor Development as a Community Builder at Mozilla. Most are also posted on Mozilla’s about:community blog.]</i></span></div>
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I’ve never actually been that good at keeping things private. I’m a talker. I’m not usually the one to keep your secret. I learned the hard way why one should be careful with passwords and privacy via a few embarrassing linkedin and twitter incidents. Despite having learned my first system administration in college in 1993 or so, I have been pretty hopeless at staying private. But. I’m learning all the time. And, increasingly, I see that privacy is about a lot more than my learning to use Last Pass correctly, or the settings on my facebook (though those are important things). It’s actually central to all that we do online. And if I can learn the value of privacy, anyone can.</div>
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When we started the <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Contribute/Team" target="_blank">Community Building Team</a> this year we chose teams to work with as partners, to help them build Mozillian community. One of the teams I chose was <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy" target="_blank">Privacy</a>, and I was privileged to be partnered to work with Stacy Martin to grow the project we’ve come to call <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/PriMo" target="_blank">PriMo</a> - or Privacy Mozillians. Working with the newly established <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Contribute/Lifecycle" target="_blank">Contribution Lifecycle</a>, we brainstormed projects we’d like Mozillians to do around privacy, and we listened to people around the project’s existing ideas and needs for privacy community. <br />
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Stacy: "Larissa has been a great connector for us. She is aware of what other teams are doing and helps point us in the direction of content and ideas we can leverage. She suggests ways to include Foundation projects, such as Webmaker and Open Badges."<br />
<br />
We started out with a call for privacy advocates to rally around <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/privacy/2014/01/28/celebrate-data-privacy-day/" target="_blank">Data Privacy Day</a> and started to collect a few contributors. Following on his assessment of the needs of community in Utah, Mozilla L10N engineer and Rep Jeff Beatty started a program around <a href="https://storify.com/gueroJeff/user-privacy-documentary-screening-in-utah" target="_blank">TACMA screenings</a> - which has been very successful and will be expanding soon to include screenings in more Mozilla spaces and in communities as far apart as Utah to Zimbabwe. </div>
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<br />
Outside organizations also have been reaching out to us for support in privacy - the National Network To End Domestic Violence asked us to develop best practices for browser privacy for survivors, and a community project is evolving. Please check out the <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/NNEDV" target="_blank">NNEDV Browser guidelines</a> project to learn how you can support this effort.</div>
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Throughout all our efforts, we're also infusing educational opportunities to learn more about Privacy, and building community of privacy educators - that can be as simple as learning to teach family members <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Contribute/Lifecycle" target="_blank">how to use lightbeam</a> over the kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon. <br />
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The relevance of privacy work becomes more clear all the time. When we released Firefox 28, we did a global campaign to ask our community - the global network of Firefox Users - what kind of <a href="https://webwewant.mozilla.org/en/" target="_blank">Web We Want</a>. Resoundingly and around the world, they responded: <a href="https://webwewant.mozilla.org/en/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=glow2014&utm_content=textglow&gclid=CJSBna3Sjb4CFVEOOgodCA4Acg#" target="_blank">the web we want is private</a>. With the development of <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/PriMo" target="_blank">PriMo</a>, and projects such as the TACMA screenings and NNEDV browser guide among many, we have the power to take that energy and enthusiasm and turn it into action - one privacy advocate at a time. <br />
<br />
I ask you to invite your privacy leaning friends and family to <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Privacy/PriMo#Step_One_-_Become_a_Privacy_Action_Taker" target="_blank">become privacy action takers</a><br />
- whether that means downloading <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/" target="_blank">lightbeam</a> (or <a href="https://laura.makes.org/thimble/lightbeam-activity" target="_blank">teaching someone else to</a>), signing our <a href="https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2014/06/16/tell-the-u-s-congress-to-protect-net-neutrality/" target="_blank">Net Neutrality petition</a>, taking action to support our work with NNEDV, or attending (or hosting) a TACMA screening when it comes to your town… there are many actions large and small that can add up to a strong global community of privacy advocates. <br />
<br />
The web we want is respectful of each of our autonomy, our privacy, our data, our needs. The web we want is open to innovation and includes diverse voices. Building community for privacy means casting a wide net and calling many kinds of people together - people who have been involved with Mozilla a long time, and people who are just learning what we’re about. It will take many people together to change the culture of the web. What kind of web do you want? </div>
</div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-43124225645935911982013-10-13T14:47:00.002-07:002014-02-20T14:37:05.752-08:00Next Steps After Summit - The Mozilla Summit 2013 Session That Wasn't Quite <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Long ago, at a <a href="https://summit.mozilla.org/#!/" target="_blank">Mozilla Summit</a>... well, last week... several Mozillians planned an afternoon "supporting session" called "Ideas Into Action: Next Steps for Me and My Team". It was planned for Sunday afternoon, but for a variety of reasons (mostly, I think, the plethora of amazing technical Open Sessions that cropped up like mushrooms after a rain) was not well attended. Karen Rudnitski, Selena Deckelmann, Ernest Chiang, and myself, had put some thought into a framework for y'all. I think it is still helpful. Maybe especially now, a week after Summit, with the clouds of #MozFlu and our hangovers and jetlag dissipating at last. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm feeling overwhelmed with finding time for my big ideas and wild notions among the day to day, already, again.<br />
<br />
To that end, and to further the goals of our once poorly attended session, I submit to you:<br />
<i><br />Ideas Into Action: Next Steps for Me and My Team - Blog Edition</i><br />
<br />
I encourage us all to consider the following four steps:<br />
<br />
<b>Remember what got you excited at Summit! </b><br />
Was it the "Million Mozillians" idea? Candy Crush on Shumway? Security Champions? Appmaker, Marketplace, L20N? A conversation with someone you didn't know before - whether from Botswana or Belize (or Boston)? Write it all down. Big and small things. Maybe you already did this part. Find those notes.<br />
<i>Personally, I was really excited by the idea of the "internet the world needs", and volunteer community security champions, and open badges, and this totally badass robot made from an old One Laptop Per Child box that the folks from Uruguay brought to the World's Fair…. or the Innovation Fair…. one of them). How to make a Popcorn class work in a situation where there isn't reliable wireless (local web server of course). All the open hardware stuff, and Liz Henry's "bug bracelets". And every new person I met.</i><br />
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<b>Remember the four pillars Mitchell walked us through.</b> <i> </i><br />
<i>Build, Empower, Teach, Shape. </i>How do your favorite Summity things connect to the four pillars?<br />
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<b>Come up with goals that tie these ideas together for you </b>- in terms of how you could further the mission, build the internet the world needs - through what you do, who you know, and your own unique contributions. <br />
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<b>Think of small, achievable actions, that will move you forward on these goals.</b><br />
One for each. Or a few, but then <i>only consider the first one as an actual "to do" item for now.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Think of another person </b>(probably a Mozillian) w<b>ho could hold you accountable for these actions, and ask them to meet with you at regular intervals to discuss progress. </b><br />
<b> </b>Offer to hold them accountable, too. Keep meeting with them and iterating through "small actions"… and watch for big results. (This trick is not my invention, I got it from <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/People:TRIBE" target="_blank">TRIBE</a>... and it's been working for me!)<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
</ol>
It is easier to think big thoughts when we're away from home and from regular work - that is part of what events like Summit are for. A few tricks are needed, to turn ideas into action, once we're back to the grind.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
</ol>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I cannot wait to see what we do.</div>
</div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-58228566113612920942013-09-28T07:50:00.001-07:002014-02-20T14:37:29.746-08:00Dusting off the blog. Yes. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have in fact been communicating online in the last year, just... not here. A few outside old blog posts of mine...<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_179484496">
</a>
<li><a href="https://www.isc.org/blogs/techwomen-mentor-the-power-of-mentoring-looking-forward-2/" target="_blank">The Power of Mentoring – Looking Forward</a> - from the ISC and TechWomen blogs</li>
<li><a href="https://www.techwomen.org/lean-in/the-power-of-mentorship-building-connections-to-fuel-change" target="_blank">The Power of Connection to Fuel Change - also from the techwomen and isc blogs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.isc.org/blogs/techwoman-in-marrakesh-an-october-11-update/">https://www.isc.org/blogs/techwoman-in-marrakesh-an-october-11-update/</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.isc.org/blogs/launching-the-techwomen-initiative-week-one/" target="_blank">https://www.isc.org/blogs/launching-the-techwomen-initiative-week-one/ </a></li>
</ul>
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And I <a href="https://twitter.com/larissashapiro" target="_blank">tweet </a>incessantly.<br />
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These days, I am working for Mozilla, and what I'm most excited about at the moment is community building, and most particularly the <a href="http://summit.mozilla.org/" target="_blank">Mozilla Summit,</a> which is coming quickly, next weekend. My specific roles include organizing the<a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Summit2013/Fair/InnovationBooths" target="_blank"> Innovation Fair</a>, and working as a <a href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Summit2013/TrackOwners" target="_blank">Track Owner </a>for the Product and Technology track for the 3-city event, as outlined in our founder <a href="https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2013/09/27/getting-ready-for-summit-2013-fun-and-productive-already/" target="_blank">Mitchell's blog post</a> from yesterday. I've recently made a commitment to myself to start blogging more again... so... perhaps this shall get less dusty. </div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-77695084231619242342012-10-07T13:53:00.001-07:002012-10-18T04:47:18.712-07:00An Inspiring Panel on Women and Innovation at GHC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was really looking forward to this panel, as I struggle to see myself as an innovator... and I wanted to be inspired. I was. The panel was moderated by Dr. Francine Gordon, who is one of my colleagues in the TechWomen mentoring program, but far beyond that, she has a Yale PhD,.... runs TED Women Bay Area... and has many more honors I cannot even count. I knew she would run a truly useful panel. The panelists included Rahima Mohammed of Intel, who was also a TechWomen 2011 mentor, Nina Bhatti, product development engineer at Hewlett Packard, Judy Priest, Cisco office of the CTO, and Kathleen McKeown, director of a new institute for Data Sciences and Engineering at Columbia and Winner of the ABI Women of Vision award for Innovation in 2010.<br />
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This panel helped so much with realizing where and how I already innovate. Rahima challenged us that one thing women can do as innovators is to "think of the problem in a slightly different way"<br />
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Nina Bhatti pointed out that innovation is only that when it actually gets into a user's hands, and that the implementation and user focus of an idea is something many women excel at.<br />
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Judy Priest, Cisco office of the CTO pointed out that innovation means targeting things "in the right time and place" - not pushing too much on the envelope and telling competitiors what you're doing.<br />
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Moderator Francine Gordon suggested that many women don't think of ourselves as innovators... but as problem solvers. Girls have as many characteristics as innovators as boys... but they (like women) see themselves as problem solving when they innovate.<br />
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Francine also ran through an amazing list of great women innovators such as Helen Greiner, inventor of the Roomba, Judy Estrin - co-founder of Cisco who wrote The Innovation Gap... about private/public/university collaboration for innovation, and Margaret Knight - holder of 26 patents - invented a machine that allowed paper bags to have square bottoms and several patents arond the combustion engine... called by some the "female Edison".<br />
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Questions for panelists:<br />
<br />
What does innovation mean to you?<br />
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Rahima: It needs to be new, and be solving a problem that has a real need base, someone has to *use* it. Its not enough to have an idea, it has to be brought to someone who uses it.<br />
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Nina: when you get irritated by something, this should move to a problem solving point and then looking for innovation. Another place to look is a greenfield area, at the front of technology, because other people aren't there yet. You can get to the problems first, and the first solutions, wrong or right, set the trend. A key part of innovation is figuring out where to put your energy, that serves you organization's needs and a perceived market need or desire.<br />
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Judy: You also can innovate in integration, and in business models, not just technology. You need to expand your definition on innovation and find new ways to apply it. There was a famous story of a woman who invented the rotor thats in vacuum cleaners, because she was tired of sweeping the floor. Alas she didn't patent it. And the same mechanism is now used in amusement park rides.<br />
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Kathleen: what is the difference between innovation and invention? Being at a university, my first reaction was "I don't know", and I looked it up on wikipedia, and the definition there was that innovation is something new that has a *use* as a product, while invention is something novel, a new process or technology, and it doesn't have to have a use necessarily. So as a university person, the line blends. So for me, innovation is building a new system that does something cool. I don't think as much about the customer or user, though I do think about needs.<br />
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Francine: What attributes help you to be an innovator?<br />
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Kathleen: I like going into an area where I can be first, where no one has gone before. I often feel very afressive about that, wanting to push for it. Usually in the beginning I get a lot of "no"s, and my reaction is determination and almost anger. These people are wrong, and I know they're wrong, and Im going to show them.<br />
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Rahima: I like to figure out the most critical problems, and where will I get the biggest return on investment with the resources I have. Also really questioning and experimenting, and connecting the dots, associating the problem with another problem, after that also to build a network, try the idea with different kinds of people. To be successful doing something new you need a strong passion, the first time it doesnt work, second time doesn't work, but maybe the third time. Don;t give up when you hear a "no".<br />
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Francine: you can't take no as a no. It means try again another way.<br />
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Judy: One of the biggest questions I get is "where do the ideas come from" - most ideas are not siloed, problems are more complex than that. Talk to your friends. A good idea will solve a *significant* problem.<br />
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Nina: I pitch my ideas to people who I trust and who I know will listen to me, and see how their reaction is, I look for them to light up. If they don't, I go back and rethink. Then I go to experts in the area.<br />
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Francine: Failures?<br />
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Kathleen: in the academic world this is about not getting a grant or losing the grant once you had it. I sometimes wrote 5 or 6 proposals and didn't get funding before I finally did get it.<br />
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Nina: If you're trying to do something you havent done before, there is always a possibility of failure. Go for the risk area first, not last. You should not have a failure of execution. That's just a planning failure. There are failures of fit or agenda within organization. There is also a failure *To take the risk at all*. Are you failing to live up to your potential?<br />
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Judy: Failures are like bad relationships, not a black and white thing, good parts and bad parts, but a good innovator knows when to pull the plug and when to course correct. There's always something that can be gleaned or leveraged for the next thing, too.<br />
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Rahima: in many companies there is an employee review process, and people worry if they fail it will affect their review. So we fear it. But there can be failures even when all the risks are calculated. So you need a system that helps you tolerate failures. You really should have a strong handshaking agreement with your management system about your innovation. If you're not updating them about the risk, this is where you can fall flat. Get people excited, and communicate, and then even if it fails, its okay, you move on, and you are ok with management.<br />
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Judy: you also have to assign a timeline and not let things run on forever, and negotiate that up front.<br />
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Francine: remember that what some people call a failure another person calls a success. Many inventions we use today were "failures", penicillin is the most famous, but saccharine is another example, someone was trying to find new uses for coal tar, and he didn't wash his hands, and then tried to eat, and it tasted sweet, and they discovered saccharine (ew?) but...<br />
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Francine to panel: wht are the differences between your male and female team members?<br />
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Kathleen: I do always watch the women in my group. Right now I have a team and we are building a large system with a huge amount of data, and getting it done on the grant timeline is a challenge. I notice that the men on the team are very strong in stating what they think should be done, and why, and they state it in a tone of authority. They're often right, but watching the people, the women on the team, they are working extremely hard and very knowledgeable but much more soft spoken about it. I've had this experience a lot and seeing who speaks the loudest and who speaks more quietly, the quirt spoken people often know quite a bit. One of my roles is to manage communication and make sure the quiet ones get heard.<br />
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Rahima: I am very blessed in my team, I'm always looking for women, so almost half my team are women, and yes, the men are strong communicators, and women are strong collaborators, they want everyone to agree... the women want a nod from all four people on the team to proceed in an idea.<br />
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Nina: I have a no jerks policy. Innovation is a risk and I want everyone to feel safe. I had a boss, once, who was a problem and I called him on it, he was harassing one of my team members, and he didn't even know he was crossing the line, but it was really important. A culture of safety is critical. People have to be safe saying half formed ideas and know they wont be jumped on. So for me its not a man or a woman, I had quiet guys and balanced women, maybe because I auditioned people for fit with the team.... that is the key.<br />
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Judy: if someone on the team says "that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard" about aything, that person is a dream thief and they need to be off the team. Its hard for women to feel comfortable with 30% definition, women seem to want 75% definition. As an innovator, though, your job is to find the constraints and risks and then proceed boldly.<br />
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Question from the audience: Who do you define success as an inivator?<br />
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Rahima: It could be solving a problem you're working on. We think it has to have a patent, a trade secret, whatever, to be a success. Even solving a small problem can be innovation and save a lot of time or resources or otherwise be very important to your organization. Its not useful if nobody adopts your idea, it remains a discovery or an invention, does not become an innovation.<br />
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Kathlee: in the University setting, there are successes along the path, but when you see people pick up on it, thats huge success. When people download your software, that's success. Another way is it gets picked up by the TechVenture office, or people from outside the University come to you and say they think your software will solve their problem.... it takes time and you see it in stages, but the feedback is where you see it.<br />
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Francine: lets move along to patents for now. First question: what's the value of patents?<br />
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Nina: there are some things you *don't* patent because you want it to stay a trade secret. Sometimes women controbute to the ideas (not just women) and then they dont get their name on the patent, and, if you came up with any idea, you need to be on it or it invalidates the patent. Really. Also writing a patent is like publishing a paper. You can then discuss it publicly. There is a value in patenting because then when you leave th company you can still discuss it.<br />
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Francine: how do you know when you have a patentable idea?<br />
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Judy: we have a committee at Cisco, patents are very expensive, so we have to assess carefully. It costs us 30-50 thousand dollars for one US patent. The patent committee looks for the business case, the business value, is it detectable? Is it novel? If we patent it are we just telling someone else how to test a new product? This is important.<br />
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Judy: something to consider is whether its more important for things to be known as "your" idea vs the idea getting through... that depends on the situation. Think about it, but also don't give up, an when you can, own your work as yours.<br />
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Truly, this panel inspired me not just to be bold, but in how to foster a culture of innovation, and to see how I already *am* an innovator. This was a fantastic session and I hope it is a theme we see in the future at Grace Hopper.</div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-29882824082827867102012-10-07T13:16:00.002-07:002012-10-07T13:31:12.155-07:00TechWomen in Baltimore - Grace Hopper!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white;">It has been so much fun to be at Grace Hopper this year with 41 women from the 2012 <a href="http://www.techwomen.org/" target="_blank">TechWomen</a> class, four returning members of the 2011 TechWomen class (who did a fantastic panel... see my other blog: <span style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://contentsmayvary.blogspot.com/2012/10/techwomen-change-scholars-of-2011.html">Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations</a></span><a href="http://contentsmayvary.blogspot.com/2012/10/techwomen-change-scholars-of-2011.html">)</a> and quite a few of the program mentors. Running session to session I saw participants everywhere - engaging at all levels, together, separate, checking out booths, in sessions, sitting at our TechWomen tables. TechWomen is an initiative of the US Department of State which brings highly qualified technical women from the Middle East and North Africa to the San Francisco Bay Area for a mentorship with a local professional technical woman (industry or academia) and this year all the participants came to Grace Hopper, a wonderful opportunity for all involved.</span><br />
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The Emerging Leaders were honored at the Thursday plenary, which is wonderful. Many excellent sessions followed - I particularly enjoyed being with the Emerging Leaders at a session on mobile phone apps in developing nations, and the "Women and Innovation" session where mentor Francine Gordon moderated and 2011 mentor <span style="background-color: white; color: #444455; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;">Rahima Mohammed (Intel) was one of the panelists. </span>There was one great moment Thursday night, when two of the Emerging Leaders and I were watching the dance floor from up above. I said "this is what a mosh pit of technical women might look like?" and we just all kept saying "technical women mosh pit!" and laughing - because it was so inspiring and fierce and fun. But even better was watching the Emerging Leaders participate in the community of technical women - each with her own unique voice.<br />
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Saturday morning the delegation from TechWomen moved on to Washington DC for another phase of our program... and as the bus pulled out, I felt sad, because, I've come to love Hopper so much... here's to next year. </div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-34806479730018041292012-10-07T05:32:00.000-07:002014-04-12T06:10:09.432-07:00TechWomen Change Scholars Return to Hopper: Panel on Technical Women in the Arab Region<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I was so honored to get to blog about the panel "Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations" - this panel was made up of graduates of the inaugural class of the TechWomen program, for which I have been honored to mentor emerging leaders for the last two years. TechWomen is a project of the US Department of State, which, working with the International Institute of Education and the Anita Borg Institute, has for two years brought emerging technical women leaders to the US for mentorship and for the second year has brought these women to Grace Hopper. (For more information, visit http://www.techwomen.org)<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ty31HIWKYjQ/UHFsQK379aI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/PiUFBXlncpY/s1600/8055025777_19cce41b44.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ty31HIWKYjQ/UHFsQK379aI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/PiUFBXlncpY/s320/8055025777_19cce41b44.jpg" /></a><br />
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“Technical Women in the Arab Region: Challenges vs. Aspirations” was one of GHC12 interesting and motivating panels which answered the main question posed by GHC this year “Are We There Yet?” from the perspective of the Arab Region and went on to explain that, if not, then “How can we get there?” <br />
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The panel was the fruit of the efforts exerted by four dedicated and ambitious professional technical Arab women who work for national and international bodies located in various countries of the Arab region. These ladies are Ms. Sukaina Al-Nasrawi (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Lebanon), Ms. Maysoun Ibrahim (Office of the Palestinian President, Palestine), Ms. Reham Nasser (Hewlett Packard, Egypt) and Ms. Hania Gati (LVSC Mediterranee, Algeria). They succeeded, after a highly competitive process, in formulating a panel on Arab women in computing. The latter was regarded as a breakthrough as it was the first of its kind in the history of the conference.<br />
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The panel, moderated by Ms. Katy Dickinson (Huawei Technologies, USA), constituted a forum for reporting on successful trends as well as areas that remain complex in the field of technology. It provided an opportunity for sharing personal experiences of technical Arab women who are professional in their field and successfully went through the experience of the inaugural class of TechWomen 2011, participated in GHC 2011 and received TechWomen Change Agent Scholars awards.<br />
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Panelists tackled the status of ICT in the Arab region along with the status of technical Arab Women. They explored the opportunities, hopes as well as the diverse challenges facing Arab technical women in the region. Discussions highlighted the global and national gender gap that exists in the region while attributing special attention to the gap at the level of ICT literacy and employment. Each of the panelists shed the light on social and cultural issues leading young girls to desert technology. Common issues for the region exist and others are particular to certain countries.<br />
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The panel highlighted many achievements in the field and at the same time focused on the needed strategies for increasing the interest of girls in majoring in technical fields, as well as achieving their career goals. The theme of this panel was of high importance as many Arab countries are witnessing a rise in female participation in the ICT sector; however this rise remains very modest and varies enormously from one Arab country to another.<br />
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The audience of the panel was very diverse. It included researchers interested in exploring the status of ICT in the Arab region and status of technical Arab Women, academic leaders, Executives, exchange programs’ mentors, and members of the class of TechWomen 2012. The panel was also delighted by the attendance of Dr. Telle Whitney, the President and CEO of the Anita Borg Institute. <br />
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At the end of the session, Katy invited all, 2011 TechWomen, 2012 TechWomen, and mentors past and present, to take a photo together:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0NZrnKFsO4M/UHFxqGkoUnI/AAAAAAAAAKo/dTMf8yw3wwc/s1600/8055039121_28df92be66_z.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0NZrnKFsO4M/UHFxqGkoUnI/AAAAAAAAAKo/dTMf8yw3wwc/s320/8055039121_28df92be66_z.jpg" /></a><br />
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So inspiring to see that the question "are we there yet", when asked about Technical Women in the Arab Region, can be so enthusiastically answered with "look at what the future holds!"<br />
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*All photos in this blog are credited with thanks to Katy Dickinson and Jessica Dickinson Goodman </div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-10213143408144355342012-10-03T18:51:00.004-07:002012-10-03T19:19:41.670-07:00GHC! Office Politics for those who don't like Office Politics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Office Politics Session at Grace Hopper - facilitated by Jo Miller, Women's Leadership Coaching Inc.</i></b><br />
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Jo first suggested that we shift our mindset about office politics. She suggested that cultivating a network of people who understand you and will collaborate you and understand you in your goals.<br />
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Key Mindset Shifts:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Work less! Work will expand to fill the time you give it, so....</li>
<li>Get out of your in-box! - go do the *things* that position you as an emerging leader</li>
<li>Reframe "office politics" as "organizational awareness" - people who navigate well with savy through organizational awareness means being someone who observes the communication and relationships that surround you in your organization: between individuals, and teams, etc. Women can be especially good at this!</li>
</ul>
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This is where it got really good. </div>
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Jo showed us an org chart. But then we got into the truth of it. Where people are in the org chart doesn't tell us everything we need to know to navigate well. Say goodbye, it doesn't tell us the full story.</div>
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Jo then introduced a new concept: the shadow organization. Here's how you map out your shadow organization:</div>
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Draw out your 5-10 key people you work with in something like an org chart. Then using multiple colored pens/crayons, notice and mark down the strong relationships, the broken relationships, the paths of influence, and the coalitions. Find the islands of one. How did this come to be? What draws a group together? Then add key influencers, both positive or negative ("halo or horns!") and then the last key idea is "verticals" - people above who help and mentor from an upper level creating a vertical relationship and there is then a group of people "below" them who get promoted, seen, advanced, more often. </div>
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How to gather more information for your shadow organization doc:</div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>One crafty woman suggested that one's manager's calendar... might... be... viewable... and you can learn who *their* influencers are. (I won't tell you who she works for!)</li>
<li>Watch who is having coffee with who and what they're talking about.</li>
<li>"Never miss a happy hour"</li>
<li>Stay present in meetings, don't just watch your laptop, watch *people* when you can.</li>
</ul>
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Notice where the gaps are in your own relationships, in the shadow organization, and work on them. Make notes on where the gaps are and think about what specific actions you can take to build coalitions that will work for you and your goals. Find a colleague who wants to do the same exercise who you have a strong relationship with and share ideas.</div>
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Observations and questions from the room of hundreds of women doing this exercise: </div>
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"all my influencers are on one side of the org chart, and all the conflict people are on the other side of the org chart. So do I... even keep trying with the other side?"</div>
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"We manage people who want our guidance, who feel that they have a bias against them in the organization, that they did something 10 years ago that they can't shake, and how do people change an image of themselves that has been with them a long time?"</div>
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Jo suggested that as women, sometimes we spend too long in a situation that's not positive for us to grow in. Is there fear or misplaced loyalty involved? But you *can* also turn around your persona inside an organization. You can turn around a reputation in as little as two months but it takes incredible focus. Figure out what you want to be *known for. Branding yourself is how it works. In every interaction, demonstrate the new persona.</div>
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Xerox person... who was this? "Its not enough to have a bright technical idea... you have to engage the entire human fabric" Ask who collaborated with you on this business plan, how cross-functional was your plan? How robust is the idea?</div>
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"Epiphanettes" from reviewing the map with others at our tables:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>"there might be people missing from my chart who I need to build relationships with who, I didn't think of"</li>
<li>"When one is in an IT division inside another organization, building the relationships *outside* the IT division might really increase one's sphere of influence"</li>
<li>Its easier to be well connected with your own management than it is to go up another level and have a good relationship with your manager's manager (director, vp...)</li>
<li>being a trustworthy person and a good observer will go a long way in solving the shadow map puzzle.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<br />
How to rise above and stand out as a leader:<br />
<br />
Jo: the senior people in your organization need to know who the rock stars are in their organizations and what your goals are so they can call on you when they need someone solid. Make sure they know who you are and what you do!<br />
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Every organization has unwritten unspoken "Rules of the Game". Find them out! What are ways to navigate ethically and effectively within these rules?<br />
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Rules people in the room observed:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>When you know the rules you feel really bound by them, if you know less, sometimes you have more options, actually. Stop asking so many questions!</li>
<li>Its mostly a negative experience, but sometimes you only learn the rules by tripping over them.</li>
<li>Jo: you need to know what the rules are, but you do not need to do things that break your ethics. The example she gave was that the influential coalition she observed in her team was the smokers, who talked outside while smoking. But she didn't want to be a smoker, so she found another way.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Five ways to generate quick wins in office politics and building organizational awareness:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
5. Find the person who is great at navigating in your organization. Take them out for lunch or coffee or have a call, and ask them how they do it. Ask for tips. Lean from them! Share what you know, too. This person navigates well at all levels, and keeps "institutional memory" they can share with you. This is also someone who gets a "quick read" on new people and groups. </div>
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<br /></div>
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4. Build an influential coalition. This is bigger and easier than it seems! It can be quicker and easier to get great things done from the grass roots. Who are you likeminded with? Who shares your passions and values? Educate them on what you're about, and get onboard to support them in what is important to them. At some point, it will be clear that you can now ask this person or group of people for their support in something really great that you want to do. What action can you take to build this?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
"Never underestimate the power of the meeting-before-the-meeting." - Iesha O'Deneal, SVP Diversity, Bank of America. Notice where the real decisions are being made. Learn how you can insert yourself into *those conversations.</div>
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3. Don't like the unwritten, unspoken rules of the game? Become a game-changer! This is a mid-level career position, where you are now respected in your role. Find the other people who are playing along with rules they don't like. Change things! (great example given of changing "happy hour" so that sometimes its at a relatively early hour - like 4-5:00 on Friday - when working parents can actually attend sometimes!)</div>
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<br /></div>
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2. Manage upward. Leading your leaders is easier than you think. Take your queues from others around you who are doing it. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Quick tips on managing upward:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Think and act like an executive. </li>
<li>Notice the behaviors, thinking style, etc, of the senior people in your organization and mirror their style. Ask them what their goals and hot button issues are. </li>
<li>Notice how they exert influence. </li>
<li>When you need to propose something to them, you can come armed with what they will listen to and get ahead of their needs. </li>
<li>Remember that they are relying on you to be the expert. Don't be deferential. </li>
<li>Always have talking topics in your back pocket in case you get a moment with a senior person to talk.</li>
</ul>
</div>
And for the #1 tip... we had to wait till after another break (coffee coffee coffee)<br />
<br />
1. Jo's top tip for quick wins in office politics is!<br />
<br />
Sponsors versus mentors... a sponsor goes beyond the advice level and uses their connections to help them move forward. Senior women are "over mentored and under sponsored" in their organizations. (from an article in Harvard Business Review on "Why Men Get Promoted More than Men")<br />
<br />
So the top tip is to enlist senior level sponsors and advocates to help you move up in your career.<br />
<br />
Cindy Kent: "A sponsor is someone who will use their internal political and social capital to move your career forward within an organization. They will argue your case with senior management behind closed doors."<br />
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Qualities of a good sponsor:<br />
<br />
1. Senior leader with influence<br />
2. Well respected, credible person<br />
3. Familiar with your strengths<br />
4. Has a track record for developing talent<br />
5. Provides exposure opportunities for proteges<br />
6. Provides 'air cover' from negative or damaging publicity<br />
<br />
Michelle Johnston quote:<br />
<br />
have 3-4 advocates *outside your direct management chain* to broaden your reach and find opportunities that might not be apparent to you and also inocculate you against changes.<br />
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How to cultivate sponsorships:<br />
<br />
1. Outperform! Deliver great work.<br />
2. Don't just work hard, but make your value visible. Step away and network. Take on stretch assignments.<br />
3. Observe the protocols. How does sponsorship work in your organization's culture?<br />
4. Ask who the leaders are who really develop talent... and who are the ones who don't.<br />
5. Network across your organization and beyond your direct management chain and make sure when you get someone senior's ear that you tell them what you do and what you're great at.<br />
6. Look for exposure opportunities to work for or with senior leaders<br />
7. Have clarity about your career goals.<br />
8. Share your career goals with your leaders.<br />
<br />
<br />
Table Topics:<br />
<br />
There were several table topics, including but not limited to "How to navigate office politics in an office of mostly men", "How to manage upward", and my topic of choice "how to navigate office politics in a virtual team".<br />
<br />
ISC has about 60 staff in 10+ countries, and all over the US, so the topic of my table, "how to navigate office politics in a virtual team" was especially interesting.<br />
<br />
We determined that mostly, every political dynamic that you have in a physically co-located team exists in a virtual team, as well as some additional dynamics. Constant communication is the key, but balancing it with getting enough work done is tough. The critical thing is to take specific efforts to humanize the people behind the voices and typed words. One team represented at our table has a meeting twice a year where each member prepares a short presentation about themselves with photo and things they like to do for fun, etc. This humanizes their team, which meets in person extremely rarely. We agreed that while it is *hard* to reach out above or across teams when working virtually, it is even*more* important than in a physical office. Skip level 1:1s and other such tools are critical.<br />
<br />
In addition to the specific issues around office politics, we discussed a few other aspects of virtual team work. We discussed how teams who develop software with scrum might adjust for virtual teams, too, and it occurred to me this might be a useful future Hopper topic (key hint: have more than one standup per day for timezones, and have a shared chat room that the whole team logs into while working).<br />
<br />
<br />
Jo wrapped up the session by encouraging us to reach out to her anytime, and to continue to work on specific actions toward all the concepts discussed in the workshop. You can see all Jo's excellent slides at: http://www.womensleadershipcoaching.com/ghc12.htm<br />
<br />
Grace Hopper is kicked off for 2012! <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151149548370927780.post-69033072488208556162012-09-15T07:13:00.005-07:002012-10-03T09:56:40.860-07:00The potential purposes of this blog.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been on the internet a long time. I think I didn't have my own full time forever email account until 1991, though. I had a geocities website, yahoo mail, livejournal (still do), facebook, google+, I think I briefly had a MySpace account. I've blogged on lots of other people's sites, too, but I don't have a public corner for musings, and I'm being asked a lot lately to blog and submit a specific feed to another blog or event or whatever, so that is what this is for. Topics likely to vary widely. </div>
Larissahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11701652537143200283noreply@blogger.com0