IT Girls

Information Technologies are everywhere: They make our lives richer and more comfortable. They connect people worldwide - anywhere, anytime. They even help save lives! However, not enough people in Europe are choosing careers in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) – especially not enough women.

career in the ICT sector has no limits anymore. Your job can range from traditional engineering or programming to designing new types of mobile phones or saving the environment. Information and Communications Technologies are important to every aspect of our lives.
The European Commission decided to do something about the lack of women in IT careers. Together with several leading technology companies – the Commission organised a series of "shadowing days" to show young women that technology is not at all "strictly for geeks!".

Get involved and experience your own shadowing day.
You can all do IT!

source: eu site

Designer Salary on the Web

Name: LaFlam
Job Title: Owner, Freelance Web Designer/Slackbax Media
Where: Santa Monica, CA
Years of Experience: 5+
Salary: $40,000 - $80,000
Employer: Self
Education: BFA

Web Designer Job Description:
The job of a web designer is to build web sites for clients (I also maintain web sites if clients call for that service) using HTML, CSS, Flash, ActionScript, Javascript and PHP. I also do consulting, re-designs and monthly updates. As a freelance web designer, I build/create micro-sites, perform platform testing (MAC & PC), test browsers on sites, as well as incorporate interactive and ecommerce elements. I also equip web sites for video/audio streaming (Quicktime, FLV)
podcasting, blogs and more.

What is your background?
My primary background is being a trained musician on both upright (double) bass and electric bass. I studied music in college and received a BFA. However, web design really just fell in my lap. How did you become a freelance web designer?
I was the only computer literate person in my band. By helping my band create an online identity, I found another creative outlet, building web sites. This knowledge and passion for online graphic design is what prompted me to learn more. I became a freelance web designer back in the late '90s when the internet was just starting to leak into homes.

Did you take classes or are you self-taught in web design?
Both, I have taken a ton of classes and have a library of books. However, I truly believe that if you want to set out and do something you just have to get out there and make it happen. Find ways to learn, either by reading a book, taking a class or watching a seminar. Life is learning and the more you get out and explore, the richer in knowledge you'll become.

What do you like most about being a freelance web designer?
I love being my own boss. I enjoy the people that I get to meet everyday and, most importantly, I get to spend quality time with my family.

What advice would you give to those who want to go into web design?
Learn as much as you can and never stop. Web design is using technology that is always changing. If you think that you can just go to school, get out and be set for life, you are totally wrong. You have to realize that you will always need to be up on your game. Books are a great web designer resource.

What are some good books to learn web design?
There are quite a few good books to learn web design from. I would really recommend: Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML (Head First) by Elisabeth Freeman and Eric Freeman, Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Hands-On Training by James Gonzalez, Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Hands-On Training by Rosanna Yeung, Flash 8 Essentials by Glen Rhodes, Todd Yard, Tink (aka Stephen Downs), and Craig Swann, Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition by W. Jason Gilmore and PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library) by Luke Welling and Laura Thomson.

What is the typical web designer salary range?
A web designer salary really depends on the designer’s experience and skills. For professional web designers using HTML coding with CSS and graphic design skills, that web designer salary range would be $25 to $30 an hour. For a freelance web designer with flash, PHP and graphic design; their pay rate would be $40 to $50 an hour. For a flash web designer with advanced skills in flash, PHP and graphic design, that salary range could be in the $75 to $100 an hour range.

Digital Divide

The term digital divide refers to the gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology, and those without access to it. It includes the imbalances in physical access to technology, as well as the imbalances in resources and skills needed to effectively participate as a digital citizen. In other words, it’s the unequal access by some members of the society to information and communications technology, and the unequal acquisition of related skills. Groups often discussed in the context of a digital divide include socioeconomic (rich/poor), racial (majority/minority), or geographical (urban/rural). The term global digital divide refers to differences in technology access between countries.
Origins of the term
The term initially referred to gaps in ownership of computers between groups.[1][2] The term came into regular usage in the mid-1990s. President of the United States Bill Clinton and his Vice President Al Gore used the term in a 1996 speech in Knoxville,[3] though the term had appeared in several news articles and political speeches as early as 1995.[4] Larry Irving, a former United States head of the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Administration (NTIA) at the Department of Commerce, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and technology adviser to the Clinton Administration, noted that a series of NTIA surveys (1995), (1998), (1999), and (2000) were “catalysts for the popularity, ubiquity, and redefinition” of the term, and he used the term in a series of later reports.[4] Since the start of the George W. Bush Administration, the NTIA reports (2002)(2004) have tended to focus less on gaps and divides and more on the steady growth of broadband access, especially amongst groups formerly believed to be on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Current usage
As with many general concepts, there are various definitions of the term "digital divide". According to Bharat Mehra (2004), the digital divide is “the troubling gap between those who use computers and the internet and those who do not”.[5]
The term initially referred to gaps in the ownership of, or regular access to, a computer. As Internet access came to be seen as a central aspect of computing, the term's usage shifted to encompass gaps in not just computers but also access to the Internet. Recently, some have used the term to refer to gaps in broadband network access.[2] The term can mean not only unequal access to computer hardware, but also inequalities between groups of people in the ability to use information technology fully.[6]

Due to the range of criteria which can be used to assess the imbalance, and the lack of detailed data on some aspects of technology usage, the exact nature of the digital divide is both contextual and debatable. Criteria often used to distinguish between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' of the digital divide tend to focus on access to hardware, access to the internet, and details relating to both categories. Some scholars fear that these discussions might be discouraging the creation of Internet content that addresses the needs of minority groups that make up the "have nots," as they are portrayed to be technophobic charity cases that lack the desire to adopt new technologies on their own.[7]

The discussion on digital divide often are tied with other concepts. Lisa Servon argued in 2002 that the digital divide "is a symptom of a larger and more complex problem -- the problem of persistent poverty and inequality".[8] As described by Mehra (2004), the four major components that contribute to digital divide are “socioeconomic status, with income, educational level, and race among other factors associated with technological attainment”.[5]
Recognition of digital divide as an immense problem has led scholars, policy makers, and the public to understand the “potential of the internet to improve everyday life for those on the margins of society and to achieve greater social equity and empowerment”.

Digital divide and education
One area of significant focus was school computer access; in the 1990s, rich schools were much more likely to provide their students with regular computer access. In the late 1990s, rich schools were much more likely to have internet access.[citation needed] In the context of schools, which have consistently been involved in the discussion of the divide, current formulations of the divide focus more on how (and whether) computers are used by students, and less on whether there are computers or internet connections.[citation needed]
The E-rate program (officially the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund), authorized in 1996 and implemented in 1997, directly addressed the technology gap between rich and poor schools by allocating money from telecommunications taxes to poor schools without technology resources. Though the program faced criticism and controversy in its methods of disbursement, it did provide over 100,000 schools with additional computing resources, and internet connectivity.[citation needed]
Recently, discussions of a digital divide in school access have broadened to include technology related skills and training in addition to basic access to computers and internet access.[citation needed]

Technology offers a unique opportunity to extend learning support beyond the classroom, something that has been difficult to do until now. “The variety of functions that the internet can serve for the individual user makes it “unprecedentedly malleable” to the user’s current needs and purposes”.

Global digital divideMain article: Global digital divide

Another key dimension of the digital divide is the global digital divide, reflecting existing economic divisions in the world. This global digital divide widens the gap in economic divisions around the world. Countries with a wide availability of internet access can advance the economics of that country on a local and global scale. In today's society, jobs and education are directly related to the internet. In countries where the internet and other technologies are not accessible, education is suffering, and uneducated people cannot compete in the global economy. This leads to poor countries suffering greater economic downfall and richer countries advancing their education and economy. However, when dealing with the global aspect of digital divide there are several factors that lead to digital divide. For example, country of residence, ethnicity, gender, age, educational attainment, and income levels are all factors of the global aspects of digital divide.[10][page # needed] In addition, a survey shows that in 15 Western European countries females, manual workers, elderly, and the less educated have less internet access than males, professional, the young, and the well educated”.[11] The digital divide is a term used to refer to the gap between people who have access to the internet and those that do not. It can also refer to the skills people have – the divide between peoples who are at ease using technology to access and analyse information and those who are not.

Digital divide, e-democracy and e-governance
The theoretical concepts of e-democracy are still in early development, but many scholars agree that blogs (web logs), wikis and mailing lists may have significant effects in broadening the way democracy operates.[14] There is, as yet, no consensus among scholars about the possible outcomes of this revolution;[14] it has so far shown promise in improving electoral administration and reducing fraud and disenfranchisement; particularly positive has been the reception of e-government services related to online delivery of government services, with portals (such as United States USA.gov) used as intermediaries between the government and the citizen, replacing the need for people to queue in traditional offices.[15]

One of the main problems associated with the digital divide as applied to a liberal democracy is the capacity to participate in the new public space, the cyberspace - as in the extreme case, exclusively computer-based democratic participation (deliberation forums, online voting, etc) could mean that no access meant no vote. Therefore, there is a risk that some social groups - those without adequate access to or knowledge of IT - will be under-represented (or others over-represented) in the policy formation processes and this would be incompatible with the equality principles of democracy.

Overcoming the digital divide
Proponents[attribution needed] of the open content, free software, and open access social movements believe that these movements help equalize access to digital tools and information.
Projects like One Laptop per Child and 50x15 offer a partial solution to the global digital divide; these projects tend to rely heavily upon open standards and free open source software. The OLPC XO-1 is an inexpensive laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world,[16] to provide them with access to knowledge. Programmer and free software advocate Richard Stallman has highlighted the importance of free software among groups concerned with the digital divide such as the World Summit on the Information Society.

Gender & ICTs

What is gender?

Gender is used in this toolkit to refer to the socially constructed roles and socially learned behaviors and expectations of women and men in a particular society. These relations and the roles that women and men assume are culturally defined and institutionally embedded. Whereas biological sex (being male or female) is not easily altered, gender as a social identity changes over time (historically) and space (geographically). Gender roles of men or women in one society may differ from another. In many cultural contexts it will be difficult to convince men to allow, or encourage, their daughters or wives to receive training or to invest in ICT unless men can see that they and the whole family will also benefit. Gender considers both men and women and the relations between them.

Why is gender equality a development issue?

Research has established the business case for gender equality: development projects that take gender relations into account are more likely to achieve their objectives than those that do not Progress towards gender equality is directly correlated with the alleviation of global poverty. Social considerations, however, are not easily incorporated into policies, laws, markets, and organizations. It is particularly difficult to incorporate them into technical projects. The process of incorporating gender equality considerations into development institutions, projects, and programs is often referred to as "gender mainstreaming." Studies confirm that without direct intervention, mainstreaming of gender equality concerns will not occur (Kimani 2000; IFPRI 2000).

What are ICTs?

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the hardware, software, networks, and media used to collect, store, process, transmit, and present information in the form of voice, data, text, and images. They range from telephone, radio, and television to the Internet. Given the focus on using ICTs to reach women and men equally in developing countries, particularly those in peri-urban and rural areas, this toolkit looks at the full range of ICTs and not only at the more advanced technologies. Decisions about which ICTs are appropriate have gender equality implications.

ICTs have tremendous potential for promoting and achieving sustainable development that is also gender-equal. This potential is yet to be realized. The purpose of this toolkit is to identify opportunities, highlight innovative projects and activities, and suggest how the World Bank and other agencies can use ICTs to help realize the potential for gender equality.

What is Engendering ICTs?

The standard meaning of engender is "give rise to." In recent years, gender advocates have adopted the word and given it an additional meaning-"integrating gender into development work." This new connotation of the word was used for the first time in the World Bank report Engendering Development (2001) which provided empirical and analytical evidence of the links between gender equality and poverty alleviation. ICTs can be used to help alleviate poverty as well as gender inequality. To do so, existing gender disparities that are related to the digital divide need to be identified and removed, and the potential of ICTs to empower both men and women must be exploited in full. Therefore, "engendering ICTs" is the process of identifying and removing gender disparities in the access to and use of ICTs, as well as of adapting ICTs to the special needs, constraints, and opportunities of women. Any such adaptation should take advantage of women's special knowledge and their strong informal networks and support systems that may make it possible to combine electronic communication with traditional communication systems.

Why a concern for gender equality in ICT projects?

Globally, ICTs transform the way production is organized and information is shared. ICTs offer flexibility of time and space, a way out of isolation, and access to knowledge and productive resources. They are enabling tools for economic development and social change. These attributes make ICTs a valuable resource for women in developing counties, who often suffer from limited availability of time, social isolation, and lack of access to knowledge and productive resources.

Why concentrate on women if we are talking about gender?

When the underlying concern is gender equality, we frequently find ourselves talking about the situation of women because the existing gender inequalities in access to vital rights and resources generally affect women and girls more negatively than men and boys. These inequalities include disparities in basic human rights, in political participation, and in access to resources such as schooling, credit, and jobs. In the case of ICTs, areas in which girls and women suffer such inequalities directly affect their access to and use of the technologies.

However, women in the developing world do not belong to a single homogeneous group. There are highly variable political, socioeconomic, and cultural differences that affect the lives of both men and women across different regions of the world. Not all women are disadvantaged (for example, middle-class women will usually have much greater access to ICTs than most poor men). There are also major differences based on age, health, and ethnicity, and substantial regional variations in the relations between gender and ICTs. Whereas in some parts of the world, girls shy away from computer science, it is often regarded as a women's field in some countries of South and West Asia.

Why do women need ICTs?

Women need ICTs for the same reasons as men: to get more information to carry out their productive, reproductive, and community roles; to conduct their businesses, as a service of employment and to work in the ICT industry; to find resources for themselves, their families, their work, and their communities; and to have a voice in their lives, their community, their government, and the larger world that shares their issues and problems. In summary, they need ICTs to function in a digital world.

source: worldbank site

Women Empowerment through ICT

Discussion2: How can ICT make a difference in empowering women? How can the gender issue be mainstreamed in ICT policies and strategies? Should it be mainstreamed?

Every one and a half month, we arrange online discussion related to women in ICT. http://www.dgroups.org/groups/WITNepal

It is a hard truth that the majority of the poor are women and they experience vulnerability and powerlessness to a much higher degree than men. Equitable access to ICT technology and the autonomy to receive and produce the information relevant to their concerns and perspectives are therefore critical issues for women. ICT for the vast majority of women in developing countries is not feasible for the foreseeable future. Until they know the importance of ICT and how it can empower them, women will still lag behind.

Take a look at how mobile telephony and the Internet have revolutionized the way we work, learn, interact and relax. Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunications are changing our way of life. ICTs are here to stay because we live in the age where quality access to information and knowledge is a key to survival and performance.
So, how can ICT empower women? How can gender be mainstreamed in ICT policies and strategies? Discussion on dgroup came up with some probable answers and solutions as prior.

Summery on the second discussion:
Women Empowerment through ICT: What is the role of ICT in the economic and social development of women? This issue touches all facet of society. Information and communication technologies could give a major boost to the political and social empowerment of women, and the promotion of gender equality. Women must be active ICT participants - users, professionals, creators, producers and entrepreneurs. To make a difference, women must engage in productive ICT and ICT-driven activities – usage and production.

Equal representation: Should aim to develop a more equitable representation, not only in terms of ratios but also in terms of responsibilities and authority. This “engendered” participation at a high level of decision-making will ensure that women are no longer subjected to be passive consumers of services offered to them but rather enable women to play a decisive role in deciding the kind of services they want and the structures and strategies which could best address the needs of women in society and community.

Capitalize and leverage usage of ICT capabilities: Potential of ICT will only be realized if the gender dimensions of the Information Society – in terms of users’ needs, conditions of access, policies, applications and regulatory frameworks – are properly understood and adequately addressed by all stakeholders.

Easy access and control: Access refers to the ability to make use of the technology as well as the information and knowledge it provides, while control refers to the ability to decide how ICTs are used and who can have access to them. Effective use refers to the ability of women and girls to use ICTs strategically to advance social development goals. Without real access to technology, there is a limit to how and what women can contribute. Access needs to improve – availability and quality. More women, especially in the rural and informal sector, need to use ICT to get things done in their lives and work. Better access to information and the ability to tap into the benefits of ICT enables women to be more competitive.

Gender defined role: Women must combine simultaneously two jobs – the professional and the domestic. So, it is difficult for them to manage time.

Absence from decision making process: Although the number of women in jobs involving ICT expertise is constantly rising, the same is not necessarily true of women’s access to decision-making and control of these resources. Women are under-represented in all ICT decision-making structures, including policy and regulatory institutions, ministries responsible for ICTs, and boards and senior management of private ICT companies. Decision making in ICTs is generally treated as a purely technical area (typically for male experts), where civil society viewpoints are given little or no space, rather than as a political domain.

ICT policies and strategies: The policy and strategies during the policy implementation should focus on creating competent women who can contribute in the revision of these policies document, avoiding a situation where most of the policies are formulated by patriarchal mindset.

Tech girls are chic, not just geek

Tech girls are chic, not just geek is a fun new book showing that it takes all types of people to work in Information Technology (IT). 16 'tech girls' are women working in a range of technology jobs across Australia. They are a bunch of fun and funky women who find working with technology challenging and interesting, and they are far from fitting the stereotypical 'geek' image portrayed by the media. They use their technical and/or non-technical skills (usually a combination of both) to have a successful career in IT.


So who wouldn't want to work with technology? There are heaps of jobs all over the world, travel to exotic locations, interesting and challenging work, and you often don't have to work in a boring office. Sounds like a great career? We think so! So why do so few people (especially girls) choose this type of career? That's a great question. Researchers have been trying to uncover this mystery for many years, and conclude that the industry has a serious image problem. The stereotype is that working with technology is boring, and that you have to be nerdy and spend all day in front of a computer alone. This is not what Information Technology (IT) is all about. Once you see the book you will see why! You can see a bunch of fabulous gals who work with technology every day; and they love it.


What if you were the person who invented the iPod, or YouTube, or Instant Messaging? Could this be you? Why not? It had to be someone! And it could be you. Imagine what technology would look like if we had more girls creating it? It might be a very different world! And new technology jobs are created every day, so your job of the future might not exist yet. How exciting!


Aimed at girls aged 12-16, the book also has wide appeal to educators and employers. As the number of females studying and working with technology is at an all time low, we hope to inspire girls to think a little deeper about technology, what they like about it, what they are good at, and what are the things that are important to them in their future career. We believe you will be able to relate to us and what we do, and we hope to help you understand that it is ok and even a good choice to have a career working with technology.

ORDER BOOK : www.techgirlsarechic.org

Women have minimal presence in ICT. Why?

Discussion: In the Field of ICT, Women have minimal presence. Why?

Summary:
In the field of ICT, in Nepal, we are well aware of the minimal participation of women. Many of the well-known prominent figures in ICT market are all men. And, when we do come across some women, they mostly happen to occupy positions at the lower level in the organizational hierarchy. And this is not only the scenario in the job market. In ICT courses, the percentage of girls enrolled is also very disappointing.

Take the case of Institute of Engineering (IOE) for example. In IOE, one of the most reputed institutions in Nepal, there are only 23 girls out of total of 1700 students enrolled in ICT related subjects. That’s roughly around 1.3%. This figure itself speaks volume.

So, why are women less represented in ICT sector? What are they afraid of? What are the barriers for their entry? We at Bellanet initiated a discussion on dgroups so as to come up with possible answers to the lower participation and representation of women in ICT arena.

Some of the possible reasons discussed by the dgroup members are:

1. Lack of confidence
Women are fearful of competing with male counterparts. This may be due to lack of self-confidence among women. Women’s lack of awareness and lack of access to information about their rights has made them vulnerable to subordination, exploitation and abuse.

2. Socio-cultural factor
Numerous invisible barriers limit women’s and girls’ participation in the Information Society. Women have not been raised and trained to engage in science and technology. The way a girl child is brought up, compared to boy child, is also a factor that makes a girl hesitant to choose a career in ICT. From childhood, a girl is taught to focus more in household chores rather than building their career. They are discouraged from studying science and technology, either consciously or unconsciously, by parents’ and teachers’ biases.

3. Fear of technology
By law of nature itself, women are more into traditional sciences like biology, literature rather than technology-related subjects like networking and IT. This may be due to fear of technology which is also referred to as “technophobia”. As a result, women are mostly concentrated in assembly and clerical work, while only a few are engaged in computer systems administration and technical development. Women in low-grade technical and service jobs also make up the largest group of computer users. Men continue to crowd out women in training for higher skilled work.

4. Illiteracy
Women make up nearly two-thirds of the world’s illiterate and 1 out of every 2 women in developing countries is illiterate. Consequently, women are more likely to lack the basic literacy and computer skills than men that would enable them to take advantage of new global communication.

5. Lack of role models
There is a lack of women role models in the field of ICT. As such, an urgent need is there to come up with success stories and case studies highlighting the victories of women so as to encourage other women to take up career in the field of ICT. There should be documentation and sharing of best cases to convince women, for example the cases of SEWA, MSSRF, ENRD etc. They can be influential in terms of providing female learners with new role models, and opening up horizons.

6. Gender insensitive ICT environment
In Nepal, there is no gender friendly ICT environment. Women are underrepresented in all decision-making structures in the ICT sector, and this undermines the negotiation of gender-sensitive investment decisions and introduction of innovative patterns, policies and standards in the ICT sector. There needs to lobbying with the government for gender friendly ICT policies, so more women are encouraged to participate in information society.

7. Gender sensitive technology:
Women not only need to have greater control over such new technologies, but these technologies in and of themselves need to be shaped and developed in a manner that they reduce women’s work burden, challenge existing gender hierarchies and empower/attract women.

8. Lack of sufficient networking
Women themselves are not realising the importance of the use of ICT. Gaining access to information and communication technologies will not, in itself, contribute to women’s advancement and social development.


Conclusions:
In summary, to increase the presence of women in the field of ICT can be grouped in five prior the discussions. First, there is a need of awareness about the benefits to be gained from information and communication technologies and the uses to which they can be put. Secondly, literacy and basic education for women is needed. Women must not be left behind in the gap between those with and without access to the new information technologies, and must be prevented from predominating among the information-poor. Third, Participation of women in senior decision-making positions and politically influential positions in the ICT sector should be encouraged. Women should be actively involved in ensuring the potential of ICTs as directed towards promoting human well-being rather than existing power monopolies. Fourth, Stereotyped views of women’s skills and abilities should be discouraged as women have made inroads into skilled jobs as software programmers or computer analysts. Such success stories should be documented so they can be influential in terms of providing female learners with new role models, and opening up horizons. Fifth, Technologies themselves need to be shaped and developed so as to promote livelihood and attract more women.