Rockin' Robin: Robin Goldfarb Wilensky's Weblog

Session/Event:My turn to volunteer at the Sun recruitment booth (Day 2, During Session 3)

Commentary:
This was actually one of the highlights of the event. It was really interesting to speak to so many college students who are interested in working for Sun and learning about the vast subject areas that these girls are studying within the field of computing. Here are some pictures from the recruitment area.

Session/Event:Technical to Management: Expect the Unexpected (Day 2, Session 4)

Commentary:
I missed the beginning of this since I was still working the booth but here's what I did get out of it.

How to transition...
1. First you have to want to transition!
2. Focus on helping people grow their own careers
3. Learn how to manage people
a. Be clear about expectations
b. Address issues immediately
c. Coach employees
d. Acknowledge accomplishments
4. Network with peers
5. Expand knowledge of the business
6. Jump in & out of technical management (Try it out)
7. Learn how to ask for help and define the help you need.

Session/Event:Innovation Inside Corporations (Day 2, Session 5)

Commentary:
For some reason I don't seem to have notes on this session. However, check out Angela Dalton's blog for details...

Session/Event:Building Sustainable Corporate Networks for Technical Women (Day 2 Session 6 BOF)

Commentary:
This session was given by a company called Invent Your Future who specialize in developing women leaders. It was done in a roundtable format and we went around the room introducing ourselves and asking which companies currently have women's networks to one degree or another.

These companies include:
Symantec
Google
Microsoft (3 day conference every 2 years)
IBM
Sun (Women@Sun)
Intuit
Cisco
Intel
HP

It was interesting both b/c it was many of the players you'd expect to see but also because of the fact that they players were so well represented in this session. The questions of what scale of networks, sub-topics discussed, technologies used (video conferencing, dial-in or in person) were uncovered.

We then got a little bit of a sales pitch about the webinars that Invent Your Future offers.

Some suggestions on creating networks were offered:
1. Roll out topics (train-the-trainers) that match company goals (to get funding). And, use "Slides-in-a-box" which will be customized as necessary.
2. Have mentoring "pods" (A 1-M model). These would meet less frequently (maybe once per month). You could then pick topics like: News & recent articles to discuss, Corporate Social Responsibility, Development Paths, etc... Alternatively, you can have multople mentors for a specific topic.
3. Look for existing mentor models to not reinvent the wheel. E.g. TripleCreek.com, MentorNet.net, MentorResources.com.

Platinum Sponsor Night pictures:

Session/Event:Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College (Day 2, Keynote)

Commentary:
Maria discussed why it's the best time ever for women in computing.

Best Time Ever

• Industry & Academia recognize that women have talent (whereas they didn't believe it in the past).
  
• Almost everyone wants more women: Industry - intense demand for CS grads. Academia - need for CS students.
  
• Recognition that attracting & retaining more women requires change. Need better work-life balance, better introductory CS courses that are both fun and deep, more supportive environments for everyone, more valuing of broader range of interests and styles. [What industry needs most is CS people who have other interests; people who can bridge 2 or more related fields. You can combine computing with almost every other interest: travel, art, politics, languages, theatre, etc...)
  
• Computing is a key tool in addressing problems facing the world in healthcare, education, environment and more... As an example look at Google's Digital Study Hall. It has huge latency (the contents of the WWW is put on a huge hard drive and sent to small villages around the world. Each week they receive a DVD or email with updates. They are also recording teachers who know how to teach subjects like english, math, science. The technology to watch these DVD's is there but in these small villages electricity is on only 6-8 hours/day and the times change. The DVDs train teachers to teach in a certain way to make it effective as a model.
  
• Industry, Academia, Professional Organizations, etc. are creating programs to keep women in the "Computing" pipeline. Women graduate students percentage is higher than the undergraduate percentage.
  

If all this is true, why are the numbers dropping?

• There is a myth about IT jobs disappearing
  
• The image of "computer jobs" is not attractive
  
• The image of CS courses is not attractive
  
• CS classes are being cut or are outdated in high schools
  
• Industry, Academia, Professional Organizations, etc. are creating programs to keep women in the "Computing" pipeline. Women graduate students percentage is higher than the undergraduate percentage.
  

So what can WE do about it?
In High School

• Outreach to schools, parents, teachers:
  
• Focus on the unconverted - get yourself invited to talk about something else (slip in creative areas of leadership in CS) at PTA meetings, etc... Take whatever opportunity is offered. Insert truth about CS as an aside.
  
• Go where the girls are. Craft messages for math, bio, chem, art, engineering (CS/music, CS/art, CS/writing, etc...)
  
• Create/find awesome CS summer camps
  
• Have scholarships for HS girls to go to GHC.
  

• Create fabulous CS intro (and other) courses
  
• Get some CS required or have a Dean advise all students to take a CS course (put in Handbook).
  
• Bring Freshman to GHC.
  
• Engage post-Freshman in summer research experiences that first summer
  
• Make it easy to switch into CS/Double major. e.g. Make a digital-premed program.
  

• Have IT companies use advertising budget to brand CS careers
  
• Get a female idol as CS spokesperson
  
• Get a hot book written about people in CS careers and publicize it.
  
• Create a Cool CS Career month
  
• Use Social Networking sites
  

Resources include: NCWIT, Anita Borg, CRA-W, ACM-W.
Action Item: Talk to at least 1 preferably 20 high school girls about computing careers before next Hopper.
Check out Maria's presentation.

Session/Event:Making the Future Web Accessible to People with Disabilities (Day 2, Session 1)

Commentary:
I really enjoyed this session and will try to capture as much of it as possible. You can also check out another blog entry about this session.

Shawn Lawton Henry went into a lot of detail about how to make the web more accessible. She did this primarily through demo's and video's so it will be a little bit hard to represent it here. However, here are some notes I jotted down.

First of all much of what is being done today in this area is thanks to the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Here are some tools being used today.

• Screen Readers (Reads the text of web pages. Links are in a different voice.)
  
• Dynamic Braille Displays (and keyboards)
  
• Mouthsticks - for data entry for those paralyzed from neck down
  
• Text size increases (Browser settings); Zoom Text (size increases significantly by moving around)
  

People have many different types of disabilities including congenital (birth), disease/illness, accident or aging. Glenda Watson Hyatt has cerebral palsy and she wrote a book an autobiography called "I can do it myself". She typed the whole book with one thumb.

What are the accessibility issues or barriers?
1. Images pose a challenge. You need to provide a text equivalent. Using the Opera browser you can turn images on/off easily and see that with images off it's ugly. So... ALWAYS USE "ALT" IN YOUR WEB PAGES. A lot of sites aren't doing this one basic thing...
2. Heading in code is used for Navigation. Could be confusing for sighted users - use with discretion. But use headings especially for sections. Without usual layouts, it's like a string of text.
3. Use Markup lists. Don't use tables in place of lists when it's really just a list.
4. Link text. "Click here" links don't work from an accessibility point of view. When tabbing through links in a screen reader it would sound like "here, here, here, here" instead of "content 1, content 2, content 3, content 4".
5. Be aware of color contrast
6. Be aware of text resizing.
7. Use captions and include transcripts where possible. Podcasts for example are not accessible without transcripts.

Guidelines
1. WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Section 508 is a small subset of WCAG 1.0. A section 508 compliant website may not be 100% fully accessible.
2. The American's with Disabilities Act (ADA) is not related because it was created before the web so it doesn't address this.
3. Users: User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) refer to things like browsers, media players, assistive technologies described above.
4. Developers: ATAG (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines) includes things like evalution tools & authoring tools.
5. WAI-ARIA is for Accesible Rich Internet Apps like AJAX, DHTML, etc... Standards are under way. Working on a best practices for developers. Specs are available today at www.w3.org/wai
You need to remember to include real people for testing accessibility.

Resources:
Check out Shawn's book Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design
Whitepaper: Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case
Websites:
Guidelines & Checklist
Presentations at WAI
Check Your Work
Just Ask

How to Check for Accessibility
1. Take away your mouse. Is it still accessible? Also, check headings. Opera allows you jump to headings using the "S" key.
2. Turn off images. All major browsers allow you to do this. And/or look at alternate text next to image. In Firefox, display Alt attributes on developer tool bar.
3. Plug in for IE and Opera -> Accessibility add-on. Shows structural elements.
4. Use advanced tools that will run through the whole site.

Action Items:

• Gently educate & encourage "inaccessible" sites to change.
  
• Reward accessible sites
  

Session/Event:Helping Businesses Invent the Future: Improving Engagement among Women in High Tech(Day 2, Session 2)

Commentary:
Heather Foust-Cummings works for Catalyst, Inc in NY. Catalyst is a non profit organization that helps to expand opportunities for women in business. They are member based and provide access to research, etc... Heather is director of research and telecommutes fulltime. Part of a group of "Ladies with Laptops". She reported on a study that was done looking at recruitment, retention & advancement of women. The study is not yet published.

What can women do to advance?

• Seek out opportunities to work with other women & find mentors.
  
• Volunteer when chances to participate across departments or BU's arise. (e.g. Work on a task force)
  
• Network!!!
  
• Be proactive
  

Session/Event:Systers Lunch

Session/Event:Mentoring Makes MAGIC for Middle & High School Girls (Day 1, Session 6)

Commentary:
The format of this entry will be slightly different as this was our BOF & therefore my notes are more reflective of action items then content.

• Question arose about a formal structure. Need to set guidelines.
  
• Less schools - same goal.
  
• With "Girls Get IT" at Cisco Systems, they dive down to Elementary School. Parents have such fear about online predators, esp. as it relates to eMentoring.
  
• Lego MindStorms (Robots) - using this to mentor elementary school kids through Canadian University. Got an NSERK grant (like NSF).
  
• International telemarketing program - other mentoring program.
  
• Training -> should meetin in person cross communities.
  
• Forum - secure online once it grows.
  
• How are we defining success? Propose attitude surveys (before/after).
  
• Need someone with expertise in legalities of working with children.
  
• Consider writing "real" letters, etc... - what are the security implications of this? Not traceable/recoverable (Trust vs. Trace issues)...
  
• Have HS or college students help mentor middle school students.
  
• Check out WITI & professional business women's conference
  
• Don't try to tackle too much. Technology later.
  

Pictures from our BOF:

Session/Event:Entrepreneur Panel: Live your Idea, Making an Impact as Entrpreneur (Day 1, Session 2)

Commentary:
I was a little late getting to this session after leaving my own but there were some good points made that I'll list below.

Funding
Funding typically comes from a variety of sources. In order friends/family, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists. Obviously, friends/family is the easiest way to get started. [Ed. Note. Check out Fundable as a way to raise money from people you know.] Angel Investors usually want a piece of the business and offer smaller amounts of funding. Go to venture capitalists wen you are ready to be incorporated. You need to already have a large user base.

Starting A Services Company

• Can grow organically (while you keep your day job) unless it violates any conflict of interest clause.
  
• Venture capital probably NOT required to start, but will be needed to scale
  
• Margins are typically larger when resources are best utilized. If you hire & resources are not fully utilized, your margin will be lower.
  

Action Items:
1. Stop by the NCWIT table (at Grace Hopper)
2. Go to NCWIT for lots more entrepreneurship info including audio podcasts, competitions, and more.

Session/Event:Using Technology to Solve Environmental & Societal Issues (Day 1, Session 3)

Commentary:
I enjoyed this session both because of my personal interest in the topic and also because the speaker was from Intel and it was interesting to hear the different perspectives she brought to the table.

IT contributes as much carbon emissions as the aviation industry!!!

So, what do we do about it. Technology that helps the environment:

• Electronic Banking - If everyone in the US started paying bills online, we could save 18.5 million trees each year and reduce toxins in the air (from paper creation and transport) by some 2.2 billion tons.
  
• Websites: OpenEco.org, Planet Save
  
• e.g. Interface Carpet Company - Interface Carpet Company: new computer controls on the boilers in a fabric factory reduced CO emissions by 99.7% (2 tons/week to 200 lbs/year). Computer controls also improved efficiency of boilers by 23% by minimizing human error and by monitoring temperatures more precisely.
  

Green Tech Actions to help minimize effects.
1. The Intel Employee Sustainability Network - Steering committee/mailing list gets speakers & maintains discussions.
2. Hub & Spoke model:
Hub: Minimize Eco Impact
Spoke 1: Reduce (Optimize x)
Spoke 2: Reuse (Use x as y)
Spoke 3: Recycle (Extract materials from x)
Spoke 4: Rethink (Increase awareness)
Spoke 5: Reparation (Compensate for x by doing y)
Spoke 6: Reconsistute (Replace x with y)

Green Tech Actions to help enable
Hub: Enable
Spoke 1: design & invent: design green buildings.
Spoke 2: optimize & automate: efficient route planning (for UPS for example)
Spoke 3: monitor & model: Trying to monitor computer systems and only keep those needed on
Spoke 4: operate & sell (online stores are much more eco friendly than running a physical store)
Spoke 5: educate & persuade (create websites to help educate people on how to switch)
Spoke 6: minimize (ie: instead of going to a meeting, have a teleconference to save the trip/save miles)

Tech & Environment Case Study
Data Centers: 1.5% of all US electricity use is by data centers.
Solutions:
1. Virtualization/Site Selection - move DC's north to cooler areas.
2. Use renewable sources of energy
3. Add insulation
4. Deploy systems with lower power consumption (built by vendors)
5. Plan for utility computing
6. Utilize power aware systems

Pillars of Sustainable Innovation
1. Control Risks: RoHS
2. Cut Costs: Adobe spent about 1.1 million to restructure their buildings and yet they're saving 1 million each year. Even little things like replacing all their light bulbs to more eco friendly bulbs are contributing to their company's improvement.
3. Enhance Brand: GE Ecomagination - GE managed to increase profits by introducing their new brand
4. Create Revenue: Toyota Prius

Using Technology for Social Good
1. Global Giving: Using the power of the net to connect grass root humanitarian efforts with resources.
2. TechBridge World, CMU: Education to help bridge the technology gap in countries. Engineering students at CMU developing tools to help these people with their day to day problems.
3. United Villages: driven by Wifi Technology. To help bring online contact to these communities, people are able to write emails at a computer center and then when the local bus drives by, the bus provides wifi to the computer center and sends all the saved emails at that time. It is not constant internet however it allows them to be in contact and use their current infrastructure to get temporary access to as many cities as possible.
4. Rural telemedicine: Using technology to connect medical support to rural areas. Video conferencing etc. to help diagnose from afar
5. yara's Precision farming: decision support tools to help farmers apply fertilizer where it is needed.

Action Items:
What you Can do...

• Engage More
  
• Form/Join employee groups
  
• Look for opportunities to use your tech skills towards your cause
  
• Volunteer for your cause
  
• Look for partnerships with non-profit organizations
  
• Read this speakers wiki notes.
  

Session/Event:Girl Geeks in High School (Day 1, Session 4)

Commentary:
All the girls go to private school. 2 go to an all-girls school. None of the girls invited from public schools accepted the invitation. All of the girls have other interests besides the STEM interests.

On Tools & Methods:

• Hands-on works best. (E.g. Carol the Robot - uses basic java)
  
• Learn how to attack problems in different ways. Best way to innovate.
  

On Laptops

• Teachers may let students use their laptops for in-class projects.
  
• For their own laptops or school PC's, teachers may "freeze" the laptops while assignments are being given or discussions are happening.
  
• The girls feel that kids know they should pay attention in class and that's it's about discipline. Also, how interested they are in the class.
  
• Not all the schools allowed laptops in the classroom.
  
• Nobody is using tablets really. Do use SmartBoards - teachers use and move to PC via email.
  
• There is also a difference between class structure - some are static vs. interactive.
  

On female STEM teachers

• Middle school teachers encouraged them to stay in math & science. Having anyone who encourages you in important (male or female).
  
• Main difference: Female STEM teachers encourage them to pursue this as a career. Male STEM teachers encourage them to pursue it for fun & don't really give career advice.
  
• Mentor gender mattered more to them then teacher gender.
  

On User or Creator of Technology (and their peers)

• They "use to create"/Peers are scared of technology.
  
• Create webpages, designs, layouts. Users - way of accessing "Facebook".
  
• NeoPets - at age 11, one girl made a webpage for her pet.
  

On Online Safety

• One girl said she was taught at age 6 about online saftey but most of her friends don't know about safety.
  
• Regarding MySpace/Facebook. There are security problems (personal info, etc...). Police officers spoke at school so peers are careful with Facebook.
  
• Think adults underestimate them.
  
• Know to be safe like you would outside. Use your gut feeling. Turn back if you feel uncomfortable.
  

On Girls vs. Boys in Tech

• One girl said she doesn't hang out with boys who don't think it's cool that she's into tech.
  
• Another said she is the only girl of her friends who is into math/science. But she got to know others who are in her classes.
  
• At the all girls school, lots of girls are interested in engineering. Environment may encourage it.
  
• One girl said, "either boys don't think you are smart enough and take over or they think you are smart and let you do all the work".
  

Action Item:

• Read
  the session wiki.
  

Session/Event:How to Land Your Dream Job(Day 1, Session 5)

Commentary:
This was mostly geared at educators but here are the 2 points I got out of it.

• Internal transfers are the best way to make changes.
  
• For career changers, look at transferable skills.
  

Session/Event:Split Session: Interplay of Life & Work. First topic: Advancing Your Career, Advancing Your Life

Commentary:
The format of this entry will be slightly different as this was my session & therefore I didn't take any notes on myself or my peers. However, I did enter my outline on the GHC Wiki page. Check it out! I also promised the folks that I would upload my "Dating Pipeline" but that is forthcoming. I've also asked my fellow panelists to enter their own notes which is also forthcoming. I do however have some pictures of the session as shown below...

JUST ADDED: My Dating Pipeline. Contact info removed to protect the innocent...

Commentary:
Again, since I was somewhat part of the "show", I don't have any notes, but hopefully Cecilia will upload her video to the GHC conference wiki site for you all to see....

Pictures from my session:

Session/Event:Welcome/Orientation for Newcomers

Commentary:
This session seemed like it was primarily directed at the college women and not the industry folks, but here are my notes anyway.

Why come to Grace Hopper?
First of all: Networking!!!

• Get ideas, give feedback
  
• Gets you job interviews
  
• Gets you invitations to give talks, be on panels, etc...
  
• Source for letters of recommendation
  
• Helps get papers accepted and proposals funded
  
• Foster professional life
  

How to prepare for GHC?

• Prepare "Elevator Chats" for several subtopics in advance.
  
• Decide who you want to talk to
  
• Follow-up with contacts after conference
  
• Make notes on the backs of business cards
  

Best Picks by Anne Condon:

• We made it!!! Advancing Your Career, Advancing Your Life. Check out my notes on the Grace Hopper Wiki.
  
• Storytelling
  
• Introducing the Computing Community Consortium
  
• Tech solutions for environmental & social issues
  

Action Items:
Speakers - upload slides & send blog postings to GHC. Take a look at the conference Web 2.0 stuff - blogs, wiki, twitter, MySpace/Facebook, broadcast postings.

Commentary:
The opening banquet was done where the posters were set-up. There were a lot of interesting proposals at the session but my 2 favorite from a pure "fun" perspective were:

• Wikipedians over Time: A Comparative Study of User Contributions
  
• 
  Algorithms of Love - The Technology of Online Dating
  

Pictures from Algorithms of Love:

Session/Event:Day 1 General Session

Commentary:
Jeanette Wing from the National Science Foundation: Computational Thinking will be in use by everyone by the end of the decade... She thinks this is true of men & women from "K-Grey". Here are questions that she believes need to be asked of the science of computing...

• Does people in P? (not sure what this means)
  
• What is computable?
  
• What is intelligence?
  
• What is information? What is biology? "An information science"
  
• Can we build complex systems simply?
  

Donna Dubinsky, founder & CEO of Numenta
(She is also the founder of Palm, Handspring, Treo...)
The premise of Numenta is Intelligent Computing which is based on the functions of the neocortex - you know that thing in your brain that makes you think...

For example, intelligent computing could be used in Transportation to make cars safer. Cars are not safe because people don't pay attention. Cars should "understand" the road and adjust to traffic conditions as appropriate.

The brain deals with huge amounts of data, noise, ambiguity and novel patterns. If a square is drawn of 4 squiggly lines, your brain knows it's still a square. If you see two pictures of a car where one is a photo and the other is a cartoon, your brain still knows they are both cars because they have the property of "carness". The brain builds a model of the world. The model is a hierarchy in time & space. The brain learns about the world through the senses. Causes are made up of experiences and Beliefs are made up of brain-processed experiences.

Session/Event:Tech Leaders for Social Innovators

Commentary:
The event started out with an introduction of women at our table. At my table, the women worked for companies including Intel, Intuit, Cisco, Paychek and Anita Borg Institute. Right away I could see how useful this was going to be. First of all, each woman had such varied and interesting backgrounds and we were all here to share our experiences and learn from each other.

The objectives of the day were set forth: To develop a network of other technologies interested in using technology to benefit the world.

The first speaker, Jensine Larsen, founder of WorldPulse (a global media organization and magazine for women of vision) started out as a journalist before becoming an entrepreneur where she learned that media is the key to women's global leadership. She defines the collective force of women as a River and wrote a book called "A river runs through the digital divide". I was inspired by this since Sun is also trying to bridge the Digital Divide. She is also starting a website called PulseWire.net which will be an interactive Web 2.0 site. This company focuses on the most unheard women through internet cafes and cell phones in rural areas of the world and is designed to meet their needs to share their story. It's an easy way for them to blog and get support that they desperately need and not feel so alone.

Jasmine sees 3 unstoppable trends:

1. Women rising in leadership positions all over the world
   
2. Communication tools (especially cell phone) proliferation
   
3. Shift in global consciousness
   

Here is Jasmine's advice on the top 5 things we can do:

1. Go with where your passion is. Find your super power.
   
2. Volunteer. e.g. Pulsewire technology council.
   
3. Financial contribution.
   
4. Forge a friendship with someone outside your borders.
   
5. Use your voice and speak out.
   

The next speaker was Anurada, speaking via Second Life. She is passionate about climate issues and so chooses not to fly. From a pure technology perspective, this was one of the most interesting sessions. Anurada fled Sri Lanka at 13 and is now based in London. She is the founder of OneWorld.net in RL and OneClimate Island in SL. She has been interested in social media her whole life as her parents were human rights journalists. Fed up with traditional media who focus on ratings more than anything else, she founded a space (an early social networking site if you will) in 1994. This was 2 years before Unicef in England even had an email address.

Some of the technologies they are using include:

• Open Knowledge Network - local content in local languages to get grassroots online.
  
• eLearning in Nigeria - girls & boys create stories, ask questions, challenge conventional thinking (and in doing so learn about gender equality). It's called "Learning about Living".
  
• OneClimate.net - A space like OneWorld.net but more convential social networking. See your carbon footprint and see your progress against your target for carbon emissions reduction. Branded: "One World, One Climate, One Chance". Take a space on OneClimate.net, put your thoughts on it, and encourage others to do the same. Together we can make a real difference in the world.
  

Next up was a panel of three women. Bernadine Dias, founder of TechBridgeWorld advises us to find our passion. She used to write letters home to Sri Lanka on toilet paper from college in upstate NY because she couldn't afford paper. She doubled majored in CS and Physics and minored in Women's Studies and has a PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon. An interview question "How are you going to change the world in 20 years?" changed her life. WTechBridgeWorld builds technology bridges among students so that they can choose their own path and work where they want to work. This program encourages students to figure out real life problems. Her belief is that if you broaden the experience, you increase the impact.

Mari Karashi, founder of Global Giving, studied history at Harvard rather than CS which she enjoyed in high school. She got her masters in Soviet Studies just as the Soviet Union fell apart so she went to work for World Bank working on making the Soviet Union a market economy. But she wanted to do something that made a difference. So, she spent 2 years while starting up Global Giving and didn't take a salary that whole time. People thought she was nuts but she was committed. Global Giving allows people who have good ideas to get financial support and donors can track the progress of the initiatives & projects they choose to donate too. Check it out! It's really cool:
I donated to a few myself. One having to do with the environment and one having to do with educating children.

A self proclaimed "accidental technologist", Paula Goldman founded the Imagining Ourselves Project because she wanted to create positive change. The daughter of Jewish immigrants who raised her in Indonesia before they made it back to the US, she was going to write a book about peacemakers in Israel & Palestine but this was in 2001 and obviously it wasn't a good time. She changed her focus and decided to write a book for young women to use advances to make a difference. But, print media has a low reach so after 5 years to launch the project and much scope creep (now over 100 events in more than 30 countries), the project took an online form. There are now more than 1 M people from over 200 countries participating. The website's slogan "Be inspired. Get involved. Take Action" calls you to read the stories, make comments and link to partners.

The panel's Big Risks on starting your own company:

• Money, funding, payroll concerns
  
• Self-doubt
  
• Convincing others
  
• Having vision but not 100% sure on execution
  
• Being a leader
  
• Profit or non-profit? Maybe a mixed model to start.
  

On Scope Creep:

• Just make sure you are doing what you want to do (even if it differs from your initial vision.)
  
• Allow scope creep to make a difference.
  

The last part of the day was a workshop where we broke up into groups based on topics we were interested in. (We relied a bit on the pre-work we did for this conference which was an interesting exercise in & of itself. The pre-work got us thinking about global issues/challenges we care about, examples fo people or companies who are already creating solutions to these problems and ideas we have for solving these problems.)I went to the session on generating ideas and how to run with them. Some interesting ideas were uncovered. Without revealing too much details here are some ideas these women had:

• Creating toys for disabled kids using sensor networks.
  
• Barcode DNA
  
• Getting more girls interested in computing
  
• Online saftey
  

Advice that came out of the session includes:

• Start something that you know. Start small & grow it.
  
• Don't think "It's not a big deal". Own it!
  
• Believe in yourself.
  

That's about it on this one day session and don't worry it's probably the longest entry I'll have on this conference. In a nutshell, it was worth it!