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Eurovision stupifies women

– 25 February 2012Posted in: Life, Tech stuff, Women in IT, Working in IT

It’s Eurovision Song Contest season here in Sweden, and the tryouts are engaging everyone, old and young alike. Sweden takes a lot of pride in our participation in this event, but we are a long way from the days of glory when we won the entire thing with Abba (Waterloo, 1974), Carola (Fångad av en stormvind, 1991),  and Charlotte Nilsson (Take me to your heaven, 1999).

Last year the Eurovision final was held in Germany, and the TV-show was led by two women and one man. They were doing a pretty decent job for the most part, until they did something that almost made me fall of my chair.

In one scene, the lady in red was holding her microphone upside down looking sheepishly into the camera. The man, the expert, the know-it-all of course came to her rescue, showing her how to really hold the microphone and uttered the words “well, you know women and technology don’t go well together” (!!!) The two women giggled a bit and nodded in embarrassment.

Seriously???!! The people (I’ll bet $100 on it being guys) who wrote that script should be fired on the spot and their bosses need to get their heads screwed on straight! It made me and my friends so furious that evening that it ruined the entire fun with the competition.

I truly hope that this years Eurovision Song Contest, being broadcast from Azerbadzjan won’t entail any such idiotic nonsense.

 

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My kingdom for an iPhone keylock

– 24 February 2012Posted in: Life, Tech stuff

I am very popular with my little nieces and nephew. Much because I love to play with them a lot, but mostly because I have so many fun games on my iPhone. Usually the first words out of little Vincents mouth (he’s 2 years old) when I come to visit is “play Kimmys phone”.

His favorite game is Angry Birds, although he hasn’t quite yet figured out how to shoot the birds in the right direction. Also Dragon Vale has become a big hit with him being in a general Dinosaur-phase at the moment.

As I always take a lot of pictures and film the kids with my iPhone he also enjoys watching these, swiping the thing like a pro. Here I have a big problem as it happens from time to time that Vincent is quick as lighting and manages to delete a picture or a film before I have time to react and cancel the action.

I am therefore desperately looking for an iPhone keylock that prevents files from being deleted while the kids are playing. My search has proven futile so far so if any of you readers have any tips I will gladly receive them!

 

 

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Birthday cards with pink laptops

– 23 February 2012Posted in: Life, Women in IT, Working in IT

I was in the bookstore a couple of days ago, looking for a birthday card for my sister-in-law. As I browsed through the different available cards I noticed these, aimed at young teenagers I presume.

In all honesty, I am not very surprised that the “boys-card” features a gaming tough, kid, with the big computer screen, cool speakers, the high-graphic motor game, pizza and jolt (?) cola on the floor. This is the absolute definition of a classical computer wizz kid in the making.

The girl on the other hand has a pink laptop, fashion-magazines sprawling on the floor, a nice cup of hot tea while she’s (I’m guessing) chatting away with her friends on Facebook.

Perhaps I should be glad that she has a computer at all in the picture, which in some sense conveys the image of an interest in technology. However, I would be a lot more impressed if the graphical artist had used the apparent interest of fashion for this girl and perhaps shown how she was working on her on clothing line in a design program or such.

We need to move away from the notion that boys = cool, tech-kids playing the latest computer games, while girls = pink, fluffy fashion only interesting in reading blogs and chatting. We need to start somewhere, and this seems to me to be a very good place. Subtle, yet powerful.

If we want more women in tech in the future, then we need to start encouraging the kids at a young age…

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Airport reading

– 22 February 2012Posted in: Life, Project Management, Working in IT

I spent the other weekend in my hometown, Malmö in southern Sweden. When travelling I always induldge myself by buying a magazine or book, preferbly something tech or business related. The swedish airports usually have a very poor selection of foreign publications. So it was with great joy I this time saw that they have begun to sell management and business books.

The choice fell on a book named “Key Management Models – The 60+ models every manager needs to know. Browsing through the contents I saw several familiar terms, such as the Deming Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act).

I will of course give a more detailed review once I have read it.

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Conference wishlist

– 21 February 2012Posted in: Events

 Continuing on yesterdays post about conferences I have compiled a “Conference Wishlist” for 2012 for Social Media. If time and money were not an issue I would probably spend most of my time travelling the world to these events, meeting new people and learn new inspiring things every day.

Besides “Webbdagarna” which takes place in March here in Stockholm, I haven’t registered for any more conferences right now. But I assure you I will do my very best to be able to attend some of the events on the list.

What conferences will you attend this year?

March

May

June

August

October

November

December

January 2013

  • 8-11 – Las Vegas – CES
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“Webbdagarna” conference, here I come!

– 20 February 2012Posted in: Events

In March the very popular conference “Webbdagarna” (swedish for “Webbdays”) is arranged here in Stockholm. I have been given the honor of a blog-pass for the event and will in that capacity report from the conference.

This will be my first time at Webbdagarna and when I look over the agenda I see several interesting sessions about Facebook and Social Media. Conferences always gives me a lot of inspiration, new ideas for projects and is a perfect venue for networking. So stay tuned for the 22-23 March and I will make sure to keep you updated of what’s new and hot in the world of Social Media.

 

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Royal birth on Facebook

– 19 February 2012Posted in: Social Media

The Swedish crown-princess Victoria is expecting her first child any day now. This, of course, has become a hot topic in the magazines and around the coffe machine.

Evidently, the birth of the future Swedish King or Queen is accompanied by a bunch of ceremonies and rules. In a press release from the Royal Court we can read the following:

“On the occasion of a royal birth, the Marshal of the Realm notifies the nation’s leaders of the birth. A press release from the Marshal of the Realm will then be published at www.kungahuset.seexternal link and at www.facebook.com/kungahusetexternal link.”

The royal family has thus entered the 21th century by having an announcement made on Facebook. I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg ever thought his university project would influence century old royal traditions?

Sticking with the more old-school routines there will also be held a cabinet meeting with the government, a salute fired on several places around the country, a special mass in church (Te Deum) etc etc.

I can’t help but think that they should all leave the mother and father to be alone. The birth of a child is stressful as it is without having the attention of millions of people eagerly waiting for news the closer we come to the due-date. I mean, what if (I pray it won’t) something goes wrong? Even with the advanced medical knowledge we have today the unexpected can still occur.

What princess Victoria and her husband Daniel really need is to prepare for this life-changing event without the additional stress knowing that the second their child draws its first breath we can read about it on Facebook.

I am all for social networks and the wonders it can do for reporting news almost even before they happen, but there are times when this is not appropriate.

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