Design Like a Lady. Code Like a Geek. » videos

Welcome to the WildWest: When Women Take on Tech Because They Want To

Lindsay — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:03:05 +0000

A day does not go by when I don’t hear about an event from the numerous “we support women in technology” groups: Girls in Tech, Women 2.0, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner and Shes Geeky. All of these groups have merit, and all have a target audience, from software developers to marketing analysts. I’ve certainly benefited from these organizations, participating in Women 2.0′s Business Plan Competition back in 2008, attending a plethora of Girls in Tech events about journalism, business development, and so forth, and going to the Shes Geeky conference at the beginning of this year down in the Peninsula. I’ve been lucky to meet some amazing women which include intense athletes, creative and insightful product managers, and even friends that help me out with reservations to Chez Panisse!

A portion of the dialogue that is pervasive in these types of groups is dedicated to asking the question to ad nauseum “Why are there not enough women in technology?” The women that are in tech are quick to point out that most conferences are dominated by men, mostly white, and that few of these conferences feature any women speakers at all. Day in, and day out, the conversation and complaints flood my twitter stream and my RSS feed to so much annoyance that I’m almost tempted to start spending my free time speaking at conferences (which I’ve done), or organizing a survey to better understand why women in tech do not attend conferences or try to speak at them on their own volition. Just to make the noise go away. It’s not that I don’t believe there are valid concerns, it’s that I find the conversation is tired, and somewhat generational.

In the pop culture of the online world, it seems that women in technology fall into three roles which I can relate to Save by the Bell characters. The Kelly Kapowskis use their sex appeal to attract the tech geek guy to pay attention to them without knowing a lick of what they’re talking about. The Lisa Turtles are the peppy chicks that “overcompensate by pushing their ‘geekery’ on everyone” (quote), displaying a mastery of social media but not of the separation of the application and presentation layers (you dig?). And, the Jesse Spanos are quite qualified women of tech, who also sound like feminists ranting everyday that women are somehow being purposefully left out of the tech equation.

I don’t buy into it. And neither does my friend Amy Ziari.

Last August Amy approached me at a Girls in Tech event (we thank you for that GIT!), tired as well of the same old conversation, with an idea to create a video series featuring women in technology who talk about what they are interested in. Not to prove to anyone that we’re competent, or that we’re “geeky just like you!”, but to let our audience draw their own conclusions. We didn’t want to be Kelly, Lisa or Jesse, we wanted to be ourselves, comfortable with our role in the industry, with our peers (male, female, black, white, hispanic or asian), and what we find interesting.

In mid September we teamed up with Camille Ricketts of Venture Beat to put together the pilot episode of the WildWest show. We hoped to put together more episodes, but time passed, and now I’m leaving soon to take off on an excellent adventure (I’ve alluded to this trip, but have yet to post details). So enjoy this first episode, where we interview Joey Mucha from Sprout and talk about some of our biggest tech snafus! Also, visit the website – www.wildwestshow.tv - to learn more.

Credits to Amy for doing all the video editing!

Signs of San Francisco

Lindsay — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:38:49 +0000

Signs of San Francisco from Lindsay Tabas on Vimeo.

Katie came to visit me in August 2009. She helped herself to my city of 4 years so I helped myself to her images. Through her lens, the city refreshes in my eyes.

Like any person in your life, a city cannot be all things to you through thick and thin. As much as I love this city, after 4 years, I’m looking to shake things up. I set sail very soon, stay tuned.

Produced by: Lindsay Tabas
Photos by: Katie Delaney
Song: Signs by Bloc Party (buy on iTunes)

PS: Happy Birthday Katie!

Oldie But Goodie: Mad World

Lindsay — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:04:02 +0000

In the spirit of the last post, I wanted to post another video from an old friend, Michael Gellman. This is over 4 years old, but brings back a lot of memories from college. Enjoy!

Unfortunately, Jon, that’s what Health Care is Like

Lindsay — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:47:04 +0000

In the past year, for my full-time job, I have been working with my coworkers to upgrade our electronic claims processing capabilities to the ANSI X12 837 data format, which is in EDI. Most of you know that I’m a big fan of XML over the legacy data formats, and in agreement, my team has bemoaned this project as a necessary evil. Unfortunately, the data format isn’t the worst part of working within the health care system. The worst parts of the health care system are the business processes and rules, which are never 100% true, meaning that a software system has to always be flexible enough to handle the exceptions. This is a problem when you are trying to enforce standards and best practices. This also means that we will forever be stuck in a paper-pushing world until standards are designed AND enforceable by law.

For example, if a home designer designed a bathroom, and the home owner said “I work from home, and am the primary user of this toilet. I always use the lever to flush the toilet.” The designer finds a standard toilet and installs it in the bathroom. Then the home owner’s wife sees the toilet and says to the designer, “Oh no! It can’t work this way! I use the lever to turn on my sink.” To anyone, this sounds ridiculous. Who uses a toilet lever to turn on a sink? This is akin to how outlandish the insurance payers’ exceptions are that we have to handle in electronic claims processing. We all say “They’ll do anything to deny a claim”, and this couldn’t be more true. They will impose as many exceptions as possible, including not implementing and upholding nationally recognized data standards and identification codes (hopefully more on this later).

Now imagine a complex system where, instead of just the home owner and wife, we have 2000+ insurance payers, 300+ million patients (approximate population of our country), and who knows how many doctors (providers) we have to design for. Try to build a system that accommodates all of these stakeholders, and caters to the insurance payers whimsical ideas of using the toilet lever to turn on the sink.

So when Jon Stewart from the Daily Show scoffed at the Republican side of the debate, saying that their images of insurance business processes and diagrams are “scary looking disingenuous health care reform pop art” I felt compelled to respond. I’m sorry to tell you Jon, that’s what health care is like.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

White House M.D.

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Joke of the Day

Disclaimer: I’m all for the ethos of universal health care reform, and I believe our country can get there. We just need to give our politicians the time to do their research to come up with a plan that really works.

Rave @ Clemons Library (Univ. of Virginia)

Lindsay — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:48:28 +0000

My friend Emily Busse had a great video posted on her gchat this morning. The video shows Virginia (my alma mater, SEAS 05′) students congregating outside of Clemons Library during finals week, probably a couple days ago (video was posted on the 12th). Clemons Library is an institution at UVA; it’s 4 floors, computer lab on top, digital library on the 3rd floor, study floor on the 2nd and silent floor on the 1st. This was the place to do group meetings, study, or just hang out (yes, there were those types). Anyway, it looks like students were instructed to congregate in the patio area outside of Clemons library for a late night rave. Looks like tons of fun and makes me miss the crux of the UVa comunity and education: Work Hard, Play Hard.

Daily Show Barack Obama Circle of Life

Lindsay — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:52:03 +0000

Just watched this video this morning and I wanted to share with anyone that comes across this blog. It’s absolutely hilarious and worth the 5 minutes. Don’t miss the part where the narrator says:

“everytime barack obama speaks an angel has an orgasm”

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Barack Obama: He Completes Us

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Healthcare Protests

Enjoy! And Digg!