We all know the geek stereotype. Guys in their 20s. Super smart. White. We can point to a hundred movie roles that play with this trope. It’s ingrained in our cultural consciousness. Perhaps the reason we’ve accepted the stereotype so readily is the very real foothold it has found in reality. Our vision of the […]
Elizabeth Ames, Vice President of Marketing and Alliances for the Anita Borg Institute began her Tuesday SXSW Interactive panel by presenting a date to the audience. May 28, 2014. Though most people may not recognize the date, she cites it as an important turning point in the struggle of women in STEM fields. On that day […]
[View the story “Captivology: The Science of Capturing Attention” on Storify]
“Sex and tech go together like Austin and breakfast tacos,” said BedPost Confessions Producer Julie Gillis in the show’s debut SXSW performance this afternoon. BedPost Confessions is a monthly Austin-based show where performers tell their true tales of sex and tech. In today’s mini show, though, the performers weren’t the only ones sharing their stories. Audience […]
Can fandoms fix the gender gap in technology and computing fields? This was the question Jessica McDonald, CMO of SparkFun Electronics, asked at her Sunday SXSW Interactive panel of the same name. Fandoms are communities, often largely online, which come together in mutual admiration of various comics, anime and/or video games. They may share fan-fiction, […]
Having technology constantly present in our everyday lives has led people to question how it’s affecting us and our interactions with the world around us. The introduction of wearables and related technology has only increased this constant connection, and influenced cultural anthropologists Genevieve Bell of Intel Labs and Mimi Ito from UC Irvine to join together […]
While for the time being Silicon Valley, startup culture and the expected face of tech, whether geek or chic, remain overwhelmingly male – specifically young, white and male – and even exposés on women’s experience in this climate sometimes fail to get past their over-sexualized cover graphics to the meat of the issue, SXSW’s 2015 Interactive lineup […]