Month: June 2007

Categories
Healthcare

Undermining Sicko

Sheila Lennon has been following the release of Michael Moore’s Sicko on the internet, including the defiant postings on conservative weblogs.

Hard to say where the film came from, and normally, I imagine that Moore would be happy about a wide distribution of this incredibly important film. However, there is a down side to all of this, which is most likely why the accessibility of this film online is being touted on the conservative weblogs: if the conservative (read that ‘corporate’) think tank controlled weblogs can adversely impact on the box office for this film, this undermines Moore’s ability to continue providing movies such as this. In addition, it undermines the message of the movie. Not doing well in the box office could be interpreted as people not being concerned about this issue, which could lead our current crop of weak willed elected officials to believe they can safely accept that HMO’s campaign money, as they sweep universal health care under the carpet.

I do like seeing the discussion about health care, at Metafilter and so on. It does virally add to the noise about this film. But it needs to happen in such a way that the discussion leaves the discussion boards, and the computers and hits the street, and in particular, the voting booth. That’s why this movie needs a killer opening night. If people download to watch and go to see it in the theater, cool. But the former without the latter is not going to generate the noise we really need to make.

Categories
Critters

My kitten

Zoe

This photo is just dying for a lolcats.

Categories
Diversity Technology

Where are the jobs? Where are the opportunities?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

As is typical for events such as these, mention is made in comments related to the “Beautiful code” book about providing a list of women–the typical “where are the women” these discussions always break down to. How many times do we have to do this? And in how many places? Are these genuine questions? Or just a convenient way to put the burden of the lack of diversity back on we women?

A better way of looking at this is, where are the jobs? Where are the opportunities? Where are the companies that genuinely want to hire more women in technology because they want to diversify their workplace? Where are the editors or conference givers who want to provide a richer experience by ensuring a balanced offering?

What we need is to start building a list of companies who are actively recruiting women techs. The same for conferences and books. Then we can publish these, with requirements, location, and other information, and let the women who are interested come to you–because you sure as hell are not coming to us any time we build yet another list.

If you think diversity is important, and you’re hiring, let me know and I’ll publish your job. I’ll put these into a separate category so that women can search on jobs, and close the job post when the position or positions are filled.

If you think diversity is important, and you’re looking for an author, writer, or conference presenter, let me know and I’ll publish a post about your book, magazine, or conference. Again, I’ll put this into a separate category so that women can also search on writing and presenting opportunities. If your conference speaker list closes, or you find the author of your dreams, I’ll close the post so you won’t be bothered, and the item no longer turns up on the active list.

Yes, I could create a wiki or an application and do the same thing, but that’s focusing on the technology; focusing on the technology has not worked once in the past. Enough with focusing on the technology, time to focus on finding a solution.

So, where are the jobs? Where are the opportunities for women?