Women

Youth, Identity and Technology

Kaliya Young · January 27, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Dana Boyde is working on her PhD at at UC Berkeley. She is about to move to LA to do field research with youth. I read her blog regularly and a lot of what is happening is that youth, there use of technology and exploration of identity. I wanted to share this highlight from her post yesturday and if you are interested in these things you might want to subscribe to her blog.

I am currently more interested in understanding the theoretical and historical underpinnings of youth and identity. That said, what i am doing is not removed from social software. Most youth today use social technologies as part of their coming of age processes. They have far richer social lives than most adults. What they are doing with technology is far more complex. Furthermore, they are really focused on the act of socializing, not collaboration or any other work-centric model. Youth have a lot to teach us about social software – about its strengths, weaknesses and where innovation should go. Obviously, i’m biased – this is the root of how my research is applicable to technologists.
I hope those of you building technology will enjoy my journey to the depths of youth. I certainly am. If not, i’m sorry.

Your birthdate please – I need to enter it into the computers if you want to by cigarets

Kaliya Young · October 16, 2005 · 1 Comment

Your birthdate please – I need to enter it into the computers if you want to by cigarets.

This is what I heard said to the woman in front of me at a Walgreens across the street from my hotel in Memphis, TN. I inquired to the store clerk if this was the law to ask for someone’s birth date and enter it into the computer and she said yes for cigarets and ‘other items’ (I didn’t find out what they were). It seems that here in TN they have begun to break down the separation between the issuance of documents that assert one is over 18 and the presentation of those same documents to engage in commerce.
I wonder how many other states have similar laws. It makes me a bit nervous to think about the potential for states to require the swiping of an identity card to make such purchase. With all of the new tools we are creating that are to empower people how do we ensure they are not abused. Maybe Bob was right – if we build them then we should expect them to be abused by requiring people to turn over certain kinds of data they have about themselves. And so we should not build them.
I am inspired by the possibilities for empowerment but this little incident really makes me wonder.

Women in Open Source

Kaliya Young · August 10, 2005 · Leave a Comment

There was a great panel on Women in Open Source at OSCON. It raised some very interesting issues including the open question of why there is 10x fewer women in Open Source then in the regular tech industry (as programmers and technical roles). Worth thinking about more and I hope that O’Reilly and others can continue the inquiry within its events.