Welcome to The IT Girl’s Guides

I am often asked what is really important to me. It often seems like an odd question…important to me now? last year? 5 years ago? when i was 10 years old?  I have tried to really live in the here and now the last few years. So my answer usually revolves around my son, Alex, and my family. I’ll throw work in here in case my boss reads this too. But this month has managed to get me thinking about my life 30 years ago. I was 5 years old (going on 1 and my brother and I were in the middle of a long, nasty divorce between our parents. There was very little that was making us happy at the time - EXCEPT the anticipation of a space movie hitting movie theaters at the end of May. When each Saturday your Dad takes you to whatever movie you want to see, you become highly familiar with what is playing - unlike now since I have a 22 month old at home.

30 years ago right now, we were waiting for the May 25th release of Star Wars. My brother was fascinated with the heavy breathing of Darth Vader…I thought that the lightsabers were pretty cool. But nothing - not popcorn or candy - prepared us for the technical and special effects feast that our mind would experience in 1977 (btw - at the time, George Lucas really was making leaps and bounds in the special effects world)!  That summer, we made our Dad take us to see it each weekend. We must have seen it 12 times that year in the theater so that we could learn all the lines, pick up on anything that we might have missed, and just stare in awe at the screen.  My Dad must have been a good sport about this b/c we have lived and breathed Star Wars to this day. This movie definitely led to our need to have a computer, video game console, various toys that light up and make noise.  And with the release of each episode, my brother and I stood in line on opening day to be there first - with the exception of Revenge of the Sith which came out after my move to Indiana so my husband and I (I was 9 months pregnant too!) took a day off of work to see it 3 times - and then we saw it again the following week. But hey, my movie days were numbered!  I also had the pleasure of attending the Star Wars Celebration III here in Indianapolis in April 2005. It was really one of my most memorable experiences being immersed in Star Wars for a full weekend and getting to see alot of the costumes, original props, and models used in the movies. Unfortunately Celebration IV this year is in LA because it needed a bigger venue. However, in our recent newsletter from the Indianapolis Children’s Musuem (where I spend alot of time now), they will have an exhibit of Star Wars toys and collectors items on display for TWO HOURS ONLY on June 24th. Guess that Alex will not get a bath that night….

My husband and I enjoy sitting down on a Saturday (or really any night!) and watching Star Wars movies on DVD or even on regular TV! It’s even better now with our surround sound system that we invested in many years ago mainly with the thought of how Star Wars movies would sound.  We also keep handy Darth Vader’s lightsaber and helmut with voice box as well as the Ask Yoda doll who has solved many, many issues we encounter.  Alex even now loves to make the “lightsaber noise” while waving an empty wrapping paper roll around the house. He has also taken part in many battles around his train table.  We do plan to buy him his own lightsaber when he is old enough.

It amazes me that something has stayed in my life actively for 30 years and is truly shaped my interest in anything and everything digital - from the two Roombas that clean my floors 3 times a week or the 3 tivos that I have actively recording to how I store my memories and pay my bills.  And when times are calling for inner guidance, I’m really not afraid to sit in my office and say “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” 

 Posted by Jen Webb

Like lots of other professional women my age (30), I grew up secure in the knowledge, passed on by my mother, that I could do or be anything I wanted. I wasn’t confined to the home and the hearth. No need to learn to cook or sew. Why would I take home economics classes when I could be studying Russian literature, Physics, or Computer Science? No daughter of Shirley’s was going to don the pearls and bake a chocolate soufflé for dessert every night, tend the baby and finish the new slipcover for the sofa while waiting for her man to come home. I’ve got better things to do. I’ve got a life to live and a career to build!

Except it would be kind of fun to occasionally make that chocolate soufflé for myself and my friends. It turns out that convenience foods, while tasty, are mostly bad for one’s health and the environment, so if you care about limiting fuel consumption, not contributing more than necessary to landfills, and living to enjoy your retirement, you’ve got to learn to cook something– maybe even garden. Nice curtains are really expensive, and I can’t find anything I like at the mall, so it would be really great if I could pick out my own fabric and sew my own. I still don’t want or need a man, but I’d like to be a mom someday, and it turns out that I need some medical assistance to make that happen. I want to make sound medical decisions, so that’s going to take research. Where’s a girl (who wants it all) to turn?

Ah, women of the Internet–  Mom taught me to value my independence, develop my critical thinking skills, and to be resourceful. You taught me to make my own shortcake biscuits, when and where to plant Little Marvel garden peas, how to turn wool into a beautiful lace scarf, and how to choose a competent Reproductive Endocrinologist. You also introduced me to technologies like 30 Boxes and OneNote– both tools that have helped me organize my colliding personal and professional lives and become a more efficient worker.

Women’s shared experiences have the power to open doors for other women. I know because they’ve opened doors for me. By sharing what we know, we can help each other become more successful, more self-confident, and more independent. That’s why I’m so excited to be working on the It Girl’s Guides, the first-ever technology series written for women by women. If you’re trying to break into the boy’s club, win over a Web design client, create an amortization worksheet to help you shop for your next mortgage, or build a blog to support your business, we’re working to get you the information you need. We know where you’re coming from because we want it all, too.

Posted by Melody

I’m pretty much car apathetic.  I’d never say “phobic” because as an IT Girl I’m not afraid of many things.  If it’s not something I’m interested in, it’s hard to put much effort forth.  However, seeing a woman be so comfortable and interested in cars like Laura is in this video, maybe there’s something to this “auto-lust” that typically only affects men.  I remember Laura from her working with Leo Laporte on his Technology Almanac - good to see her surface again.

Posted by IT Girl Ellen G.

I first met Ani at Microsoft Tech Ed in Boston last summer. We were introduced at the Wiley Publishing exhibit booth, and later I ran into her at the Women in Technology Luncheon. She was the first person who made the initiative to ask the speaker a question when the Q&A session started. I was immediately impressed with her passion and excitement for technology and for women in technology.

When The IT Girls Guides team started brainstorming and discussing title ideas and authors for this fabulous new series, I couldn’t help but think to contact Ani B! Ani came to the US in 1989 as an Armenian refugee from Iran. She holds an MBA and an MS in Information Systems and currently works as a Senior Identity Manager for Microsoft Corporation. Before her career with Microsoft, she was a consultant on .NET Development, SQL Server, and many other technologies.

Ani is very active in the local developer community and has presented at numerous user groups in Denver and Jacksonville. She enjoys snowboarding, skydiving, mountain biking, yoga, and she is learning to scuba dive and climb. She is the author of our upcoming The IT Girl’s Guide to Becoming an Excel Diva, and is very excited to “help women and girls realize their fullest potential,” and she wants them to better “understand how easy this IT stuff can be!” The book is due out in October. For those IT Girls who need to fine tune your Excel skills, this conversational, helpful, and entertaining book is written just for you!

Posted by: katieeditor

I was talking to my 18 year old niece Meg the other day (who without even realizing it is a technology diva). Meg was telling me that some of her high school classmates were in trouble for passing virtual notes – text messaging – and it made me think about how far I’ve come in technology since I was a kid. I passed hand-written paper notes. Now instead of detention for chewing gum it’s detention for not turning off a cell phone in class.  In any case, while I was not saturated with technology as a kid the same way Meg is (except for the Atari of course!) it’s now an indelible part of my life. Which is why I am so passionate about the books we are talking about on this blog - IT Girl’s Guides.  I have always had a love for books. When the discussions began about creating a technology series for women, I realized the reference books that I am drawn to, the books I love, the references that have meant the most to me are the ones that I can relate to or feel as if were written exactly for me.  For me it all started when I found a book called Dare to Repair: A Do-it-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home. I was living by myself in a building that was built in 1896. The walls were plaster (and falling apart), and the plumbing and electricity outdated.  I needed to know how to do things without relying on my friends, and I detested the whole notion of needing a handyman around to fix stuff. I wanted to do it myself. How can I hang my beautiful (but heavy) mirror without removing huge chunks of said plaster wall? How can I rewire my outlets so I don’t blow fuses each time I blow dry my hair? How can I snake my sink drain to unclog it? I had been to the bookstore several times (unsuccessfully) trying to find a reference that was fun, enabling, and easy to navigate. This is going to sound way too girly but I also wanted a book that was attractive. I like to look at aesthetically pleasing books and well, most home improvement books are short on the pretty (and long in the tooth – I definitely did not need 1000 pages to wade through – I needed just the facts). That’s when I found Dare to Repair. The minute I opened it I felt this book had been written just for me! Dare to Repair gave me the confidence to fix my own clogged drains and provided the need-to-know, get-in, get-out information without saturating me with a bunch of unnecessary details which I most certainly in between work, mojitos, mani-pedis, yoga and long cycling rides did not have time for.  So that brings me to today and where I am now – honored to be part of an amazing team creating a unique product for women, authored by women on technology topics.  IT Girl’s Guides are for me, and every woman who wants to embrace her inner geek! If you would like to know more about me, please visit the section called “The Team” at the top of the page. And stay tuned - there will me more posts from the team and I’ll be posting another blog entry soon that will introduce supercharged IT Girl Camille McCue, the amazing author of IT Girl’s Guide to Becoming Web Goddess. For a few fun sneak peek facts, Camille was born in the UK and naturalized a Texan. Camille tried to cash in on the Miss Texas-to-Miss USA streak of the late eighties by entering local beauty pageants but could never beat brunettes to the crown. Realizing her talents were more geek than beauty (pageant), she earned her BA in mathematics and then went to work for IBM where she marketed computers and can say she actually say she knew Mark Cuban before he became a millionaire. Camille is currently working on her PhD and of course writing IT Girl’s Guide to Becoming a Web Goddess.  

Posted by: Katie F.

That’s the question several of my coworkers and I had to ask ourselves last spring when we were asked to work on a new tech book series for Wiley Publishing. We came up with the idea of a series of tech guides that would be written exclusively by women for women on topics that would appeal to today’s smart, savvy, and very busy women…women that each of us in some way could identify with. No one could dispute that more and more women from all walks of life are using technology to improve and enhance their lifestyles, from on-the-go professionals to new moms to technology trendsetters. But, would women really be interested in a women-focused tech reference?

After months of research, brainstorming, and creative thinking, we believed the answer was yes.

And, as we looked closer at the women who might be interested in such a reference, we found a lot of similarities. Our IT Girls were intelligent, interested (and interesting), active, and educated. These women wanted to learn new skills or enhance existing ones, and were eager to meet their technology challenges head-on. But while technology had its place - an important place - in their lives, they didn’t intend to sacrifice time with their family and friends, their favorite yoga class, or the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy to be a slave to the technology gods either.

Thus, we arrived at The IT Girl’s Guides, a series of books that truly believe that being a geek REALLY is chic! You’ll here more from the rest of the IT Girl’s team, our authors, and other IT Girls coming soon on The IT Girl’s Guides blog. Stay tuned.

So, you wanna’ be an IT Girl? Yep, I do.

Posted by: Kelly T.