• Women Tech

    Posted on April 2nd, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    FDM Women in Technology Awards 2013

    Last week I was lucky enough to be able to attend the FDM Women in Technology Awards as a finalist. Although I didn’t win myself, I was bowled over by all the female talent there and the range of achievements – from founding award winning start-ups to creating artificial organs.

    Here is a roundup of the winners.

    Woman of the Year – sponsored by FDM Group
    Eleni Antoniadou, Co-founder and Chief of Science, Transplants without Donors from London

    Eleni is the founder of Transplants Without Donors, which produces “off-the-shelf” tissue engineered organs that are customizable for each patient. She has also recently joined the NASA Academy as a researcher.

    Entrepreneur of the Year – sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent
    Jennifer Sheridan, Founder & CEO, Togeva Ltd from London

    Founded in 2010, Togeva is a unique Live Sharing™ Platform and API for mobile devices that allows people to create and share digital content. Jennifer is responsible for many roles, including leading technology development and design, general accounting and managing the team. She is actively involved in the startup scene in Tech City/Silicon Roundabout.

    Innovator of the Year – sponsored by The Institution of Engineering and Technology
     Joanna Montgomery, Founder & CEO, Little Riot from Newcastle

    Joanna launched Little Riot, an interaction design company in 2010 – with flagship product ‘Pillow Talk’ originally created as her university degree project. This innovative technology allows couples who are apart to listen to the heartbeat of the other person. As well driving PR, Joanna leads on product development and oversees the entire company operations.

    Inspiration of the Year – sponsored by VMware
     Deborah Gundle, Founder/Director, Netbuddy from London

    Without any prior IT experience, Deborah established Netbuddy in 2010, an online social networking community and crowd sourcing resource for parents and carers of children with learning disabilities. Since its inception, the site has received an average of 6,000 visitors per month.

    Leader of the Year – in a corporate organisation (with over 500 employees) – sponsored by BP
     Lucy Dimes, Chief Executive Officer, UK & Ireland, Alcatel-Lucent from London

    Lucy joined Alcatel-Lucent in 2011 and has been at the forefront of driving innovation and growth in 4G, internet and web hosting services, ICT, managed network services and outsourcing, on an international scale. She has established the UK&I Diversity Forum, the UK&I ‘StrongHer’ network and introduced mentoring for women in a global talent pool.

    Rising Star of the Year – sponsored by Cisco
     Taylor McGhee, Integrated Supply Chain Specialist Apprentice, IBM UK Ltd from Port Glasgow

    Taylor joined the IBM Apprenticeship Scheme in 2011 at just 17 years old, rotating within the main pillars of supply chain from customer fulfilment to supply operations. She is charged with helping each area improve their business processes and is an active Social Business Advocate within the team. Taylor also acts as a mentor for newly recruited apprentices and regularly attends internal networking events.

    Team Leader of the Year – in a SME (with under 500 employees) – sponsored by salesforce.com
    Tamara Lohan, Co-founder & CTO, Mr & Mrs Smith from London

    Mr & Mrs Smith, an innovative travel website was co-founded in 2003 by Tamara and her now husband James after a disappointing experience with a hotel guidebook recommendation. As CTO, Tamara has consistently championed technology as a key differentiator for the brand, masterminding an array of technical integrations whilst leading and nurturing her team of loyal staff.

    Lifetime Achievement

    In addition, for the first time, a special Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Alexander Mann Solutions, was presented – to pioneering IT entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley. This Award recognised her significant contribution to the industry, her game-changing influence and lifelong passion for inspiring and enabling women to achieve success in technology.

    This post first appeared on Zoe Cunningham’s blog.

  • Education

    Posted on March 28th, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    What is the best certification for an Enterprise Architect to possess?

    The rise of the Enterprise Architect

    The world wide web and the advancement of technology over the last decade has forced enterprises to become more complex and integrated across multiple platforms to compete in an increasingly global marketplace. Due to this highly malleable environment, the way a company approaches their internal operational management and longitudinal evolution often with reference to technology has changed dramatically.

    It is therefore no surprise we have seen a rise in the application of enterprise architecture; the process of aligning technology with business strategy, and the associated demand for enterprise architects. Enterprise architects are responsible for analysing a company’s structure and drawing viable conclusions in terms of the overall direction it should be headed. Their mantra is to achieve four distinct milestones: effectiveness, efficiency, agility and durability.

    Although this is a highly specialised field, there are a variety of architecture frameworks and so many different certifications that an enterprise architect can attain. But which is the best certification to possess?

     

    The top enterprise architecture certifications

    Let us have a brief look at the more common types of certification available and the benefits each can bring to the table.

    Open Group Certified Architect (Open CA) Certification

    This type of qualification is a competency based certification, similar to PMP the Open CA certification determines the knowledge you have, rather than how you apply it.  For many this is a desirable route as the certification is applicable to those in Enterprise, Business or IT Architecture and so provides greater career options.

    An Open CA certification requires an applicant to demonstrate real-world evidence that he or she has developed a mastery of the field through examples and evidence. This evidence is then reviewed by three certified architects to determine whether the candidate meets the requirement for the certification. This certification exhibits proof of real-time experience as opposed to an effective knowledge base alone.

    This proactive demonstration of skills can be quite attractive for businesses that are looking for potential employees that can boast real-world experience.

    Zachman Certification

    One of the biggest benefits that the Zachman Certification embraces is an idea known as “reality-based learning”. This program integrates learned theory directly with real world experience. Therefore, the certification process is just as heavily based on strengthening existing skills while offering a broader understanding of the industry.

    Through a relatively quick evaluation process, three different levels of certification can be achieved:

    -       Level 1 is defined as an enterprise architect associate

    -       Level 2 is an EA professional

    -       Level 3 is an EA instructor.

    This certification may be useful for those wishing to add another “feather to their cap” without having to endure long and arduous hours of training. To obtain a level 1 requires only a 4 day training workshop followed by a 2 hour online examination. After submitting case studies and an additional review, the individual often times has the ability to further progress to an enterprise architect professional; the most popular of these qualifications and the one industry leaders value highly.

    Zachman currently offer a range of training dates for the ‘Associate level’ (level 1) on their main site, but you will need to be willing to travel. The next two locations are Washington DC, followed by Stavangar in in Norway. Better get out the cheque book.

    The Open Group Architecture Framework – TOGAF 

    The Open Group Architecture Framework, TOGAF is widely recognised as the best EA certification to hold. The defining reason is that the associated framework is the most widely applied within enterprise architecture, currently adopted in 80% of fortune 500 companies. This means, more jobs available!

    The certification is split into two parts, with a foundation better suited to those entering the profession, and a more advanced level for experienced an practicing architects. With this two tier system the certification offers a clear path to progression and is currently held by more than 20,000 practicing professionals. The certification can be gained through a variety of vendors, however if you are in a rush Firebrand offer the most recent TOGAF 9.1 training course with exams for certification included.

    Summary

    The certifications covered in this post are three of the most prominent in the enterprise architecture space, there are however a wide variety as covered by ‘Mike the Architect’ in article title ‘Enterprise architecture certifications distilled’. Before making a decision which to go for one must first consider their own circumstances.

    Although each of these certifications has their own benefits, the TOGAF methodology is still the most widely-recognised program in the industry, and therefore many will opt for this qualification, perhaps at a later date securing others as needed. Notwithstanding the value that each of these offers to the applicant, it must be understood that in a constantly changing managerial environment, these certification programs will likewise need to adapt in the coming years. Nonetheless, an enterprise architect certification is vital in today’s workforce.

  • Women Tech

    Posted on March 27th, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    Female Heroes in Gaming

    Just yesterday, my boyfriend sent me this and it got me to thinking…

    As a woman I have rarely played any video games, much the chagrin of my boyfriend and it’s due to a combination of factors – I get freaked out by the controls (probably explains why I haven’t passed my driving test yet) and more importantly I don’t want to spend my time on doing something where there’s is nothing in it that feels vaguely insulting to me. The above article makes some excellent points about women in games, same sex relationships in games and so on. I see it is as the general questions that every industry should ask itself not just the gaming industry.

    I stopped playing games when I became a teenager, just because it wasn’t really feasible to sit at the back of my classroom and play Tetris, as one of 2 Indian-looking kids in the year and 1 of 5 indian-looking kids in the whole school I didn’t want to open up further excuses for bullying. But I got older and I would see the ads for games and none of them looked like me. I mean it’s a lot to expect because ethnic women (read. Indian looking) are overlooked by media most of the time, but the gaming industry is touted as being ‘progressive’ ‘cutting edge’ ‘dynamic’ and any other forward-thinking adjectival phrase you can think of. But it’s not is it? I can think of maybe 3 women who are in lead roles off the top of my head, more than that I start to struggle. I posed this question to my b/f he struggled as well – and he has xbox achievement points that are phenomenal. I started to dig a little deeper – Elizabeth in BioShock (mentioned in the article above) Bayonetta, Lara Croft who else? If you can tell me any more female leads that are essentially who the game is built around and they aren’t a supporting character let me know….

    Google Search

    And I realised that that’s why I don’t feel so keen to play video games. I’m bombarded every day of my life  ugly I am, how I don’t fit into any ideal of beauty how being above size 8 means I’m fat, the list goes on. And then you turn to video games and the women have Christina Hendricks-type proportions on Size 0 bodies and I feel sad. This is what boys (of all nations) are exposed to, and for the women that game, this is the only option available to them. It makes me incredibly sad that there’s nothing else. I mean I don’t expect gaming companies to turn around and start putting ethnic people in games because there aren’t many of us. Oh wait. Yes there are. But it would be nice to be acknowledged. If Marvel can have a hispanic Spiderman I really can’t understand why characters in video games can’t be more diverse – maybe a Chinese mob boss?! Maybe an angel that likes men and women. Or hell an Assassins Creed where women aren’t supporting characters.  The image above shows what a simple google searched yielded with the title of this piece. There’s a BLACK WOMAN. So I stand corrected. And research indicated ‘Darci’ was the first female black character in ‘Urban Chaos’. Why don’t I know more about this?! Or more specifically why are games like this not publicised for girls?! Why do I have to go to a gamer blog in The Guardian to find out more.

    I accept that video games are a form of escapism and no one wants to be dealing with ‘politics’ when they’re playing. But given that video games are probably one of the most influential media forms on the planet it seems lazy and counter-intuitive to ignore a shift in society, that women and older people are going to be gaming, that gaming is enjoying a level of ‘cool’ that gives it power as platform to engage with people all over the world.

     

  • Women Tech

    Posted on March 23rd, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    5 best free web apps: 5. Hootsuite

    Do you use Twitter? If you’re reading tech blogs, I’m guessing you probably do. If you’re just a personal tweeter then you won’t need a service like Hootsuite, but if you run a small business or an personal projects it can become invaluable.

    If you run a small business then it’s advisable to have a Twitter account. For a very low amount of marketing effort, you can catch the eye of consumers that you wouldn’t otherwise reach, and if your twitter feed is clearly targeted to a certain market, you will pick up followers who are interested in exactly what you offer, creating a tailored sales channel.

    On the other hand, if you are an ambitious professional. It also makes sense to have a personal Twitter account, allowing you to build your brand as a thought leader in your field. How to manage both of them?

    The first service that Hootsuite or similar sites, such as Tweetdeck, offer is a simple one, but probably the one that adds the largest value. Without a place to access more than one feed you would need to log out and in again every time you wanted to look at a different account. With Hootsuite you can stay logged into your main Hootsuite account and then access all feeds, in a similar way to the Google multiple sign-in feature for emails.

    Then there are services that are invaluable if you are a busy business tweeter rather than a casual personal one. You can send the same tweet from multiple accounts. You can schedule tweets so that they appear in your timeline at a later date (perhaps while you are busy in a meeting!). You can even auto schedule tweets to appear when they will have the maximum impact on your followers.

    Hootsuite is free to use if you want to access fewer than 5 twitter accounts, which should be enough to be getting on with for most people.

    This post first appeared on Zoe Cunningham’s blog.

  • Women Tech

    Posted on March 18th, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    5 best free web apps: 4. Eventbrite

    I’m pretty sure that, like me, you don’t remember the first time that you used Eventbrite. When I first came across it, it felt like one of among a million new startups to do something that it seemed sensible to have a web app for. It felt like a nice site that did what you wanted, but would they ever make money just from selling tickets?

    The competitors that Eventbrite started out against were the big boys – Ticketmaster, Ticketweb and individual venue and event organiser sites. As a consumer buying tickets, I couldn’t see how tiny Eventbrite could end up a winner.

    But Eventbrite had a better plan. They weren’t trying to compete with Ticketmaster to sell Madonna tickets. They were going for a previously unserviced market – small independent events organisers. In fact I would suggest that Eventbrite in fact helped to create this market by allowing event organisers who couldn’t afford large system licence fees access to a simple pay-per-ticket cloud platform, and hence the ability to run events that wouldn’t have happened otherwise or to grow attendance of smaller meetups.

    Eventbrite is completely free to use if you are not charging for your tickets, and they charge a percentage (which can be either deducted from your revenue or charged through to the ticket buyer, as you prefer) on paid-for tickets.

    And if you fancy trying out Eventbrite – why not have a look at these lovely Tech Talkfest events :)  techtalkfest.eventbrite.com

    This post first appeared on Zoe Cunningham’s blog.

  • Women Tech

    Posted on March 9th, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    5 best free web apps: 3. Doodle

    Simple but effective is the key with our third online web app Doodle. Most people I know through work have used this app, so chances are that if you’re in the tech space you will have too. If not, you may surprised at just how simple it is.

    Do you remember the last time you tried to get your mates together in the pub? All of them, on the same day? It can be difficult to juggle emails, suggesting a date only to find that John can’t make it, while trying to remember that Susan can’t do Wednesdays.

    Well this is exactly the problem that Doodle solves! Using Doodle feels like simplicity itself. Enter your dates, receive a link, share with your friends and wait for them to enter their availability. Then you can easily see the count of who is free on which night (and a grid of exactly who, if some friends carry more weight than others).

    It somehow seems counter-intuitive that a business can make made from such a simple idea, but personally I think it’s an important lesson for any startup. Simplicity is key.

    Starting with paid-for Premium Doodle to capitalise on people who want a bit more from the service, Doodle have now launched BookMe as a complete service for time-based service industries such as hairdressers. Given their reputation, it deserves to be a success.

    This post first appeared on Zoe Cunningham’s blog.

  • Women Tech

    Posted on March 3rd, 2013

    Written by

    Related Posts

    5 best free web apps: 2. Weebly

    I’m writing a series of 5 posts on what I consider to be the best free web applications available at the moment. You can read the last post about free emailing application Mailchimp here.

    It is with great delight that I choose Weebly for my second best free app. This is in a large part because if you are reading this on my personal blog (http://www.zoefcunningham.com/blog.html) it is being brought to you by Weebly!

    (Similarly if you are subscribed to my blog, the you were delivered the last post about Mailchimp via Mailchimp!).

    As a coder, I wrote and designed my first website myself, from scratch. Big mistake. I am a coder, not a designer. My website looked truly appalling and had that hint of “is this a hoax site? It’s so badly designed” about it. It was so bad, I wish I had taken a screenshot of it to show you.

    My second attempt involved using someone else’s design but editing the HTML directly myself. This seemed like the perfect way to get maximum flexibility (WYSIWYG was a dirty word 10 years ago) with a sensible amount of effort. But was it a sensible amount of effort? Editing my website became a massive chore. I was using a simple file sharing site, and so to make an edit I had to download the HTML, make an edit, test locally, upload it and then fix the typos that inevitably occur. That’s leaving aside the fact that “make an edit” involved typing out more characters in HTML tags than in text.

    I have used a lot of WordPress sites, and I find them too to be difficult and non-intuitive to use.

    So I was absolutley delighted to discover Weebly.com, (found by typing into Google something similar to “website designer”) which I now use for all of my websites (8, in total). Weebly solved all of my website problems.

    • For each website I can select from a range of templates that are simple, clean and professional looking. Each site looks different and you would not guess that a site builder was behind them. I have even been complimented on the design!
    • I can easily edit my site to add text, pictures and audio and video. Sometimes I cannot set the layout exactly as I would like, but I can always get something that looks reasonable.
    • I can add custom HTML for when I want to add widgets from Mailchimp or Mixcloud.
    • Whenever I try to find a way to do something I haven’t done before (e.g. adding an extra author for a site), there is always a sensible way to achieve it.

    In fact, despite starting with Weebly because it was free, I quickly upgraded to the professional version in order to use my own domain names (the biggest limiation of the free version is that you must use <your-site>.weebly.com). For me, that is the perfect example of how good these new free web applications are – you’d be prepared to pay for them if you had to.

    This post first appeared on Zoe Cunningham’s blog.

  • Older Posts Yeah! There are more posts, check them out.

    Newer Posts Yeah! There are more posts, check them out.