The Need for Female Voices in Software Development

Gayna Williams (Microsoft Corporation)

Bio: Gayna Williams is currently a Principal UX Manager at Microsoft responsible for a Future Directions team in the Online Services Division. A graduate of the leading Human Factors and Ergonomics program in Great Britain, she has worked for 17 years at Microsoft on the design of a wide range of consumer and enterprise products. Her positions have included User Research Director for Windows, Customer-Partner Satisfaction Director for Business Groups, and Principal Program Manager for Online Communities. Most of her work has been with engineering teams; all of it has been directed at customer experience. Her work focuses on delivering outstanding experiences to users of software and people within the system, increasing customer empathy with engineering teams, and maximizing return on investment for all activities that involve engaging with users and customers. She has created and built several teams, and has managed multi-disciplinary teams comprising researchers, designers, developers, data-miners, and anthropologists. For teams that had no experience with user research, she established mature processes customized to suit the businesses they serve. Her teams have developed best practices that were replicated throughout Microsoft. She has published and presented externally on development practices and technology adoption. She is also a professional coach who focuses on developing women in business.

Abstract: The roles software and technology play in our lives continue to evolve. In the past there were clear boundaries between software for working environments and for home environments, but with the advent of connectivity and mobile technologies the boundaries have blurred. The more technology is infused into lifestyles the greater the diversity of requirements it must support. Recently businesses have focused on the buying power of women (primary buyer online, and the controller of finances in the home) in conjunction with their adoption of technologies. This leads some companies to think about how to increase the appeal of their products to a female audience. Some products are deliberately designed to appeal to women, other products are assumed to appeal to both genders. However, fundamentally, a company that wants to increase its appeal to women or achieve gender-neutral balance needs to be deliberate in its actions. Today, even with the use of user-centered design processes, products that intend to be gender-neutral lean more male than female because of challenges in development processes. Consequently, we'll never design products for women by accident. This is why you are being asked to Speak Up - it is needed greater awareness of bias in product development processes, and the outcome will lead not only to better products for women but also to business success.

The Future will be shaped by the Internet and its Users

Lynn St. Amour (ISOC - Internet Society)

Bio: A graduate of the University of Vermont, Lynn St. Amour began her career in information technology with the General Electric Corporation. Nowadays, she is President/CEO of the Internet Society (ISOC). She joined ISOC in 1998 as Executive Director of its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) division, and has been responsible for ISOC's international expansion. She became ISOC's global Executive Director and COO in 1999 and held that position until her appointment as President and CEO in March of 2001. She divides her time between ISOC's offices in Reston, Virginia, and Geneva, Switzerland. St.Amour has extensive experience in global IT and international business. Her background includes positions at the highest levels in international sales and marketing, strategic planning, partner management and manufacturing. She also has considerable experience in corporate restructuring and start-up management. St.Amour has spent most of her career working in the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland, with significant long-term assignments in other European countries.

Abstract: The Internet is central to all countries' economic development and social progress. Full participation in and access to the global Internet is key to the developmental goals of individuals as well as nations, and essential to the Internet's own growth and evolution. Increasing demand for technical expertise, as well as for products that meet many varied and individual needs, means it is in our collective interest to harness all the talent and as many diverse voices as we can. As the Internet is an increasingly important part of how people work, live, and play, women need more than ever to be developers and innovators, as well as consumers. The global Internet has always been shaped by its users, and empowering women to fully participate in its evolution enriches the future for everyone.

My Experience at Google

Chris Amorossi (Staff Engineer, Google New York Office)

Bio: Chris Amorossi has been at Google since September 2004 and currently she is in the process of transferring projects, so in July she will be a TLM for the Payments Platform. Masters in Math from the University of Connecticut before Google, she did Artificial Intelligence Research for RetailDNA. Patent Pending for "Method and apparatus for dynamic rule and/or offer generation".

De "Prince of Persia" a plataformas de petróleo no Mar do Norte, um caminho árduo, mas trilhado no salto alto!

Carolina Howard Felicíssimo (Schlumberger Limited)

Bio: Carolina Howard Felicíssimo é atualmente Engenheira de Comercialização da Schlumberger Limited, onde trabalha há dois anos. Sua principal responsabilidade é manter a qualidade das APIs que extendem o Petrel, software de um milhão de dólares destinado principalmente à colaboração entre geólogos, geofísicos e petrofísicos. Voltou há seis meses para o Brasil, depois de trabalhar por um ano e meio na Noruega como Engenheira de Software do Petrel. Graduou-se em Engenharia de Computação, possui Mestrado e Doutorado em Engenharia de Software, todos certificados pela PUC Rio. Por um ano e meio fez doutorado sanduíche em Paris, França, na Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Possui mais de dez anos de experiência acadêmica e profissional em Informática.

Resumo: Tudo começou há alguns anos atrás quando um lindo príncipe persa lutava para ficar com sua amada. O majestoso personagem louro caminhava por suntuosos palácios, vestia-se com roupas tradicionais, tinha movimentos elegantes que prezava pela classe. Pela primeira vez me deparei com um jogo de MSX que tinha um mínimo de preocupação com características que chamavam a atenção de meninas. Em seguida, tive conhecimento de Skooter, um simpático robozinho branco que estimulava o cérebro com seus desafios. A era dos jogos violentos tinha perdido espaço para jogos que também eram interessantes para meninas. Existia uma esperança. E assim a Informática vem evoluindo. De pouco a pouco, soluções primordialmente machistas ganham um toque de feminidade. Mas, para que essa evolução progrida, mulheres precisam participar ativamente tanto na academia quanto no mercado, lutando por seu espaço. Assim, decidi por fazer da Informática, minha paixão desde a época de menina, minha profissão. Graduei-me em Engenharia de Computação. Dos sessenta formandos, duas eram mulheres. No Mestrado e Doutorado em Engenharia de Software o cenário era similar. No doutorado sanduíche em Paris, pude comprovar que as mulheres também são minorias por lá. Há seis meses, voltei da Noruega onde trabalhei por um ano e meio como Engenheira de Software de uma empresa multinacional de 110 mil funcionários. O que eu pude comprovar nas plataformas de petróleo no Mar do Norte? Que também no mercado profissional mulheres são um recurso raro e escasso, mas que fazem toda a diferença! Venham todas me dar a oportunidade de compartilhar com vocês o caminho árduo que venho trilhando na Informática, mas sempre no salto alto! Afinal, somos mulheres!