DE-J's Monthly Newsletter, May 2004

IN THIS ISSUE -> From the Editor. -> Notes from the Steering Committee. -> Team reports. -> Calendar. -> Upcoming Events. -> Recent Events. -> Q & A: Interview With A DEva.

FROM THE EDITOR

Stacey Ward, Newsletter Co-editor
<newsletter@digitalevejapan.org>

A big 'otsukaresama deshita!' to everyone
for the month of April. It really is a busy time
in Japan. We became acutely aware of
this in the newsletter team as we rushed
to put it all together in out spare time.
So I'd like to take this opportunity to call
any budding writers and editors who think
they might have a few hours to spare a
month to pitch-in and volunteer for the team!

Not only will you meet and work on-line
with some wonderful and knowledgeable
women but you'll get to see behind the
scenes of a busy volunteer organization
and learn new skills, and try out new
ideas. For example I had no idea about
'blogging' before I volunteered as an editor
for DE-J. Apart from these things
volunteering is also a fantastic way to
get experience in an area which is quite
difficult to break into, and would look
wonderful on your resume. What more
reason do you need? Please email us at
<newsletter@digitalevejapan.org>
if you have any questions.

Apart from volunteering as an editor how
about contributing an article related
to IT and women, or an IT book review,
or perhaps you could write a recap of a
DE-J event you attended?

We're looking forward to hearing from you!


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NOTES FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE

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LEADER REPORT

Debbie Foster, Rota Leader, April/May.
<sc@digitalevejapan.org>

Recently I had the opportunity to sit
in on the Photoshop workshop, taught by
DigitalEve member, Toni Jolic. As a graphic
designer, Toni uses Photoshop daily in her
work. What struck me the most during the
workshop was the idea that, here was a
DigitalEve member, offering to share her
knowledge with anyone who wanted to
learn. I realized that this was DigitalEve
at its best ・women helping women expand
their knowledge, their horizons and their
possibilities. Think about what you can
offer 幌ou'll be amazed at what sharing a
little knowledge can do for a gal!

At the April Steering Committee meeting,
a lot of good ideas came up. Keep your
eyes open for more information on the
upcoming DigitalEve web site launch party
in late May/early June. Also, the membership
profiles section will be up and running soon.
This will be a great place to network, find
DEvas in your area, and toot your own horn a
little. As always, we want to hear from you.
Share your thoughts and ideas with the group.
You never know what your idea will spark.

Enjoy the spring weather!


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MEMBERSHIP TEAM NEWS

Misao Kajiro, Membership Coordinator.
<de-japan-owner@yahoogroups.com>

Total membership is 556 as of the 26th of April, 2004.

Nine members and one guest came to the
Meet the DEvas at Kichijoji on the 24th.
We had a wonderful time at the Irish Pub
and thank all who attended. Please read the
recap of this event by Seiko in this issue.

The venue was not central this time but I
think if we could have a volunteer who would
coordinate events it'd be nice to hold meetings
in different areas. Please send us a mail if you
have any ideas or suggestions, or if you have
a venue we could use.

We started to discuss about the style of our
upcoming Membership Profile. The Tech team
are working hard with our ideas and requests
and are looking for any volunteers to help with
the workload. The site will be useful in order to
know about other DEJ members and to let
people know your about activities.
Thanks for your suggestions.


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TECH TEAM NEWS

Junko Matsuo, Tech Coordinator.
<tech@digitalevejapan.org>

The Tech Team is working on upgrading
Zope. Please be reminded that the website
will be down several times while we're at
work. Thank you.

This month I'll take a look at the scalable
side of Zope. Almost always a dozen
functions are required for a website, such as
a photo gallery or forum. With Zope, these
demands are met by adding function-specific
software called "products" to the server.

I really appreciate that there are many
developers working on free Zope products
around the world! We are just finding and
installing what we need, then the site will be
extended further!

We'll install a product to run forums after
upgrading. Don't miss it!


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WORKSHOP TEAM NEWS

Reiko Ohashi, Workshop Team Coordinator.
<workshop@digitalevejapan.org>

Is everyone enjoying this nice weather
in Spring? We had a Photoshop workshop
last Sunday with 13 attendees.
I would like to say thank you to Toni Jolic,
the tutor who showed us the new exiting
world of this image software and also Debbie
Foster who acted as a teaching assistant.
I hope the attendees will find opportunities
to use what they learnt in the class.
Would you feel like joining the next one?
We love to organize workshops on various
topics. So please join as attendees,
volunteers and also tutors!
We are waiting to hear from you!


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MEDIA TEAM NEWS

Chiharu Kawai, Media Coordinator.
<media@digitalevejapan.org>

Well, the Japanese female soccer
team has come a long way. It is really
great to see those women doing so
well.

Our Media Team has the following
assignment. If you can help me with this
as a volunteer, please contact me right
away: to gather statistical information on
women in IT, and to update the media kit
based on the new stats. Looking forward
to hearing from you!

It's the T-shirt season again!
Please purchase the cool DE-J T-shirts!
For more information, please see the
DE-J website at
http://www.digitalevejapan.org


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CALENDAR

May 21 (Friday) DigitalEVEning.
May 22 (Saturday) Second CAD workshop.


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UPCOMING EVENTS

The next DigitalEVEning is planned for
May 21 (Friday) with a 7 pm start.
It's always a fun night to learn something
new from the speakers and to make new
contacts with other DEvas. Details of the
venue/speaker will be announced soon.
Members and friends will be welcome.

Second CAD workshop.
Back by popular demand! Following the
success of the first computer-aided design
workshop for beginners held last year
Misao Kajiro is back to do a second.
If you are interested in interior design,
architecture, gardening or related fields
but don't know where to start this is a great
opportunity to learn more. It will be held on
May 22 (Saturday) from 14:00 PM -16:30 PM,
and it will be in Shibuya. Details will be
announced soon, mark the date in your diary!


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RECENT EVENTS

Meet the DEvas -April 24 2004
Recap by Seiko Fujii.
Translated by Stacey Ward.

Due to a sudden cold wave, 'Meet the
DEvas' in April was held on a very chilly
day. It's been 3 years since I have been
to a DigitalEve event but my friend
Nanako was visiting Tokyo from Kyoto at
that time and she was interested to come.

When we got to the Irish Pub there were
DE-J postcards stacked up on the table so
we had no trouble finding and joining the
DEva gathering! There were 10 people
attending, and this time there happened to
be more Japanese women than
non-Japanese women.

We all introduced ourselves and were
really impressed by the highly skilled
DEva and mother, Prachi kulkarni. She is
knowledgeable in particular about Java
programming language and ASP (a
technology that enables you to make
dynamic and interactive web pages)
and we are hoping there is a chance
she could do a Java workshop for
DigitalEve members at some point.

We were interested too, to hear about
the situations of two DEvas from the
newsletter team Koko Iwata and Sugiko
Obata. They always manage to do a
great job with the newsletter, so I
imagined they never had problems
putting it all together or getting
information. In fact, they are always busy
trying to find articles and members to
write and to review events. I was really
impressed.

So in the past three years, I've always
kept up to date with the newsletter, now
I've joined in one of the events and I can
see how DigitalEve is organized by a very
patient and hard working team. Keep up
the good work!


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Q & A: INTERVIEW WITH A DEVA

Interview conducted by Noriko Hasegawa.
Newsletter Team.
<newsletter@digitalevejapan.org>

Kana Makino is volunteering in DEJ's
event team, and always makes DEvas
smile with her original ideas and friendly
manner. In her work she is a hot-shot
international business person for computer
hardware company.

Q) If you are not from Tokyo, where are
you from originally and when and why did
you relocate to Tokyo?
A) I'm from Tokyo, originally. I moved
around quite a bit in my childhood and
lived in the US for nine years, thats until
two yeas ago.

Q) How long have you been a member of
DigitalEve Japan?
A) I believe it was June/July 2003 I joined,
so for about a year.

Q) How did you find out about DigitalEve
Japan and why did you decide to join?
A) Cruising on the net one day, looking
for a professional networking society
connected to international IT, and I found
the DEJ site :-)

Q) What DE-J activities/resources have
you participated in? What did you think?
Of these, which do you find the most
advantageous and why?
A) Meet the DEvas, Digital EVEning,
Christmas Party, etc. Was looking for
the retreat last fall, too bad that the trip
was canceled. Digital Evening is always
fun and informative. Actually at the last
one held in March, Jim Ryan, the speaker,
was very nice and fun. I have been in
touch with him since as he works with the
American Embassy and very close with
Washington, that guy has really
interesting stuff to tell.

Q) Are there any other activities and
resources you would like to see offered
by DigitalEveJapan?
A) More workshops would be nice.
I'm always wanting to attend but keep
missing opportunities so far. Also, if
members could communicate with each
other more it would be great. The current
system is good, but if DE can incorporate
something which lets members not only
exchange info, but also get to know each
other well, it would be wonderful.
And lastly, more parties!!

Q) What are your interests in digital
technology?
A) I am not an engineer myself, but am
definitely interested in software development.
Also Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, I would like to see how
it will develop and make our lives better.

Q) What kind of computer do you use?
A) Macintosh. iBook, mostly at this time.
Panther is the greatest OS. Can you even
imaginen that the OS itself can even
make a great difference in the speed of
your computer?

Q) Are you a member of any other
technology-related groups and if so,
which ones?
A) Been to ICA's seminar, and got
connected with interesting people.
Their meetings, I heard, are always
extremely informative and have
have high-ranking professionals.

Q) Please tell me a little bit about
where you work and what your
responsibilities are.
A) I Work for an American hardware
manufacturer who makes CPU
accelerators, PCI cards and other
peripherals for Macintosh and lately for
Windows as well. Sales and Marketing,
in charge of Japanese market.
The company is based in California
and is very small, so they do not have an
office here in Japan. I travel often to the
U.S, and work basically out of my home,
which has advantages as well as down side
(I know most people think I am lucky for
not having to commute and be tied up in
the office from 9 to 5 :-)

Q) Do you have any favorite software
programs? If so, why?
A) iTunes, definitely!! As I have a credit
card with an American bank, I can buy
songs at iTunes Music Store. That is
awesome that you can buy song by song,
not have to buy a whole album.
They got a great collection of all time
music!!

Q) What is your favorite computer-related
activity? (for example, games, email,
surfing the net, etc.) Do you have any
other hobbies?
A) I'm mostly using it for work, but I used
to do DTP, graphic design with Macintosh.
My other hobby? well... I am a workout
fanatic. I go to the gym everyday, I'm into
high impact aerobics. I also run. Just did
my second 10K race a month ago. Did it
in 53 min. I am very happy with the result!

Q) What is your favorite website and why?
A) Not particularly. I do a lot of research on
the web. I am setting up my own business
soon, with my friend in California.

Q) Name three things you will always
find near your computer.
A) Let's see....what I have. A clock,
Calendar, and a calculator.


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SUBMISSIONS TO THE NEWSLETTER

Have an announcement to make? An article
to submit for consideration? (We can't pay
you, but we'll give you a byline.) Please send
your submissions in plain text format to
newsletter@digitalevejapan.org
The deadline for the June newsletter is May 15.

The Digital Digest is brought to you by the
Newsletter Team: Cara Dailey, Noriko Hasegawa,
Chizuko Heyer, Koko Iwata, Misao Kajiro,
Sugiko Obata, Audrey Oei, Meghan Shaw,
Stacey Ward, and Ailsa Wylie.

.....Copyright 2004 DigitalEve Japan, All Rights Reserved.....