DE-J's Monthly Newsletter, November 2004

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FROM THE EDITOR

Louise Mackay, English Editor
Newsletter Team
newsletter@digitalevejapan.org


Hello all,

I am Louise Mackay, your new English editor for the
DigitalEve monthly newsletter. I hope to be able to contribute
to the NL team as much as possible and help out the DEva volunteers
who currently do a very good job of putting together this
informative piece for all of our members. This month we have
a full newsletter with details of our upcoming Christmas party,
a review of the 2004 WPC expo, an interview with entrepreneur and
DEva member, Kristen Newton and much more. Having realised that I
missed
this years International Woman痴 Film Festival held in Tokyo
in mid-October, I was wondering if anyone had attended and would
like to report on this event designed to encourage and showcase the
talents of women behind the scenes who make (produce/direct/design)
films often about woman痴 issues. On that note, the Newsletter
will always look forward to receiving articles from any members who
would like to report on an event they have been able to attend
or inform is of upcoming events that may be of interest to our members.



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NOTES FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE

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ROTA LEADER

Yoshiko Toge, October/November
Sponsorship Coordinator.
<sponsorship@digitalevejapan.org>



Hi all,
I am Yoshiko Toge, rota leader.
At DigitalEve we are planning future events
such as the X'mas party and workshops.

Unfortunately, it is getting difficult to organise
events (socials, retreats, workshops) because of
the lack of volunteers.If you are interested in volunteering
to help with organising or have an idea for an event
(e.g., a software workshop that you would benefit from),
please let us know. Just send an email to the mailing list
and we will gladly respond to your offer of help.

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MEMBERSHIP TEAM NEWS

Misao Kajiro, Membership Coordinator.
<membership@digitalevejapan.org>

Total membership is 545 as of the 26th of October, 2004.

Thank you to all who came to the Meet the DEvas at Cozmo's Cafe
on the 16th. We had a great time with 7 members and 1 guest.
Please read the recap in this issue written by one of
our newest members Emma Boyes.

Our two ML will be combined next year.
So, all members will be able to access
the information that has been written on the discuss list so far.

We are urgently seeking more volunteers for the
tech-team and web content team to update
our E/J web site. Please send a mail if you
have some time to help our activities.

Personally, I started to study again for a
MA degree by distance learning. I hope to be able to
manage my time with the addition of this new pursuit and feel inspired
by
those Digital Eve members who successfully balance career and
lifestyle.

I would appreciate receiving advice from
members on their methods for maintaining a positive career/lifestyle
balance.

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WEB CONTENT TEAM NEWS

Debra B. Foster, Web Content Coordinator.
web@digitalevejapan.org



Nothing to report.

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TECH TEAM NEWS

Junko Matsuo, Technology Coordinator
<techb@digitalevejapan.org>

Nothing to report.


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MEDIA TEAM NEWS

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

To those DEVas who live or have family members and
relatives in the areas damaged by recent typhoons and
earthquakes: we are all very much concerned about your safety.

We have only two more months before the end of the year.
It is hard to believe... I am trying to get as many things
done as possible. I regret that I could not recruit enough staff
for my Media/PR Team to make my plans into action.
As you remember, I proposed the possible Design Festa participation
back in the summer, but no one but only two outside the Tokyo area
showed interest and only one offered help as a volunteer.
Of course, that was not enough to get things going.
It is disappointing but I have to announce that the proposal went down
the drain.

Despite the above, I have yet another plan: I am thinking about
having a panel discussion/presentation to graduating female
college students to inform them of the real world experience of
female IT workers, job hunting, international business opportunities,
studying abroad, etc., which we as DEJ have a whole lot to talk about.
If this sounds interesting to you, please contact me!

Well, the holiday season is approaching.
Let's wrap up the year with one more fun event.
Please join our holiday party. Details will be announced shortly.



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DETAILS OF UPCOMING EVENTS

2004 Digital Eve Japan X'mas Party

Too fast! Within two months, another year will be over. Scary or what?
Now please mark your calendar for the last activity of this year for
DEVAs - The X'mas Party 2004.
This year, we will have a joint X'mas party with ICA - International
Computing Association. For members who are not familiar with this
organization,
ICA is also a non-profit international organization of which members
mostly are IT
professional of multi-national businesses. For detail, please check the
following website.
http://www.icajapan.jp/

Date: Dec. 3, Fri, 2004
Time: Starting 6:30 pm ~
Place: HobGoblin Roppongi
Admission: 5,500 yen (All You Can Drink and Eat till 8:30 pm)

ICA itself had over 80 attended last year. This will be a great
opportunity to network IT professional from all noationality. DON'T
MISS IT!

Kana Makino
Event Coordinator

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RECENT EVENTS

Report of the Meet the DEvas by Emma Boyes

Recap of DEva meet 16th October @ Cozmos Cafe

Having just moved to the big smoke from Osaka a month ago,
this was my first DEva meet. The venue was perfect,
I can totally recommend this cafe for sipping a cappucino
and chatting with girlfriends for hours on end. The cakes and
the coffees are delicious - try the Caramel-cino for 580 yen.
Oishi! In the one and a half hours, we got through a lot of stuff.
Eight DEvas attended, including another first time attendee
myself. Welcome! One of the main things we talked about is
the disappointing lack of interaction and feedback at the moment.
Digital Eve is here to help YOU, but to do that we need YOUR help.
What do you want this group to be? Do you want more social meets,
more workshops, more help/jobs/general discussions on the message
boards? Do you just want to meet other cool, creative people or
do you have a goal that perhaps another member could advise you
on or maybe even help you achieve? These kind of clubs totally rely
upon everyone pitching in whatever they can to make them work.
I have found, again and again, that women in Japan, both foreign
and native, are the most amazing anywhere in the world for helping
other women, so please don't be shy! Please get involved!
Attend a meet, help someone out on the board, give us some feedback,
whatever you can do... Another thing we talked about was the problem
of spam email. We all decided it was a very good idea to have at least
two email addresses, a public and a private one, and to use the
public one for subscribing to mailing lists and newsletters and
entering on websites. This way you can have one account solely for
family and friends that won't get filled up with spam. For anyone that
needs business cards, Tokyu Hands in Shinjuku does a next-day
service. If you go up to the 7th floor and ask for 'meishi' they have
many designs, both in english and japanese and it costs about
2,600 yen for 30, and about 5,000 yen for 100. Also, the newsletter
has a new English editor, Louise Mackay, who will be sending out
her first newsletter at the end of the month. Ganbate Louise! Emma

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Q & A: INTERVIEW WITH A DEVA
Interview conducted by Ko Iwata
Newsletter Team.
newsletter@digitalevejapan.org

After reading an article on Right Brain Research in the Japan Times,
I was thrilled to hear that Kristen Newton, the female enterpreneur,

wasa DEVA!Although she has been interviewed several times

by differentorganizations,she graciously agreed to be on

our newsletter. For those who are budding artists,

or who would love to be one, her contact information
is at the bottom of this article. Happy reading!

1) If you are not from Tokyo, where are you from originally
and when and why did you relocate to Tokyo?

I am from Los Angeles, California. I was originally invited to Japan
on an artists' exchange program as a glass artist, and completed
many stained glass commissions in Japan, Hong Kong,
and the U.S. before starting my current business
Right Brain Research (RBR). I was invited to Japan in 1980
and expected to only stay one year, but...

2) How long have you been a member of DigitalEve Japan?

Since the time it was "Webgrrls" quite a few years ago
but I can't remember exactly how long.

3) How did you find out about DigitalEve Japan and why
did you decide to join?

I was completely computer illiterate and when I asked
various men friends to help I just got more confused.
DigitalEve Japan has been a lifesaver!

4) Are there any other activities and resources you would like
to see offered by DigitalEve Japan?

The workshops are great but since now I have my own business
I haven't had as much time to attend them as I used to.

5) What kind of computer do you use?

A PC but I'd like to also be fluent on MacIntosh someday.
There is always friendly competion between Mac people and
PC people in my office.

6) Please tell me a little bit about where you work,
what your responsibilities are and how you started up your
business here in Tokyo.

In June 2000, I opened my first RBR Art School in Azabu Juban,
after holding workshops at various public spaces for several of years.
I wanted to expand the program and include more classes for children
and also music classes but was stifled by space constraints.
In the Spring of 2003, two associates and I began plans to expand
the school with the hopes of offering creatively taught classes in
fields of art,music and bilingual language education.

The current RBR School openedin its present Moto Azabu site

in April 2004. I am the Creative Director.
My two partners are Mayumi Murata, our Director of Marketing,
and Lia Howe, our Administrator.

7) How did you start up your business in Hong Kong?

Actually I just go to Hong Kong once or twice a year to teach workshops.

Yolanda Yeh who has a company called Pro-Active Learning came to
Tokyo in 1996 to take my workshop and she liked it so much
she's invited me to Hong Kong every year since then.

8) Do you find any differences between the two cities, business-wise?

The business and communication styles are completely different.
I've come to realize that clear communication is extremely important,
don't assume anything. In Hong Kong everyone is focused on business
from an early age. I even heard two 10 year old boys discussing the
stock market!

9) Do you find it difficult being a female enterpreneur?

Sometimes it's an advantage and sometimes a disadvantage,
but always a challenge. In a way it's harder being an artist in
business
because businessmen often think of artists as "flaky". I recently looked
at the Small Business Administration website and saw that part of their
definition of entrepreneur says, "Most entrepreneurs tend to be
maverick
personalities with risk-taking vision and courage.
Many entrepreneurs tend to be just a bit "off beat" and they
sometimes need to be in order to creatively grow a successful business."
Maybe that's what artists are good at, whether a man or a woman.

10.) Do you have any other hobbies?

I like traveling and archeology.

12) What is your favorite website and why?

My own website: http://www.rbr-art.com/
because it's a constant creative challenge to express what we do.

13) Name three things you will always find near your computer.

A window to look out of, a cup of tea, and a pile of papers to work on.


RBR
The New Center for Creative Arts
1-5-15 Moto Azabu, Minato-ku
Website: http://www.rbr-art.com/
E-mail: info@rbr-art.com
Tel. (03) 5475-6171

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FEATURE ARTICLE:

WPC Expo 2004

By Chiharu Kawai

On Friday October 22nd, the weather was gorgeous.
The crisp autumn air invited me to go out of the office,
and, yes, I took the Yurikamome to the Tokyo Big Sight
to visit the WPC Expo 2004 show, as I had a free admission ticket.
In short, this year's show, despite the fact that it is
the 10th year anniversary, was a little disappointing in many ways.
First, it was much smaller than the last year's show at Makuhari.
Second, it seemed to me that this year's show was more
focused on the consumer products such as mobile phones,
printing and imaging devices, digital cameras, bluetooth devices, etc,
In fact, the Business Zone was smaller. Third, the usual male-dominant
culture of technology shows in Japan was so explicit a female visitor
like me felt kind of offended. I am writing my own opinions,
so some of you who visited the show may have a different impression.
But let me tell you a little bit about my personal impression of WPC
Expo 2004.

First of all, what disappointed me the most is that there were not
many medium and small sized companies at this year's show,
though, if I remember correctly, there were more last year.
This year, only major corporations had a booth here and there,
while only a small number of medium and small sizecd companies
were struggling to attract customers in the valleys among the giants
such as Microsoft, Fujitsu, Canon, Toshiba, NTT, Intel and HP.
Furthermore, as you may have noticed, leading foreign companies,
such as Apple, Dell, Symantec, Cisco, and others were not present.

Another notable change in this year's WPC is its focus more on
the consumer side rather than businesses. As I mentioned earlier,
there were not many intersting business software products.
I sat for a presentation on Windows XP SP2 but, besides MS,
stopped by only a few booths for demos and details.

The above was enough to make this year's WPC not as great as
the past ones, but what was making it even worse is that
the exhibition hall was full of Japanese men, young and old,
with a camera shooting those "companions" or show booth
attendant girls in a very short skirt and high-heeled boots
exposing their thighs. Many of the girls were posing for photos.
There were so many photographers everywhere in the hall
shooting those girls. In some tech show I visited in the past,
one of the largest Japanese corporations had girls in bikinis.
Why do they need girls in bikinis at a trade show? It is nothing
but the male chauvinistic mentality that uses the "companions"
to attract more visitors who are predominantly male. I have been
to some big computer shows like Comdex in the U.S. but have
never seen women used as sex objects walking in bikinis
to attract male customers. Maybe some other places but at least
not in tech shows! You can see how male-chauvinisitc Japanese
corporations are. It looked like more than 90 percent of all
the visitors to this year's WPC were male, and it is understandable
that Japan is in the 44th place (considerably low as an advanced
nation)
in the United Nations Development Programme's
Gender Empowerment Index (GEM) ranking.

If you have visited WPC and have different opinions,
please post them to the discuss list so we can discuss.

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SUBMISSIONS TO THE NEWSLETTER

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