Digital Digest April 2005

The Monthly Newsletter of DigitalEveJapan. Promoting women's digital lifestyles by offering a supportive community and programs tuned to women using IT in their workplace and in their everyday lives.

/:/:/:/:/ THE DIGITAL DIGEST /:/:/:/:/:/

The Monthly Newsletter of DigitalEVE Japan.

Promoting women's digital lifestyles by offering
a supportive community and programs tuned to
women using IT in their workplace and in their
everyday lives.

http://www.digitalevejapan.org

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 1 April 2005

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This monthly newsletter is a membership benefit
of DigitalEVE Japan and is sent through our
mailing list, de-japan. If you wish to cancel
your membership with DigitalEve Japan, please
follow the unsubscribe instructions at the end of
this issue.

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FROM THE EDITOR

Louise Mackay, English Newsletter Editor.
<newsletter@digitalevejapan.org>

Hello All,

Welcome to the April edition of the DigitalEve
Japan Newsletter. Spring should be here; to some
this may mean the sight of cherry blossom, to
others a chocolate Easter egg or two.
Unfortunately last weekend neither were
forthcoming. I am happy to say that the monthly
newsletter never fails to appear and we are glad
to welcome a new English newsletter editor to our
team, Lynn Fujino. Lynn also hosted an email
writers workshop on the 26th of March. You can
read about the success of this workshop in this
month's issue, as well as news from our web,
membership, media and steering teams, and an
interview with the founder and CEO of TECKNOKids
Japan and fellow DEva, Shelley Bearse.

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NOTES FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE

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ROTA LEADER
Debbie Foster

DigitalEve is dedicated to encouraging women to
become leaders in IT.To accomplish this goal, we
need members who are willing to take a few hours
of their time and share their knowledge and
experience with the group. I hope everyone will
take a few minutes and figure out what knowledge
and experience they can share.

As the weather warms, I hope to see more of you
joining us at our DigitalEve workshops and
socials. Enjoy the spring and the Cherry
Blossoms. I hope this season brings a renewed
energy and spirit to all of us.


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MEMBERSHIP TEAM NEWS

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

Total membership is 717 as of March 29th, 2005.

Yahoo Groups has changed their look, and our
total number is now 717(?). We'll check what's
happened on the site.

As Nicola suggested on the list, we added an
explanation as to men's participation on the top
page of de-japan
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/de-japan/.

We had a wonderful workshop on 26th March. Lynn
Fujino taught 9 participants and provided us all
with good handouts. Marilyn Brooks from Miyazaki
joined, too. Please read the recap in this issue.

We are planning our next workshop for Graphic
Design. Please check the list for the
announcement.

Also, our event group is planning a DEvening with
another IT group in this month; the date will be
announced soon.


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WEB CONTENT TEAM NEWS

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

The website is slowly being updated as I see
interest expressed from members. Recently, based
on several discussions I've seen on the mailing
list of SKYPE, I added information on that
software to the website for our members. If there
is something you'd like to see included on the
site, let me know. Also, and members who speak/
read/write Japanese fluently and would like to
get involved in adding information in Japanese to
the website, please let me know.

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TECH TEAM NEWS

Nothing to report


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MEDIA TEAM NEWS

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

It's time for Sakura and the color pink!Yes, our
color! One of the activities I conducted during
the last month was distributing flyers and
postcards at Womenfest on Saturday, March 13,
2005. Ms. Jackielyn dela Cruz, a software
engineer, kindly helped me hand them out at the
entrance to approximately 100 people. Jackielyn
has been working for an IT company in Japan for
about 2 years and speaks Japanese very
fluently. I really appreciated her contribution.
I have various ideas and plans for this year but
need volunteers to help me. The English media
contact position is still open. If you are
interested in PR, please let me know.


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DETAILS OF UPCOMING EVENTS

We are planning a Graphic Design workshop and a
DEvening with another IT group (details to be
announced soon).


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RECENT EVENTS

Here is a response to the Email Writers Workshop
held on the 26th of March hosted by Lynn Fujino.

"I really did enjoy the seminar. It was very
helpful and very informative. I would highly
recommend it again for anyone wanting to take it.
Also enjoyed our lunch. All in all a fun and
educational Saturday morning!"
-Nancy Katsura


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Q & A: INTERVIEW WITH A DEVA

Interview conducted by Ko Iwata
Newsletter Team
newsletter@digitalevejapan.org

This month we had the pleasure of interviewing
Shelley Bearse, founder and CEO of TECHNOKids
Japan (providing fun technology and IT teaching
for children aged 5 to 17 -
www.technokidsjapan.com).

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

A) I was born in Canada, have Dutch and Canadian
nationalities, and was transferred here from
Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 2000 as CIO for
Asia.

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

A) I have been a member (receiving newsletters)
for approximately 1 year. I was finally able to
attend my first meeting in February 2005, and
wish I had done so earlier.

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

A) I had met several Devas at different
networking events in Tokyo and kept promising to
come out. First step was to sign up and next step
was to come out to an event.

Q) What DE-J activities/resources have you
participated in? Of these, which do you find the
most advantageous and why?

A) I have attended just the one meeting in
February where we were lucky to be entertained by
free music! I intend to help out with organizing
some events, when I can. I am also willing to run
some workshops if there is anything valuable I
can contribute.

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

A) There are many great business women in Japan
whose stories need to be told. An event
highlighting several of these women would be
great - and would inspire others as well!

Q) What are your interests in digital technology?

A) I studied IT in Canada and worked with
computers - all platforms - from PDAs to
mainframes. Someone was explaining an 'archaic
language called Assembler' to me the other day. I
had to stop him and tell him I had also
programmed in this useful language. More recently
I have been involved in setting up internet
stores in Europe and Asia, investigating setting
up new businesses in Japan, on the IT, logistics
and warehousing side, and in managing IT for
Japan, Korea and China.

My real interest in digital technology is in
passing on the message that technology is a tool,
and it should be a helpful and fun tool. Too many
people are afraid of technology, and I would like
to try to take that fear away and encourage
people to ask those questions about technology
that they are afraid to ask.

Q) What kind of computer do you use?

A) My desktop at home is a Dell, my laptop which
I carry around everywhere is an IBM x version -
lightest model I could find (but you tend to see
me walking with memory sticks lately), and I have
an iBook. The PCs run on Windows and I have an
extra old laptop that I am investigating Linux
on.

Q) Are you a member of any other
technology-related groups and if so, which ones?

A) I am not a member of any IT group in Tokyo.

Q) Please tell me a little bit about where you
work and what your responsibilities are.

A) In September 2000, I started a new company
called TECHNOKids Japan.TECHNOKids is an IT
curriculum for children aged 5 to 17, which
provides the content to teach children about
technology in a fun way. Currently I am teaching
entrepreneurial classes to Japanese children -
grades 1 to 3 and grades 4 to 6, using this
curriculum.

As CEO of TECHNOKids Japan, my additional
responsibilities range from creating marketing
plans, setting up a training program for
instructors, acquiring new clients, deciding on
layout and decoration of future TECHNOKids
franchises, and creating a curriculum for adult
classes, to taking out the garbage.

Q) Do you have any favorite software programs? If
so, why?

A) Irfanview, which is freeware and is great as
an easy editing tool for photos and creating easy
photo slideshows. Kid Pix is also a favourite - a
child's version of PowerPoint.

Q) What is your favorite computer-related
activity? (for example, games, email, surfing the
net, etc.) Do you have any other hobbies?

A) Surfing the internet for new ideas, and now
having replaced my Brastel card with Skype -
talking/chatting with my friends. Email is great,
but I find if I don't answer the mail when it
comes in, it will disappear in my inbox. Since I
am almost always online, I can now keep in
contact with friends around the world when they
pop up. Other hobbies include golfing, reading,
cooking, walking, bicycling - and I am planning
to get to know the Japan - outside of Tokyo.

Q) What is your favorite website and why?

A) www.technokidsjapan.com - I feel personally
attached to this one and www.kyodo.co.jp to keep
me up to date on happenings in Japan and
www.nos.nl -to keep me up to date on what is
happening in the Netherlands.

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

A) My Japanese/English dictionaries, my laptop
and iBook and my iPod, as it is recharging.


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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 Digital Digest is brought to you by the
Newsletter Team: Debra B. Foster, Lynn Fujino,
Noriko Hasegawa, Koko Iwata, Misao Kajiro, Louise
Mackay, Sugiko Obata and Ailsa Wylie.