Digital Digest December 2006

:/:/:/:/ 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.

1 December 2006

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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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IN THIS ISSUE
-> From the Editor
-> Rota Leader Report
-> Media Team News
-> Membership Team News
-> Web Content Team News
-> Upcoming Events
-> DEJ Event Review

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FROM THE EDITOR

Corinne Sutter, English Newsletter Editor
newsletter@digitalevejapan.org

The end of the year 2006 is fast approaching.December can be
very fun but hectic, with bonenkai parties to attend and
assignments to finish. I hope you can take even a little
time to slow down and enjoy the holiday season.

This month's newsletter includes reports from two workshops
given by DigitalEve members last month and an upcoming
special event this month on Using Technology to Improve
Personal & Business Productivity.

Wishing you peace and joy...

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NOTES FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE

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ROTA LEADER

Leader's Report

Hello DEvas, another busy month has passed! November was
full of events and busy schedules for me. Tara's workshop on
Adobe Photoshop was wonderful! I found it useful, even
though I didn't have a laptop and I am not a Photoshop user.
We enjoyed lunch together after workshop.

I would like to invite all of you to an "Indian Christmas"
charity event on 7th December. It will be held at Indian
Ambassador's residence during 10 A.M. to 3 P.M. You will get
more information about it through the mailing list very
soon!

That's all from me for this month!

Smita Deshpande
Rota Leader for December

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MEDIA TEAM NEWS

"Meeting with Ms. Anastasia Govan of the Australian Computer
Society, the 2006 Young Professional of the Year, on
November 14, 2006"

Some of you may remember our recent announcement about a
series of meetings with Ms. Anastasia Govan of the
Australian Computer Society, who was the recipient of the
2006 Young Professional of the Year award. She and a few
other members visited Japan during the week of November 13.
A few DEJ members met and exchanged information and opinions
with her and the other members of her group. I participated
in the evening info exchange meeting held on Tuesday,
November 14th.

The meeting turned out to be small but very productive.
There were four participants: Anastasia, Paul, her
assistant, Ms. Chica Sato, a DEJ member, and me. We
discussed many different aspects of the IT industry in both
countries, including working environment, social systems,
women in IT, employment, working styles, and many others.
Chica input valuable information from a viewpoint of a tech
recruiter, while I spoke with my experience of working for
IT companies. The meeting became so intense we kept talking
until almost 9 p.m. I hope DEJ can contribute to the
development of IT exchange between the two countries in one
way or another in the future.

One interesting thing to add: Her organization produced a
calendar for 2007 called "Screen Goddess IT Calendar," in
which some of the female members of the group posed in
screen costumes. For example, for the month of February,
Anastasia appears as one of the Charlie's Angels. It is a
great idea! In fact, she said that it was controversial but
had sold quite well. To take a look at the calendar, please
access the following URL: http://itgoddess.info/calendar.htm

Chiharu Kawai
Media Coordinator
media-j@digitalevejapan.org

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MEMBERSHIP TEAM NEWS

Misao Kajiro, Membership Coordinator.
membership@digitalevejapan.org

Total membership is 704 as of November 28th, 2006.

One new member joined in November.
Kayoko, welcome to DEJ!

I met Anastasia who is a member of the Board of Directors of
the Australian Computer Society on the 13th and it was great
to exchange information and ideas. I would also like to
mention the calendar that was made by their members. It
reminded me of the English movie 'Calendar Girls'. Please
visit their website and send me your thoughts about
DigitalEve making such a calendar! Here is the URL again: http://
www.itgoddess.info/c_about.htm

Special thanks to Tara for her wonderful workshop on the
19th.

We had the Meet the DEvas on the 25th and Chica Sato kindly
agreed to help us. Thanks Chica for your support. It was a
small meeting but we could talk well about our activities in
the near future.

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WEB CONTENT TEAM NEWS
Ladawan Lhuang-on, Web Content Coordinator
web@digitalevejapan.org

Nothing to report

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UPCOMING EVENTS

**This is not a DigitalEve event. Please contact Tokyo PC
Users Group for more information.**

Tokyo PC Users Group Dec. 7 Meeting

Dec 7, 2006 Using Technology to Improve Personal & Business
Productivity

Technology can be a tool to improve the efficiency of our
businesses and our lives. Unfortunately it's very difficult
to keep up with all the latest technologies available; and
knowing which ones can really help us. Time to turn to an
expert. Gonzague-Alexandre Gay (aka Alex) of Akihabara News
and GeekStuff4U who will share some of the best technology
tool tips and secrets. Alex runs http://www.akihabaranews.com,
http://www.geekstuff4u.com and
http://www.nihoncarandbike.com.

Thursday, Dec 7 at the Tokyo Union Church in Omotesando.
Doors open at 6:30, meeting starts at 7 PM Go to www.tokyopc.org
for a map to the church.

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DEJ EVENT REVIEW

Here are two reviews of the Photoshop workshop given by Tara
Crane on November 19th.

Thank you for organising the workshop on Sunday morning and
many thanks to Tara for telling us (and showing us) about
Photoshop.

As a non-Photoshop user, but user of many other utilities -
mainly freeware - it was an interesting insight for me and I
am positive that with the tips that Tara gave us, I will be
up and running with Photoshop in no time.

It is a shame that many of the attendees didn't show up -
probably due to the lousy weather - they did miss an
interesting workshop.

Thank you again - and to DigitalEve - for organising these
types of workshops!

Shelley Bearse, CEO of TechnoKids Japan

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First of all, I must thank you for the new skills acquired
during the workshop. I feel much more comfortable with
Photoshop after my short course at Temple University
continuing education program. I enjoyed a personalized
tutorship that gave me hand-on skills. I wish to therefore
thank our teacher for her capacity to explain even to very
beginners like me. Besides that, I must confess that I did
not know much about DigitlEve Japan before coming to the
workshop. It is now after some reading that I discovered the
whole dimension of who you are and what you do. I come from
Rwanda, a small country in eastern and central Africa where
IT has been adopted as a way out to poverty. You may also
have heard that Rwanda has the world record of the highest
number of women in parliament (49%). This is to say that
your organization goals match perfectly with my country's
vision. I don't know if males are allowed in your membership
but I am ready to encourage my countrywomen to join you in
that adventure. I am looking forward to participating in
your future programs.

Best Wishes

Dr. E. Rwamasirabo
Ambassador of The Republic of Rwanda to Japan

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***SEEK***
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The Digital Digest is brought to you by the Newsletter Team:
Yoko Kawabe, Corinne Sutter, Mayumi Tanimoto, Stacey Ward,
and Ailsa Wylie.