Digital Digest May 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. http://www.digitalevejapan.org

1 May 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
-> Tech Team News
-> Recent Events


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FROM THE EDITOR
Ailsa Wylie, English Newsletter Editor
<newsletter@digitalevejapan.org>

Happy Golden Week everyone! Isn't it funny how the weather
is often so changeable until April 29th? We doubt that
summer will ever come, and then suddenly it's here.

Of course, I'm writing from Tokyo. While DEJapan is based
here, the beauty of online groups like this is that members
can be all over the country and even overseas. So DEvas in
other parts of Japan must be enjoying many different
climates - it may already be summer in Okinawa and
Ogasawara, while the hanami season is just starting in
Tohoku and Hokkaido.

My point is, just because you're not in Kanto doesn't mean
you can't get involved in this great network. One of the
Japanese newsletter editors lives in Italy! Especially, the
English newsletter team consists of only two members and
we'd love some extra hands (and eyes) to take turns proof-
reading, editing, assembling, and writing articles. Also,
we're not all technical experts here - I'm an English
teacher. This is an excellent way to learn new skills and
make new friends.

So come on, get involved! What are you waiting for?


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NOTES FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE

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ROTA LEADER
Misao Kajiro
Leader's Report

Dear DEvas,

Golden Week (in Japan) has already started and I hope all of
you are having a wonderful holiday.

On April 25th, 19 people (including three men and more than
ten nationalities) gathered at the DEvening in Shibuya. We
all enjoyed the very informative speech given by Rochelle
Kopp, and the interactive discussion among all the
participants. I would like to thank Rochelle and all of
those who combined their efforts to help organize this
event.

Regrettably, some people who had registered didn't attend
and also neglected to inform us that they couldn't come.
Please contact us when you have to cancel your reservation.

To be able to promote good events or organize efficient
workshops, I think the current number of board members is
not enough. Please feel free to ask anything you want to
know about the board's activities by writing to:
membership@digitalevejapan.org.

Thank you and looking forward to seeing you at the next
event.


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MEDIA TEAM NEWS

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

Some of you must have just started a new school or business
year. How are things? In this time of the year in Japan,
there are a lot of young people in a uniform-like dark suit
("recruit suit") here and there, as those graduating next
year start hunting for a job now. One of the project ideas
I've had for a few years is to have DEJ volunteers make a
presentation on careers in IT for female students at
universties and colleges. Like many other ideas, this one
has been put off because of a lack of volunteers. If you're
interested, please let me know.

The T-shirt season is here! DEJ T-shirts are available in
black and white in sizes S, M and L. They are sold at events
and by mail (+ 250 yen for shipping). For more information,
please access
http://www.digitalevejapan.org/merchandise/index_html?set_language=en.

Have a great holiday week!


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MEMBERSHIP TEAM NEWS

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

Total membership is 703 as of April 29th, 2006.

2 new members joined us in April. One of them was an owner
of restaurant in Tokyo for a long time and published many
cooking books. We'd like to talk with her about our new
style of meeting.


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

Life in a big city like Tokyo gives us lots of chances to
meet people from many other parts of the world. Being in a
place like this, inter-cultural communication has become a
vital part of daily life. While trying to master the
language and overcoming the so called “language barrier”, we
often overlook a more powerful tool: non-verbal
communication. To better understand people from other
cultures, besides learning their languages, we can also get
to know their cultures, customs, and ways of life.

The weather outside is so nice and warm now. I hope all DEJ
members can find time to go out and enjoy springtime and
good food, and to meet more people from different walks of
life. Cheers!!

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TECH TEAM NEWS
Smita Deshpande, Technical Coordinator
<tech@digitalevejapan.org>


The past month was very colorful with the appearance of the
cherry-blossoms! I hope everyone enjoyed it.

For our organization, the past month included a very useful
event, which was the presentation at the DigitalEvening. It
was useful as well as interesting in many ways. I would like
to write a brief report for those of our members who could
not attend.

The speaker, Rochelle Kopp, gave us a small case study. All
members were divided into small groups and started working
on the case study. It was about a foreigner working in a
Japanese company. There can be some problems or difficulties
for a foreigner who is working for a Japanese (or any
another country's) company because of different cultural
issues. Rochelle gave us some useful tips, which we can
apply not only in a Japanese company, but anytime we are
working in a completely different culture from the one we
came from.

Also we enjoyed hearing about the experiences of the other
participants as it was a gathering of people from more than
10 different cultures and nationalities. It was a lovely
evening with food, drink, and conversation about such a
interesting topic.

I hope the coming month will also bring some interesting
things for us! Our aim is to reach more and more people, to
raise women's awareness about new technologies , but of
course more hands, more volunteers, are always needed. So
please come to help us - share your experiences with others.


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RECENT EVENTS

Cross-Cultural Communication
Report by Ailsa Wylie

As Misa and Smita have already mentioned above, the recent
DigitalEvening on April 25th was a presentation on Cross-
Cultural Communication by Rochelle Kopp. But perhaps a
better word for it would be "workshop". In our discussion
groups of five or six people, we talked about the case
studies Rochelle gave us, which involved serious cultural
misunderstandings and miscommunication in the workplace, and
considered both the reasons for problems and what the
participants could have done to improve the situation or
avoid the problem.

A lively discussion followed about our own experiences as
non-Japanese living here and as Japanese living abroad. It
was interesting to hear so many people's points of view.
Personally, I especially liked Rochelle's response to my
comment that, having been highly praised for my Japanese
ability when all I could do was introduce myself, the same
praise means very little now that my Japanese is quite
fluent. Rochelle suggested that "Nihongo wa jozu desu ne" to
a beginner can be interpreted as encouragement: "Thank you
for trying. Don't give up!". Correspondingly, we hear it
less as our Japanese improves and we are able to carry on a
conversation fairly smoothly.

This is just one example of Rochelle's main point: rather
than seeing cultural differences as negatives, we should
actively try to understand the thinking behind the behaviour
of people from different cultures so that we can figure out
when (and how) to work around our differences to the benefit
of both parties, and when to just accept and enjoy them.


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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:
Noriko Hasegawa, Koko Iwata, Misao Kajiro, Yoko
Kawabe, Mayumi Tanimoto, Stacey Ward  and Ailsa Wylie.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





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