Digital Digest March 2007

/:/:/:/:/ 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

:/:/:/:/ 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 March 2007

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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
-> Membership Team News
-> Web Content Team News
-> Upcoming Events
-> Interview with a DEva

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FROM THE EDITOR

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

A couple of months ago I joined the Mixi Social Networking
System (http://mixi.jp). I've joined several other
international SNSs but Mixi is different. Of course,
LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) is good for business
networking, and I recently saw an interesting and
intelligent online debate there. As for Friendster
(http://www.friendster.com), I've met one new friend, but
I've also received a lot of messages from men who are either
looking for a wife (?!) or collecting girls' photos.

I find Mixi to be much more active and personal, and
especially comfortable. My friends on Mixi are my friends in
day-to-day life. We post diaries to share our thoughts and
experiences with our friends. Occasionally someone suggests
a social activity - "let's go dancing next Friday", for
example. It's also good for my Japanese writing and reading
skills.

Speaking of language ability, another new discovery in my
digital life is Meetup (http://www.meetup.com), where people
with similar interests can arrange group activities. The
first thing I noticed on the Tokyo page was a group for
people who want to speak French. I had just been thinking
that it was time I stopped using my greatly-improved
Japanese ability as an excuse for my greatly-deteriorated
French. I immediately joined that group and am looking
forward to a dinner party coming up soon.

I imagine that there are people who use digital life as a
substitute for real-world interaction, but I think they can
really complement each other. It's really just another way
to make new friends.

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NOTES FROM THE STEERING COMMITTEE

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ROTA LEADER

Leader's Report

"Yayoi" is the old Japanese name for March, which is named
after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is time for plants to
grow and wars to start? (!) The cherry blossom season is
right around the corner, as the flowers are expected to
bloom earlier this year than the usual year because of this
mild winter.

In February, we had a "Meet the DEvas" gathering at a
Chinese tea house in Shibuya. It was drizzling and cold, but
six members including a new member showed up. We had a
relaxing time and enjoyed different kinds of Chinese tea and
sweets. More events are coming up. We are planning to have
Excel and graphics workshops over the next two months, and
also a long-awaited speaker event in May. This will be an
interesting one - about digital effects and development in
today's film industry! The wine party is currently on hold
because of some obstacles. (Sorry!) We need some help from
volunteers. Also, if you have new ideas about online and
offline events, please feel free to contact us! This is your
group, and it is you that can make DEJ meaningful.

Chiharu Kawai
Rota Leader for March
<media-j@digitalevejapan.org>

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MEMBERSHIP TEAM NEWS

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

Total membership is 706 as of February 27th, 2007.

The first Meet the DEvas was held at a Chinese tea house
on the Feb 17th . Six people, including a new member,
enjoyed conversations, and of course, nice tea and food.
I do recommend the shop to stop by when you want to
have a tea with sweets in Shibuya.

We met Lenora Genovese, an overseas DEJ member who was in
town, and caught up on the latest with her and DEJ. She
enjoyed visiting onsen as well as old & new places, and
having every day off for more adventures in Tokyo because
she used to live here three years ago. Even if you leave
Japan, you are always welcome to contact us whenever you'll
be visiting.

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WEB CONTENT TEAM NEWS

Ladawan Lhuang-on, Web Content Coordinator
<web@digitalevejapan.org>

Again, we would like to thank all of you who helped us
getting new web hosting company for our DEJ website. As of
February 8, 2007, our web hosting company switched from
Zettai to High Speed Rails, which is a successor of
Zettai.net. Our DEJ website is powered by Plone, an open-
source content management system, which is built on a Zope
application server and development server. Zope itself is
written in Python, an open-source programming language,
which can be used to add new features to Plone or make
changes to the way that Zope and Plone work.

To learn more about Plone, Zope, and Python, please visit
the following sites:
- http://plone.org/
- http://www.zope.org/
- http://www.python.org/

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Excel Workshop by Smita Deshpande
Date: Saturday, March 31st
Time: 6pm-9pm
Location: Women's Plaza, Aoyama

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INTERVIEW WITH A DEva

This month we interviewed our most reliable Japanese editor,
Yoko Kawabe.

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

I am originally from Osaka. I was a programmer at a software
house in Osaka but relocated to Tokyo because I found a job
at a translation firm in Tokyo ten years ago.

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

I don't remember the exact date but I think I've been a
member for about 2 years.

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

Koko Iwata asked me if I was interested and I joined because
it was a group for women interested in English and
technologies.

4) If you are a volunteer, please tell us of your activities
and why you decided to help DEJ.

I am one of the Japanese editors of our newsletter. Koko
asked me if I was interested in being an editor.

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

No, not particularly other than the newsletter.

6) What are your interests in digital technology?

I'm interested not only in digital but in the media in
general like media theory, media literacy, copyrights,
translation, and translation theory and so forth.

7) What kind of computer do you use?

I am using eMachines J2708. This is my sixth computer. My
CPU is Celeron(r) 2.70GHz and my RAM is 760MB. I am quite
satisfied with this environment. I must admit my favorite
computer was my very first, the MacintoshPlus. It had the
best design and it was so cute!

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

I'm not a member of any other technology-related groups.

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

I am a freelance translator specializing in computer
software. I mainly translate manuals and specifications in
the communications and system control industry.

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

I know that it isn't program-related and more content-
oriented but I just love using PowerDVD and iTunes!

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

I love watching DVDs and movies on iTunes. I watch imported
DVDs on my computer by making my DVD drive region-free. The
computer is much more convenient than a DVD player and the
television because I can look up words on the dictionary
whenever I want to and can display closed captions
(subtitles). I blog my favorite movies on my website
(http://hermitage.rdy.jp）. My other hobbies is reading
mysteries and embroidery, particularly cross-stitching.

12) What is your favorite website and why?

I just love TV.com（http://www.tv.com). It is fantastic when
I don't understand something because all the answers are on
their website, such as where this parody came from . I also
use Wikipedia（English： http://en.wikipedia.org/; Japanese：
http://ja.wikipedia.org/）Of course, one of my favorite
websites is mine!（http://hermitage.rdy.jp)

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

An armrest, a book holder and a coffee cup.

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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

***SEEK***
Editors (E to J) who can help publishing this newsletter.
Please send an email to newsletter@digitalevejapan.org.

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