I've moved to WordPress

I'm now blogging regularly over on my consultancy website, iKnowHow (powered by WordPress).

The focus is technology and leadership, rather than purely gender, but if you've enjoyed any of the blog posts here on Technical Change, you'll hopefully like the new stuff.

Come by and say hello!

How to protect yourself against cyber-abuse

Listening to an excellent seminar from the Guardian's Future of Journalism series on the very depressing experience of women writers on the web.

Not surprisingly, feminist writers get the most extreme harassment, but other writers (remember Kathy Sierra?) are by no means immune.

Guardian journalist Jemima Kiss gives some great tips for protecting yourself against specific cyber-abusers: get a good developer (or yourself) to identify the "troll" that's harassing you and configure your site so that (a) your page appears to them as if their comments are being posted when they aren't or (b) your page loads so unbearably slowly that they get bored and go away.

Tips from other speakers include making sure that comment moderation is switched on (or indeed that comments are switched off entirely) and only accepting comments from people with a genuine identity/ email address.

Women 2.0

Just came across this great site. Misbehaving gives an insight into the minds of digital visionaries like Danah Boyd and Caterina Fake. Read and be inspired!

The best mentoring project in the sector...probably

Yay! Technical Change has received an award for mentoring from Skillset and the UK Film Council. I picked up the award last month at the AVE-DP wrap party, on behalf of Women in Film & Television.

This pic shows me with Radio & TV presenter Andrea Oliver who was there in all her gorgeousness to hand over a kiss and bunch of flowers (no money, sadly).

It's great to see Technical Change recognised as a project that's genuinely moved things forward for women working on the technical side of film, TV and new media.

At last!

As part of the inimitable Bird’s Eye View film festival, which opened at London's BFI Southbank last night, there'll be a panel discussion this Sunday 9 March at the ICA on the difficulties of balancing children with a career in film/TV/video.

The panel will be chaired by filmmaker Parminder Vir and includes directors Martha Fiennes and Gaby Dellal as well as Kate Elliot, Diversity Officer at BECTU.

What makes this event different is that it's backed by a study from Skillset and Women in Film & TV and sets out not only to discuss the issues but to actually agree actions to take to ease the difficulties faced by parents in the audio-visual industries.

For more information and booking see the Bird's Eye View website.

New Year's Resolutions

(1) Put Technical Change programme to bed (LOVE that ESF paperwork!)
(2) Move onwards and upwards to other exciting things
(3) Update blog


Even though our ESF-funded programme has drawn to a close, the debate about gender and technology still interests me. Especially as I watch 16 month old Lila (with her Israeli engineering DNA) obsess over cars and train engines.



Is there a point where this will stop?
Will that be anything to do with us?
How do we help Lila do what she's best at without laying preconceptions and stereotypes on her?


So, this blog is gonna stay open for now. There's still some thinking to be done, and I'll try and do it here when I get the chance.

A change for the better

Technical Change has now closed, with some great success stories and interesting findings. I'll post the full report here as soon as I get a mo to write it!

In the meantime, you can always read the cockle-warming testimonies from the mentees.

Career breaks can cost us dearly

Chastening reading from a new book by Joanna Grigg: as reported by the Observer et al last Sunday, Collapsing Careers claims that 30,000 women in the UK are sacked, demoted or made redundant every year due to pregnancy discrimination.

Having seen two of my friends suffer such a fate in the past few months, I can believe that figure.