In case it somehow escaped your attention, there are zero women represented in this panel on Leadership in Software Development. As the primary organizer, and as a woman, this is a source of great frustration and deep guilt.

Many well-intentioned individuals and groups have taken this opportunity to remind me that there are a lot of women who develop software, including noted leaders in the field. So, why aren’t any of them on this panel, or on more of the technically themed panels that are consistently part of conferences, festivals, and other events?  

Especially since I, as a woman, reached out to several women we know across our wide network, how is it that not one single female developer either stepped forward or was put forward by their female colleagues? Women who excel in the field of software development are not just mythological beings on par with Athena or the Easter Bunny, but where are they when it comes time to represent? The point is not whether there are enough women across the tech industry to ensure that every panel ever organized has female representation. The statistics are widely known. Rather, the point is that there is not one showing up either on May 3rd, or on so many other, similar panels.

Public speaking is blatantly choosing to spend time contributing your expert opinion over other priorities. So, guilt comes back into the conversation again. Speaking on panels like this is a volunteer engagement, paid strictly in gratitude, the potential for a stimulating conversation, a sense of having contributed, and possibly some nice PR for the participants and their companies. But it is volunteered time away from the normal workflow, family and other personal commitments.

Countless studies, articles, anecdotes and conversations exist (here, here, here, here, here, all over the Internet, and here, and in my heart) around the idea that women are prone to feeling mountains more guilt than men, for anything, really, let alone doing something that could possibly be construed as selfish or self-interested, like speaking as an expert in a historically and currently male-dominated field, like, say technology.

Mostly, the decision about who will speak comes from within each company. I can ask, but as the organizer, ultimately, my request is simply that. While we know those companies employ talented, capable, and qualified women, the men filter through, and end up on stage. Tons of conversations exist around the question of why women are bad at self-promotion (here, here, here, here, here and here, just for starters), but lets just take the notion that we simply are, for now, as a given generalization.

We are all engaged in the much wider conversation within tech, and more broadly the sciences, about female encouragement, engagement, and advancement. Without quoting Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, Hillary Clinton or my mother, I am primarily left chewing on why no women did step forward to be on this panel, or so many other panels being organized all the time. There is, as many have pointed out, a HUGE series of systemic issues that contribute to situations like this one. However, shaking our heads at the perpetuation of these problems without actively contributing solutions absolutely won’t do it.

Back in January, the suggestion was made that men should think harder about whether there are women they can recommend for a slot on a panel. Everyone should share their binders full of women far and wide. There’s no gold medal for being the individual to solve this first, so how about putting aside competitive reactionism, and just helping each other solve it collectively. Call it whatever you want – leaning in, stepping up, shouting out loud – decidedly more women need to speak up for themselves, and we all need to point out those who are already doing so.

I want to hold another panel, on the same subject, with all women. I want to hear female voices as expert contributors on more technical panels all over. So, if you are or know a brilliant woman who will make that choice and speak, show up… in my inbox.

amanda@tippingpointpartners.com

Says Unbucket:

At Unbucket, we’re fascinated by recipes because they are so much more than a means to create food. Passed down from grandparent to parent to child, recipes link one generation to the next. On Unbucket, we’ve seen numerous list items inspired by this idea; we even wrote a blog post about one of them. Baked into recipes are physical experiences, often shared with others. How many dates have started in the kitchen, recipes on the counter? Sure, we love to cook, but our fascination with recipes comes from their ability to unite individuals and draw people closer. So when a dear friend of Unbucket, Myles Grosovsky, proposed connecting us with Cookstr, we leapt at the opportunity.

Cookstr’s mission is to organize the world‘s best cookbooks and recipes, and to make them universally accessible. They are actively setting the standard for innovation in the delivery of 100% trusted and tested recipes to home cooks around the world, authored by hundreds of the top chefs and cookbook authors. Thousands of recipes created by everyone from Mario Batali to Nigella Lawson to Jamie Oliver are available for free on Cookstr.com.

In particular, what we love about Cookstr is that they have an intense focus on turning recipes into a collection of data points. Each recipe on Cookstr is tagged with data across nineteen different categories, for instance Taste & Texture. Using their data-driven selection engine, together we created a variety of Cookstr x Unbucket recipe lists:

• Culinary Inspiration for Valentine’s Day
• Hot Soups for a Cold Winter
• Dinner in 15 Minutes: Easy Recipes for a Busy Life
• Pro Recipes For a Kitchen Rookie
• Five or Fewer Ingredients: Minimalist Desserts

We look forward to many more opportunities to collaborate with Cookstr, and we hope you use these lists to make the recipes your own to experience, enjoy, and ultimately, share with others.

The Cookstr perspective:

Kara is the Director of Editorial & Partnerships at Cookstr. She handles everything from project management to overseeing licensing agreements with publishers and rightsholders. She also writes the awesome Cookstr newsletter (you should subscribe). Kara is on the board of Girls in Tech NYC.

1. Why were you excited to work with Unbucket?
At Cookstr, we aim to give people the tools they need to have better experiences around food. When it comes down to it, food is about relationships. And learning to cook is an exercise not only in sustenance, but in self-sufficiency. Those of us who love cooking know that we use it for experimentation, for meditation, for procrastination – and most of all, for celebration.

Unbucket shares Cookstr’s belief that the best technology is a means to an end: better, more meaningful real-world experiences. We think that recipes are a great example of a digital object that can drive the kinds of in-person interactions Unbucket wants to encourage.

2. Can you share a personal experience with a Cookstr x Unbucket list item?
I was on the phone with my mom yesterday, who lives halfway across the country, and she was telling me how excited she was about a new feature we launched recently on Cookstr, which allows you to save recipes into lists to help organize your cooking inspiration. She’s aiming to learn one new dish per week. My mom and I are planning a trip to Santa Fe together this spring, and we’re both going to cook Southwestern recipes from Cookstr while we make plans for our vacation. An Unbucket list is a great way to gather both the recipes we’re using as inspiration and our planned activities and destinations for the trip. This way, Unbucket memorializes not only the adventure itself, but the process of planning it.

3. In what way does Cookstr bring people closer?
We see an interesting barbell in our Cookstr demographic. On one end, there are individuals, mostly women, in their 40s and 50s, home cooks who are comfortable in the kitchen but always looking for more practical inspiration. We think they’re drawn by the curated content, which our recipe editors choose entirely from published cookbooks by chefs and authors. On the other end, there’s a younger demographic, 20s and early 30s, largely in urban areas, a generation who’s completely invested in learning how to cook from scratch, challenging themselves, and bringing their friends together for potlucks and dinner parties. They’re drawn by the chefs we have on our sites – names they’ve grown up knowing, from Julia Child to Mark Bittman. They trust the chefs they saw on their parents’ shelves, although they’re not likely to go back to the print cookbooks themselves.

Whether they’re parents getting a good dinner on the table five days a week or twenty-somethings trying to make osso buco for 10 in a thrifted dutch oven, Cookstr users understand that food is one of the most meaningful gifts you can share with another person.

(cross-posted from Unbucket)

Others, like me, offer up a “thanks,” and an eye-roll. Ideally, we’d all be over-joyed by every aspect of work, but finding that perfect role (if such a thing exists) seems like an untenable Disney fantasy. Landing a fulfilling job is the result of tenacity, serendipity and not totally blowing the interviews. “Loving what you do” hinges on a lot of good fortune.

Art Chang, CEO and founder of Tipping Point Partners, is in the eye-rolling camp. He posits that “loving what you do” is not the key. He’s held countless (okay, you can count them if you click here) jobs spanning from architect, venture capitalist, concert violinist, and cabinet-maker. From this experience, he explains that the pinnacle of satisfaction is to figure out the problems you most want to solve, and then make a career out of finding solutions.

Like all great life lessons, his advice comes in the form of an analogy. At some point in the mythical past, Art was reconstructing his home, a considerable undertaking which required digging a ditch through his back yard. On a fated afternoon, one of his laborers took ill. Not being one to sit idly by, Art seized a shovel and joined the other toilers in the fray. As the day progressed, they talked of ditch digging. The contractor had a problem – the ditch – and his job was to solve that problem by digging. Art worked alongside him until the ditch was dug, listening to the contractor explain each facet of the process, in awe of his commitment to his craft.

“We all have our ditches”, Art says. If you’re in finance, your problem is money, and you love to solve that problem. If you’re a writer, your problem is expression and you solve that by deciding what it is you want to tell people. Finding the problem you most deeply want to fix is your road to a happy career, and yes, maybe even to loving what you do.

As the first week of the New Year comes to a close, I hope you find some comfort in Art’s words. If you’re feeling anxiety at work and thinking it might be time for a fresh start, grab a shovel.

By Brie Schwartz

Some of the largest companies in the world have used AppOrchard to create mind-blowing new technology using the promise of Apple’s iOS ecosystem in industrial and corporate settings. Now we want to inject some fresh excitement into our work. Here’s the deal:

• You are an innovator with a critical iOS project that you need done quickly without sacrificing quality
• You are any size organization, but preferably a startup, a non-profit, a civic tech project, or government
• You have wireframes ready for a new iOS app, or are trying to extend your audience to mobile from an existing website
• You want to deploy a native iOS or mobile web app, with some possible integration to back end services
• You have at least $25K to spend
• You estimate the project to take up to 1 month
• We do iOS, mobile web and Rails (i.e. not Android)
• We do pair programming using the AO variety of agile
• We have built systems for financial, agricultural, aviation, medical, government, media, games…
• We typically charge $325/hr – you get us for half that

Interested? Let us know.

info@apporchard.com

YouTube clips watched, projected, reenacted, juxtaposed, remixed and replayed in a variety of ways culminate in something that feels as organic and as joyful as the best possible experience of the YouTube party, without the isolation and disconnect that sometimes manifests: suddenly you’re in a room full of people, staring at the backs of their heads staring at a screen. You’ve gone from interaction to consumption. Tube prompts none of that anxiety, partially thanks to center staging and largely because the actors work hard to interact with the audience: eye contact is rampant, as are the choose-your-own adventure portions of the performance, in which audience members are asked what they’d like to see next (or, most brilliantly, whether they’d like to “watch the same video again” ­– in which case the actors spring back to their original positions and roll out the reenactment from the start, an activity surreal in person but wholly familiar online.

The focal point of the theatre-in-the-round setup at St. Mark’s Church is a stack of televisions of varying sizes, facing all directions, a sort of totem pole around which the five actors rotate, often staring directly into one or more cameras (moved around the space by other actors) as the feed is broadcast, live, to each of the TVs in the stack. It’s fragmented viewing, as you’re compelled to glance from screen to screen, switching between the live-action and live-video views. A multiscreen experience.

The best moments might be tender, broken-hearted covers of Justin Bieber’s Baby (805 million YouTube hits) and Lana Del Ray’s Video Games (30.5 million), presented by Alaina Ferris with heartfelt backup from the actors. An ensemble dance performance of Gangnam Style is less polished (maybe drawing more from the plethora of referential parody videos the original prompted).

Some of the videos (Charlie Bit My Finger, David After Dentist, Tron Guy) are performed once or twice, and are enjoyable whether you’ve seen them on YouTube or not. Others are crafted into effective conjoined pieces, where characters emerge with context and sympathy they’re often denied online. A segment of confessionals (the style of video characterized by individuals speaking into their webcams) brings to life Jessi Slaughter, an 11-year-old girl (here played by a male actor in a wig) who found temporary notoriety after a series of YouTube videos featuring her responding to haters and defending her identity, eventually with the help of her fiercely protective if not quite articulate father (cue launch of memes including “consequences will never be the same” and “cyberpolice”). Watching Jessi’s mannerisms ­ – the pouting, the hair twirling – through the filter of professional acting draws into the light the performance, and performance anxiety, of adolescents forming a digital identity.

The Jessi Slaughter segments are interspersed with the escalating, outsized bravado of Star Wars Kid – played adorably by Lucy Kaminsky – and Black Man Loves Pokemon. All three of the characters raise questions about how in-the-know their performers are about the reactions of their audience, about performance and reality.

There’s also a series of stories (running the gamut from when-I-was-a-kid-I-wanted-to-be-a-superhero to I-had-this-dream-about-vampires) that the actors individually tell with the TVs switched off. It’s unclear where the stories are coming from, but they serve as generic backstories that hint at reminding us that each YouTube noncelebrity carries with them a series of private experiences and inner motivations. Tube expresses real ambivalence about audience and actor, performance and identity.

Tube is play for people who live on the Internet, but will those people go to a play? They should. Tube runs a thematic risk of self-consciousness, but never gets caught in the trap of overthinking it. Mostly, the actors take a joy in the reenactment as simple and pure as the joy we take in watching the videos: losing themselves entirely in the moment, in the details that make this one, like millions before and after it, also great. Wanna watch that again?

Kara Rota

@karalearota
about.me/kararota

Preliminary numbers show that in-person turnout in New York City was down significantly compared with 2008. Nearly 200,000 fewer New Yorkers stood in line to vote on Election Day–from 2.5 million in 2008 to 2.3 million earlier this month.

In so many ways, technology is changing our relationship to voting. Through a partnership with the NYU Wagner School’s Code for Change program, we worked with a team to introduce Votescope, a mobile app that directed New Yorkers to their poll site and provided information about candidates.The Board of Elections released a pollsite finder app as well. The team behind Whosontheballot.org has also created a remarkable resource. We worked with Mobile Commons to connect voters to their poll site location by text message. Common Cause helped build a mobile app that helped voter report problems at the polls. Through the work of VAAC, we hope to continue to foster efforts like these, and we will work with anyone and everyone who wants to play a part.

Read more here

“A second Code for Change award, the Change Prize, was given to the New York City Campaign Finance Board for an app that provides citizens with the information to engage with the democratic process, and fosters higher voter participation in elections.” Read more from NYU’s report here.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 6! Head to the polls and participate in democracy!

New SDK Enables Real Time Flight Data into iPad Electronic Flight Bag Apps

iPad Electronic Flight Bags (EFB) will soon be able to incorporate real-time flight data into iPad Apps with a new Software Development Kit (SDK) being developed by the flyTab®  (www.flyTab.aero) team led by ASIG and supported by Shadin Avionics and AppOrchard.

With real-time information gathered from a wide array of aircraft systems and sensors provided to the iPad EFB via a wired interface, the flyTab® SDK will empower a new breed of iOS Apps.   Data formats that can be streamed to the iPad Apps include ARINC 410, ARINC 429, ARINC 618, ARINC 623, ARINC 717, RS 232, RS 422, RS485 and other forms of digital and discrete data.

Potential iPad EFB App uses for this data include aeronautical charting, own ship position, chart centering, FMS/GPS information (position, altitude, groundspeed, track, origin, flight plan and destination, time), real time weather, ACARS messaging and any other customer required programs that the flyTab®  team develops or converts for use in the flyTab®  runtime environment (TOLD, W&B, PERF, etc).

“Tethering iPads to flight data systems provides a rich stream of data with almost unlimited possible uses,” commented Luke Ribich, Managing Director of ASIG, creator of the flyTab suite.  “The flyTab partnership with AppOrchard opens up a world of new possibilities to develop a whole new generation of avionics apps that will help airlines save money and improve operational efficiencies. In addition, avionics equipment OEM’s and iOS application developers can now easily integrate the iPad EFB into their family of products and services.”

Until recently, iPads had to be stowed by pilots during critical flight phases.  These Class 1 iPad EFB implementations could not be tethered to the aircraft for power and data.  Whether the end-user selects the flyTab® mounting system, which supports pilots activities from flight planning through dispatch, in-flight and debriefing with a walk-on/walk-off capability; or, the pedTray® mounting solution which provides fixed equipage in a high-security static mount, the operator can enjoy an FAA approved Class 2 EFB that allows the operator to use the iPad EFB, with airframe power and data connectivity, through all phases of flight including take-off and landing.

The flyTab® suite enables Class 2 iPad EFB by tethering iPads to aircraft electrical and data systems.  Continuous power is provided through the flyTab® Power Conditioning Module (PCM).  Flight data is streamed through the flyTab® Aircraft Interface Module (AIM), developed in partnership with Shadin Avionics (www.shadin.com).  Now with the flyTab® SDK, data can be streamed into iPad Apps.

The SDK provides a full suite of tools that app developers can use to build advanced iPad EFB Apps by allowing Apps to pull real-time flight data from multiple airframe systems and sensors.  Also planned as an SDK kit add-on is the flyTab® iFlight Simulator which will provide sample data streams and a hardware proving interface which will enable app developers to live-test applications on the iPad as they are produced.

“We are pleased that the flyTab SDK powered by AppOrchard will enable many of the world’s best iOS developers to work with the aviation industry on innovative iPad Flight planning applications,” said Art Chang, CEO of AppOrchard. “We see the value of native iOS processing of real time data as a progressive leap for a more connected cockpit enabling new charting as well as the next generation visualization applications that will be needed for the future Class 2 hardware plus maintenance apps,” he continued.

“As the industry continues to adopt the iPad platform we are excited to be on the tip-of-the-spear as the thought leader of iPad EFB deployments,” said Ribich.

About ASIG and the flyTab®  Team
The flyTab® Suite is developed and owned by the Avionics & Systems Integration Group (www.asigllc.com) an industry pioneer of analogue-to-digital upgrades for classic and contemporary aircraft.  The flyTab® Suite is an end-to-end iPad EFB solution, providing certification, mounts, power, data and a software developer’s kit.   ASIG provides engineering and Supplemental Type Certificates for iPad EFB implementations.  The pedTray® Mounts attach iPads to the airframe.  flyTab®  Power Conditioning Units provide continuous power and charging while mitigating the risk of thermal runaway.  The flyTab®  Aircraft Interface Module (AIM) is developed in partnership with Shadin Avionics (www.shadin.com) and feeds real-time aircraft flight data to the iPad via the 30-pin iPad connector ensuring minimal latency and data security.  The iPad App SDK is developed in partnership with AppOrchard (www.apporchard.com) and provides a toolkit to develop iPad Apps that take advantage of real time flight data.  Learn more at www.flyTab .aero.  The flyTab® brand and product suite is a registered trademark of ASIG, LLC (dba Avionics & Systems Integration Group).

About AppOrchard
AppOrchard builds premium enterprise apps, transforming legacy IT infrastructures to perform in the mobile world.  Through its integrated approach that encompasses both the business and technical perspectives, AppOrchard aligns the latest devices with existing systems.  Founded in 2011, the AppOrchard team is comprised of iOS insiders who are former Apple and NeXT software engineers and leaders with a track record of delivering business opportunities through technology. The company is based in NY. More information can be found at www.apporchard.com

1) Emoji Keyboard
Enter Settings and navigate to General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Scroll down and look for “Emoji”. Once you’ve added it, your keyboard should show a little globe icon on the lower left. If you tap it, you can toggle between your English keyboard and Emoji one. (If you’ve already installed another keyboard, tapping the globe will cycle through all your keyboards.)

2) Limit Ad Tracking
Inside Settings, navigate to General > About > Advertising (it’s near the bottom). From there, you have the option to “Limit Ad Tracking.” iOS 6 introduces the concept of the “Advertising Identifier,” a temporary, anonymous device identifier. If you turn”Limit Ad Tracking” on, apps are not allowed to send you targeted ads. It’s not clear if this feature is working 100% yet, but in theory, it seems like a nice idea.

3) Do Not Disturb Mode
Settings > Do Not Disturb. Your phone won’t light up, ring, or chime when messages, calls, or notifications arrive. I’ve been setting this every night before bed. You can customize it inside Settings > Notifications > Do Not Disturb. From there, you can schedule it to activate automatically, allow calls from specific groups of people, and allow a repeated (i.e. urgent) call to ring through. No more getting woken up by your friends’ late night Facebook updates, Tweets, or drunk dials.

4) Custom Alarm Sounds
Now when you set your clock alarm, you can use a custom ringtone or song. You can start your day with the theme from Rocky and take on the world!

5) Really Delete Gmail
When you want to delete a message from your Gmail account, tap and hold the Archive Box icon. You’ll be asked if you want to delete or archive the message. Not perfect, but at least now I can delete my Gmail messages.

6) (Bonus for giving your phone to kids) Guided Access
Technically, Guided Access is an “Accessibility” feature, but I use it when my niece or nephew want to play a game on my phone. Last time I did that, they called everyone in my Contacts (and got Siri to call me “Poopie Pants”). Turn on Guided Access via Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access. Launch the app you want and triple-tap the Home button. Once Guided Access is turned on, you can’t leave the app unless you triple-tap and enter a passcode.

Written by our own Kevin Y. Kim, founder and partner of AppOrchard LLC, a Tipping Point Partners company focused on sustainable iOS development. He is also the author of the forthcoming book More iOS 6 Development (Apress, 2012). This was originally published on venturebeat.com

A recent decision came down, wherein Christian Louboutin was allowed to keep its trademark on red soled shoes. I think this is a very poor decision, and misunderstands the basic point of trademark law.