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Kenyan Women Create Their Own 'Geek Culture' »

Say the words “high-tech startup” and chances are you picture a world that’s mostly white, male and set in Silicon Valley. Now, a group in Nairobi, Kenya, is working to get more female entrepreneurs into the male-dominated world of tech.

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Reported by

Gregory Warner

When a collective of female computer programmers in Kenya needed a name for their ladies-only club, they took their inspiration from the Japanese cult film Akira.

“So akira is a Japanese word. It means energy and intelligence. And we are energetic and intelligent chicks,” says Judith Owigar, the president of Akirachix.

A group like Akirachix would have been unthinkable even five years ago. But Kenya is making a big push toward IT — part of a plan to create a middle-class country by the year 2030.

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But the techies you meet here aren’t trying to come up with the next Facebook or another app to share your photos. They’re solving local problems.

There’s one app that brings math and reading help by cellphone to village schools.

There’s an app that lets Kenyans who don’t have computers do their online shopping by cellphone.

There’s a micro-insurance product that measures the rainfall at cellphone towers and automatically distributes money to farmers in drought.

These are all applications started by women. Akirachix’s Owigar says they’re sending a message to the next wave of girl geeks. “We need them to see that we are doing it and we enjoy it. You know, you don’t find many African women looking for the spotlight. Most of them tend to hide their awesomeness,” Owigar says.

The best time to carve a spot for women in geek culture, she says, is when there isn’t much geek culture yet.

Anita Sarkeesian Objectified on the Internet »

shorm:

fellinlovewithagrrl:

racebending:

Anita Sarkeesian, aka FeministFrequency, went on Kickstarter to fundraise. She wanted help to fund the creation of a webseries that critiques sexism in video games and video game culture.

In response, several male gamers attacked her YouTube channel with threatening comments. Others drew pictures of her being sexually assaulted. Her physical address and phone number have been published on forums. Ostensibly, these retaliatory actions are supposed to silence her.

Ben Spurr, who goes by @bendilin on Twitter, created an interactive game which invites players to literally brutalize Anita Sarkeesian. (image under cut.) “The game isn’t about ‘punching women.’ It’s about punching a selfish person. There’s a difference,” he says. 

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/internet/2012/07/what-online-harassment-looks

http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/7810/article/ben-spurr-makes-game-advocating-physical-violence-against-anita-sarkeesian/

I’m MORTIFIED….I’m crying

This is unbelievable.  For those unfamiliar, this is Anita Sarkeesian, who runs a great channel on youtube called FeministFrequency.  Recently she went on Kickstarter in the hopes of starting a project based on feminism and video games.  She received a slew of negative criticism, including threats.  The latest response?  This game, in which players are asked to attack her.  Yes, I can see that it’s been taken down.  I think it’s a perfect example of misogyny in our culture though, that someone thought this was an acceptable response in the first place.

Comment:

Hahahaha Anita got exactly what she deserved. Hard-lined l3sbian/feminist man-hater with nothing better to do than scam innocent straight men out of their sperm, and the rest of the world out of their money - because she has a vagina, and vaginas SELL. Might just as well have made herself stand on the street corner, selling her vagina to passers-by. Hats-off to the 25 year old male in Ontario, Canada. He’s probably been messed-over by a butchy lesbian, himself. This is a great way to strike back, without going to jail.

how the fuck can ANYONE find this remotely acceptable, oh my god

Uh yeah this was the shit I mentioned yesterday.

Direct quote from dude’s twitter:

I wanted to express my distaste for what she’s doing in a way she would listen.

This is someone who I am 99% sure abuses women in real life, jesus christ that is scary.

Tech Startup or Pokemon? »

ihavechortles:

fluiddragonfly:

urrg one wrong!! 

just because I’m not as good with the newer pokemon 

I got one wrong because they misspelled “Gligar” and made me thing it was a SNEAKY TRICK QUESTION and that “Gilgar” actually was a startup.

This assumption of mine was false.

Along the same lines: Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character? (from wayyyy back in the day) and Cheese or Font.