Study Journal #5

Finance

November 5

Social Issues in Computing

• Why are there not more women in computer science? There are lots of different reasons. One big factor that seems to stand out in most of the comments in class is the "strong male presence" that seems to be present in the CS world that makes women uncomfortable.
• People should not be forced to do what they don't want to do to fulfill a quota. If you like doing something, then do it.
• It sounds like a lot of women are also "forced" out of STEM majors because of pressure to be a stay at home mom. As I said before, if you like something, do it. My wife is a Medical Laboratory Scientist, but she isn't really planning on working in a lab. She loves her current job as a secretary at the Marriott School of Business, and has been offered full time employment there. She is happy for the education she got though, and in the event anything ever happens to me she has a way to provide for herself should anything bad happen.

November 10

Cydni Tetro, Executive Director, Women Tech Council [Did Not Show]

• Since the speaker has not shown up yet, we again started to talk about gender bias and racism in the workplace. I really liked one student's comments that the Affirmative Action movement is just a band-aid for the real problem, which is a person's individual bias. Rather than forcing a biased person to hire people, something should be done to help these people change their abrasive views.
• I didn't like the article with the experiment of altering the environment to encourage women to go into Computer Science. It sounded like their original test environment was really an extreme one with the Star Trek posters and sci-fi objects. I think that that sort of environment would also push away some men as well as women. Also, I know quite a few women who are way more interested in that kind of stuff than some men are. Just because you changed the environment doesn't mean that you will be changing the people that are already there. Eventually you will have to interact with people who are very interested in this kind of stuff. Will women be turned away at that point because they don't like their colleagues?
• We didn't really have a class today. However, I do feel that talking about the lack of women in computer science in a room almost completely full of men is not the best use of time. I know about this issue already. I am in Computer Science. I see that there are very few women here. If we want more women in CS, then we should go talk to the women and encourage them to join, not sit here and talk with the men about why is it like this.

November 12

Cydni Tetro, Executive Director, Women Tech Council

• It has been proven that groups work more efficiently if there is a good mixture of men and women in it. This is because there is a greater range of ideas and methodologies, which encourages more thinking and communication.
• 80% of all children in school in Utah come from a home with both parents working. That seems kind of high, but understandable, especially since my wife and I will most likely be adding to that statistic.
• Everyone can help to make a better environment for women to work in tech. The key is to be aware of the different situations that everyone can be in.
• 4 Key Points: 1 - Teams win, ideas don't. You have to work with other people. 2 - Make it a non-issue. Don't do business differently with women as you would with men. 3 - Look around you. 4 - Build a network. The best way to get a job is by knowing someone. Get to know other people.

November 17

Module Quiz Day

• It baffles me that people can spend so much time on social media each day. Maybe it is because I am more antisocial than other people, but I still say that 16 minutes per hour average is a lot.
• I thought that NDA's would be valid enough to keep employees from blabbing company secrets through social media. If there is a contract, then the employees should demonstrate self control, no matter the medium to which they are talking to other people.
• I don't think there is really a big problem with not having women go into computer science. As long as they aren't kept out by silly reasons like they think it is a nerd's world, then I'm fine with whatever they choose.

Current Event #5

Why So Few Women Are Studying Computer Science

Recently in class we have been discussing why there aren't more women studying Computer Science in college. The article I read about this topic makes a few points about why this might be. While I may not agree with all of them, it is good to take into account other people opinions. The article brought up various points, from the toys children play with as they grow up to the culture surrounding the topic being very masculine and macho. Another big reason the article stated was that the reason women don't go into CS is because "women have historically chosen lower-paying yet fulfilling jobs like teaching or journalism, whereas their male counterparts, sometimes considered family providers, choose high-paying careers like computer science and engineering." I don't know about you, but I feel like I have a fulfilling job as a programmer right now. I love what I do and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. The article then shifts into a different point of view by showing how some universities are trying to get more women to study Computer Science. At the end of the day, I don't think that you can dress up and change how the subject looks. Computer Science is math. There just happens to be a wrapper of English around it to make it a little more understandable. If you like math, then you should consider CS. If you hate math with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, then maybe you should consider something else. I don't care who you are or where you are from, if you don't like the subject, then don't study it! If we had more people studying what they loved rather than studying what someone told them to study just to fill a quota then I think that we would have much higher quality employees in all fields. If you like to teach, be a teacher! If you like to cook, be a chef!
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Extra commentary
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I tried to browse the comments after the article as well to get more insights, but as usual the comments ended up boiling down to people bickering and fighting. There was one good comment that I found interesting, and it was the very first one at the top by a Kris Roadruck.

"Most of the people I know that are really good at their craft in tech (be it programming or engineering or networks or what have you) got that way because as a kid they didn't really fit in. As a result they had a lot of extra hours to spend getting really good with computers instead of socializing. Eventually this lead them to careers with other similar social outcasts and they finally had a place they could fit in. Now women are saying listen we'd love to do tech but only if you change the environment where those before us finally fit in to look a lot more like the social environments that rejected them and lead them to getting good at computers in the first place. [...] Maybe instead of that you could instead just get really good at your craft. That would probably make you fit in without forcing everyone else around you to change."

While I may not agree completely with this, I do see where he is coming from. Computer Science has been a safe haven for the "nerds" and "outcasts" of society for a long time. While change may be good, I don't think that we should completely destroy a culture just to help a demographic to fit in. Integration with the culture is what should be happening. Of course the culture can evolve, but we shouldn't destroy it. Where would our technology be today if the computer scientists of the past were not sci-fi nerds? Where would all the dreams and ideas have come from?

Study Journal #4

Finance

October 27

Frontline: Dot Con

• IPO: Initial Public Offering - This is the process that many internet based companies went through to take their companies public and sell shares on the stock market.
• During the "Dot Con", analysts and investment bankers would start to fund start up tech companies and get quick profit off of them. The scandal behind it is that they would give the first sells the stocks to their "good clients" and guarantee them a profit before their clients would sell the stock within hours after the stock went up.
• Many of the people running the Dot Con relied on the "Greater Fool" theory, which is that you will make money as long as you can find a greater fool than yourself.

October 29

• One student's comment really caught my attention today. A company he worked for creates email filtering technology to protect users from scams like phishing and malicious software. To find new customers, they send out their own phishing emails and then sell their products to the people that fall for their attacks. While they don't take any money from the people, I don't know if this is a very ethical thing to do. The problem is I like this idea too. I just feel like it is in the murky, dark gray area in the ethical spectrum. I don't know what I would do if I worked in a company like that.
• I don't like the idea of financial kickbacks. It seems like dirty trades that steal money from the people that want the work to get done. As with the example Dr. Dougal gave in class today, the interpreters and the software contractor are making extra money with the 15% buffer of translated words, but the people that want the work done are losing out on extra money for superfluous work that doesn't help at all.
• A key contributing factor to why technology companies are so popular to fund and invest in is due to the very low overhead compared to other areas of industry like automobile production.

November 3

• Does culture really pay a price for new technology? Shouldn't we consider the new technology part of that culture, rather than something that destroys it? I feel that culture is something that evolves over time, not something that is defined by our ancestors and is then set in stone.
• I never really thought about how movies can affect different dialects and accents around the world. I guess it really is amazing that there are still so many different accents that can be found.
• Dr. Dougal - "What would my life be like if I didn't have ___________?" (insert technology in blank). All of the things I think of first to put in that blank make me shudder to think what life would be like without it.