#diveristy week

[dreamtydraw]

Hi! If you’re still taking VN recommendations then I wanna share with you a VN that I really really love! I will say right off the bat though that it isn’t free you do have to pay for it, I believe it’s pretty cheap though as it’s only $7 USD. So it’s called Repurpose by Eros, the first part is on itch.io and part 2 is coming out like next week just after Christmas! It’s LGBTQ+ friendly you get to choose your own gender identity and pronouns (and if you specifically make your MC trans then there’s some mini extra dialogue with other characters regarding it which is neat), currently there’s 7 love interests, 2 males, 3 girls, and 2 li’s under the non-binary umbrella (and 2 more li’s are coming in part two). The basic plot is that You and several others have died, but because of circumstances you can’t be sent to heaven or hell, so instead you’re sent to the Garden of Eden in Limbo where you get to choose if you want to go up to Heaven (which is actually referred to as Utopia in game), down to Hell, or stay in Limbo! Depending on where you go there will be certain routes you can go down and shenanigans ensue!! I haven’t played every single route but the ones I did play were all super fun and all the characters are so well written and nice to interact with so I really recommend it! Sorry this is kinda long lmao I’ve been brainrotting over this game, have a nice day!

It’s alright ! Quite a lot of you actually recomanded me games you enjoyed and it makes me happy because you all seems very interested in the game you propose which i think is cute.

Gave a look and this is game is going to my wish list because i like the art, designs, diveristy and plots ( that all the main factors for me to like a game )

I check all of the recommendations btw ;}

[ucflibrary]

Every October UCF celebrates Diversity Week and for 2020 it runs from October 19 – 23. The theme is Stronger Together: Unified! Connected! Family! This highlights how together we can make UCF and the surrounding community stronger and more connected with each other.  

One of the fantastic things about UCF is the wide range of cultures and ethnicities of our students, staff, and faculty. We come from all over. We’re just as proud of where we are from as we are of where we are now and where we will be heading in future. 

UCF Libraries is offering a full calendar of virtual Diversity Week activities from family friendly crafts to talks by area experts and film discussions. Don’t miss out on our community showcase which features UCF alumni and faculty and how they support the Knight community. We even have digital puzzles and downloadable coloring pages. And you can also add your voice to the 2020 UCF story by participating in our digital time capsule. To learn about the upcoming events visit: guides.ucf.edu/diversityweek 

Join the UCF Libraries as we celebrate diverse voices and subjects with these suggestions. Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured UCF Celebrates Diversity titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These and additional books are on display in the new 4th floor Reading Room.

And thank you to every Knight who works to help others feel accepted and included at UCF!

 A Faithful Reading Partner: a story from a Hakka village by SuHua Huang A welcome addition to dual language literature, the story is about growing up among the Hakka people in Taiwan. In order to succeed, it is important for children to have a reading partner. But in this case, it is a dog with which the children develop deep friendships as they share their books with him. A sub-current to the main story is one of being a minority within a minority and success, which though longed for, inevitably contains sadness wrapped within its joy. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

 Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell Challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation or genetics. It offers its own new analysis, based on an entirely different approach--and backed up with empirical evidence from around the world. The point is not to recommend some particular policy "fix", but to clarify why so many policy fixes have turned out to be counterproductive, and to expose some seemingly invincible fallacies behind many of those policies Suggested by Cynthia Kisby, Administration

 Equality and Diversity: phenomenological investigations of prejudice and discrimination by Michael D. Barber Examples of prejudice against Jews, women, African Americans, and other minority groups are reported almost daily by the media. Despite educational programs to counteract prejudicial attitudes, this seemingly intractable problem remains an ongoing concern, not only in the United States but throughout the world. It is an interesting and often overlooked fact that the subject of prejudice has been the focus of major works by three prominent philosophers in the phenomenological tradition, works that still offer many insights into contemporary attempts to understand this social problem. Michael Barber examines this striking convergence of interests by these three philosophers and explores the significance of phenomenology for analyzing prejudice as expressed in anti-Semitism, sexism, and racism. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Hacking Diversity: the politics of inclusion in open technology cultures by Christina Dunbar-Hester We regularly read and hear exhortations for women to take up positions in STEM. The call comes from both government and private corporate circles, and it also emanates from enthusiasts for free and open source software (FOSS), i.e. software that anyone is free to use, copy, study, and change in any way. Ironically, rate of participation in FOSS-related work is far lower than in other areas of computing. A 2002 European Union study showed that fewer than 2 percent of software developers in the FOSS world were women. This book is an ethnographic investigation of efforts to improve the diversity in software and hackerspace communities, with particular attention paid to gender diversity advocacy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Mothers Work: confronting the Mommy Wars, raising children, and working for social change by Michelle Napierski-Prancl Through a series of focus group interviews and an analysis of the media and popular culture, Napierski-Prancl explores the institution of motherhood and the arenas in which mothering occurs while analyzing how mothers feel about themselves, each other, and the culture that situates them against one another. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 On the Freedom Side: how five decades of youth activists have remixed American history by Wesley C. Hogan As Wesley C. Hogan sees it, the future of democracy belongs to young people. While today's generation of leaders confronts a daunting array of existential challenges, increasingly it is young people in the United States and around the world who are finding new ways of belonging, collaboration, and survival. That reality forms the backbone of this book, as Hogan documents and assesses young people's interventions in the American fight for democracy and its ideals. As Hogan reveals, the the civil rights movement has often been carried forward by young people at the margins of power and wealth in U.S. society. This book foregrounds their voices and gathers their inventions--not in a comprehensive survey, but as an activist mix tape--with lively, fresh perspectives on the promise of twenty-first-century U.S. democracy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look. So when Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself by following the "Rules of Cool." At Lakeview, Pippa juggles old and new friends, an unrequited crush, and the pressure to perform academically and athletically while keeping her past and her family's laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates. But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened. As things begin to spiral out of control, Pippa discovers the real reason she was admitted to Lakeview and wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

 Sexuality, Equality, and Diversity by Diane Richardson and Surya Monro Investigating the dynamics of identity and sexual citizenship in a changing world, this compelling text explores key debates around human rights and representation, policy and resistance. Incorporating theory with original research, this is a thought-provoking insight into sexuality and diversity in a global age. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Shame: how America's past sins have polarized our country by Shelby Steele Part memoir and part meditation on the failed efforts to achieve racial equality in Americathis work advances Shelby Steele's provocative argument that "new liberalism" has done more harm than good. Since the 1960s, overt racism against blacks is almost universally condemned, so much so that racism is no longer, by itself, a prohibitive barrier to black advancement. But African Americans remain at a disadvantage in American society, and Steele lays the blame at the feet of white liberals. According to Steele, liberals have refused to acknowledge the country's progress over the past 50 years, in part because their notions of white guilt and black victimization help preserve their position of power over blacks. Suggested by Cynthia Kisby, Administration

 The Boy Who Became a Dragon: a Bruce Lee story by Jim Di Bartolo This book presents a biography of the martial arts legend, describing his childhood in Hong Kong and how it was shaped by World War II, and his success as an international star. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

 This Promise of Change: one girl's story in the fight for school equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen year old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. At first things went smoothly for the Clinton 12, but then outside agitators interfered, pitting the townspeople against one another. Uneasiness turned into anger, and even the Clinton Twelve themselves wondered if the easier thing to do would be to go back to their old school. This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Suggested by Ven Basco, Research & Information Services

 We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art, poetry, and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice and comfort to young activists. Suggested by Ven Basco, Research & Information Services

[redarro]

This Is How TimKon Can Still Win

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[chimnation]

Making the white executives uncomfortable by asking a question about diversity is a talent of mine

[dragonclaw487]

I posted 89 times in 2021

36 posts created (40%)

53 posts reblogged (60%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.5 posts.

I added 28 tags in 2021

#livewire sans - 7 posts

#cybernetictale - 5 posts

#undertale - 5 posts

#diveristy - 2 posts

#my art - 2 posts

#folf-gaming - 2 posts

#ask - 2 posts

#livewire so casaully forgetting things - 1 posts

#skelsona - 1 posts

#skele dragon sona boyo - 1 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i definitely need to fixup my blog and make it more clean then a mess without any tags to help and show where some of my art is without havi

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Haven’t really posted in a couple of months or weeks, or more but enjoy these little drawings of ship kiddos in boxes

Eclipse - a kiddo I will talk about In another post-

Stitch - [File x Error kiddo]

And then DataTransfer with Starpen

-bottom row-

Jacko and Bluewire

Client

And undyingLight[aka the little ship name for diversity and Meno]

The souls represent the ship kiddos parents

See the full post

15 notes • Posted 2021-04-04 03:04:17 GMT

#4

Made a Blog for the my ship kiddoes that i've posted here and made for them to get asked questions more easy and simpler soo go Follow my second blog to ask the Choatic Kiddos some question

20 notes • Posted 2021-04-05 03:54:12 GMT

#3

Just two drawings one of Livewire and just the human verison of Livewire, Liam- cause wanted to post it here

21 notes • Posted 2021-07-23 01:28:29 GMT

#2

Random two drawings of a electrified glitchy boy, and Normal Glitchy boy

just wanted to post these cause i like how they both came out-

30 notes • Posted 2021-08-18 05:26:18 GMT

#1

LiveWire in LAU Causeee i was sorta getting creative out of bordem sooo heh i do like how it came out too LAU Belongs to @nixensibrat02

57 notes • Posted 2021-03-10 01:28:36 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[cowboyjen68]

Do you have any advice on finding other fellow lgbtq+ people in small towns/more remote areas? I’ve been finding it quite difficult to just find other people who share that same aspect of life who don’t also live 100+ miles away.

I have been in your muck boots my friend.  When I moved here to Newhall, population 350, plus two miles from town,... I immediately started using the local businesses even though gas and milkl were . more expensive.  I bought at the feed store, even though Cedar Rapids chain stores were cheaper.. I went to “town” once a week at least.  Said Hello, learned names and even sat with the farmers at morning coffee at the gas station.  I asked them questions like about drainage and about the soil type I had.. I let them share their knowledge and it made them like me... I was interested in their ideas... and I really was.  

Next asked around.. who was elderly and needed help? Volunteering opportunities...Animal shelters tend to be staffed by lesbians.. they just are.. I dont make the rules.  If you help an elder person clean their kitchen or a storage shed, you will get stories, free stuff and a wealth on information and gossip.. They know where the gay people are! 

The easiest way.. join the local Democrats.. Just go to their meetings.. they will know LGBT people and at the very least they will be thrilled to have you.. Rural dems struggle with diveristy so anytime a gay person joins... membership GOLD baby... gold!!  

Make your own community.. Get on Facebook. start a page or reach out and just say..you want to have a county lgbt gathering... start a PFLAG, casual dinner.. etc... You will get some straight people offering to join and help.. let them... they are invested and can be your ally in building a local group,  NO gay person in a rural county could resist a gathering at Bob’s Coffee shop with other gay people.. they have to go and see what is up.. 

It takes courage and a bit of work.. it is what I have done.. I saw a fractured community and worked my ass off to build it to a giant successful thing.. And even though I have stepped away from that entity is has allowed me the connections and experience to start outreach to the schools and community centers in the rural counties..  

You don’t need to have a parade.. just a meeting room for a book club at the library or a small cafe with good coffee and apple pie for breakfast. Start there. 

[paar-pahlok]

Noticed you recently were working on world building, lore, etc.. Can you provide any advice or tips for others? I’d consider myself average, I’ve been working on a fantasy project for about 3 years, and recently a science fantasy project. I’m always looking for anything to better my skills, if you’d like to share, of course excluding anything of your original work.

I’m actually an amature world builder. In the past, each of my attempts at world building have ended in spectacular failure as I’ve given up and quit after about a week of work. This is my first attempt at world building where I’ve gotten off the ground and really have put my foot down to force myself to get further and the best I can do for you is to tell you what I’ve been doing that helped me. 

Pick one thing. That one thing can be language. Religion. Geography. Culture. Anything! Whatever interests you the most, or you think would be most important to the story you are trying to tell. Develop or start development on that one thing first while ignoring all others. This time around, I started with a pantheon. I knew that religion would play a major part in my story, so I got a vague idea of what I wanted the people of my wold to worship and then built up from there. 

Study! While fantasy, inherently, is made up and different from our own world, pulling from the real world and adapting it to better if your own can help make your world feel more believable. Generally speaking, in popular fantasy, this involves pulling inspiration from Medieval Europe. This time around, I made a point to pull from more than the familiar. I’ve been watching documentaries about animal and plant life from all over the world, as well as documentaries and videos about gods from multiple cultures (not just the Greek and Roman) and documentaries about how people lived in different cultures throughout history. I’ve also spent time in museums looking at art from cultures I want to emulate while also researching the types of food that people eat around the world based on what’s locally available. This research (particularly the research that isn’t European based) has helped me come up with what I think are unique and interesting ideas that have helped to bring the people of my world alive. 

Diveristy counts. On the same note about reseatch from above, remember that diversity is something that matters, even in a made up world. If you’re writing a world that is so different from our own that cultures and races as we know them don’t exists, this may not be as big as an issue in that department (though gender, sexuality, and differently abled bodies should still be considered). But, if your world at all resembles our own, keep in mind that our world is rich in diverse and interesting cultures. The last thing you want is to be a JK Rowling. Her tweet about how Hermione could be black is a perfect example of what you do NOT want to do. Because Rowling never specified skin color, yes, Hermione could potentially be black, but the majority of readers simply pictured her the same way most other fictional characters are described - as white. 

Pintrest it. As silly as this sounds, I’ve been using pintrest to help me organize my thoughts for my fantasy worlds and for characters. Particularly using it for character development has been incredibly helpful for me in the past few months. If you struggle to keep your characters consistent or to focus on an aesthetic for your world, I’ve found it to be really helpful to have a visual board to go back to as a reference, rather than just my own physical notes. If you’re like me and haven’t an ounce of artistic tallent, this also is useful if you prefer to reference visuals but don’t have the tallent to draw it out. 

Talk about it. Seriously. Find someone who is interested in world building and run ideas by them. Having a sound board has been especially helpful for me during my map drawing process. I really struggle with scale and numbers, and having friends look at it and urge me in the right direction has helped me build a physical world that I love. 

Google translate! If you’re like me, you struggle to name things. Naming is my number one weakness in all stories, and in the past it’s caused so much frustration that I’ve abandoned projects. When I built my pantheon, I was charged with the challenge of naming over 30 gods. For this process I hopped into google translate and picked a handful of languages that I liked (Albanian, Croatian, Italian, and Dutch, for example) and made all the names loosely based on words that I translated from those languages. I try to stick to the same handful of languages without straying too far off, because you likely want to keep a consistent sound for the same culture.

That’s about all I can think of off the top of my head. I don’t know if this helps you at all, seeing as you mentioned you’ve been working on a project for 3 years now, but perhaps this will help someone who’s only just gotten started! 

[thecorefyp]

[Week 1] Summary Research : Game Design: The Art & Business of Creating Games by Bob Bates

PART 1 - CHAPTER 1: GETTING TO 'YES'

Design work on a game, we need to know:

General Idea of the game about

Genre to fit into

Publisher's goals are

Concept Development

Most games begin with a single idea: character, gameplay, technology, philosophy etc.

Sometime, the ideas come out will be completely ORIGINAL, but sometime the idea is built from the work that the game designers who have gone before. We don't need to worry as usually the game publishers says that they are looking for a 'new' idea, what they really want is a new wrinkle on something that is already established.

such like people want new stuff but in a familiar way (old/existed).

Assurance of business

The game developer would mostly spent more money on buying the movie licenses. Consumers want something fresh and new (technology/mechanics) but also wanted to know in-advance that they will gonna have fun while paying for the game.

do not despair if the game follows the conventions of an existing genre/elements that similar to it.

High concept

High concept is the one or two sentence to response to the question;

What is your game about?

Many publishers believe if your game cannot be boiled up to summary, it hard to success.

Adventure Game

Story-based games that usually rely on PUZZLE solving to move the action along. They can be various form of art: text, graphic, first-person etc. Adventure is not real-time games unless it is action-adventure hybrid. Player usually takes as much time as they wants between the turns and nothing happens in the game world until he enters a command.

Player Expectation

Large complex world to explore, along with interesting characters and good story.

Action Game

Action game is real-time games which player need to react quckly to what happening on the screen. Category was dominate by first-person shooters.

Action-adventure hybrid, often thrid person game, such as Tomb Raider. Player can do more than shoot, and kill.

Less cerebral (少用脑) than adventure, strategy, or puzzle games. Opponent can be computer-generated (A.I) or other human players connected to the game via local or Internet.

Player Expectation

adrenaline rush of fast paced action that calls for snap judgement and quick reflexes.

Role-Playing Game (RPGs)

the gamer generallu directs a group of heroes on a series of quests. Gameplay revolves around gradually increasing the ability and strength of the heroes.

Featuring huge world with a gradually unfolding story. Combat is an important elements — mechanism by which heroes gain strength, experience, and money to buy new equipment.

Fantasy RPG provide diveristy of magical systems, as well as diverse races of characters

Player Expectation

able to micromanage their characters, all the way to weapons armour.

Strategy Games

Require players to manage a limited set of resources to achieve a predetermined goal. The resources management frequently calls for deciding which kinds of units to create and when to put them in action.

Older strategic usually turn-based. Player takes time to make set of decisions, and computer only react while player is ready. Real-time Strategy (RTS) games set the computer AI in motion against the game whether he is ready or not. In Multiplayer, computer AI can substitutes human opponents.

Simulation

Sims game are seeking to emulate the real world operating condition such as:

complicated machinery:

Jet fighters

Helicopters

tanks

The higher seriousness of the sims, the higher the premium place of the accuracy (equipment controls). Expected to have a thick manual to explain the fine details of the description

Arcade sim also known as less serious sims, they lets the player "get in and go." Controls are simplified, the player has less to learn, and he is punished less often for making mistakes.

Puzzle Games

Individual as itself and not integrate to the story. Existence of itself is to intellectual challenge of the problem solving.

[alexanderessex3dstoryart]

Motion Graphics - Research for Ideas - 4th and 5th of November 2020

For these couple of days, I’ve been researching for different ideas for what I could come up for the motion graphics projects particularly for my research doc looking at an idea for sustainability, diversity and wellbeing. WIth first researching for my design doc, I first started at researching into wellbeing and one topic that immediately jumped out to me was Mental Health specifically something that was very personal to me which was sleep deprivation. This was because of my past experiences with the symptom that I had in A-Levels where I began to hallucinate black shadowy figures. From this, I thought I would expand from this by researching into the issue itself by looking into mental health organisations websites on how they describe it and the definition. In addition to this, I also looked up people’s past experiences of sleep deprivation and how it plays with the mind which I all found really useful towards my idea generation on what I should I should create looking at both After Effects and using real life photography as images for the After Effects.

For Diveristy, I thought back to where I was born as I wasn’t born in England, instead I was from New Zealand and in New Zealand, a large part of it’s culture are the Maori tribe. The tribe has impacted a lot who New Zealanders are from how they greet and speak as well as the tattoos that people wear in reference to the the culture. For research purposes, I looked into all the different types of influences that the Maroi tribe has influenced New Zealand seeing if there any possible ideas for a GIF there as well as looking into the tribe itself to see if there’s anything from the specific culture that could help with my ideas.

Once I came up with my research and ideas for ‘Wellbeing’ and the research for ‘Diversity’, I kind of hit a wall in terms of ideas as I was really struggling to what I could make for the project. This is where I started to look for further inspiration online of what people have made GIF’s out of After Effects. One artist I found that really got my head ticking again was Greg Gunn and his work on Mythical Mondays where he make a animated GIF based on a mythical creature every week for a year. What really got me motivated again with the idea generation is how colorful and funky his designs were which reminded me about this brief being all about using three colours to convey something which Greg really has done with his monster GIFs. Just watching his animations got me really thinking of who I could create my ideas particularly the ones where it involves elements of transformation where one thing turns into another or something jump scares the viewer with something scary where it previously was kept hidden.

Website - https://www.ggunn.com/work/mythical-mondays-gifs

Artist Interview: Greg Gunn - https://giphy.com/posts/artist-interview-greg-gunn/

Finally for the sustainable ideas having been inspired by Greg’s work, I wanted to explore climate change and environment conservation but I didn’t want to be every generic with my ideas or approach to this topic and create something obvious as I knew a lot of other people were going to choose this topic as well sustainability. I thought about it long and hard but nothing seem to come to me until I accidentally stumbled across an article about a Maori tribe called Tuhoe in New Zealand protects it ‘s scared rain-forest. Here I discovered that they do it by assigning people to be a kaitaki who serve as the rainforest’s guardians which are specific to a particular element of the rain forest like the forest itself or uncultivated foods. These particular elements are linked to a particular god that are known as the frist Kaitaki which I found to be really interesting and fascinating in context of creating a GIF relating to this.

Once I had finished the design doc, I went to brainstorm my drawings for what I wanted to create for the project/Gifs.

Starting with the well-being drawings I did, they all involve the usage of shadow like creatures that stalk a version of me or manipulate a certain aspect of myself  for their own doing. For the first row across, I would be asleep with my brain sticking out at the start of the GIF which two black clothed arms start to stretch my brain from side to side with other ghost like faces popping out of the darkness to try and manipulate me too. It ends with a giant mouth closing on the sequence to which it loops back to the my head again. This idea would invole a stop motion approach to it as I could imagine myself with a 2D animated brain being stretched from either side to side with a pair of real physical arms and hands that I would green screen. I really love this idea a lot but I think money wise it will be costly as I would have to get a green screen background and a green screen suit to make this GIF. For the second idea, it consists of me looking to my left to see a black figure and the an other one appears to the right of me and then I look at the camera with jaws consuming me which loops. For the thrid row, I’m sleeping which I’m then awoken by the black figures surrounding me to then realise they’ve all dissapepred. The fourth row is a first person perspective where we look around a bedroom to find a balck figure in the edge of the background. Once we see i, we are then scared by a jumpscare with a quick camera shake for it to loop again.

For Diversity I could only think of two ideas for the time being. The first row shows a plane going across the Earth with the text ‘Ka Kite ano’ being raised up from the bottom of the screen with two peoples head touching each other nose to nose. The second row shows  a mouth opening up with a airplane coming out of it travelling through new Zealand culture all to land in the UK. Both of theses ideas both look at my transition to the UK when I was 2 years old as they both represent me leaving the culture to enter a new one.

The last page promotes the ideas of Kaitiakitanga in New Zealand and specifically to the Tuhoe people on how they protect their rainforest from the elements and other people. Each of these Gifs represents a different interpretation of Kaitiakitanga. The first row zooms into different guardian’s eyes revealing a new gaurdain each time on a loop. The second row shows a person growing a plant which transitions to fish swimming and then finally, a guardian growling at the camera. The final idea has three of the Kaitiakitanga gods colliding int to he middle, then another three collide and then the final one appears with bolts of lighting happening around him.

Overall, I think I’ve conducted quite a bit of research to this project already as well as comfortably sitting with a layout of ideas that I could all see myself doing for this project.

[goarticletec-blog]

Apple puts its money where its mouth is for more women in tech

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/apple-puts-its-money-where-its-mouth-is-for-more-women-in-tech/

Apple puts its money where its mouth is for more women in tech

Apple is trying to do something positive to help end the gender gap in the technology industry with a new program to support women entrepreneurs building businesses around apps.

Making a difference

Apple’s Entrepreneur Camp will consist of an intensive technology lab, specialized support, and ongoing mentoring.

It’s open to firms with a working or prototype app that are founded or co-founded by females that also have at least one woman on the development team.

The company also states that it “believes that gender expression is a fundamental right” and welcomes “all women to apply to this program.”

It is certainly a good thing that one of the world’s leading tech firms is attempting to do something to help create new opportunities in the industry for women.

That the company is launching this scheme reflects its own work to realize a more diverse workforce across Apple.

Its latest Inclusion & Diveristy report goes into great depth at the work the company is doing to create a more balanced workforce. All the same, the company remains mainly white and mainly male.

Now Apple is putting money on the table to help nurture the emergence of more female tech industry leaders.

Commitment to positive change

“Apple is committed to helping more women assume leadership roles across the tech sector and beyond,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release.

The new program also has the support of Apple’s senior director of Worldwide Developer Marketing, Esther Hare.

Hare is also the executive sponsor of the 5,000-strong Women At Apple, which is one of the company’s “diversity network associations.”

“It’s something that Apple puts a huge focus on. We really believe in inclusivity and diversity,” Hare told Coveteur in June 2018. “We really believe in having a wide variety of people contributing to have different perspectives, backgrounds, and talents.”

Why this matters

Several years ago when I wrote “Technology is sexist,” I observed that as of 2013, just  0.4 percent of female college freshers intended to major in computer science and that this number had halved since 1985.

I still don’t believe this is because women aren’t interested in or aren’t capable of working in this sector.

A STEM report claims: “In the U.K., girls are shown to outperform boys in subjects including Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.”

Apple knows the tech industry must urgently do something to inspire these smart women to enter the sector. Even in logical terms, it needs them to.

The industry is already straining to find more engineers, leaders, and visionaries just to meet its current needs. Everyone Can Code is not wholly altruistic, though it helps.

As digital transformation impacts the lives of everyone on the planet, tech industry recruitment will inevitably go into overdrive.

Women in tech stats and facts

Despite these realities, there’s still a gender gap.

Women launching businesses in the tech sector face genuine problems getting the support they need.

Apple’s press release observes that female entrepreneurs received just $1.9 billion in venture capital funding in 2017, compared to $83.1 billion for men. So far this year, just 2.2 percent of VC funding has gone to tech startups founded by females.

There’s no shortage of additional statistics to support the argument that we need to nurture more women in tech:

Women-owned businesses are growing more than two times faster than the U.S. national average.

Women-led tech startups deliver 35 percent higher ROI than tech startups led by men. 

A 2013 Fenwick & West survey revealed that 3 percent of the top 150 Silicon Valley firms had no female directors, and 40 percent had just one.

Yet a 2013 analysis of the top 100 S&P firms found just 2 percent of those firms had no female representation at board level.

A 2011 Deloitte report warned when it comes to the imbalance on corporate boards, “it could take until 2075 for women to reach parity with men” if progress continues at its current pace.

In the 2012 U.S. workforce, women held 57 percent of the jobs in all professional occupations, but only 26 percent of the jobs in professional computing occupations.

Not to mention the everyday sexism women in every industry encounter.

Opportunity is everything

One of the arguments I encounter when questioning this evident glass ceiling is the age-old excuse that “women would get these jobs if they were good enough.”

There are strong arguments to counter that claim, not least the need to celebrate positive female role models and the disempowering nature of all form of institutionalized prejudice.

However, the fact that the argument is used at all underscores the need to provide opportunities through which diverse groups can learn what they need and show their skills and enthusiasm in the sector.

That’s precisely what Apple is offering through its camps, which seem to want to provide women with constructive support to help their businesses (and apps) thrive. This valuable encouragement hopefully means that soon a larger number of women candidates for tech industry jobs will be “good enough.”

(I know women are already good enough, but I think Apple’s scheme provides a good way for people to prove this to reactionaries who continue to insist a person’s gender, race, or sexuality mean they are “naturally” unsuited to any role. All forms of that kind of belief reflect nothing more than “an emotional commitment to ignorance,” as Jane Elliot once said.)

“We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick,” Cook once wrote.

Apple’s new scheme in its way may become one of those bricks.

More about Apple’s Entrepreneur Camp

The program’s pilot session, beginning in January 2019, is now accepting applications. 

Sessions take place quarterly, with a cohort of 20 app companies accepted for each round. The pilot session will include 10 companies.

Once accepted, each company will be able to send three people to Cupertino, California, for a two-week immersive program at Apple’s campus, including one-on-one code-level assistance with engineers, sessions on design, technology and App Store marketing, as well as ongoing guidance and support from an Apple Developer representative. They will also receive two tickets to the following year’s WWDC.

I’ll be interested to see those apps.

Please follow me on Twitter, and join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Source link