Ada's Sisters podcast

The Great Hiatus

adassisters@gmail.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:45:32 +0000

Ok, not so great (either emotionally or in terms of size) but the Ada's Sisters are on hiatus while they try to find time to record more episodes!

Episode 75: Imposter Syndrome, Marvel women in suits, #MeToo, VC Clubs for women

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 12:30:00 +0000

Fascinating article this week in Fast Company identifying women as the canary in the data mine. And we'll talk about the seven ways to fight imposter syndrome.

If you don't know what that is, we'll elucidate you.

And we'll tell you about a new VC club for women.

Plus, Time's people of the year are the silence breakers, which, on the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, is very appropriate.

Also appropriate? The twitter-verse's response to Marvel's superhero pic.

Episode 74: Google's Sentiment Analyzer, Gen-x and Amazon's Future Engineers

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 12:00:00 +0000

We should talk about Google's SENTIMENT analyzer because it thinks being Gay is bad.

That's ok, so's being over 40 according to a story in INC.com.

What about the mom after our own hearts who fought the biggest social media companies in the world to gain access to her son's accounts? Mamma bears unite!

This story in the Harvard Business Review about sensors and gender is on our radar as is the Amazon Future Engineer project.

Episode 73: Salary woes and updates, Best Canadian cities to live in and Sidewalk Toronto

adassisters@gmail.com — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 23:21:53 +0000

Fast Co. says women are making less than men in the creative industries by a whopping 32 per cent!
And in The Star's look at the best Canadian cities to live in if you're a woman, Toronto came in… TENTH. This is despite the innovative brains - like the people who came up with Sidewalk Toronto. And all the awesome tech at the Deloitte Greenhouse this week.

And if you've ever wondered if you're being paid what you're worth in this wacky technology industry, Stack Overflow can help.

Episode 72: Google Pixel 2, role models, Time Magazine

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 11:30:00 +0000

We think Laurie Schultz wrote an important piece for the Huffington Post on being a role model to your daughters.

She's the CEP of ACL and chair of the board for the BC Tech Association.

And TIME put out a whole magazine dedicated to women who are changing the world.

They highlighted 46, but we know there are so many more.

We do, just like we knew that the turn in U.S. politics is bringing more great talent up to Canada. But what about the latest Google announcements on their Pixel 2 and Google Clips? Welcome or Wary about that?

Episode 71: Amazon HQ2, Catalyst, Google Drive, Verrit and BeccaToldMe

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Some big changes coming in Google Drive and the newest Apple OS update and Amazon is looking for a new HQ, could a Canadian city provide that spot?
Maybe if they haven't heard about the terrible hiring choices Catalyst Canada is making.
At least #BeccaToldMe gives us something to be proud of.
What about MOMs TO "A very mommy wine festival?" Something to be proud of? We'll talk about it.
And we have to talk about Verrit because it's so weird.
And more than 100 thousand Canadians were effected by the Equifax breach, so of course it's on the pod.

Episode 70: Facebook and the election, fake partners, Flipd app and Google Maps

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Facebook just released some information about inauthentic accounts and their influence on the 2016 US election that we should talk about because things couldn't possibly get weirder on THAT front.

Speaking of weird things - there's an app to get students to stop fiddling with… their apps.

Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer faced a lot of sexism and condescension when they launched their e-commerce marketplace for weird art until they introduced an imaginary cofounder named Keith.

We're loving this awesome twitter thread satirizing how SOME men talk about women that reverses the sexism with humour.

And Google Maps has some additions you might not have noticed and they're updating their content and data with AI.

Episode 69: Amazon Tenmarks, lonely nerds, eclipses, and when women stopped coding

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:00:00 +0000

This is our last podcast before school starts, and we want to talk about Amazon's new TenMarks writing coach.

And we like the idea of shutting down hate accounts all over the place that's spreading like wildfire in the wake of Charlottesville.

We also loved the NY Times article about the dangers of that whole lonely genius nerd stereotype.

We don't LOVE the graph NPR released tracking when women stopped coding but we love the attention to the problem. Now let's fix it!

And we want to tell you how TECH helped the visually impaired enjoy the eclipse - safely.

Episode 68: Anon-IB, Google madness, twitter smackdown, and #MakeMineMilkshake

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 11:30:00 +0000

We could spend the entire episode talking about that Google document because it's repercussions just keep spilling out.
But we also have to talk about the Marvel editor who was getting trolled for basically being a female writer for Marvel. Fortunately, she got lots of support for her online, even from competitors like DC Comics.
And Dr. Karin Lachmi has a radical proposal to fix inequity between men and women in STEM fields, while getting a seat at the table continues to be a fight. We'll talk about that too.
If you didn't follow the twitter fashion battle between one sexist bro and the gentleman who shut him down, we are happy to tell you all about it.

And a Toronto woman is battling the people who stole her identity by contacting other women whom she observes suffering the same fate.
And Bob LeDrew pointed us at an article about men using science to prove their superiority.. let us talk you through it.

Episode 67: Vimeo promotes Anjali Sud, a whole new Doctor, Airbnb karma and the Roomba

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 11:00:00 +0000

You might remember an AirBnB story we talked about a few months ago where a host cancelled a reservation when he found out his guests were Asian.
Happy to tell you about the happy ending to that story - because karma is ALSO Asian.
We also want to tell you about X factor Ventures, a new VC fund that will invest $3 million US in female-led startups. Vimeo just promoted Anjali Sud as their new CEO and we're thrilled, as well as Google's promotion
We are excited for the newest Doctor Who and not that concerned about her gender because the Time Lord is an ALIEN.
And don't turn your back on that Roomba! It's making a map of your house!

Episode 66: Retention of women in tech, supporting mom students, bizarre app to pray for women seeking abortion

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 11:30:00 +0000

Last week's #DayofAction kind of went by without much fanfare, but we'll talk about net neutrality because it's an important subject.
As is this story in the NY Times about sexual harassment in Silicon Valley and this CBC story about diversity in Canadian tech companies - or lack thereof.
We're 100% behind this Wired story advising tech companies not to recruit women if they're going to do nothing to RETAIN them.
And we're curiously optimistic about DeepText - this Instagram AI system that will supposedly delete nasty comments without involving a human editor.

And then in the category of bizarre technology - how about this app that let's you swipe right to pray for women considering abortion.
What the actual F?

Episode 65: Tanmay Bakshi, Google pay fail, Wonder Woman and the Nancy Podcast

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 11:00:00 +0000

We're back to regular programming this week, and wow, some stuff happened while we were on our Bob Mob cruise! Like Google announcing that it would be too expensive to actually equalize salaries across genders, and that panel at the Hall of Femme event that was ALL men and mansplained the heck out of the topic. We'll tell you about a good news/ bad news story with a Calgary twitter account that secretly filmed women but was shut down thanks to some good social media samaritans.

Wonder Woman continues to blow the box office out of the water, but the sponsors continue to disappoint us with diet pills and cleaning products. No, we're not kidding. Thankfully, the first Google story we have for you this week is their Wonder Woman coding game. It's awesome.

Less awesome is Google's claim that it would be too expensive to actually pay the women that work for them the same as they pay the men.

We've got a new podcast you need to listen to called NANCY just in time for Pride Month and we're SO impressed with a 13 year-old programmer on a mission to educate 100 thousand coders - we'd like to help ; )

Episode 64: The Bob Mob cruise in Kingston

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Jun 2017 11:30:00 +0000

A special episode of the Ada's Sisters Podcast recorded while Eden, Angela and special guest Connie Crosby drove back to Toronto from Kingston where they had attended the Bob Mob cruise celebrating the life of Bob Goyetche.

Episode 63: AI, google, Instagram, the value of online communities

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 24 May 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Who knew that Instagram was such a competitive social network?
Insta-star Sara Melotti in the Daily Mail it turns out.
And the Globe and Mail has an interesting story about the online community and if it's even worth saving. The 11 richest self-made women in tech are worth a combined $10.3 billion and PRNewsWire has a list of the best tech companies in Silicon Valley for women to work at.
And finally, two AI stories for this week - one from Google and one from Wired.

Episode 62: A Hackathon solution, Wired's tech visionaries, NewCO Shift, and 1000 names

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 10 May 2017 11:00:00 +0000

The Dallas Morning News had a pile of tech issues they weren't getting to, so they had a creative solution - they held a hackathon
And WIRED released their list of 20 Tech Visionaries You Should Have Heard of by Now. We'll tell you all about them. We like when media puts a focus on female founders, so we'd like to direct your attention to a new series at NewCO Shift.

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 opened last week, but you can open up a Doritos bag to get a taste - of the music?
We'll also tell you about that letter to the editor from that engineering student plus two stories about female fashion that hit social media this week.
And a great idea from a Mic.com journalist to combat not seeing enough women behind the podium. HERE'S a 1,000 names, now stop saying you don't know any women!

Episode 61: What a surgeon looks like, GAP win, Ladies storm hackathon and a good subreddit

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 11:00:00 +0000

We're all consumers, and one of the benefits of social media is that we get direct access to give feedback to businesses. Just this week I tweeted about battery issues to Apple, and got a solution through tweets. And the CEO of GAP just took a 5-year-old's complaint to "I can do that" in two weeks.
Maybe United should take a page from GAP.
And this is the second time we've talked about a brand using cancer as a metaphor for something stupid in their social media - this time Cosmo thinks cancer is a great solution for weight loss.

But we also have some good news stories - a sub-Reddit recently solved a 20 year old mystery, the Ladies Storm Hackathon on GitHub is a great resource we want everyone using and all these surgeons mimicking the cover of the New Yorker.

Episode 60: A mechanical reproductive system, #hackathon, AI research moving to Canada and Kaya Thomas's new app

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 11:00:00 +0000

We have to tell you about this working model of a female reproductive system, her name is Evatar. And it had its first period.
We'll get the chocolate and heating blanket, and maybe we'll get it to download this new app by Kaya Thomas that helps you find books written or about people of color?

Lots happening in Toronto, with Google moving their AI research up here, and the BlockChain hackathon is coming up on us, at the end of the month. But hey BlockChain, would it have killed you to include a couple women or people of colour in your speaker list?
And while we're talking about bad news, can we talk about the penis seat? Because we'd rather talk about it than SIT on it.

Episode 59: Ashley Jane Lewis, Knitting for math, We-Vibe, Instagram, Mayim Bialik

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 11:00:00 +0000

I say this way too much as I get older, but my mother was right… again… Turns out knitting and crocheting can help you be better at math. We're pretty impressed by Ashley Jane Lewis. And we'll tell you why. We-Vibe was sharing personal information about their customers and they're about to pay a pretty hefty price for that. People should be in control of their information, take a look at how Amanda Seyfried and Emma Watson are handling it. And Mayim Bialik's latest video is about using the word 'girl' to describe grown-ass women. Words matter, and so do actions. We talk about doxxing on this podcast a lot, but this is a victim we don't usually focus on.

Episode 58: Peanut App, NASA Lego women, Google fortune-telling and comparing Feminism to Cancer

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 11:00:00 +0000

We have to tell you about PEANUT - a new app that connects lonely mothers. And we're so impressed with Lego's career women figurines for women of NASA.

We're less impressed by the Wildrose on Campus email comparing feminism to cancer.
This year's clever Google Fortune Telling app is something we want to point out, and also this fourth-grade feminist group.

With International Women's Day last week we read a lot of stories about women in tech finding their place at the table. Just a reminder that EVERY day with Ada's Sisters is International Women's Day.

Episode 57: HonkMobile, Snap Sunglasses, trolls beware and trying to stay anonymous

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 13:00:00 +0000

Do you have a parking spot you don't use? Well, it could be a new source of revenue if you use the new HONKmobile app. It's like an Air BnB for a parking spot — you can rent yours out, or find one to rent.

And SnapChat has released new spectacles (sunglasses really) that you TAP once to make a memory. Snap! Snap!

Then we'll tell you about an augmented reality app that tells you indigenous stories as you walk around Canadian cities. And we want to make sure you hear the story of a Canadian burlesque dancer who hit back at her troll where it hurts: his mamma, his teacher, everyone who has influence on his life.

We read a great piece in The Establishment this week about the special blowback a woman gets when she deletes comments written by men.

We ask how much longer minorities and women have to be minorities in the tech field — we're done being patient. Finally, our friend Bob LeDrew turned us onto a piece about how hard it is to actually be anonymous online.

Episode 56: Baycott, DressLikeAWoman, Heartmob and Malala

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 12:00:00 +0000

All kinds of politically motivated boycotts going on this week are being driven over social media. From the #BAYcott over Ivanka Trump's fashion line to Starbucks because the CEO said he was going to hire refugees.

Political messages are all the rage in digital, just take a look at the open letter from the Canadian Tech Community about diversity being our strength.

Malala is (not surprisingly) against the refugee ban, and we talk about a new social network called Heartmob that seeks to end online harassment.

And maybe our favourite positive response to Trump this week: women responding online (with photos) to his demand that female staff dress like women.

Episode 55: Icaros, CRA and big data, the Hater app and Gen Z

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 12:00:00 +0000

If you've ever wanted to fly you're going to love the ICAROS flying fitness machine. You're not going to love hearing that the Canadian Revenue Agency is using big data to find cheaters. Actually, we're not surprised.

But you know what did surprise us? This article about how Gen Z uses their mobiles and this new HATER app. Crazy what we'll do to find Mr. Right. Speaking of crazy, we need to talk about the hate tweets against Premiere Wynn. But don't worry, we've got a fun, tool tip this week from Google Maps.

Episode 54: Disparity amongst CEOs, live suicides, malware for Macs, and epic editorial fails

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 12:00:00 +0000

Perhaps it was eventual for a generation who live their entire lives online but a young girl committed suicide on live on Live.me, and now, it seems impossible to remove from the internet.
Macs, and gmail are being targeted by malware and hackers this week, and The Washington Post and Toronto Star need some editorial aide.
Advances in breast pump technology are important, but at what price? And speaking of price, why is it that only two women made the list of 100 top paid CEOs in Canada?

Episode 53: Reductress, troll in the bed, alt-Jedi and Emmy Rossum

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 12:30:00 +0000

What would you do if you discovered your spouse was a troll? Well, there's a woman on Reddit is going through it live. Speaking of going through things. You should read Reductress efforts to make fun of people who make fun of rape. Sometimes sarcasm is all you've got.

That toolbox is full of possibilities: Slate used another tool to combat Fake News, and Emmy Rossum employed basic human rights in negotiating her salary.

And we need something good to talk about, how about Vicki Saunders, CEO of SheEo and the awesomeness that is Rogue One (despite the alt-Jedi campaigning against it).

Wayne MacPhail pops in with a tooltip about his new AirPods.

Episode 52: Ellevate, Canada Post vending machines, HoHoTo, and the internet archive

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? If you're ordering clothes online, you may want to check out what Canada Post is doing in Vancouver.
And as part of another smart move in Canada, the entire internet will be archived here to protect it from the U.S. President Elect.
Interesting times, including the fact that Stephani Renae Lawson is going to jail for creating a fake Facebook account to frame her ex. She gives all the women legitimately being harassed online a bad name.

The internet archive needs to be protected as well, from President-Elect Trump. And in other news… the results of the annual Ellevate Impact Survey are here so let's talk about the latest research about professional women in the workplace.
While we're on the subject of women's careers, we must mention the good work HoHoTO has been doing and our tooltip this week is for BusyBot!

Episode 51: Apple hour of code, The Skimm, countering sexual assault with design and MentorWalks

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 12:30:00 +0000

A county council in England has come up with a clever and discreet way of combatting sexual violence and abuse and we'll tell you about THESKIMM, who registered almost a hundred thousand women to vote in the latest U.S. election.

Mila Kunis' wrote an article in A Plus about more sexism in Hollywood and Toronto's Marie Henein's wrote an opinion piece in The Globe and Mail in support of Hillary Clinton.
MentorWalk has launched in Australia (and we wish it would come here) and don't forget to register for Apple's free 'Hour of Code' December 5th to 11th!

Episode 50: In honour of our friend Bob Goyetche

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 12:30:00 +0000

This morning (Friday, November 11) we learned about the sudden passing of our friend and a true podcaster, Bob Goyetche. This episode of Ada's Sisters is dedicated to a good man and his wonderful family, especially his wife Cathy and son Simon. Bob was a community builder and one of the co-founders of the Canadian podcasting community. He and Mark Blevis launched the Podcasters Across Borders (PAB) and co-hosted the Canadian Podcast Buffet podcast showcasing Canadian podcasters and introducing new podcasts to listeners. He volunteered countless hours sharing his knowledge with other podcasters helping them learn the technology. Some of his friends also credit him with bridging the language gap and bringing the francophone and anglophone podcasting and early adopter social media community together in Quebec.

Thanks to the community members who shared their thoughts with us for this special episode: C.C. Chapman, Ken Bole, Donna Papacosta, John Meadows, Whitney Hoffman...

We apologize to anyone expecting our usual content, and promise, we'll be back into the tech world with episode 51.

Episode 49: Gender pay disparity, Jessica Jones, Cupertino and Crowdfunding menstruation

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 11:30:00 +0000

We have two worrying gender equality stories to talk about this week: the World Economic Forum says the disparity between women and men and how much they get paid WILL be solved…. in about 170 years. And you know who can really move that process along? The all male standing committee on finance. Yup. This might be why it's going to take two lifetimes to make a change.
At least there's good news coming from Hollywood: Season 2 of Jessica Jones is supposedly going to be directed by a roster of amazing female directors.
And we have to tell you about a crowdfunding campaign created by a Canadian woman who wants to make sure homeless women have access to pads and tampons.
And finally, it's a weird coincidence, we are both looking for replacements for our MacBooks, and it seems, so are half our friends on Facebook.

Episode 48: What a doctor looks like, Face-stealing on Facebook and Globots

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 11:00:00 +0000

We're pleased to announce that despite all the smear campaign nonsense going on right now, we haven't included any in this episode. Which doesn't mean we won't be discussing other nonsense, including a warning about Facebook author pages from author, Lauren Layne
In other bad news stories, Motherboard recently reported that tech leaders, including Elon Musk and Tim Cook, aren't following women on Twitter.
But thankfully entrepreneur Mark Cuban says he has a plan to make Silicon Valley more woman-friendly
A group of tech leaders in Canada including the chief exec of Shopify, are working with Ladies Learning Code to expand their efforts nationally and this week we have two tool tips: The Globe and Mail has launched "GloBot" - a bot developed to share the Globe's U.S. election news on Facebook Messenger.
For those of us wanting to go cashless, we now have a Bitcoin ATM in Toronto and our hashtag this week is – #WhataDoctorLooksLike – in response to Delta flight attendants who in an emergency situation refused to believe an African American woman on a flight was a physician.

Episode 47: Climbing and sexism, bad advice for women in tech and Bob LeDrew

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Fox newscaster Brit Hume had the Internet in an uproar after the first presidential debate, and we want to make sure you see Outdoor Research's response to GQ's sexist climbing story.

John Greathouse's article about women in tech in the Wall Street Journal has us wondering if we're all timewarped back to the 1950's.
This week's tool tip comes from Kim Vallée — it's an app for kids called Swift Playgrounds and our hashtag this week is #podcastday for International Podcast Day.

And on a lighter note, we'll end with a rendition of a song we've come to love, as sung by our friend Bob LeDrew.

Episode 46: Pinksourcing, redesigning Girl's Life, the Scale Collective and Sit with us

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Kristen Bell's Pinksourcing video is going viral for all the right reasons and there's an Austrian teen suing her parents for posting her childhood pics on Facebook.

Graphic designer Katherine Young's cover take on Girls' Life magazine is perfect and we all need to do our best to influence real change in that medium, kind of like 16 year old Natalie Hampton, who has created the "Sit With Us" app to counter bullying in the school cafeterias.

Jory Des Jardins (founder of BlogHer) has launched The Scale Collective - a new conference aimed at women tech founders and our trending hashtag for this week is #TogetherToEndMaleGuardianship, we'll tell you why.

Finally, we've got a tooltip about a weapon (surprise!)

Episode 45: Returnship, #itsoktoTalk, Cindy Gallop and Sci Fi harassment

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Another awesome return-ship program, this time including some big name companies like IBM.

Our hashtag this week is about supporting mental health because #ItsOkToTalk.

Jim Hines over on Gizmodo wrote an article about sexual harassment in Sci Fi that we think is worth your attention.

Our friend Kim Vallee tagged us on a Forbes article featuring a top 11 list of things women can do to get ahead - as preached by Cindy Gallop of MakeLovenotPorn fame.

Episode 44: Olympic sized sexism, Code Club Senegal, Lindsay Lohan and Sara Benincasa

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 11:00:00 +0000

BLAB and Google Hangouts are going the way of MySpace, but Facebook Live is stepping into the vaccum with a new feature.
The Olympics have wrapped up, and like everyone else, we think the ladies were the main story in Rio. From Penny Oleksiak to Fu Yuanhui to Simone BILES, there is so much to talk about in changing the culture of reporting on women in sports.
Sara Benincasa is maybe not a household name, but the comedian had a medium post response to fat-shaming that we think deserves some attention.
As does the Lindsey Lohan video no one seems to be talking about - it was an assault, it was caught on camera, and for some reason, it's totally under the radar.
And we wrap things up with Code Club Senegal, a brilliant project to get women in West Africa coding.

Episode 43: Captain Marvel, TTC Harassment app, Parkdale WiFi and Instagram Stories

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood now has free wi-fi blasting out there for anyone to use as part of a pilot project we really hope sparks a city-wide initiative.
And who knew the ice-bucket challenge could actually amount to anything? Turns out, Eden did - the $100 million dollars raised by celebrities challenging each other led to some exciting breakthroughs in ALS research.
We're loving the support Brie Larson is getting about her new role as Captain Marvel, especially after the opposite treatment of Leslie Jones and the rest of the Ghostbusters.
But it's not all sunshine and lollipops at Ada's Sisters this week ... we have to tell you about the TTC app for harassment on the rails, and two trolls who deserved the backlash they are getting for their horrible posts.

Episode 42: Canva app, #LoveforLeslie, Shannen Doherty and Mr. Theresa May

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 11:00:00 +0000

We thought the UK's Metro story about Theresa May's husband was so on point it sang and are thrilled that Angela Lindow has won the first James Golick grant for women in Computology.

We're 100% behind Twitter's lifetime ban on Milo Yiannopoulos for leading that hate campaign against Ghostbuster Leslie Jones.
Two hashtags this week on that topic: #loveforlesliej and #TheFutureISFemale.

Eden tells us why she's gone all-in on the Canva iPhone App and we'll talk about the brave images Shannen Doherty posted on Instagram tracking her battle against breast cancer.

Episode 41: Zencaster, Ledbetter, Ulysses app and Spector

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 11:00:00 +0000

We love all these accounts and apps set up to track diversity - for example, the LedBetter, a web based database that shows you the representation of women in positions of power. Then we tell you about this new Spector tool - a Shazam for fonts.
And we're eager to try out Zencaster a new way to record Skype or Google Hangout and not at all eager to try out the BabyPod an intravaginal bluetooth speaker.
And Wayne MacPhail is back with another tooltip for an iPad app called Ulysses.

Episode 40: Clinton and Tech, Apple Coding Camp, Uber Conference

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 11:00:00 +0000

We love how the women of Google responded to sexist comments from shareholders - with LADY DAY - a day when we get to put the word "Lady" in front of all our titles.
And on the topic of women responding to sexism, we get fully frontal with Samantha of Manchester's response to an unwelcome dick pic left as a result of her Facebook restaurant review.
Hillary Clinton unveiled her technology platform for the U.S. presidential race.
"Connectivity, education, and entrepreneurship" sound like ideas we can get behind, and on the topic of education and the end of the school year, we have some more education-based stories this week. Apple is launching a coding camp for kids in its stores this summer and the U.S. State Department and IREX got together to launch a A How-To Guide for Teachers for teaching Gender Equality in Education.
Our tool tip is the Uber useful Uber Conference line.

Episode 39: The Stanford heroes, the Aussie heroes and #TryBeatingMeLightly

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 11:00:00 +0000

It's been a bit of a depressing week for the ladies despite Hilary Clinton's landmark gains in the U.S. We don't understand why anyone is talking about how the next President of the United States looks, and we suggest that everyone stops and focuses on what really matters (economy, education, equality... pick one!)

We simply can't avoid talking about the ridiculously light sentence given to the Stanford rapist, but we're going to give way more airtime to the two men who stopped the assault: Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson. Heroes.

Speaking of heroes, we're pretty impressed by five Aussie speakers who are boycotting conferences that don't make gender equality a priority. That's some real-life HeForShe work that we hope pays off, and if it does, maybe they can swing by Canada and talk to the all-male board of Tim Hortons, who voted NOT to add women to their stodgy old men's club.

Finally, we're all over the hashtag #TryBeatingMeLightly which is in response to an insane law (in 2016!!!) advising the Pakistani court system to allow husbands to 'lightly beat' their wives. We'd like to 'heavily slap' every man on the Council of Islamic Ideology who suggested it.

Episode 38: Chewbacca Mom, Blab, creepy bartenders, girlswhocode

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Something is going on over at BLAB, and we're not sure it is the smartest move. But a move we totally approve of is Girls Who Code's series of videos making fun of the totally erroneous idea that women aren't able to work with technology.

Really, what can you say after that piece of awesomeness? Well, we have some thoughts on My.Flow - a bluetooth connected tampon that helps avoid leakage. No, seriously. Many thoughts.

And Chewbacca Mom has had more than her 15 minutes in the sun, but we'd like to give her a shout-out for being kind of the best thing on the internet this week.

We wrap up by throwing some light on Rayanne Thorn's terrifying article about a bartender trying to sexually assault her by putting something in her drink. Because it wasn't freaky enough to be a woman in a bar. Thanks for that.

Episode 37: Sophie Trudeau, female emojis, the Glance clock

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 18 May 2016 11:30:00 +0000

Episode 36: Etsy, female sportscasters, #morethanmean, playing the woman card

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 04 May 2016 11:00:00 +0000

If you haven't seen the video where men read horrible tweetssentto female sportscasters, we're going to tell you all about it.Andthen we'll pull out our woman cards. Never heard of them?Neitherhave we. But Trump tells us it's a sneaky thing we've hadaccess tofor generations and have used to become the strongestforce in theworld. If you believe that load of cow paddies, thenyou should readsome of Ross Putman's tweets. He's a Hollywoodproducer who postslines from some of the more ridiculouslygendered scripts he getshanded.
Thankfully, there is some good news from the internets,namelyEtsy's efforts to balance out their gender diversity.
And the BEST news on the internet this week has to be thePrincessAwesome clothing line for little girls who love dresseswith carsand math stamped all over them.

Episode 35: Lemonade, nipples, longest invoice and playing in the backyard

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 11:30:00 +0000

This has been one of those weeks where you can learn a lot about how and why things go Viral.
Like how that 11s video of Kim Kardashian disappointing Prince on-stage is on everyone's Facebook wall. Or how a 1-hour video message about infidelity can dominate the twitter-sphere.

Or how a Winnipeg mom's choice to let her kids play in her backyard can get social services called in (and the set the internet on fire).

Here's hoping The Freelancers Union's LONGEST invoice project goes viral - to bring attention to a huge problem facing freelancers.

And also that this brilliant video from Argentinian charity MACMA changes some of the gender-discriminating rules around nipples.

Episode 34: Bots, female avatars, the web we want and red red lipstick

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

You know what happens when gamers are arbitrarily assigned female characters? Well, they certainly didn't thank the makers of RUST who did just that.

An endeavour that is getting a lot of support is The Guardian's subsite dedicated to confronting cyber-bullying called ‘THE WEB WE WANT.’
And if you want an example of why such a site is neccessary, we'll tell you about a PEI reporter who got taken to task on social media for wearing red lipstick. No, seriously.

And we've got two new tooltips specific to podcasts this week - Google Play, which has just introduced Podcasts to its directory and Clammr, which we are experimenting with to do 24s promos.

Episode 33: Kerry Washington, Chariot for Women, Reddit hate and the Gap

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 13 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

First, we talk about The GAP ad that’s got people all aflutter on social media and then we look at the dismal stats around speaker diversity at Tech-related events in Toronto.
On the Uber-side, we are getting excited for this new app called Chariot for Women (though we're not loving the name).
We peek into the SCANDAL (ha ha!) around Kerry Washington’s unrecognizable ADWEEK cover and how can we not talk about the REDDIT thread that called women "The Hitlers of Sex.” No, seriously.

Episode 32: Uberpitch, gender-friendly emojis, Blendoor, #unfairandlovely

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 11:00:00 +0000

We ruminate on whether there really is a problem with technology designed primarily by men for men, and the American Medical Association study that says yes. Then we turn to gender-based emojis and a body positive underwear campaign for men.
Speaking of color, our tooltip of the week is a new app that hides an applicant’s details to eliminate unconscious bias in hiring.
And we have some thoughts about the #UnFairandLovely hashtag that’s trending on Instagram and the new UberPitch app.

Episode 31: Hilary Clinton and feminism, SXSW follow-up, two Toronto teens of distinction and Marvel scientists

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 11:00:00 +0000

We’re not obsessed with Barbies, but there’s a matching DAD BOD Ken doll now! We promise to spend less time talking about silicon equality and more talking about real human equality - namely about the personal attacks on Hilary Clinton and how that is effecting women at large.

SXSW finally followed through on their panel discussions about Gamergate and online harassment but the results were a little disheartening.

Two Toronto teens won Women of Distinction Awards for their efforts in battling sexual harrasment and Marvel has launched a program for girl scientists we want to tell you all about.

Episode 30: Sexist dress codes, naked selfies, Land's End Legend program, circular phones and Wikipedia

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 11:00:00 +0000

Winnipeg's Amy Tuckett-McGimpsey and Allison Ferry attack sexist dress codes because at some Canadian restaurants, you are still required to dress like you're going to the club if you're a waitress. We talk about a teacher who was forced to resign because of her naked selfie and the quick end to Land's End's Legends program.
Did you know that women had trouble with rectangles? Neither did we, but a new phone start-up is designing circular phones for confused females we have never met.
Speaking of circular problems, RBS is experimenting with an AI customer service pilot project that really could do no worse than what they have now.
Wikipedia just noticed that a lot of their millions of pages have never felt the touch of a woman, much like many of the editors of Wikipedia.

Episode 29: Blab panel discussion on Gender, Public Speaking and Pay Equity

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 12:00:00 +0000

This is a special episode we recorded on Tuesday, March 8th with guest Gini Dietrich @ginidietrich and surprise guest Bob LeDrew @bobledrew (we had planned to have Elan Morgan @schmutzie join us too but the technology failed her).

Episode 28: Kesha, rent-a-minority, PartPic, and Access Now

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Chris Rock's monologue for the 80th Academy Awards was all about the #WhiteOscars hashtag, and we loved it. And one solution Hollywood might want to look into is the Rent-a-Minority website, made for employers who "are racist, but don't want to look racist."

Ok, it's a satirical website, but we think it makes an interesting statement.

Speaking of interesting statements, Toronto's own Maayan Ziv has created an app that crowdsources accessible spots in different cities -- it's called ACCESS NOW.

And another app that has our attention is the PartPic which is like Shazam for parts you might need. Just take a picture and it identifies the part and helps you find a replacement.

Episode 27: the Crunchies, U Waterloo, women code better and Hijabie Barbie

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Podcamp Toronto was a blast as always, and our panel on Women in Podcasting generated some awesome discussion — we grabbed a few members of the audience for some quick audio clips.

The University of Waterloo is offering some free computer science courses that we think people should be paying attention to.

The Crunchies welcomed some diverse members of the Slack team to accept the fastest-rising start-up award, and a recent report seems to indicate that in blind taste tests, the code written by women outshines similar code written by men.

And Hijarbie Barbie is showing some style on Instagram.

Episode 26: Work-Life Balance for Women in Tech

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

This is a special episode we recorded on Monday, Feb 15th with guests Whitney Hoffman and Alexandra Samuel.

Episode 25: Podcamp TO, Rey's hackathon, hiring women in tech industries, social networks for kids

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

We will be at Podcamp Toronto, so register (it’s free) and upvote our panel please!

Steamlabs is running a hackathon we can (and will) get behind — to create your own Rey doll ala Star Wars: The Force Awakens. What a great way to take a negative (Hasbro excluding Rey from their action figure set for the movie) and whip up a positive!

We’re interested in Twitter’s crackdown on accounts that support or talk about terrorism, and the 125k accounts they have suspended since last year.

Do you know how to attract and retain women in your tech company? This infographic from Entrepeneur.com has some great data that we love. And VentureBeat has six great tips for hiring and retaining the best female talent as well.

How do you feel about Kik and Snapchat and other social networks that the ‘kids’ are on? We’ve got some thoughts we’d like to share…

Episode 24: Freshbooks' blind dates, dating profile managers, #Sting and the #NBA and Heartmob

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Toronto’s own Freshbooks has an innovative new way to build teams — they’re setting up blind dates between their employees.
And speaking of dating, we have thoughts about Katerina Lyadova’s approach — to hire someone as her dating profile manager — for $12 an hour. Who knew that the price of love was so low?
Your Instagram might finally have an update worth sticking around for called Mashfeed.
Sting is scheduled to play at the NBA All-Star’s halftime show and the folks on twitter do NOT approve.

And if you haven’t heard of Heartmob, it’s time to get up to speed. The recently Kickstart-ed project promises to fight online harassment by offering real-time support, a place to upload and store evidence of the harassment and much more.

Episode 23: Scholarships for girls who code, Rey's action figure, Vimeo Shares the Screen

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Strap yourself in because this is an episode full of ups and downs. The Girls Who Code scholarship is all up, with a plan to give away US $1 million to high school students who want to learn to code this summer. The non-profit’s inspiring plan is to offer the workshop to more than 1,600 XX’s and add to the 10,000 ladies who have already been trained through the program.

In the list of downers this week, Gillian Anderson was offered half the salary of her fictitious FBI partner to star in the 6-part X-Files series. Now THAT’s something that I’d like to see burned with fire.

We get a little more info about why Rey was excluded from the action figure toy packs for The Force Awakens and it’s all Dark Side if you know what I mean.

And Vimeo’s new ‘Share the Screen’ initiative should have lifted us to new heights, and would have, if not for Gregory Alan Elliott’s not guilty win in his Twitter harassment case. To be clear, he was harassing, and now that he’s ‘not guilty’ he has no intention of changing his ways. Awesome. Listen in.

Episode 22: Tracie Wagman, Peach, #whiteoscars, battleship with the periodic table

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Here come the #WhiteOscars again, bereft of a person of color, except for the guy who is hosting (poor Chris Rock). But is it a problem with the awards show or a larger problem with the industry? According to PBS (and the two of us) it’s the latter.

If you’re on Peach, we’d love to hear from you… Hell, we’d love to hear what you think of it, cause we’re still figuring it out.

Have you seen the Battleship game all fancied up with the periodic table? OH you NEED TO.

And our special guest this week is Pin & Tucker co-founder Tracie Wagman.

Episode 21: CES 2016, Code-a-pillar, Just not sorry extension & Carrie Fisher

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 12:00:00 +0000

The Golden Globes made a statement this year, supporting Amy Poehler's #SmartGirlsAsk campaign, encouraging people to ask the kinds of questions of actresses that are worthy of them. We think that's fabulous. We also think Carrie Fisher is three kinds of fab for her response to the body-shamers who attacked her on social media after her stellar appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The Code-a-pillar from Fisher Price is one of the cool items that popped up around CES 2016, and we also love the Prism - we'll tell you why.

And we're NOT SORRY to tell you about the new 'Just Not Sorry' Chrome extension that will help all of us limit our 'dampening phrases.'

Episode 20: #SteveHarvey, Nima, gender bias in animation, and the death of the infographic

adassisters@gmail.com — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:34:21 +0000

Oh Steve Harvey, it could have happened to anyone, but not everyone would be able to recover from naming the wrong Miss Universe, with a photo and a tweet.

Was 2015 the year of Open Source? According to Wired Magazine it was. And on the other side of the spectrum, you’ve got FastCo predicting the End of the Infographic.

Think you’re gluten-intolerant? Yeah, you and everyone else. Now, if you’re really gluten-intolerant, you might be interested in the Nima food detector.

And our tooltip for this week comes from the AppSumo newsletter and it's called the PushBullet.

Episode 19: A Ladies' Panel of predictions for 2016

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Our latest BLAB was full of our predictions for changes in the digital industry for 2016. We were joined by Tara Hunt and Tamera Kremer, two stellar ladies in their fields PLUS everyone on BLAB who joined us live - listen in!

Episode 18: A STEM badge, Vogue, WiFi anti-terrorism, #hackahairdryer

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:00:00 +0000

IBM has once again proved how disconnected it is from the general population by offending more than half of it with their #hackyourhairdryer campaign aimed at women in STEM professions.

Fortunately, both France and the Donald threw out the idea of banning public wi fi (because terrorists are easily dissuaded from their targets by using a data plan to communicate) so maybe IBM won't be able to stick their entire foot in their mouth digitally.

But just in time to restore our faith in the world, a Girl Scout group in Orange County, Florida just earned their STEM badges.

All this AND a talk about Trudeau gracing the pages of Vogue magazine means this is a podcast you MUST listen to.

Episode 17: Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, Uber growth, a truly ugly poll, Hype and what the heck does Yahoo do now anyway?

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student

It has been 26 years since the Montreal Massacre at École Polytechnique and we don’t believe enough has changed in our North American culture when it comes to incidences of violence against women. What do you think?

Highschool is tough on everyone, and it’s hard to retain your dignity when confronted with the bullying and judgemental behaviour that seem to plague that age group. One Newfoundland teen has done just that — risen above a straw poll posted by her schoolmates and answered their rude activities with a well thought out answer on Facebook. We couldn’t be more impressed with young Lynelle Cantwell.

We tell you all about Uber and why we love it and Wayne MacPhail extols the virtues of Hype in a Flash-unfriendly world.

Episode 16: #blackfriday, the returnship program, Holly Brockwell, Adele and iPad Pro

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Black Friday was surprisingly (and happily) less black than usual and that might have been in part due to #CivilizedSaturday — we talk about the bookstore initiative.

We also have great things to say about Sapient Nitro’s new pilot program for people ‘returning’ to work after an absence.

Is anyone NOT singing Adele’s new single Hello? More importantly, has anyone NOT remixed the catchy depressing tune? We think not. Check out this one for the X-Files revival.

Holly Brockwell has been trolled all over the internet for daring to declare that she doesn’t want to have children and Wayne MacPhail drops in with another awesome tooltip — this one for the iPad Pro.

Episode 15: Alanis, dick pics, Facebook Fundraisers and #BrusselsLockdown

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 12:00:00 +0000

She may be known only for one Jagged Little Pill of an album but Alanis is back social media style. Then we’ll tell you why dicks shouldn’t mess around with Debra Messing. The #BrusselsLockdown and the adorable cats that went viral on Twitter as an attempt to bury tweets about police anti-terror operations was an awesome hashtag this week. And we talk about Facebook’s new dedicated “fundraiser” pages for nonprofits. Finally, Eden speaks to Angie Kramer of JobBliss about her experience as a women founder.

Episode 14: Starbucks red cups, dumping Instagram, diverse stock photos, and #Zola

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 12:00:00 +0000

We recorded the podcast on Diwali which should mean that we could go to a local Starbucks and get our beautiful cups celebrating the Hindu Festival of Lights right? NO? Well that holiday is ruined I guess. #SorryNotSorry.

Instagram star Essena O'Neill has flipped the photo-sharing social medium on its head but we talk about whether this was a clever hoax or a real change of heart on her part.

The #Zola story is the latest example of what we think is a new genre of story-telling and we talk about why.

And if you haven't seen the beautiful selection of stock photos now featuring women of color working in the Tech industries then you have been focusing on the wrong things - let us tell you all about it.

Episode 13: Panel discussion on working for exposure vs working for cash

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 12:00:00 +0000

This was a special episode we recorded using BLAB featuring a panel discussion with Connie Crosby (@conniecrosby) and Kim Vallee (@kimvalee)

Episode 12: SXSW and gamergate, Hello Barbie, silver spun yarn and Hello Toronto

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Just when you think things really can’t get worse in the whole Gamergate story (see episode 1 for a longer chat with Natalie Zina Walschotts about this) SXSW enters the fray and essentially lays down arms without a shot fired.

Their two scheduled panels — “Level Up: Overcoming Harassment in Games,” and one that featured Brianna Wu — were down-voted by the types of people who believe gaming is under siege by an “army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners” who are “lying, bullying and manipulating their way around the Internet for profit and attention.” That’s real by the way — written by Gamergate advocate Milo Yiannopoulos.

SXSW has tried to walk back this terribly cowardly response by announcing a full-day summit on the issue — we’ll see if any of the people on the original panels who were un-invited will deign to attend.

If that wasn’t enough for you to take a listen to the podcast, then tune in for our look at the new viral Barbie ad and the new ‘Hello Barbie’ that uses Siri-like tech to speak back to your kids.

And if you’re in the market for a new BFF, and you’re a woman AND you live in Toronto, you may be in luck. The Hello Toronto App is supposed to relaunch this month and provide you with someone to hang out with over a glass of wine.

Episode 11: Justin Trudeau, BLAB, ADvice from PepsiCo and double-standards

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 11:00:00 +0000

This week seems to be all about double-standards and bad form - from Prime Minister designate Justin Trudeau to Jennifer Lawrence and Hollywood.

While it is rare to see a male politician held to the same aesthetic (and ridiculous standards) as his female counterparts (which come to think of it, are rare birds themselves) Justin Trudeau, the newly elected Prime Minister of Canada has suffered a week of catcalls via the internet.

The always vocal Jennifer Lawrence outed Hollywood as just-as-bad an employer of women as the rest of the world and Bradley Cooper declared that transparency was the way he was going to confront that inequality.

Our tooltip this week is last week's sensational tool - Blab.

And we take a look at the Perv_Magnet Instagram account run by violinist Mia Matsumiya, who has screen capped 10 years worth of sicko troll messages and wants everyone to know who they are.

Episode 10: Panel discussion on Mompreneur vs Entrepreneur

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 11:00:00 +0000

Recorded using Blab, this episode is our panel discussion with Renée Warren and Julie Cole talking about Mompreneur vs Entrepreneur.

Episode 9: Peerby app, #RehtaehParsons, how not to interview women in tech

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 11:30:00 +0000

#RehtaehParsons is trending again in Canada and we'll tell you why and look at the [almost] laughable disparity between the crime of changing a few words on a website and the crime of raping a seventeen-year-old girl and posting your assault online.

We have some tips on how NOT to interview a woman in tech and then finally take a look at the Peerby app - designed to help you share things with your neighbours.

Episode 8: #Peeple app, Jouzge, Grandma Sandy and Bellabeat

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 12:02:52 +0000

When two women from Calgary come up with a new app that everyone is talking about we at Ada's Sisters feel compelled to talk about it - it's right in our wheelhouse after all. Problem is that the app in question is Peeple, and we don't think we can get behind that concept at all. Speaking of the negative ramifications of being able to rate your ex like a restaurant, we throw some light on Grandma Sandy, an amazing lady in the UK who is a one-woman anti-bullying squad.
A project we can get behind is Dana Wendt's Jouzge movement to install girl power at every opportunity - we interviewed her about her kickstarter campaign.
Angela finally has a wearable tech she can't resist - and it's Bellabeat's LEAF but Wayne MacPhail pops in with his Apple Watch and the 'just hit record' app as his tooltip for the week.

Episode 7: #OldStockCanadian, Dooce, Partnership parenting and 100DaysofUI

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 11:00:00 +0000

As predicted by Eden Spodek, this is going to be the year for #CanPoli to be overshadowed by some interesting hashtags. First we had #peegate, and now we have #OldStockCanadian (from Prime Minister Harper) and #GlibandMale from Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

Dooce had the holy grail of mommy-blogging - more sponsors than she could accommodate - so why is she signing off? We'll get into it.

Our tooltip for this week is all about the 100 Days of UI project that Paul Nechita started and we talk about two articles in The Atlantic - one by the great woman who put her career first and the other written by the great man behind her all the way.

Episode 6: Companion app, #IStandwithAhmed, Sociality Barbie and Grok Nation

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:00:00 +0000

It's awesome when you have a bad news story that is rescued by social media. 14-year old Ahmed Mohamed started his Wednesday in just the worst situation - his self-made clock had been identified as a potential bomb threat and he stood in handcuffs in the principals office. Forunatly for him, the rest of his day, and dare we say, the rest of his life, will be all uphill from there. We have kids, we saw the reaction on social media and we'll tell you all about it.

Then we talk to Lexie Ernst, one of the co-founders of the Companion App, a free app that will connect you to a friend you pick in your contacts on your phone and virtually 'walk' you home.

We wrap up with a fun chat about Sociality Barbie and her fantastic Instagram account and take a look at Mayim Bialik's Grok Nation - a new social network she has created.

Episode 5: #peegate, Alayne Hynes and sexism in marketing

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 11:30:00 +0000

The U.S. presidential election is more than 12 months away and already we get daily soundbites of insanity from a full roster of potential candidates.

Perhaps this is why when #CanPoli finally got overtaken by #Peegate for a day I was so very excited. We deserve a tinkle of funny in our federal election (about which there is very little to laugh about). Let us tell you all about it.

And just when you thought that you had figured out what to post on each social medium, we have some individuals who are getting Tinder and LinkedIn confused. That’s right. One is for hooking up. One is for networking and jobs. They are not interchangeable.

Lots to listen to in this week’s podcast including an interview with Communitech’s Alayne Hynes.

Episode 4: #FHRITP, Topless in NYC, and Instagram goes landscape

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 11:00:00 +0000

More than a year after John Cain created the #FHRITP hashtag and movement (if you can call it that) we talk about the ramifications for women in the media and most recently for the CBC's Megan Batchelor. Eden fills us in on her trip to NYC and the topless protest in Times Square and we talk about the barely-news-Instagram landscape. Wayne MacPhail drops in with our Bookmark this week, on an application called Cardflow.

Episode 3: #iLookLikeAnEngineer, Donna Papacosta and auto-play

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 10:00:00 +0000

We start off with reading some mail from the Communitech folks about their Bootcamp that we talked about in Episode 1.
Then we dive right into revenge porn and all that entails. Isis Anchalee's rallying hashtag #ILookLikeanEngineer gets our thumbs up approval as does a feature interview with veteran podcaster and author Donna Papacosta. We wrap the episode with some advice about turning off the auto-play feature in Facebook in light of the Virginia newsroom shooting.

Episode 2: #brelfies, slack.com, wearable tech & selfie culture

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 09:00:00 +0000

This week we respond to some comments made in regards to the first episode around Gamergate, then get into the Women's Entrepeneur Bootcamp and its value for those lucky start-ups who participate. We dig into #selfie culture and contrast that with the trend of #brelfies as a protest and finally look at some neat wearable tech tailored towards young female coders.

Episode 1: #curvee, Gamergate, vocal fry and who is Ada Lovelace?

adassisters@gmail.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 10:00:00 +0000

The first episode of the Ada's Sisters podcast introduces co-hosts Angela Misri and Eden Spodek as they discuss the digital culture they are surrounded by and the technology they both love. Starting with the short-lived Instagram ban on #curvee and then delving into vocal fry, they have lots to say about both along with Natalie Zina Walschot's update on Gamergate one year later.

The background music is 'Funky Element' from BenSound.com and is used with attribution.