A snapshot of what's on my mind lately

(Longer than random bullets, but not long enough to warrant separate posts.)

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Item #1: CS conferences are too expensive. It's only August and I've already burned through my entire travel budget for this year. Why? Because CS conferences are out-of-control expensive. I'm talking just the registration fees (although the two conferences I went to this summer were in pricey locales, which certainly didn't help the budget). Now, I'm really grateful that my institution does give me travel money each year; that's not the issue. The problem is that if I want to get my work out there, I have to submit conference papers; if I submit conference papers, I have to go present them; but the price structure of CS conferences makes it difficult to attend more than one conference a year. So it's a catch-22. I am now in the position where (a) I have to figure out if there's a way to finagle travel money out of some dean or my department chair so that I can go to GHC this year and (b) I'm screwed if I get another conference paper accepted this fiscal year. Not exactly what I want to spend my time and energy stressing over.

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Item #2: Perception is everything. Mr. Jane is one of the most enlightened men I know. However, last week I had to read him the riot act, over time spent on child care. Or, should I say, the lack thereof on his part. His perception was that he was doing a fine job; the reality was that I was basically doing child care 24/7, even on weekends. Lessons learned: him---he's gotta step up to the plate and not wait for me to ask for help (duh); me---be more assertive in letting Mr. Jane know what I need, in terms of time and assistance, and in taking time for myself.

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Item #3: Why peer mentoring is important. I get together regularly with a few friend/colleagues to talk about life and work. Ok, mostly life, but the goal is to keep each other on track with our research. These women are currently kicking my butt to get me to submit the journal article that I *still* haven't submitted. Which is just what I need right now. If not for them, I'd probably continue to ignore it and let it languish. Because of their pestering, though, I have recommitted myself to submitting this article ASAP. Hopefully it's in as good shape as I remember before the baby arrived, and I won't need to do too much to it before I can send it off.

Actually, to be honest, if it weren't for this group I would really be tempted to blow off work altogether until I return to work. It's amazing what accountability to others can do for your productivity.

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Item #4: The next Scientiae. So the theme for the next Scientiae carnival is "Unleash". I've been thinking about what I want to write about for this carnival. Unfortunately, I'm feeling very "leashed" lately. In particular, I'm sort of feeling trapped by my current situation, that even if I wanted to leave, it would be difficult to do so. My concern? Letters of recommendation. I feel like I'd need at least one from my current institution if I wanted to go elsewhere, but I don't know if I can fully trust those who could write me a letter to write me a letter that could get me another job, if that makes sense. Maybe I'm wrong about this (I hope I am), but it is something I'm thinking about, particularly as the next hiring season starts.

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Item #5: Where the hell did the summer go?! Self-explanatory, I hope.

On not fitting in

Earlier this summer, I went out to dinner with some of our undergrads and some of our faculty. It was a great evening and everyone, students and faculty, had a great time.

At one point during the evening, the talk turned to "who was the biggest high school geek". This is a common icebreaker among techies. The conversation was high-spirited and fun, and I certainly learned a lot about our students as a result.

But it also made me realize one more way in which I don't "fit in", because apparently I was *not* a big geek in high school. At least not by the standards set by this group.

I found that our students (and my colleagues as well) had common high school experiences. Science Olympiad. Math Team. Science Fair. Band (marching, jazz, orchestra). Robotics and engineering competitions. And so on. The students who didn't know each other well previously delighted in their common experiences, and their stories typically triggered "me, too!"'s from around the table. They were in their element. It was refreshing, in a way, because I'm sure that most of them felt like they had to hide that part of themselves from their peers in high school, and now they were among peers who knew of where they came from.

But while this was nice to see, it was also, I admit, a bit uncomfortable for me. Because I was *not* that type of person in high school. I did not have traditionally geeky interests. I don't have the same shared experience with them that my colleagues do. And so while they sat there conversing easily with them about Science Olympiad and the like, I sat there and smiled and felt like a visitor from another planet.

Granted, this was a small group of our majors, and I know that our majors come from all sorts of backgrounds. Perhaps this was a representative sample of our majors; perhaps not. But the experience got me thinking about our majors (and potential majors) that, like me, don't fit the classic "geek" mold. Is this why some of our majors shun department activities and avoid the computer labs? Does this sort of chatter cause some people who are considering majoring in CS to say "no thanks"? How much does "fit" factor in to the decision to major in CS and/or to become involved in the department once deciding to major?

I don't have any answers, but this experience has gotten me thinking, again, about lab culture and department culture, and how I (and we as a department) can make the culture more welcoming for everyone...even the non-geeks among us.

Beyond incomprehensible

I saw a link to this over at Geeky Mom's blog, and even though it is quite horrible, I feel like it *should* be publicized, precisely because it is so horrible.

Kathy Sierra, who blogs at Creating Passionate Users (which I occasionally read), has written some kick-ass books, and is a usability goddess, recently cancelled her appearance and workshop at the ETech conference. Why? Because of death threats she received, on her blog and on various other blogs.

That's right. Death threats.

She blogs about the incidents in this post. (Warning: content not suitable for children or the faint of heart.) Disturbing doesn't even begin to describe the whole thing.

I have a ton of respect for Kathy Sierra. It breaks my heart that she, or any other woman in tech (high-profile or otherwise), should ever have to go through this. This whole incident shows *exactly* how f***ed up our whole tech culture is. And why we need to start being serious about changing it. Right. Now. Because this is totally, TOTALLY, wrong and unacceptable.

Kathy, I hope you come out of this OK, and I hope that you continue to blog and continue to be the fabulous techie that you are.

It only took 31 40 years...

Yes, my name is Jane, I have a PhD, and I can't do simple math. Either y'all are as bad at math as I am or too polite. Hee hee.

Great news today from the world of computing (although it doesn't seem to be widely reported, yet, as of this morning):

Frances Allen has been awarded the 2006 ACM A. M. Turing Award, which is the most prestigious prize in computer science.

Here's the first press release I saw about this, along with a shorter story from Computerworld.

She is the first woman in the 31 year history of the award to be awarded the prize.

Some highlights from her career:
* Started working at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center in 1957 (!!); spent her entire career at IBM
* Did groundbreaking work on program optimization and parallelization
* First woman to be named an IBM Fellow, in 1989
* Named an ACM Fellow in 1994
* Won the first Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership, in 2004
* From what I understand, is and was a mentor extraordinaire for young women in CS.

Congratulations, Frances Allen. May you be the first in a long and distinguished line of women Turing Award winners!

Shameless self-promotion

John over at Confessions of a Science Librarian has posted an interview with...me! It's the inaugural post in a series of interviews with "scitech bloggers (including librarians) and people in the publishing industry".

If you haven't been reading John's blog, I highly encourage you to check it out! He has lots of very interesting stuff to say about science, scientific publishing, and the present and future of information.