February 15th, 2013
Forward Thinking, Vol. 114
This week in the awesome department, we find everything from the battle for gender equality in tech, pretty illustrations of windows, and community management survival stories. Thanks for joining us!
1. To a future woman in tech
The current state of women in technology leaves a lot to be desired. Despite the forward-thinking nature of the field, many age old traditions (and gender barriers) still remain. Upon hearing that her niece “wants to make video games,” our very own technologist Stacey Mulcahy wrote an open letter to the 8 year old, detailing the progress and barriers for women in tech today. The letter is this week’s “must read.” Do it here: To a Future Woman in Tech.
2. #multitasking
Did you know many members of Congress were tweeting during Obama’s State of the Union address this week? For your browsing pleasure, Tweet of the Union collected and organized all of it. We’re guessing the totally unrelated tweets are due to tweet schedulers – posting about totally unrelated things. So much for social media savviness, huh?
3. An ode to the city
Windows of New York is a beautiful design project that showcases the breadth of architectural styles our city has to offer. We’re rooting for a Dumbo window soon!
4. “@Everyone, I’m buying something expensive!”
American Express and Twitter are collaborating to help you make purchases while tweeting. Now you can kill two birds with one stone: buy your new Kindle Fire AND let the whole world know you did it. While thousands of people attaching a credit card number to their Twitter account may seem like a disaster waiting to happen, Amex already has a similar partnership with Foursquare.
5. The British Flip-Flop
Britain is hanging out their dirty laundry in Romania and Bulgaria in a bid to discourage potential immigrants from coming to the UK. The forthcoming campaign will focus on Britain’s terrible weather and poor job prospects to correct the image of British life as all golden paved streets. This will come as awfully confusing for Romanians, who last month were subject to the British Embassy’s GREAT campaign, which told Romanians what a fantastic place its rain-soaked archipelago is to live, work and invest in.
6. Not for your iPad
We love this simple flash website. You’d never think helping a cartoon woman eat apples would be fun, but …
7. “Are you a real person too?”
A somewhat dark and in-depth look into the world of community management, Four Million Followers illustrates the journey of the real person behind an international soda brand’s Twitter account. From talking shop with other real humans to a suicide threat, the writer’s experience is a doozy. See also: Old People Facebook, in which people hilariously misunderstand the function of restaurants’ facebook pages.
Thanks for tuning in this week! If you want more Big Spaceship reading, check out an e-book of our most popular blog posts.
