Living with Geeks

Gettin’ the Evlogelical buzz.

It has arrived (1.5 minute vid).

It’s been a thrill organizing this event with a great committee team.

DC Web Women celebrate their 12th year as a group, encouraging and supporting women professionals and enthusiasts in new media.

Great folks - with some DC Media Makers - comprise our panel on Web 2.0 & video:
Andy Carvin
Beth Kanter (contributing remotely)
Jonny Goldstein
Maryam Scoble (contributing remotely)
Phil Shapiro

I just can’t wait!

See DC Web Women’s invite-teaser (1.5 minutes):

Expect great speakers for this event (details forthcoming).

The lights!

The camera!

The action!

And yes the director used words like ‘rehearse it twice, then go!’ and ‘quiet for take 2, scene 43!’.

A DCWW member posted a call-for-extras notice to the list serve; she’s a friend of the producer for Last Winter, a current production being filmed in DC.

A few of us were asked to drink champagne in a New Years Eve scene and silently mouth conversation (…director suggested whispering the word ‘watermelon’ as it makes the mouth look like it’s rhythmically speaking).

I salivated over their portable studio — a huge tripod set-up with a few boom mics, a sound unit crammed in the apartment’s kitchen (a temporary set for this particular scene), and round, white lighting sheaths on fish pole like fixtures.

It was a thrill observing the set, the actors made or missed their lines, & the producer in the background trying to feed us extras.

–Just met with DC Web Women in New Media’s technical chair & former president Mary Fumento.

She has some creative ideas on connecting with the community with some new media-based events next year. And in February, (hopefully!) a collaborative event will occur that to some degree will involve Living with Geeks. Sorry to be obscure but official details are pending.

Ah but the excitement is in full swing!

Hans Reiser, a computer programmer in Oakland, confronts difficult times.
My husband smirked-out an off-hand suggestion for me not to interview him…nice advice.

Tonight(!) at DC Web Women
DC’s contingent of estrogen-based professionals & enthusiasts in all things new media convene for the holidays tonight. Can’t wait.

Footage for the project
…forthcoming.

The fine group DC Web Women hosted a panel discussion on website accessibility last night & they asked I record the event.

Mics were not available at the facility (with only a lapel mic on-hand personally). But DCWW was gung-ho anyway despite the risk that audio might sound like whispers in the end. So with tripod set-up & back-up dv cassettes ready, I recorded my first non-interview event!

–haven’t reviewed the footage yet (or gulp… the audio) but shall before leaving town next week.

This week, I attend DCWW’s steering committee meeting e.g. DC Web Women to pitch the project to a larger tech crowd. Wouldn’t it be great to interview female-geeks with their non-geek mates?! That’s a less common dynamic.

DCWW really appeals to the project’s goal since it defies the pervasive stereotype that IT only attracts men. I’d like to learn hard stats on that gender issue.

As for eventual publishing goals, the interview pipeline will achieve a weekly podcast or vodcast goal by at least February.

In the meantime, I’m editing footage on three interviews for podcasts and maybe via vlog. The content in many cases is so sincere (a favorite is when one woman, Kelly, said she wrote a love how-to guide for her network engineer spouse).

That same woman interviews again along with her geek Nov 9th.

We’re gettin’ there.