hello i`m phoenix perry

hello i’m phoenix perry
environmental, embodied play spaces
&
REBEL ROUSIN’
@phoenixperry
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HKU Sr. Lecturer & Researcher
Core Programming Instructor in Games and
Interaction Design
In the process of starting a PhD in CS at Utrecht University
I have a Masters of the Sciences with a focus on HCI and games from NYU Schoo
I have an BA in Literature.
I dropped out of CS because I felt really uncomfortable working in the labs alone
But that’s ok because now I am both a professional artist & a programmer!
(Conveniently for me, I never stopped coding!)
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I program to make & create
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Why games?
$78.5 billion in 2012
was spent on digital
games
Women don’t like to play
games.
Myth:
52% of gamers are women.
5% of game developers
are women
Myth:
Women don’t like to program.
Women have a long history
of innovating in the field of
computer science
We invented programming:
the mirco processor
the compiler
cobalt
the OS
natural language processing
the spanning tree protocol
COBOL and on and on and on….
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Credits…
Programming (Ada Lovelace)
The first widely used computer language (Jean E. Sammet)
First generative programming system (Betty Holberton)
Helped develop Basic (Sister Mary Keller)
First computerized telephone switching system that used a computer to monitor incoming
calls. We still use it today. (Erna Schneider Hoover)
Natural language processing for search engines still used today by Google (Karen Sparck
Jones)
The microcomputer / AKA ARM - the small chips in everything (Sophie Wilson)
Spanning Tree Protocol (without this? No internet) Radia Perlman – mother of the
internet
The term bug and the COBOL language – Grace Hooper
The operating system (Mary Allen Wilkes)
Anita Borg – Pioneering advocate for women in the field
Programming, The Mircorprocessor, The Compiler, Cobalt, the OS, Natural Language
Processing, The Spanning Tree Protocol, COBOL and on and on and on
Problem? In the last 20 years women
have been discouraged from the field.
Between now and 2020
this job sector is growing
on average 22% a year
(double the norm)
Why did this happen? To quote The Notorious B.I.G.
Mo’ Money
Mo’
Problems
As long as computing was seen as
secretarial & had little financial
benefit, society was fine with letting
women invent, run and innovate in
the field.
Because it became associated with typing and
secretarial duties, programming was even
considered
women’s work
April, 1967 issue of Cosmopolitan, "The Computer Girls“
If it doesn't sound
like woman's work - well, it just is.... "
Women majoring in
computer science in us
universities fell 79%
between 2000 and 2011
So, why are women not choosing
CS
The personal computer and all of
the advertising that went right
along with it
It was an expensive item so it was targeted at the
family bread winner. The advertising took sexism to a
new level. It created the impression that
computers were
not for women.
This advertising tactic worked. Men
started buying computers. It ramped
up to an extreme in console gaming in
the 90’s. Gaming was depicted as
something only little boys or men did.
The ads are either male dominated or
disturbingly misogynistic.
However women
make up over half of
all gamers.
Yet game and technology companies have
not retargeted their
advertising.
This tactic contributes to creating
a culture of misogyny in games and
tech.
We do not have a STEM
problem.
We have an image
problem
How do we fix it?
UNDO THE
DAMAGE
WE WOMAN UP
In almost every ad in Cosmo, every
ditzy blonde movie, every TV show
like The Big Bang Theory, every
game like GTA, every account of
online bullying, every image, every
ad, every product from our
mainstream media
Women are being told
to embrace ideals that
drive them apart
Games hold the power to tell
a new kind of story – one
that can knit us together.
If you want to create healthy
developer communities that
include women, you have to start
with the cultural battle for hearts
and minds.
Because computing is not just for men or
women
IT IS FOR
EVERYONE!!!!
Encourage kindness. Tell women to
share their story. Mentor. Treat others
how you’d like to be treated verse how
you are treated. Trust. Be open.
Answer emails from young women.
Talk publicly. Volunteer. Just don’t
wait for someone to fix it for you or
give you money to fix it.
Most importantly,
educate people that they should
consider a diverse organisation a
requirement.
Groups with greater diversity solve
complex problems better and faster
than do homogenous groups, and
the presence of women in a group
is more likely to increase the
collective intelligence.
National Center for Women in Information Technology
Companies with the highest
representation of women in
their management teams have a
34% higher return on
investment than do those with
few or no women.
National Center for Women in Information Technology
If you’ve taken nothing else away from this talk take this one fact.
Computing is too
powerful of an economic
reality to exclude
women, queers, the
trans community and
people of color.
We have the power to respond with
education & empowerment
PROGRAMMING IS A
POLITICAL ACT
YOU ARE THE
CHANGE
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HELP ME START IT
HERE
@phoenixperry
@codeliberation
contact@phoenixperry.c
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