Amelia Greenhall:surveillance technologies have become palpable—white men have become the watched, when they were the watchers
true transparency in the tech industry would be about power across the board - who has it, who uses it
Shanley:@shanley and I are cofounders of Model View Culture
Amelia Greenhall:I've been in the tech community for the last 5 years, but never again. I'm excited to be in tech media
Shanley:Last year Bustle launched a media site for women with $6.5M. @shanley and I were furious
When women can't get money from VC, why can men get $6.5M to write about women?
Amelia Greenhall:Mainstream technology is funded by VC, and it is toxic. They cover women as special interest and linkbait
Shanley:Conferences are adopting codes of conduct; @transhack @blackgirlscode and more are building community
Amelia Greenhall:we see a massive need and a massive market for a new kind of tech media for diversity in tech
if you look at one of these communities it looks pretty small, but when you add them up it is huge
Shanley:56% of women leave the tech industry within 10 years, and we were reaching that point
Amelia Greenhall:a picture of the 300 pages of paperwork we did to get incorporated - being a startup isn't as glamourous as they say
we had to make sure we couldn't have our home addresses looked up in the state registries
we had to make sure we couldn't be DoS'd by the hate groups
we paid our Authors a week late as our Bank spelled Feminist as Femenist
We tried to do interviews with mainstream media, and they wanted to know what our site did for white men
Shanley:despite it all, 2 weeks ago we launched our first issue, and it went really well
Amelia Greenhall:we spend a lot of time working with writers. We have mobile offices
Shanley:what I like about DIY is that we get to cook lunch - we spend our money on authors
we don't have fancier equipment than our laptops and we take public transportation
Amelia Greenhall:we don't think we can maintain our editorial independence if we take VC or mainstream ads
Another thing that is really important is that we pay our writers
if you're marginalised, people try to get you to write for exposure. We need more than that, bro.
Shanley:we're excited and dedicated to producing lots of print media - that you can leave on the table at work
Amelia Greenhall:We pay writers. Send us your ideas - we will have themed issues, but send us contributions
Shanley:If you have impostor syndrome, please contribute anyway
Amelia Greenhall:we will walk you through impostor syndrome, it's a speciality of ours
Shanley:our next issue is exploring all the making happening outside the tech world
we have a microphone now, so Model View Cast is coming
Amelia Greenhall:we'd love to do an art exhibition of 'shit men say to me on the internet'
Shanley:there are unconfirmed reports that we are putting together a conference later this year
our first print edition is going to layout tomorrow -15.000 words of not-before-published writing
we're getting it printed at 1984 media in Oakland which is a woman-run printers
Amelia Greenhall:Buy it Buy it Buy it - modelviewculture.com/subscribe
Shanley:thank you all for coming out
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:and thank you to all our writers
Mattie Brice:I wrote the article on Mark Zuckerberg in MVC, and I work on TransHack
space feminist:I'm at mattiebrice.com and write on games and inclusion
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:A lot of the ideas of my writing is based on the DRY principle - Don't Repeat Yourself
a lot of my writing comes form things that happen that I don't want to happen over and over again
Mattie Brice:I work in music, video and write form my lived experience in tech or queerness -it's about me
Shanley:I do a lot of creative, fiction writing - being on twitter is the easiest idea fount ever
Mattie Brice:critique and cultural criticism can be emotionally charged - can you talk about the responses you get?
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:you have a blur between activists and those writing their lived experiences, and majority culture reacts
it's hard to get it write - when you do it goes viral, when you don't it goes viral against you
space feminist:most of my writing has gone viral when I'm being oppressed; when I'm positive it's less well received
Shanley:I've had so many people come to me at conferences that invest trust in me as someone who will listen
by being mad about things on the internet, people trust me. Which is not to say that you shouldn't
on the other side I've had rape threats, death threats, been denied jobs, hand my friends attacked
it's so difficult because so many people wnt to be better, but are invested in not having to change
there is a very vocal minority of people who are scary. I'm actually shaking now remembering it
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:so many of may friends are being affected by internet threats every day
one fo the biggest problems we face is financial stability
gittip and patreon really inspired me - how do you fund your work?
Mattie Brice:when I founded transhack I did a crowdfunding campaign, but I wasn't know as legit in tech
it took months to raise $6000, and taught me a lot about who gets funded
people who look a certain way are supported, and it's not me
I also invest my own money into projects - thats a way to be a leader
space feminist:I very recntly started to community funding as a writer
online writing is very hard to get a livable wage
to pay my rent I would need to write 30-40 1000 word articles a month - and that doesn't cover food
video games publishing is even worse- game journalism is shrinking
I turned to crowdfunding - I use Patreon. It allows people who do have a following to make money by writing
you can't just go on there and get money, you have to already have a following
how do we have a collective of writers, when we are seen as lone wolves
we need a new way of collective funding
Shanley:I make money two ways - a lot of people give me money on gittip, which gives money weekly
I'm the top earner on gittip at the moment - it pays for catfood and trips - travel expenses
I did an indiegogo to fund some other conference travel and got over $6000 from that
I am probably the most privileged here
Mattie Brice:I'm interested in gittip and other funding models like this - we can take gittip money for MVC
space feminist:In games journalism there are 5 or 6 main publications; I've been told my writing is too feminist, risky
it's hard to exist in a system that sees you as risky and weird. Games magazines are funded by men
I've had publications like The Guardian that did not cite me reliably for my writing
games journalism is already a niche; adding social justice makes it a niche of a niche
Shanley:I haven't done any writing for mainstream things, but a lot of journalists follow me and take our ideas
this validates our ideas, but it doesn't give you control of your ideas
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:the day we launched every editor of a mainstream outlet followed us but only 1 wrote about us. Damn you.
Mattie Brice:to have our own platforms we need to be funded by the community -it doesn't work in tech
space feminist:write now in Games Social Justice, dealing with anger is a big problem - people burn out
when you are asked over and over again by ignorant people about rape culture, you do burn out
people only want to talk to us when we eviscerate someone online - it becomes a blood sport
I could really use people who want to talk more about healing
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:a lot of people ask me about self care, but I'm really terrible at it. I have cats, they help
pulling yourself out of the situation is hard
the hardest thing is when I am upset about something, and no-one else is upset about it too
having other people who understand about why I am angry, without having to tell them
I get a lot of people who dm me on twitter saying "I can't talk about this but someone has to"
Shanley:As I get older, I am finally starting to figure out that I need people in my life who hold me up
My form of self care is growing my community of friends and people who love me
Dr. Kortney Ziegler:how can people support you?
Mattie Brice:transhack.org needs funding and support, and funding. help us
space feminist:there is a thing called 'support games criticism' - find them and help support us and promote us
Linguabee:my website is ashedryden.com The best thing is having conversations you don't have to have and gittip
Liz Henry:we're sponsoring sign language interpretation tonight
I remember being interviewed with an interpreter who couldn't understand me, and had to use body language
that experience taught me a lot. Many deaf people go through this very single day
I'm sure you've heard about the Mandela fake deaf interpreter
would it make sense that your communication needs would be brought by someone you don't know
a lot of interpretation agencies are run by hearing people, not by deaf people
with Linguabee we have an agency where the deaf people have access to all the information on the platform
diversity is first and foremost, and people who have the same experience can link up to help
Jarvis Sulcer:I work now for Mozilla as a dev person, and I founded DoubleUnion, a feminist hacker/maker space
Ingrid Avendaño:I founded the level playing field institute that works to bring students of color into STEM
we have a bridge between students aspirations and college - they don't have access to AP classes so we bridge
we also run innovative computer science programs and hackathons
think of a student in East Oakland who built an app to help them walk home from school safely
I was an engineer for Hp and Agilent, now I run a non-profit in Oakland
Amelia Greenhall:I worked with @hackbright to be part of tech companies and hackathons
Ingrid Avendaño:what are the big successes we're having in social justice?
Jarvis Sulcer:getting women and minorities into tech is hard- I recently dropped out of school
I didn't even realise that I didn't have connections - there was such a barrier
now there are so many opportunities for companies to partner with these institutions
Liz Henry:there are a lot of STEM focused programs - we want students to use tech to solve problem in their community
for example, to get students thinking about diet and food in their own community and what is available
rather than just being consumers of technology, but creating tech too
we have 56% of our students getting into college, compared to 23% overall
don't just think about the big tech companies, but think how you can influence your local community with tech
Amelia Greenhall:there are a lot of different pathways people can take, and I want people to start new projects
people have to be inspired to connect with something for them and their community
whatever you start, people will want to use it for something else - to recruit or steer you
with DoubleUnion we wanted to serve the community of adult women who are inventors and makers
Jarvis Sulcer:what surprised you most about your organisation growing?
Liz Henry:one thing to think about when you start a new company is how you think about sustainability form the beginning
the non-profit sector is about relationships in a mutually beneficial way
Ingrid Avendaño:the speed that we grew surprised me, and the amount of community support that meant we had hit a nerve
use the strengths you have to help things happen
information infrastructure matters - we learnt from open source communities about how that works
Jarvis Sulcer:I joined code2040 I had a great internship, but I couldn't go back to school as I lost my scholarship
i earned too much money on my internship and lost the $16000 I had to support my education
hackbright became an opportunity that opened up for me to get a job out here
I never thought I'd have the opportunities I have today -
mentors that believed I could hold a job out here made all the difference
a lot of my peers had parents who were engineers who taught them what to expect. I didn't have that
I had no idea what I was getting myself into - that there were no women in tech
my first computer science class was really miserable, but I built something at the end of it
Liz Henry:we have teenagers who are away from home on campuses in a dorm for 5 weeks together
safety is number 1 for them to learn and fail comfortably
they're used to getting the answers at the back of the book -it's OK if you find another way
students come with different beliefs and values- they learn not to ridicule each other
the stickiness of the program is the community these young people build
Ingrid Avendaño:it is really important in starting an organisation that you communicate expectations
and once you have established the values you have to keep to them, and kick people out to enforce
having a safe space for women shouldn't be revolutionary, but it is
Amelia Greenhall:lots of women and minorities get shorted when negotiating salaries you need peers to talk to
Jarvis Sulcer:how can people support you?
Ingrid Avendaño:in kind tech services help a lot- build a website, volunteers and speakers, tours of companies
there are students who live in Oakland who have never been to Berkeley, or East Palo Alto and Stanford
and funding is also something we can use
Liz Henry:for both the programs that I went through, we need mentors who can translate students interests
both hackbright and code2040 partner with companies - get involved with them
Amelia Greenhall:any kind of funding is great, but look for organisations doing work you respect and support them
don't got in and tell organisations how you want them to fix the world
asking and listening is good, don't tell them how to work
Chris Dancy:Chris Dancy has a piece published in the next quarterly
the tech community of Sf today was built on the rainbow blood of the gay community that died in the 90s
in the 2000s we had a new closet on social networks like facebook - we had to come out again
most 20-30 year olds have never met anyone who has died from HIV