Computer Interface-Off: Boys vs. Girls
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Melinda Sherwood were published in U.S. 1
Newspaper on September 15, 1999. All rights reserved.
Dot.cc — Second Chance — On Domain Names
If you missed out on that ideal domain name —
www.yourcompany.com
— you may have a second chance. Dot cc (.cc) and dot to (.to)
are being thrown into standard use just like .com, .gov, .edu, .org
and other country top level domains (TLDs). Dot cc in particular is
like the second coming of .com. Amazon and Intel have already claimed
their names on the cc network (Amazon.cc and Intel.cc) to preserve
their unique identities.
If you haven’t already, you should receive something in the mail
shortly
from eNic, which has authority over dot cc TLDs. eNic is giving
companies
a chance to copy their existing domain name over to the cc network
(www.yourcompany.cc) before it goes up for sale to anyone. The mass
mailing looks a bit sketchy — some people actually mistake it
for interNIC (the .com people) because the names are similar —
but it’s not a scam, says Fred Gardner, manager of sales engineers
for the east region at Verio, the national ISP and domain-based Web
hoster. “It’s just another way of putting your name on the
Web,”
he says. “The last time I checked there were only about 22 single
words in the English language still left for domain names with .com,
so people are looking for alternatives.”
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the organization solely
responsible
for TLD name assignments, originally designated .cc for the Cocos
Islands in the Indian Ocean and .to for Tonga in the South Pacific.
Since connectivity is poor in those parts of the world, says Gardner,
the root servers were located here in the U.S. Subsequently, the
reserved
names went up for sale on the worldwide market and are sure to
generate
a steady stream of income for the islands.
Don’t expect to register a .cc or .to name through interNIC, the .com
people, however. Just about any local ISP can do it for you, or you
can register directly with the root servers — eNic
or Tonic (https://www.tonic.to). Just go to the either site and see
if your name is still available. The cost for a two-year contract
is $100. eNic also offers free Web and E-Mail forwarding, as well.
So if you buy the domain you want, it will immediately point visitors
to the URL that actually exists. So if you picked a short straw when
the .coms came along — don’t fret. There’s a name for everyone
in cyberspace.
Top Of PageComputer Interface-Off: Boys vs. Girls
She’s been called a “technodiva,” and an
“alternative
video game designer,” but before Brenda Laurel launched
Purple Moon, a company that creates video games for girls, Laurel
was what you might call a drama queen — she held a PhD in theater
and was doing experimental art shows with the likes of `60s drug guru
Timothy Leary.
It’s Bill Gates who might benefit from Laurel’s theatrics now. Known
in the computing industry as both a feminist and pioneer in
human-computer
interface, Laurel has been an interactive consultant for Apple
Computers,
Fujitsu Laboratories, Lucasfilm Games, Sony Picture and Paramount
New Media. She comes to town to discuss “The Year of the
Network,”
on Tuesday, September 21, at 4:30 p.m. at Trayes Hall at the Douglass
College Center in New Brunswick. The lecture is free. Call
732-932-7466.
Laurel earned both an MFA and PhD at Ohio State, and started out
designing
and programming computer games for CyberVision in 1977. She then went
to marketing at Atari, before jumping into a product development
director
position at Activision.
Laurel’s take on computing: using the fundamentals of art and drama
to make interface invisible. In an interview peppered with curse
words,
Laurel explained to Mark J. Jones of Cyberstage, “it’s really
about what art has always been about, namely figuring out how to
elegantly
create spaces of the right shape and size that invite the
imaginationto
do something that feels good, as opposed to packing people’s heads
full of stimulation.”
Men and women, girls and boys, also communicate differently, Laurel
says, and search for different clues in computer interfaces. But
because
men are typically software designers, it’s almost always geared to
how they think. In 1992, Laurel was part of a research effort at
Interval
Research that illustrated the gender-slant of modern computing using
video games as an example. The organization reported that in computer
games girls prefer:
Leading characters that are everyday people. Boys choseleading characters with “superpowers.”Exploring new experiences with degrees of success, andvaryingoutcomes. A boy’s goal is usually to win — outcome is blackand white.Strong story lines. Boys are more into speed and action.Real-life settings. Boys tend to chose larger-than-lifesettings.Success that comes through friendships. Boys prefereliminationof competitors.That knowledge became the basis for Purple Moon, the software companydedicated to games for girls that Laurel founded in 1996, and couldvery well be the basis for the next generation of computer interfacedesign.Top Of PageWomen and PoliticsBusiness and politics are inextricably intertwined,but for a woman striving to make it to political office, businessis the critical launching pad, says Mary Hawkesworth, directorof the Center of American Women & Politics at the Eagleton Instituteof Politics at Rutgers. “Many men run for office having done somework in the political parties to which they belonged,” she says.”Women have more typically worked for volunteer organizations,or have been appointed to a board and they use that appointed officeto get name recognition, to establish political ties, and to buildthe campaign.”Case in point: Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Rodham Clinton.Although they have put the spotlight on women politicians, bothcandidateshave the political ties, not to mention the financial clout, to pryopen the door to the men’s club. “The sad fact of Americanpoliticallife is that money is important to a political campaign,” saysHawkesworth, whose job at Eagleton includes tracking from candidacyto election 3,000 women who have run for office and analyzing whythey did or didn’t get into office. “But given that money is aconstant, and women are drastically underrepresented, it is importantto pay attention to the women who have the courage to run.”How they can win office is the topic of discussion on Wednesday,September22, when Hawkesworth puts her head together with East BrunswickTownshipCouncil president Meryle Asaro at the Central Jersey Women’sNetwork meeting at the Holiday Inn in Princeton at 6 p.m. Call908-281-3199.Cost: $30.Hawkesworth earned a BA in political science at UMass, Amherst, Classof 1974, and received her Ph.D. at Georgetown. She spent 20 yearsat Kentucky in political science before joining the Institute in 1998.What are some of the differences between men and women whosuccessfullymake it to office? One in every seven male legislators is a lawyer,says Hawkesworth, but only 1 in 20 women legislators are. “Womenhave not been able to use the law as a career ladder in the same wayas men have,” says Hawkesworth. “For an enormous amount ofwomen it’s been working behind the scenes. The parties have seen menas viable candidates, but they have screened women out.”Once women get elected to office, says Hawkesworth, they workdifferently,and prioritize differently than their male counterparts, saysHawkesworth.”We know for a fact that women legislators feel much moreobligatedto work for family and children. It’s one thing to introducelegislation,it’s different to work behind the scenes to get it enacted.”– Melinda SherwoodNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
