My Favorite Summer Hobby is Researching How and Why Women Now Wonderfully Dominate the Internet

My summer hobby is to take at look at what has evolved today in what the Internet is all about. Is it about touching lives and influencing people? Is it more like an all-connecting omnipresent female there to attach, to bring us together in this fishnet-like, all-encompassing catalyst called the world wide web?

Is the Internet more like Mother Earth or Father Time within some natural law-determined lifespan of the human-made web? What a hobby to spend the summer researching, since I'm too old to travel and want to read more this summer. What else is important to read about when you're over age 70 and being rushed too fast into the future? Summer hobbies seem to speed up time so much when you're at home.

So who goes to Internet Cafes in Sacramento--more women or more men and why? Do women dominate the Internet with purpose and passion, touching and influencing people in ways that only a super mother can in Sacramento in these times? Is the Internet more like a family Sunday dinner at grandma's than the war room of a nation's palace or a web of scientists planning security measures? See Sacramento's Internet Cafe. Is the Internet in Sacramento a gender issue?

Do Sacramento's women dominate the Internet? Who uses the Internet more in current times in Sacramento? It's the women in general who are on the Internet longer than many males, at least here in Sacramento.

For example, A.J.D., a retiree in Sacramento online 10 to 12 hours a day says, "I'm on Facebook for family reunions as my grandchildren live in Michigan and New Jersey, and I'm in Sacramento, unable to travel because of my advanced age and low mobility.

"It's the only way I have to talk to people, especially relatives and those sharing my hobby of reading the classics, since I'm not able to go out after sunset to meet people at club meetings due to lack of transportation. We use Skype for family reunions. My son works 80 hours a week and can't visit. So we stay in touch online. And I can send or post my nature photos as I specialize in taking photos of rainbows, rivers, rocks, and various plants."

Back in the early 1990s, men dominated the Internet, and talked about war. Today the women use the Internet to talk about peace, togetherness, and being catalysts in bringing people together, raising funds, and planning events.

See the articles, Connected Now Sacramento's Internet Magazine and Directory , and Gender Issues on the Internet. Also check out the uTube video featuring physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, "The Internet is Female - Invention of the Internet." And check out the uTube video, Women and the Internet: Friend or Foe?.

Also see the website, Gender Issues on the Internet. If women make up half the population, why do they make up so much less than half of the users of computer technology?

And view the uTube video on why women dominate the Internet today, whereas a few years ago, the Internet was dominated by males communicating about war efforts. But today the Internet is dominated by women talking about peace efforts.

Dr. Michio Kaku talks about how the male dominated invention of the Internet is now dominated by females. It was about winning a nuclear war future. Today the Internet it's used by women to create peace and togetherness.

Most women online use the Internet at home on their own computers. But many women in Sacramento don't own a computer and visit public spaces that offer Internet access such as the public library or Internet cafes. With the public library taken up by high-school and college students during the daytime, many women seek out Internet cafes.

In Sacramento, How the Internet Cafe works:

Guests rent the computer time they need: 15 minutes minimum for short sessions or save money with the Internet cafe's discount hour cards that give you 15 minutes free for each hour you buy. What's a traditional Internet cafe? How does it differ from a cyber cafe?

Why An Internet Cafe?

Unlike many "cyber cafes" where only wifi Internet access is there for you to buy food or coffee, An Internet Cafe is a traditional Internet cafe - one that doesn't serve food, but one that provides computers for you to surf the web. Both women and men use Internet access retail stores in Sacramento.

An Internet Cafe is an ideal spot for people on the go that need access to a computer, like telecommuters, self-employed business owners, tourists, students and just about anyone looking for computer to use. Computer in the shop? Is your Internet connect down? An Internet cafe in Sacramento is there for you when you need a computer with Internet access.

Complimentary self-serve coffee, tea or water while you surf. You can bring your own food. No food is sold. And there's no gaming. So this type of retail store for Internet access is primarily for people using the Internet to bring people closer together, not for gaming. The sign on its website says, "no gaming, please."

Type a resume on a word processor; scan or print photos and documents; burn CD/DVD's, design a website or create a brochure. An Internet Cafe provides the computers, the latest technology and software as well as a friendly and knowledgeable staff to help its guests get their tasks done quickly and efficiently.

So what is it about women in Sacramento that draws them online on the Internet during the day, particularly if their children are in school and they are stay-at-home moms, or in their workday are not online all day at their offices or other places of employment?

It's the social media and social networking. People of various ages have special interests or belong to special interest groups that have virtual Internet discussions that sometimes involve using Skype to communicate with web cameras.

For example, Skype allows family reunions to take place with free video phone calls to almost anywhere that someone else is on Skype. Google also offers free video phone calls, according to its website.

Women who travel may not always want to carry a laptop with them and sit at various cafes that offer wireless service to those who bring their laptops into restaurants or eateries. At Internet Cafe in Sacramento you have access to Webcams on all stations, online interviewing, Skype, WebEx, and Messenger.

Some women like to go to a retail store where computers are available. Public libraries have computers with Internet access in Sacramento, but most of the time the computers are taken up by people looking for employment or doing research.

Some of the colleges have a few computers available for public use, but again, they are usually taken up. The alternative if you're traveling and don't have your own Internet access with you such as a wireless connection is an Internet cafe, a place where the only business or the main business is to let you spend time online when you need to be online to communicate with others.

Women in Sacramento also belong to clubs that bring them together through Internet access. There's also a group, the Sacramento Valley chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

NAWBO's mission is to help women grow their businesses by shaping economic and public policy locally and nationally. With over 9000 members in our 80 Chapters, NAWBO is also well known in the international world through its affiliation with Les Femmes Chefs d' Enterprises Mondiales (World Association of Women Entrepreneurs) and is represented in 33 countries. There's also a scholarship offered. See the site, Scholarship for NAWBO Sacramento Member. Also see the site of the World Association of Women Entrepreneurs. NAWBO's Womens Business Conference is coming up on August 31-September 1 2011 in San Diego, CA and it is offering a scholarship to one NAWBO-Sacramento Valley member, in good standing, that has never had the opportunity to attend the National Convention. This opportunity is due to a generous donations from Wells Fargo Bank and our NAWBO Foundation.

The group is looking for experts to educate members on specific business issues and topics. If you are able to share your expertise with us, please complete the RFP.

Computer use may not have much to do with math in the present, but really, is that because it's more connected to social networking, which draws more women as catalysts--bringing more people together for a cause such as fundraising, charity work, socializing, meeting new friends, arranging family reunions, research in the social sciences, or conducting business?

According to the article, Gender Issues on the Internet, you can compare computer-related stereotypes of some of the gender issues being corrected about women's use of the Internet and computers in general. Here's how Mattel got rid of the stereotype about women's use of computers.

Mattel in the past had developed a computer for both boys and girls. The boys' computer had a 'Hot Wheels' theme, whereas the girls' model had a 'Barbie' them. Each of these computers was accompanied by twenty software titles. Both computers included a creative writing program. But the 'Hot Wheels' computer came with three math and logical thinking games.

Did Mattel think women should be excluded from thinking and math games and steered only into creative writing as an expression of relationships rather than an interest in honing math skills for later careers that require math? Were manufacturers looking at studies that said women were more verbal and men more spatial in brain hardwiring? After all, more boys tend to choose computer video games than girls. And more girls tend to focus on journaling or video communication on the Internet--or do they?

What do women focus on more and why when it comes to computer and Internet use? Is there a gender divide online or has it dissolved? After all 85% of women college students graduate. And men drop out of school at a higher rate than women do. Does aptitude for math or writing have anything to do with how computers are sold to male or female children?

Although Mattel has developed a computer for both genders, it still contained in the past some discriminatory stereotypes that perhaps could have influenced the females' education later in life. Or do role models and parents have a stronger affect on the education of females and their choices?

Despite the attempts of various computer software manufacturers interested in gender issues to help girls become more comfortable with computers, women and young girls who use the Internet most of the day when not working or in school still are asking whether women get too familiar with environments that exclude math games early-on? And in school, do most of the boys hog computer use and exclude the girls if they can?

Why are boys games getting more math games? Will this practice shut women out of math careers that pay more than careers that don't require math? Jobs requiring a familiarity with relationships pay less than jobs that require a familiarity with logical thinking and math.

If women fail math and end up as counselors at low pay and men pass math and end up in careers as engineering professors, does this lead to the reality that an increasing number of older women, particularly widows and divorcees in Sacramento live in poverty? Did the early habit of enjoying math escape these women who end up in old age outliving their savings?

After all, good grades in math might lead to scholarships and loans to medical school or a career in technology and the sciences other than proofreader, editor, or tech writer with a salary ceiling lower than that of the engineer, accountant, or statistician.

The reason many women may be having trouble with math and science is because they are not exposed to it as early as men are exposed to it. Additionally and finally, Mattel has come up with one of the first computers being marketed specifically for girls giving them the same early exposure to computers as boys. That's what women need, specifically the same early exposure to computers that boys have enjoyed for the past decade. That means in school equal time for male and female on the computer and the same at home or in the library.

This early exposure is crucial for girls to become comfortable with computers as "females who thought of computers as machines rather than animate (with connotations of being friendly and interactive) were more likely to drop out of an introductory computer course" (Colley, 1998, p. 24).

Internet use and computer use in general directly affect the later choices of each gender. These choices can be seen even as early as in primary and secondary education. That's why equal opportunity online is a way women can learn to enjoy math, such as designing animation using pixels or creating engineering designs or architecture.

It's vital that women use the Internet to learn more about how math can help them stay out of poverty in old age by opening up more doors for career choice. In Sacramento, males and females finally have equal access to computers.

Storytelling Connects Women and Men On the Internet in Sacramento: Story Swaps Online

ou might start to build a multimedia career addressing women's issues in Sacramento through getting your place in the door via storytelling, especially with or including the use of multimedia. Storytelling in Sacramento is growing in two directions: face to face storytelling with people in schools and libraries or other public spaces, even shopping mall food courts, and in the other online direction, interactive fiction for learning, presenting issues or projects online or on disc in a multimedia format of content. For example, how would a poet in the schools approach an audience in Sacramento charter schools? See the site, Story Swaps - Storytelling Association of California.

In Sacramento, check out, Monthly storytelling - Belle Cooledge Library - Reading - Events at the Belle Cooledge Library . Come to the monthly storytelling meetings at the library. Adults have the opportunity to tell their true stories live, without scripts, from recollections and memory, with plenty of heart. Each storytelling program will last five to ten minutes. Listeners and storytellers are welcome. Belle Cooledge Library , 5600 South Land Dr. , Sacramento , CA 95822. The meetings are the first Wednesday of each month through May 4, 2011. It's free, and all ages are welcome.

To start your own multimedia storytelling project, you might start with a medium that requires original stories with multiple choices of branching narratives and a variety of endings for different age and interest groups. That's called interactive storytelling. The technique also may be used with fiction writing on women's issues. Here are some suggestions on how to break into this growing business.

1. Find a new, local, perhaps smaller multimedia company or start your own online at home and become the writer of content for projects where kids and teachers, parents and visiting poets in the Sacramento schools might join together. You could fit in as the writer, editor, or project designer now that increasingly more learning material is moving to the digital world than the paper publishing arena. Put your writing on CD- or DVD that can be used for instructional purposes or info-tainment. Join all the multimedia societies and associations to find prospective employers, and advertise in the multimedia magazines that you're in the market looking for writing work.

2. Attend multimedia conventions in Sacramento and San Francisco or Reno, and volunteer to be on the panel of speakers on the subject of writing for the multimedia markets. Or help out on the panel of speakers on multimedia writing by selecting speakers. Best of all, teach a course in multimedia writing at the local extended studies program in any college, so people will recognize you as an expert.

Call the local colleges in Sacramento and Davis or other nearby areas and ask for the course development programming director. Then submit a proposal on teaching a one or two day course on how to write for the newer multimedia markets to develop learning materials to be used in solving problems or tackling projects related to women's issues.

3. If there are no multimedia conferences or panels in your area, rent a room in a college and ask 4 - 8 speakers to volunteer to talk about multimedia in an all-day conference. Offer them a chance to present before a captive audience and to sell their products and services or at least demonstrate them. Invite executives, entrepreneurs, students, as well as the public at large to take a free or low-cost course on multimedia and the future, writing for the new media, etc.

Don't charge more than $20 a person on your first outing -- if you have self-published writing guides to sell or are seeking a publisher yourself, hold a free presentation in a local bookstore or public library conference room. Or you can present your project on local campuses. Even check out shopping centers and their conference centers or even food courts.

4. Watch the trends and follow the baby boomers as they pass through the python in locating markets for multimedia writing. Transport your skills because your skills or ability is your only job security in the electronic writing market. Contact online news publishers and offer a continuing column on what makes people tick at work, particularly in the new media industries.

5. Many employers subscribe to online news and trade journal services for their employees. So articles on behavior and trends or new products pertaining to the workplace are consumed. To read up on the evolution of trends in multimedia, subscribe to research firms' studies on "hot industries" within multimedia that are developing or will develop in the near future. And make sure to always look into the application of technology as well as the production of technology.

Sacramento & East Storytelling GuildMeetings
*Auburn - Foothills Storytelling Guild. See Storytelling Association website for contact information such as phone numbers to call for times and location or in case there are changes in the times, locations, or schedules of meetings.

*Placerville - El Dorado Storytellers, 2nd Monday of the month at 1:00 pm at the home of one the members in Placerville. See Storytelling Association website for contact information.

*Sacramento - Aesop's Fablers, a Toastmasters' storytelling club, 1st Thursday of the month, 7:00 p.m. at Sacramento County Administration Building, 700 H St., 3rd floor break room. See Storytelling Association website for contact information.

*Sacramento - Sacramento Storytellers Guild, 3rd Saturday of the month, 2:00'"4:00 p.m., Eskaton Monroe Lodge (Senior Citizen's Residence), 3225 Freeport Blvd. See Storytelling Association website for contact information.