Introducing the WITI Virtual Hackathon! Sign up now to show off your "entrepreneur" style!
In 1935, three decades before the Equal Pay Act, IBM recruited its first women in the workforce. IBM's founder, T.J. Watson Sr. promised women, "the same kind of work for equal pay." Since then, IBM has been acknowledged as a world leader in its commitment to women both in and out of the workforce. In 2014, IBM was named one of the 諺Best Companies for Women”by Forbes.
It should come as no surprise that IBM has partnered with WITI (Women In Technology International), a powerhouse dedicated to women in tech, on their first ever Virtual Hackathon. WITI started in 1989 as The International Network of Women in Technology and, in 2001, evolved into The WITI Professional Association, the world's leading trade association for tech-savvy women. Today, WITI is the premiere global organization empowering women in business and technology to achieve unimagined possibilities.
I personally invite you to join Bluemix, IBM's premier cloud development platform, and WITI for an international hackathon where developers, scientists, students, and entrepreneurs will gather virtually to build software, applications, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions focused on the Internet of Things and wearables. The hackathon runs throughout the month of May and is open to open to all.
Follow these easy steps to get started and get hacking!
1. Register for the hackathon at ibm.biz/witiregistration
2. Register for your free Bluemix trial at ibm.biz/witihack
3. Participate in Bluemix virtual education sessions and review technical resources here: ibm.biz/witihackathon
4. Start building your app and submit it for review by May 27th.
Prizes include IBM Cloud Credit, a 1-hour virtual meeting with me, 2016 WITI Summit tickets, free WITI memberships and more.
As a board member of WITI and mentor to several women in IBM, I am thrilled to see this type of collaboration and can’t wait to see the apps you come up with!
No Fear Friday - Take that Risk!!!
Our short and sassy Friday message is ... take that Risk!
There's no success without risk. Everything good has some risk associated with it. This does not mean you don't look and evaluate reasons you might have challenges or even small failures along the way, but plan your journey with clear goals.
Make sure you are flexible in how you solve the minimal and big challenges along the way. Don't let them derail your overall ambitions!
Learn, learn, learn!!! Each of these mistakes help you to learn.
I love Barbara Corcoran's quote: "Failure is what I'm best at." Of course, she is wildly successful because she learned from her failures!
3 Internet of Things "Items" you need to know!
The cloud has allowed the IoT to emerge. What is the IoT? It is a term that describes the growing network of objects that can communicate with each other and complete tasks without any human involvement having to take place. In November 2014, Gartner stated that there will be 4.9 billion connected "things" in use by the end of 2015, Wow!
With all these connected devices, connectivity will be the biggest part of it. 5G is being called the smartest network ever and is required for IoT to be successful.
All of us will need to know about the IoT! Here's 3 items that are in all the IoT space!
Internet of Everything. ABI Research summed it up well by explaining that the IoE has three subsystems: IoT, the Internet of Humans (human input to machines in any form) and the Internet of Digital (generating data and communicating it on for further use).
The Raspberry Pi is a series of credit card-sized single-board computers developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools.
MQTT. In order to allow IoT data to flow from producers (sensors on the field) to consumers (IT backends, web apps, etc.), MQTT is an OASIS standard that implements a publish-subscribe communication model. It has several QoS levels making it easy to find the perfect tradeoff between reliability and resources/bandwidth usage.
What I learned from my Mom!
Today is my Mom's birthday. I don't get to live close anymore, but we do talk daily. As I was chatting with a friend who recently lost her mom, she reminded me to cherish each moment so I decided to write the Top 7 Things I love about my mom!
- Gives without expecting anything in return. My mom is the most giving person I know. Of course to her children, but to all. She extends herself without expecting anything in return.
- Leads by example. Whether she is gardening, or doing Tax Returns, my mom leads by example. She never asks anyone to do anything that she isn't willing to do herself.
- Chooses Attitude over circumstances. One of the things my mom taught me is that you sometimes cannot change your circumstances, but your attitude you have control over. Make sure you keep your attitude in check, and don't let those circumstances control you!
- Exudes "Smart." My mom was valedictorian in High School but could not afford to go to college. Yet, she still used her incredible intelligence to be so successful in life. She is not just book smart, but life smart.
- Grows in faithfulness. My mom is faithful in her faith and God. She has a gentle and trusting spirit.
- Shares Encouragement. I cannot remember a time when my mom didn't encourage her friends, family, and even pets. She is a natural encourager -- go Mom Go!
- Exemplifies Love. My mom loves unconditionally. Her love is soft and gentle yet strong.
I know that Mother's day is upcoming as well and I cannot be more thankful for the beautiful woman who is my mom.
She has taught me how to be a good mom and leader!
Celebrate your mom today!
3 Surprises from Millennials on the Purchase Process
I love working with Millennials as well as understanding their purchasing habits.
From IBM's Institute of Business Value's study on Millennials, I had 3 Aha moments about how they like to purchase!
- The world's gone social! Millennials meet with vendors face-to-face during the sales cycle, but they would much rather interact remotely during this initial phase
- In God we trust, all others bring data. Millennials place equal weight on data analysis and the opinion of family and friends when deciding whether or not to make a B2B purchase costing US$10,000 or more
- Millennials are eager to share positive experiences, but very reluctant to share disappointments
These 3 ahas, tell me that in order to meet their needs, we need to:
- Be social in the sales cycle ! Since this social network scene makes the most sense to millennials, consider setting up an internal private social site to gain more input, and answer questions.
- Share data and analytics to assist in the progression! Since millennials want the data, share it! Do your homework to make it valuable but don't forget the "word of mouth" as well.
- Make it easy to shout it from the mountain tops! Since this new generation likes to share positive experiences, make it easy for them to do so. This enables them to become your brand ambassadors!
1.
Internet of Things Foosball on BlueMix With Social Linkage!
Yes, the students have done it! This is an Internet of Things Foosball Table designed by Fabian Eitel and Marcel Seibold. In this picture, they are the 2 gentlemen playing against me !!
This table with sensors throughout does the following:
- It tweets the scores.
- It rates the probability of the winning team (my team was not rated high -- even though I did score one point!)
- Others can tweet to cheer you on!
Here you can find our final result in Twitter as a little souvenir. https://twitter.com/TischkickerEhn/status/590534529464467456)
It is a very innovative way to showcase the value of the Cloud. Marcel and Fabian are not hard core coders but were able to get this up and coming quickly because of Bluemix.
How does it work?
Sensors capture the "game" and then send the results to the cloud, where the data is analyzed and stored. Then based on the game, Tweets are automatically sent and the probablity of a Winner Calculated!
What fun!
Top 5 Quotes to inspire and challenge you to innovate
I love quotes and wanted to share my fav 5 for this week!
1. Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. But it is wisdom that knows not to put a tomato into a fruit salad. Informs Conference
2. In GOD we trust. All others bring data.
3. Don't get distracted by every squirrel that runs by.
4. People lose their way when they lose their why. Focus on your goals.
5. Never sacrifice 3 things: your family, your heart, or your dignity.