Spelman Students Beat Out Harvard and MIT for Best Mobile App

I just think it’s important to celebrate and raise up when our folks beat the odds and assumptions about what we’re capable of. In past challenges, students from places like Harvard and MIT won this technical challenge. Check out the hotness:

AT&T is pleased to announce that Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller of Spelman College, a historically black liberal arts college for women, have won the 2010 AT&T Big Mobile on Campus ChallengeSM with their next generation e-learning mobile application, HBCU Buddy. HBCU Buddy is a mobile application created to educate and inform users, including both prospective and current college students, about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) across the United States. It is a fully-fledged mobile service application that provides detailed information about each and every HBCU in the nation and integrates all facets of college life. The application opens with a directory profiling each HBCU with information on academics, admissions, research, student life, alumni, among other details. After selecting a school, students can navigate through the school – literally – by accessing virtual tours of buildings, on-campus videos, and local GPS and directions. HBCU Buddy can also provide students with customizable social networking features to connect with each other, their school and community. The application connects to social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and integrates tools such as chat and calendar to help students stay informed. Students can use the application to follow the latest on school club and campus happenings, local events, hot spots around the community, and more. Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller were recognized and awarded a $10,000 scholarship (divided between them) and a mobile device of their choice each at the Higher Ed Board of Advisors Meeting in Miami, Florida, on October 7, 2010.

See more at www.jackandjillpolitics.com

7 Stories About Women Heroes in Tech - Please Send Us More By Marshall Kirkpatrick / August 27, 2010 2:28 PM / 2 Comments Share Read more at www.readwriteweb.com

The technology press is full of stories of heroic men. In the startup economy, they often take the form of brave men who quit steady day jobs to join crazy startups. That’s an inspiring kind of story; I wrote about Louis Gray doing that earlier this week and really enjoyed sharing his news. (How Chris Messina Got a Job at Google is a related example.)

But what about women who make that kind of leap? There needs to be more stories told like that. I put out a call on Twitter and Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times said she too wants to tell more stories about brave women in technology. We live in an incredible time of cultural, economic and political change made possible by changing technology. That technology is being driven in many cases by women - so whose stories would you suggest we write about here on this blog?

Earlier this week, TechCrunch wrote about Christine Tsai leaving Google to join Dave McClure’s investment firm 500 Startups. This Spring, Alexa Andrzejewski left design firm Adaptive Path to work full time on her startup FoodSpotting. Those are cool stories, but we want more.

ReadWriteWeb’s own Audrey Watters has written about the challenges and upsides of incubating women entrepreneurs.

Perhaps the whole hero-style narrative is a bad idea, unhelpful to community collaboration just like Kaliya Hamlin argues the “war” metaphor is in rhetoric like “the identity war.” “I think what is seen as heroic is a narrative of the lone cowboy,” Hamlin said to me today. “Teams and communities who foster innovation and achieve together are often not seen and therefor not honored in the same way.”

We’ve written about a number of specific women doing heroic or particularly interesting work in tech here on ReadWriteWeb. Here are 7 of my favorites - please let us know in comments or by email (staff@readwriteweb.com) whose stories are especially compelling that we ought to be writing about. Send them today, tomorrow - and don’t stop sending us interesting stories about women, please. Of course there are more ways to have an awesome story than just to quit your job - that’s just what got me thinking about this. Please send whatever recommendations you can of women who have great stories that people ought to read. Read more at www.readwriteweb.com

A Woman’s Right to Vote: What Would You Ask the White House 90 Years After the 19th Amendment?

It’s been 90 years since women earned the right to vote. Yes! I mean earned it.

The suffragettes — Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, and many more — rallied, marched, were imprisoned, starved themselves in order to have a say in the way our government votes. The final voting by the Senate was after the National Women’s Party urged voters not to vote for anti-suffrage candidates.

Although the amendment was finally passed, it didn’t mean ALL women could vote. There were suffragettes who weren’t allowed on the front lines because of race, but who still supported the fight in passing the amendment — Ida B. Wells, among others. Due to the tensions of that time among those who were also abolitionists, challenges about race after slavery made their contributions very complicated. Wells formed the first Black women’s suffrage club in 1913 and created a stir when she refused to stay in the back of the lines during the March on Washington. Maya Angelou shares her perspective on why she believes there were challenges during this time, describing some of the simple differences that black and white women experienced in this video.

Now that a woman’s right to vote has progressed to a woman’s right to run for office, we see new challenges. We make up only 18% of political leaders, as reported by the White House Project. Most women can come up with plenty of reasons why they shouldn’t run, but even bloggers can become political leaders, such as Jill Miller Zimon, who shared her story recently at the 2010 BlogHer conference.

Rallying women’s voices in the blogosphere to affect policy is a recent phenomenon, but it’s just as important as rallying in the field. Many political candidates are very engaged and eager to talk with bloggers and other online community organizers. However, we must remember not every community member is online. Many people struggle in impoverished environments, and as such, are typically the most affected by political decisions. Access to the power of social media can determine who can influence voting and which issues will be addressed and/or recognized.

As a call to action, this is your opportunity to get some answers to questions important to you! I have been given the chance to visit the White House Council on Women and Girls as a BlogHer interviewer, moderating a 30-minute chat with Tina Tchen, Deputy Assistant to the President & Director of the Office of Public Engagement. We’ll talk about honoring the historic moment of the 19th Amendment and celebrating the 90th anniversary of a women’s right to vote, and I’ll be asking her your questions.

What questions would YOU like to ask the administration? What changes would you like to see for women?

Here are the key areas I would like you to focus your questions:

The history of women’s suffrage and the accomplishments and the challenges of the past 90 years.

The view of the power of bloggers and their social capital, particularly women, as influencers in the political process by the Administration.

The Administration’s — and the Council for Women and Girls’ — goals on listening to the voices of non-middle-class women who don’t necessarily have tools to build social capital.

The Administration’s plans to address the issues for women and the economy including equal pay, small business owners, flexible work, et cetera.

Are there any issues that are important to you as a woman voter that this administration should know about? Read more at www.blogher.com