Dear Members and Readers,

It is with regret that we announce the Ottawa Women 2.0 Chapter is closing. Although we support the Women 2.0 vision and mission set forth by our parent chapter in California, they differ from the goals we had set forth for our own chapter. The new governance structure set forth by our parent organization would have required our local chapter to change significantly in format and organizational structure.

We thank you all for the interest and support you have brought to Women 2.0 Ottawa during this past year. Your enthusiasm has been outstanding and we are truly honoured for the opportunity to have worked with you all to cultivate a social network for women entrepreneurs and women working in high tech.

See you at an Ottawa tech event soon!

Melany Gallant and Veronica Giggey

Women 2.0 Canada | Ottawa Chapter

It’s with great pleasure and a little bit of sadness that I announce some changes taking place with the Ottawa chapter of Women 2.0 (W20) Canada.

Monika Surma who worked with me to co-found this chapter has accepted a new job opportunity in fabulous Vancouver and as such has stepped down from her role. It has been a pleasure working with Monika this past year to build up the W20 brand in Ottawa and although I am sad to lose such a great team member, I do wish her nothing but success and enjoyment in her new life on the west coast. I am also a little bit jealous that Monika will be living so close to the ocean. I can admit that jealousy freely. ;D

Monika - you’ll be missed. Best of luck in Vancouver!

Now for some happy news…

Kristina Mausser of Digital Word and Veronica Giggey of Social Media Group have joined the organizing committee for Women 2.0 Ottawa and I couldn’t be more pleased. These two exceptionally talented women will be working with me to organize our events for the coming year and to promote the W20 brand in this great city.

We have our planning well underway so expect to hear more about W20 events soon. In the meantime, here is a brief description of why these two women are inherently Women 2.0.

Kristina Mausser

…is inherently 2.0 because she would rather splurge on a shopping spree at BestBuy than on a new pair of Manolo Blahniks …although she’s creative enough to find the resources to do both.  Kristina is a firm believer that technology is the facilitator of communications and has taken her lowly English degree to places her parents never dreamed as President and Senior Web Content Strategist of Digital Word. Kristina lives close to the “new French Quarter” of Ottawa, traditionally known as Vanier, and has been known to enjoy a cosmopolitan or two with friends on any number of the fabulous patios located in and around the nation’s capital.

Veronica Giggey

…is inherently 2.0 because she is passionate about the idea that it’s not about the technology but about what people can do with it. Her past experience includes working as a consultant for two different collaboration software vendors helping their clients make the most out of their solutions. She is now a project manager at Social Media Group and is committed to helping companies use Web 2.0 technologies to form relationships with their clients, employees, partners, shareholders and all their constituents.  She lives in Ottawa with her family but has not-so-secret plans to move to a lovely Honduran beach.

Welcome ladies!

Melany Gallant | Women 2.0 Canada | Ottawa Co-founder

GreenGirs.TV is definitely a site worth checking out. According to Mashable the blog tries to put an entertainment spin on the green movement, covering the news and views from greentech, eco-friendly companies with the purpose to inspire folks to live a more ecology conscious lifestyle.

Beverly Crandon | women 2.0 | Toronto Co-founder

In the early Spring, Women 2.0 Ottawa met Jennifer Buck, Senior Technical Lead at LoyaltyMatch, a site that lets you redeem your air mile rewards for “stuff” like iPODs, HDTVs and Kate Spade handbags, instead of just redeeming them for travel.

The company describes themselves as…”the world’s first person-to-person loyalty program marketplace enabling loyalty program members from most loyalty programs, with the ability to sell or trade rewards such as merchandise, entertainment and leisure attractions, services and more for cash or for rewards not available in their loyalty programs.”

Jennifer shared with me some recenct news coverage that LoyaltyMatch garnered, and since the startup is Canadian and has a woman directly involved with product development, I thought I’d share links to that news coverage here.

New York Times, “Practical Traveler”

Ferri & Partners - Trends in Travel & Tourism, “Profiting From Your Frequent Flier Miles (and Others)”

It’s great to see Canadian startups making a name for themselves.

Melany Gallant | Women 2.0 Canada | Ottawa Co-founder

I may be dating myself with this one, but I couldn’t help but post it as it sent a deep and painful pang to my stomach, which caused be to gasp at a very loud volume. What could be causing me such anguish you ask? The makeover they’ve given Strawberry Shortcake - revealed just yesterday.

Yes. I get it - Strawberry Shortcake came out in the 80’s and its now 2008, but I really don’t see what was wrong with the old image.

What made the makeover worse were all the mean things the creator said about the 80’s version of Strawberry Shortcake.

Apparently the 80’s image was:

• Too candy-obsessed
• Too ditsy
• Too fond of wearing bloomers.

In my opinion, Ms. Shortcake was not ditsy. Furthermore, what is wrong with wearing bloomers?

Nonetheless, this is what they are saying about the 2008 version of Strawberry Shortcake:

• She prefers fresh fruit versus gumdrops
• Appears to wear just a dab of lipstick
• Spends her time chatting on a cell phone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard.

What the hell kind of substance is that!

On a more serious note, the Shortcake transformation makes the double standard clear. When male action figures go through transformations to make the character current, the changes are minimal and more so have to do with changes to colour or texture - but it is never about the action heroes personality, likes and dislikes. Why then do toy makers equate making a girl/female child character more current, to having her make adult or womanlike lifestyle changes?

Beverly Crandon | women 2.0 | Toronto Co-founder

This from a ClickZ article I came across, while sitting in a NY hotel lobby -

Online communications and spending is up in Canada, according to data from Statistics Canada.

In 2007 81 percent of private sector businesses used e-mail, up from 78 percent the previous year, and 74 percent in 2003 when the study began. Use of the Internet is slightly higher: 87 percent of businesses have access, and 41 percent maintain a Web site.

Really - only 41%. On a serious note, I find that shocking.

Beverly Crandon | women 2.0 | Toronto Co-founder

Yahoo! launched its female tailored site called ‘Shine’ last Monday, but the uptake has been slow at best.

It will be interesting to see where Yahoo takes Shine. Will Shine become the parent site to Yahoo’s already related health sites? Will they take advantage of their relationships with the newspaper consortium for content? Who knows? For now, it’s another interesting site tailored for women and worth checking out.

Beverly Crandon

Women2.0 Toronto