The only time I will talk about Apple-mania
Alissa Walker has a quick-turnaround piece on the obliviousness of Apple execs, engineers, marketing reps to name their new wonder tablet the iPad. As in, a popular option for ladies’ monthly period.
Obvious jokes aside (and oh, how they have been made), I have to agree that the naming reeks of the unintended consequences of low representation of women in computer science and engineering jobs, and in the tech industry in general (one would think they had to go through market research, but who knows). When the joke is so obvious it trends on twitter within minutes, and the first reaction of tech-oriented women is “they named it what?” you probably have a branding problem.
The naming process, however, is really a small drop in the bucket of issues surrounding women and tech. danah boyd, researcher in social media extraordinaire, brought out some of the secondary, more insidious issues around cultural norms, innovation, and self-promotion in response to Clay Shirky’s rant on similar themes (Shirky’s an important thinker on larger sociological implications of tech trends, but I find a lot of issues with the post, regardless if he labels it as a rant.)
Boyd’s discussion a much more thoughtful exploration of the problems that iPad turns into an easy joke.
[Apophenia] whose voice do you hear? gender issues and success
[Clay Shirky] A Rant About Women
(Original article via Jenny 8. Lee’s twitter)
