Women & Technology

Tech for Midwives

An interesting story on Dowser highlighted a "women and tech" topic that doesn't come up much in developed nations -- technology for midwives.

The article profiles the work of an organization called Maternova, which was founded by Meg Wirth just a few years ago to combat maternal mortality by providing much-needed obstetric tools and data. According to the WHO, 1500 women die every day from childbirth- or pregnancy- related complications.

One of the company's offerings profiled in the article is called a Power Pak. For about $20, it provides a midwife with a headlamp and a rotary charger for her mobile phone.

Wirth explains that this combination is especially important in places like refugee camps, where a midwife can be kept safer by having light and the ability to make a call.

Maternova is also inviting people to contribute data on its site to create a real-time map of global obstetric care providers and offers customized mapping services.

But the Power Pak really stands out as proof of an old adage -- sometimes the best ideas are the simplest ones.

Photo credit: © UNICEF/HQ02-0570/Giacomo Pirozzi

Social Media Sites for Tweens -- Hip or Too 'Hall Monitor'?

Recent news that Everloop got another round of VC funding illustrates the hot market for social media sites designed specifically for those too young to sign up for a Facebook account.

Facebook bans children under age 13 from joining but has no way of verifying age. As a result, many account holders are kids who have not yet reached their teens. Consumer Reports puts that number as high as 7.5 million. More than 5 million were 10 and under, and the study found that these accounts were largely unsupervised by the children’s parents.

Other parents, however, are alarmed about pre-teens using Facebook. Besides the obvious – and often exaggerated – fear of sexual predation, parents worry about cyberbullying, disclosure of personally identifiable information and exposure to inappropriate content.

What’s a parent to do – especially if their child has outgrown Club Penguin, widely considered the gold standard by child safety watchdog groups?

This is where sites like Everloop and Togetherville come in. Recently I saw a few newcomers featured during CE Week's Internet Safety Symposium, including What’s What? and Ohanarama. All of these sites offer what look to be well thought out safeguards for verifying users, barring strangers, and clamping down on inappropriate content and behavior. All of them are motivated by noble goals.

Coping with COPPA and Fighting off Facebook

But all of them face at least two key challenges. Bringing in revenue (and working with advertisers) without violating COPPA (the Childrens Online Privacy and Protection Act) is one. The  second challenge may be tougher – competing with the much better known and cooler 800-lb gorilla that is Facebook.

Tweens are notoriously influenced by peer opinions, and their idea of a good social network is related to how many friends they can make  and how entertaining the experience is. That's where the balancing act comes in – can these sites be hip and happy without being all "hall monitor"?

If they can, this new crop of sites sounds like a good way to offer kids social media training wheels ... and their parents a little social media peace of mind.

Do Women Want Mobile Phones with Extra Privacy?

One of the few items to break into this week’s Royal Wedding mediapalooza is the news that Apple iPhones and Google Android phones appear to be tracking every move we make. The news is being greeted with shock, horror – and, of course, lawsuits.

But not everyone worries about privacy equally. Nielsen just released stats showing that among mobile downloaders, youth, seniors and women are more concerned about privacy than, say, the average 25-year-old guy. (59% of women call themselves concerned vs. 52% of men.)

What does that mean for marketers? Here’s Neilsen’s prediction: “As consumers become increasingly familiar with location-based apps, and as marketers earn their trust and become more savvy about understanding what benefits consumers expect in exchange for that information, consumers will become more comfortable with the idea of location-based mobile applications.”

That's quite a leap. Can marketers earn trust while they are simultaneously calculating how to incent people to set aside their privacy concerns and check in on Foursquare? And what an uphill battle, given the news that our cell phones may be spying on us as like a tracking device in a James Bond movie.

Here’s another way a marketer might gain consumer trust. Appeal to privacy concerns instead of trying to overcome them.

•  Offer phones and mobile apps that make it dead easy to for a consumer to manage their privacy settings. (Ease of use is especially important for the over- 45 set)
• Reach specific groups (like women and seniors) via education campaigns that help them understand the trade-offs between privacy and rewards. (People may actually want to be offered a coupon when they walk into a grocery story – they just need to understand the implications)

People who worry about privacy may worry about being preyed on based on their location. Although the actual incidence of this is probably pretty low, that’s not the point. The point is that mobile marketers will get further respecting people’s concerns than they will trying to wear them down with incentives.

A mobile phone with simple and transparent privacy settings? Now that’s a badge worth unlocking.

Tech Gadgets Kept Chile Miners Connected

Sometimes it's the little things that matter. News stories have described the ingenious capsule that brought all 33 trapped Chilean miners safely to the earth's surface, but less attention has been paid to the much tinier technology that kept them connected with the outside world during those 69 days.

Everything had to fit in "palomas," the long thin tubes that were used to bring not only letters, food and drinks to the miners but also gadgets like small video projection systems and a pair of speakers less than two inches wide. The projection systems let miners watch movies and live soccer matches, and a small camera sent down the tube was used to shoot a 45-minute video that provided an eye-opening view of life 700 meters below ground. A fiber-optic line made it possible for the miners to make contact with the outside world.

Diaries kept by family members show that it wasn't just the miners who got a boost from all this technology. Family members were able to communicate regularly with the trapped miners, at first by phone and then by videoconference. A diary entry in early September shows that both sides benefited:

"The good news is that we were given eight whole minutes to speak to my father through a videoconference. All the family came for the weekend, so they all spoke to him. He was very excited to see his older grandchildren. He threw them some kisses and sent them hugs."

The emotional impact that voice and video made during this natural disaster is undeniably powerful. Who would have thought that decades of work on miniaturizing consumer electronics would lead to a mine in a Chilean desert and inspire most of the  world to cheer on those 33 miners?

Photo: Reuters

Are Women Really Social Gaming's Cash Cows?

A recent article on CNN about Social Gaming's Surprising Cash Cows revealed the so-called shocking punchline: the cash cows are 43-year-old women.

Anyone on Facebook who has friended people over age 30 already knows how much time many spend online feeding livestock and taking out gangsters. But are most social gamers women? And are they more likely to pay?

Market research firm NPD Group says no. The split is pretty even. They released a study in August  showing that 47% are male and 53% percent are female. A study conducted by ISG combining US and UK gamers found a similar split: 55% female, 45% male.

It is also not clear that women are more likely to pay for gaming features with real cash (vs. virtual rewards earned as part of the game.) The CNN article did not include any hard data, but even if it had, the percentage of social gamers parting with cash is still tiny (estimated at around 3%). Until that number goes up, it is hard to draw meaningful conclusions.

Men vs. Women: What They Play and How Often

Where it gets more interesting is at the next level -- the differences between men and women when it comes to what they play or how often. Interesting findings from the ISG study include:

• Women are more likely to be new to the game. Of those who have been social gaming four months or less, 15% were women vs. 10% men
• 38% of women play several times a day, while only 28% of men do
• Men were far more likely to play Mafia Wars (42% vs. 23%) and Texas HoldEm (39% vs. 20%); women were slightly more likely to play Bejeweled games and FarmVille
• Men were more likely to also play other video games, which is consistent with the body of research for the console gaming market

Putting the 'Social' in Social Gaming: Men vs. Women

The social aspect of this form of gaming shows some interesting differences, too.

Women were more likely to select a game because a friend, relative or colleague suggested it. They are also far more likely to play with real-world friends than men were, while men were more likely to play with people they considered friends online. As for why play, women like social gaming to have fun and relieve stress, while men enjoy the competition.

One of the options for why people play was "it allows me to connect with others in my social network(s)." Not only was there no significant difference in responses between men and women, this response wasn't particularly popular. It came in #5 overall.

The research emerging around social gaming may not prove that women are the sweet spot for gaming firms hoping to generate revenues. But it does seem clear that women play frequently, play for fun, and are likely to recommend their favorite games to people they know. In addition, NPD's research shows that fully 35% of social network gamers are new to gaming, and both studies agree that new gamers are more likely to be women. With so many "noobs" flocking to social gaming, this area offers a major market opportunity for companies willing to tailor their approach to how women are actually using these apps.

Mobile App Gender Gap: Pew Study

The Pew Internet Project recently published The Rise of Apps Culture, a report that looks at the evolving apps culture spawned by America's enthusiastic embrace of cell phones. (One in four of the cell phone users surveyed don't have land-line phones.) Among the wealth of data shared by Pew are several interesting findings about the differences between men and women when it comes to cell phone use.

Some highlights:

• App users tend to be young, educated and affluent and male
• Among "recent-downloaders," men were more likely to have used banking/finance, sports, productivity, and video/movie apps in the past 30 days; games, social networking, music, and entertainment/food apps were more frequently used by women
• Men were more likely to report using apps at work, while women were slightly more likely to use apps while alone and/or waiting for someone
• Women were slightly more likely to say they learn about apps from friends and family, while the men were twice as likely to say they learn about apps from third party websites

What picture of female mobile app users does this portrait paint? Beyond the surprisingly large gender gap between mobile-app haves and have-nots (57% of users are male vs. 43% female), women emerge as more sociable and entertainment-oriented. More likely to hop on to Facebook or Urbanspoon than to use their mobile phone for banking, they also turn to their mobile phone to entertain them or get something done when they are alone. An interesting set of correlations not included in the study is gender/age – i.e., how does the mobile app gender gap change among Gen X or Boomer populations?

Mobile App Mystification

The study authors raise an interesting point about people’s understanding of the mobile app concept.  Survey findings indicated that only 29% of adult cell phone users said they used an app, yet 34% report sending or receiving email or playing a game and 30% send or receive instant messages. Emailing, gaming and IM’ing are all done by apps, but there is a good chance that study participants think of apps as something that must be downloaded.

This is backed up by the number of people who weren’t sure if they even had apps on their phone. Eleven percent fall into this category, and that number rises to 15% among cell phone users age 50 and older.

This side note points to an opportunity for marketers: those who de-mystify the subject of mobile apps may be able to increase download rates, especially if they want to reach consumers who are not young, educated and affluent males.

Little Black M-Dress: I Can't Talk Right Now, I'm Dancing

In an announcement that gives whole new meaning to the term butt-dialing, London apparel maker CuteCircuit recently announced the M-Dress.

Apparently the M-Dress combines two of the things women want most in evening wear -- silk jersey and silicon chips. CuteCircuit explains that the dress was designed after their research showed that women often missed phone calls because cell phones are awkward to carry in the small or non-existent pockets that characterize most women's clothing.

The problem is a genuine one ... but the solution is a little impractical. Apparently the wearer of the M-Dress simply tucks her SIM card into a small slot underneath the dress label, and then "when the dress rings," she lifts her hand to her ear to answer the phone and lowers her hand to terminate the conversation.

The novel user interface design raises several immediate questions. Without any visible ear piece or cell phone, won't a woman talking out loud with a hand raised to her ear simply look like she is conversing with the voices in her head? What happens if the dress-wearer adjusts her hair -- will she accidentally place a call? Moreover, the picture shows what looks like a black sleeve worn over one of the model's hands. Will women who go to all the trouble of buying a wired black  dress and leaving their purse at home agree to wear a black cuff on one hand?

History may prove this skepticism to be unfounded. After all, CuteCircuit is the same company that brought us the Hug Shirt, which TIME magazine named one of the Best Inventions of the Year in 2006. 

Perhaps a hybrid of the two products is coming next -- for those moms enjoying a rare evening out who suddenly miss their kids and want to beam home a hug.