The Cyber Scene in Australia ~ by Aliza Sherman

The Cyber Scene in Australia ~ by Aliza Sherman

Aliza Sherman was speaking at a women's international conference and then spoke to Wellington NZ's Webgrrls and Sydney, Australia's Webgrrls. She writes in about her experiences:

"I spoke at the Women Leaders Network of APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation), an annual international meeting for women to include their voices in APEC decision-making. Attendees were from all the Asian Pacific countries including Korea, Japan, Brunei Darassalam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand.

Last Wednesday, June 23rd, I spoke on a panel about Women and Technology - my topic was the importance of the Internet to women's economic development. Then I was a keynote speaker for the Thursday morning breakfast and gave a speech entitled "10 PowerTools for Women." Wednesday night I spoke to Wellington NZ Webgrrls, about 100 women gathered at the public library. Then that Friday, I flew to Sydney where I spoke to Sydney Webgrrls at a local pub. The women in New Zealand and Australia that I met are really wired and very excited to know what women in the USA are doing online and in new media jobs. Many of the women at the conference were from very poor countries or poor regions and didn't even have telephones, much less Internet connections. It was a real eye opener for me, and I even started out my panel "honoring my sisters who are aren't thinking about getting an ISP but are thinking about putting food on their tables to feed their family, who aren't thinking about upgrading their computer but are thinking about getting equipment to farm their land to feed their village." I felt a little too "American" a lot of the time and tried to be sensitive to the different experiences of the women around me. Yet all in all, it was a really amazing trip - lots of fun, sightseeing, beer drinking, and meeting powerful women."