I was doing a little research for a friend and found some nice resources for women speakers. Jason Kottle collected some great stats about representation of women at web conferences. Every year or so, someone asks me a question like this, so I thought I would post a few pointers.

It’s pretty awesome that people are collecting and publishing resources for conference organizers. I find the focused lists most effective:

  • Flash Goddess has the a great women speaker list , with topics and details about each speakers area of expertise
  • LinuxChix offers Chix who Speak
  • BlogHer, of course, has great women who talk about blogging 2007, 2006

Other lists are very broad, and it is hard to see what exactly people are expert at.

Know any lists I missed? Please comment and I will pass them on.

Front design has developed sketch furniture, a method to “materialize free hand sketches”. This unique process combines two techniques: pen strokes in the air are recorded with motion capture as 3D digital files; then through rapid prototyping are turned into real pieces of furniture.

via greatdance.com

One YouTube commenter points out that the artists probably can’t actually see what they are sketching, which likely makes this problematic; however, I could see their adding heads-up display technology to improve the process in the future.

In any case, I would love to try out this system and sketch myself some new deck chairs!