Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    wow. what an exciting idea. it occurs to me that it might be
    interesting for some of us to draft a group message to these young
    women. for one thing, there are many different occupations represented
    here. and for another thing, this communication medium we have is
    really wonderful and it would be neat to let our young friends know
    about it. anyone else interested?
    
    liz

    	That sounds great!
    

The address says MD. They're in Maryland? Just curious.
	Mez

>The address says MD. They're in Maryland? Just curious.
	
	Yes.

Re:  .4

>    The address says MD. They're in Maryland? Just curious.

If you'll notice, the letter says that they are from a school in Maryland.

Yes, Maryland also has a Worcester County which contains a town named Berlin.
Worcester County is the only Maryland county that borders the ocean.  It
is squeezed between Delaware and a small piece of Virginia on the Delmarva
peninsula.  Ocean City is the best known beach town.  Berlin is about eight
miles to the west of Ocean City, and about 140 miles from Washington DC.
That makes it one of the most isolated areas of Maryland, I guess.

(I never can resist these geography questions...)

						--Q (Dick Wagman)

Re:  .6

>That makes it one of the most isolated areas of Maryland, I guess.

	perhaps, although western Maryland (the funny shaped part)
	is pretty darn isolated, as are parts of southern MD


>(I never can resist these geography questions...)

	me neither! (esp. 'cause I'm from Maryland...)


	>>Andy<<

       I am a chemist who does exciting things with electron microscopy.  I
    think it is *extremely* important to interest young women (and men) in
    science and math.  I would like to contribute to a group letter, or I will
    write my own.
    
       In Phoenix, our chemistry society had several organized interactions
    between professionals and students (we judged science fairs, spoke to
    students, held chemistry competitions and chemistry "magic shows").  
    I have not yet found the niche for such contributions since moving 
    to Massachusetts.
    
    Barbara

    
    It may be more effective if we send individual letters as well as
    a group letter. Many letter will have more impact which tranlates into
    more support. We'd also get a chanceo share with them some of the 
    about ourselves as individuals.
    
    
    Renee

    Was a group letter ever sent?
    
    I agree that individual letters, talking about individuals' jobs
    and experiences, along with a group letter would be most effective.
    I would love the see a letter telling them about womannotes, about
    the wide range of women that participate in it, about the benefits
    of it to us, at least professionally.  I think it would be fascinating
    to this group of future computer scientists.
    
    If no group letter has been written, I'd be happy to do it.
    
    -Tracy
    

    Sorry I haven't participated in this discussion -- I've been out sick
    for two weeks.  Thanks, Bonnie and Maggie for alerting me to the hung
    note and reposting it for me.
    
    I think a group letter is a great idea.  Because I've got tons of work
    to catch up on, I don't think I can work on an original draft, but I'll
    be glad to contribute input/suggestions.  Does it make sense for
    someone(s) to put a draft in here and ask people to send comments by    
    mail?  What's the usual procedure for this sort of thing?  (I'm a
    neophyte notes user.)
    
    It would be nice to put replies received to any individual letters in
    here, too.  Maybe the class would send us copies of things they
    "publish."
    
    Lynn
    
      

    I've begun working on a group letter.  I'll post it in here when
    I'm done (hopefully in a day or two) for you all to critique and/or 
    trash.  Meanwhile, please send me any specific ideas/suggestions
    you would like to see included.  I'll do my best!
    
    -Tracy
                     
                              

    I have my letter ready -- comments are welcome particularly from
    people who are acquainted with sixth graders.  I do not want to "talk
    down" to them -- yet I want them to understand.  On the photo (an 8 x
    10 glossy that is *lovely*) that I include I have a scale bar that 
    indicates 100 Angstroms and give the conversion of 1 A = 10 **(-10) 
    meters = 0.0000000001 m.  Have they had scientific notation yet?
                                            
********************
Hello girls,

Your letter was published in the Boston Computer Society "Computer
Update"; Lynn Schreihofer read the letter and typed it onto the computer
network that we have for all employees of DIGITAL.  She entered it into
a notesfiles called Womannotes.  That is a notefile for discussions of
any topic that is "of interest to women".  Employees from all over enter
notes in the file for everyone to read (men can write in, too) -- we
have correspondents in Colorado, Massachusetts, Canada, and Australia
just to mention a few.  The notesfile is a fun part of work.  I may
never meet the people, but we can correspond by computer.

I wanted to reply to your letter because I am a woman with a very
interesting job in science.  I was recently hired by DIGITAL to set up a
lab for doing transmission electron microscopy (we call it TEM for
short).  TEM is fascinating.  The microscope is huge (9 feet tall), but
it works on the same theories that light microscopes do.  Instead of
light being focused by glass lenses, the TEM uses electrons that are
focused by magnets.  To form an image, the electrons hit a phosphoresent
screen (like your TV set at home) and form a black and white image.  We
record these images on KODAK film -- it is bigger than the film that you 
use in your cameras, but not very different.

The reason we use electrons instead of light is that the wavelength of
the electrons is much smaller than light.  We can see things that are
much smaller.  Typically our images are magnified by about a million
times!  (if you magnify a dime a million times -- it would be 17
kilometers wide and 1400 meters thick!)  At DIGITAL, we take pictures of
parts of the computer chips.  When I was in school, we looked at rocks.
I also spent some years looking at the center parts of dry cell
batteries.

Enclosed is a TEM picture (magnification of 1.5 million) of poor
graphite -- similar to the material that is in your pencils.  Graphite
is made of carbon atoms that form long thin sheets.  The spacing between
the sheets is relatively large.  That structure is the reason that you
can use a pencil for writing.  A few sheets of graphite fall off your
pencil and stick to the paper.  In this photo, the sheets of graphite
are curled -- aren't they pretty?  They do interesting things, and the
way the planes are shaped determine the properties of the material.  If
the same carbon atoms were arranged differently, they would form a
diamond!  

Don't let anyone tell you that math, science, and computers are boring.
My work that uses math and chemistry, and computers every day is
exciting and beautiful.  EVERY thing I look at is being seen for the
first time in this way -- it's like exploring in a new (very small)
world.
    
    Good luck with your projects,
    
    Barbara Miner

    I like it!  I have one minor suggestion, to better explain how WE
    communicate....some people don't know what a notesfile is.  I wind
    up telling them it's like an electronic bulletin board.
    
    I wonder what I would have wound up doing if someone had encouraged
    me technically earlier in life......
    
    -Jody
    

    I have written a group letter (and it addresses your points, Jody).
    Now I just have to figure out how to get if from my A1 account to
    here...
    

    Following is the group letter I drafted.  Please give me your feedback.
    And it will be much more effective if we get some more individual
    letters!
    
    -Tracy
    
    
-----    
     
We are a group of women who work for Digital Equipment Corporation and who 
communicate with each other electronically.  We call ourselves "Women of Note."
     
     
First, let me tell you about us.
     
Most of us live and work in New England, but others come from across the 
country and around the world.  We work in every aspect of the business, in 
jobs both traditionally "female" and traditionally "male."  We are engineers, 
programmers, writers, instructors, marketing managers, technicians, 
secretaries and accountants.
     
Some of us are college students on cooperative education assignments or recent 
graduates.  Others have returned to the work force after years of raising a 
family.  Some of us are single-minded in the pursuit of our careers.  Others 
are trying to maintain a delicate balance between our jobs and our roles as 
partners and/or parents.

Some of us always knew that we could do anything a boy could, that we could 
grow up to be anything we wanted.  That we could excel in math and science and 
computers.  Others still struggle daily with the idea of what we should and 
shouldn't do because we are women.

What we share is a sense that things just aren't the way they should be for 
women yet.  We are disappointed when we read that fewer young women than young 
men are entering our business.  We are discouraged that so often women still 
have to work harder, or give up more, than their male co-workers to be equally 
successful.

What we share is confidence that women _can_ be whatever they want, that 
things _will_ continue to improve.  What we share is a desire to do our part 
to make that happen.


Now let me tell you about "Womannotes."

Digital has the largest private computer network in the world, which allows 
tens of thousands of its employees to communicate electronically.  What that 
means is that an employee can send a message from the computer in her office 
to another employee in another part of the world within seconds.

Digital also has software called VAXnotes which allows _groups_ of people to 
communicate with each other.  Using VAXnotes, you can set up a conference--
sort of an "on-line club"--for people who share an interest.  Most of these 
conferences are about the work we do, but Digital allows us to have non-work 
conferences or clubs, too.  One such club is Womannotes, a place to discuss 
topics of interest to women.

Most of the people who join this club will never really meet each other, but 
we "talk" to each other (using our computers) about all sorts of things.  We 
discuss many "working woman" issues: daycare, equal pay, harassment in the 
workplace.  We debate the hot issues in the news: abortion, gun control, 
President Bush's foreign policy.  We ask for and offer advice and support.  We 
find pride and encouragement in each other's victories.

Often, a member will find a newspaper article or other information that she 
thinks is important and will post it in Womannotes for everyone to read.  
About a month ago, someone posted a letter from a group of sixth-grade girls 
in Maryland who want to make sure they have the opportunity to be what they 
want when they grow up and who want to recognize the contributions of the 
women who came before them.  Your letter has inspired some of us to write and 
send letters about the jobs we do.  It has made _all_ of us feel good about 
the work we do and about the future of women in computers.  And _that's_ what 
Womannotes is all about.

That looks like a great letter!

Two thoughts:

1.  Isn't VAXnotes a trademark?  We had better include some comment about that
    somewhere if this is going outside of the company.

2.  June will soon be upon us, and school will be ending.  This letter will
    have to be mailed soon if it is not going to reach an empty school build-
    ing.

							--Q

    Actually the *legal* product name (i.e. as it appears on the SPD)
    is "VAX Notes"...

    To further explain what Vaxnotes is all about you could include
    all 554.*. That way the students would even see how the conference
    can be used as a bulletin board or a way to share and develop ideas.
    
    jm

    Wonderful letters, Barbara and Tracy.  I would have loved to have
    that sort of encouragement and real-world information at that age.
    
    I agree they should get mailed soon -- and please include a return
    address so we can find out what sorts of information the girls are
    collecting, if they care to share it with us. 
    
    Thanks for writing them.  
    
    Lynn

    Thanks for your great comments and ideas.  Since they want to know
    about our jobs, what do you think of including some of the
    introductions from topic 2 (Intros: What Do Women Do at DEC)?
    If anyone is willing to have her intro included with the letter,
    please let me know.  Thanks,                                    
                                     
    -Tracy