WandaLUSTLeverage. Ubuntu. Sustainability. Transitions.

By Wanda Hennig

Super-geek and Berkeley–based internet identity guru Kaliya Hamlin mounted her first She’s Geeky ‘un’conference in October 2007 and her most recent, last weekend. They grew from her observation that while women are encouraged to enter the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — once women leave school and enter the workforce,

An inner journey can be more spectacular — and revealing — than a trip around the world. And a weekend spent doing something you really would prefer not to be doing can change the course of your life.
By Wanda Hennig

Can this really be me writhing around the floor in a large, darkened room with a number of other should I call us crazies? I have my eyes glued shut but I know the others are out there because I can hear grunts and whines and hisses and the odd …

The inside scoop from educators, activists and social media gurus at the East Bay’s first Beast Bloggers Bar Camp.
Photos: Wanda Hennig

This list of 40 facts, tips, key points and “how to” suggestions come from blogging panels and conversations at the first East Bay Beast Bloggers Bar Camp held at Tech Liminal in Oakland. (Read more on the event here.) Some comments are attributed. Others came from general discussion. All are from Bar Camp participants. (See Part One of this story.)
About Blogging

Decide what are you trying to say? What do …

You’re the marketing director of a nonprofit — or perhaps the director if it’s a smaller organization. You know you need to add social media to your tool kit. Where to begin? Any good swim coach starts with a plan. You need one too. To ensure success, consider these five key points before you dive in.
By Wanda Hennig
1) Make sure the pool has water in it. In other words, have a handle on what you’re getting into.
This involves, on the one hand, learning about the tools. On the other, …

Story by Wanda Hennig
First published in Black Diamond Living magazine
It started with a routine morning scan of East Bay newspapers — part of the standard daily work drill for Devi Lanphere, CEO of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce in east Contra Costa County. This time the piece that caught her eye might not, at first glance, have seemed work-related. It announced an extreme makeover contest. Read more …

Do you Twitter, Facebook and have a bunch of people following your daily blog? If not and you feel you should — or need — to know how, go speak to Anca Mosoiu in her 14th Street technology hotspot and salon in Oakland. She’s committed to leveling the playing field, teaching social networking and essential web skills to da people.

It’s late at night and you’re in bed. The body to your left, pushing gentle zzzzs, radiates a comfortable warmth. The radio to your right plays softly. Your mental meanderings are suddenly jolted into focus by Rod Stewart’s voice. It’s golden oldie time and he’s warbling on about passion. “I need passion. You need passion. We need passion. Can’t live without passion.”

First you heard the ululations and the shrill whistle blasts. Then you saw the flags. A big one swirling above the heads of the multinational throng crowding the cavernous lobby area of the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, USA. And many smaller flags waving and dancing with their bearers.

Several in the party, which numbered around 35 at a quick count, were uniformed — if a collection of crazy head-consuming jester hats adorned with South African flag emblems and bells qualify as a uniform. A core group, it seemed, was there, to make noise. The less raucous were … Read more