Sisterhood Is Digital

Better Living through Thinking

Back at the workshop in Santa Clara, the 23 participants are embracing that challenge. The topic is a timely one: technologies that can make life better for families. The allure of the "digital living room" has fueled vast R&D budgets and countless startups. According to Borg, those initiatives have one thing in common: They are virtually devoid of women who hold positions of power. "Major companies and universities," she tells the group, "use no women technologists to develop technology for the home." The unsurprising result, says Borg, is that "most descriptions of the home of the future revolve around new gadgets for boys: Turn on the lights in your living room from your desktop at work! Watch the DVD player in your bedroom from your TV in your home office! The focus is usually on 'wiring the house,' not on serving the needs of its inhabitants."

This group wants to arrive at a more compelling vision. To do that, it adopts a "thinking environment," explains Sara B. Hart, 54, the group's facilitator. The parameters: Everyone gets a turn, no one can interrupt, and when someone is talking, you have to keep "your eyes on her." That means no idle list making, no doodling, no quick exits to use a cell-phone. "Our thinking is only as good as the quality of the attention that we give to one another when we're trying to think," says Hart. "Most meetings don't get the best thinking; they get maybe one good idea -- a 'winner.' " Instead of a competition among ideas, the goal of this workshop is to collaborate.

The women divide into two groups and begin thinking. Soon dozens of ideas cover the walls, ranging from the practical to the outrageous. How about a personal-health monitor to gauge blood pressure, blood-sugar levels, or vitamin intake on a daily basis and to help you tailor your diet accordingly? Why not a smart "help center" that digitally stores the manuals for all of your appliances?

As the day progresses, the group reaches consensus on what it considers to be the five best ideas, which they then spec out in some detail: a home-inventory-and-control system, a medical-and-nutrition assistant, a virtual shopper, a videophone, a virtual environment, and a centralized family-scheduling computer.

The virtual environment is really popular. Imagine a digital "wall" in the home - something much bigger than a PC monitor or a TV screen. The purpose: to make it possible to visit distant friends or relatives without the expense and disruption of travel. It would be a way for grandparents to see their grandkids, to share holidays and special occasions, to feel generally more connected. With the use of well-synchronized audio and video, it would be like looking into another room.

Sound far-out? That's the point. Compaq's Kathy Richardson, 37, specializes in network performance and reliability and is one of the technical women who attended the workshop. "The women who were less technically knowledgeable came up with better ideas than the women who had technical expertise," she says. "The nontechnical women were not stuck in a 'what's doable' box. To them, it's all magic -- so why can't it be magic done this way?" The next day, Richardson went back to her colleagues at Compaq, excited about the idea for a virtual wall. "A guy in my group actually told me that it would be great for playing video games," she says wearily.

That reaction from the technology priesthood is all too typical. "If only a narrow segment of the population designs products," says Borg, "don't be surprised if products are relevant to only a narrow segment of the population." That's why Nancy Levitt, 52, program manager of corporate philanthropy at Hewlett-Packard, has agreed to spend half of her time working on the virtual development center. "This is revolutionary," she says. "We're not trying to design products for women. We're trying to enable women to participate in the design of technology that will change how the world works."

Linda Bernardi, 38, vice president of global business development at PPD Development, who is also on the Institute's board of trustees, says, "This is not just another 'women's group' dedicated to issues concerning women. We're focused on proving that women can contribute innovations that will change the world. This is about innovations in technology that are driven by women."