Internet « Girls n Gadgets

Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

G ‘n’ G Women in Tech Week – Meaghan Fitzgerald, Spoonfed

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

A Silicon Valley Girl Getting Spoonfed in London

Meaghan Fitzgerald www.spoonfed.co.uk

I sit staring at source code in an empty computer lab, trying to embed a flash animation of a fish into a website for my sixth grade science project. If I could go back and speak to my eleven-year old self now, the message would be clear: don’t fight it, Meg, you’re destined to be a geek.

Growing up in Palo Alto, California, now famously home to Google and Facebook, I had not encountered “women in technology” as a debate topic – it was an expectation, especially at the all-girl’s school I attended where speakers like Carly Fiorina and Melinda Gates were common. As far
as I could tell, the industry was so full of women, they’d be my main competition on my future career path – an optimistic world view brought
about by my unique upbringing.

Although I studied biology and English at university in New England, my interest in tech led me to internships back in the Valley, with PageOne PR, a tech-focused PR firm; then with IMVU , a 3D chat service. I even briefly directed my own company, DormWise, while I was at school, something which caused no end of bemusement amongst my friends as I coded, designed, wrote for and promoted my website myself.

It wasn’t until moving to London after graduating last May, however, that I really felt I could begin to call myself a woman of technology. Shortly after arriving, I joined the team at Spoonfed , the definitive guide to things to do in London, and haven’t looked back. Spoonfed is a web startup that uses innovative technology to help Londoners find events throughout the city with localised search functions, online planning features, and an upcoming range of mobile support for finding what’s on in London.

While I’m officially doing marketing for Spoonfed, one of the benefits of working with a startup is the opportunity to affect a virtually limitless range of projects and aspects of the company. My current projects with Spoonfed focus most heavily on SEO, promoting our iPhone application and building the Spoonfed online community but I am also involved in creating editorial content for the site, bug testing, reaching out to bloggers, assessing site analytics and many more day to day tasks to keep Spoonfed growing.

the definitive guide of things to do in London

With the Spoonfed team, I work at the forefront of technology in a startup that has the power to shape the industry. This was driven home when the recent release of our iPhone application, the Spoonfed Radar, made waves in online publications including TechCrunch and Stuff.TV . The Radar literally scans your location for nearby events and searches a database of over 30,000 events a month for more complete listings than any other service.

I am consistently impressed with the social and friendly nature of the tech community in London and now, armed with a guide to the best events in the city through Spoonfed and a drive to meet and share knowledge with other London women in tech, I look forward to recreating my youthful vision of a tech world full of intelligent, empowered women working on the forefront of a tech evolution.

Meaghan Fitzgerald is a 22 year old woman from Palo Alto, California working for www.spoonfed.co.uk, in London. Her personal blog can be found at http://www.thetopfloorflat.com/ .

Tags: Girls 'n' Gadgets, Internet, location, london, spoonfed, web, women, women in tech, Women who Tech
Posted in Internet, Social Media, Technology | 1 Comment »

G’n'G Women in Tech Week – Amanda Lord, Fund it Frog

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

After a long Bank Holiday weekend, Girls ‘n’ Gadgets are back and we’re celebrating the wonderful women in tech. Over the following week, we will be bringing you profiles and tips from some of the finest UK based bloggers and startups.

Our first lovely lady is Amanda Lord who is the Managing Director at ’Fund it Frog’ :

Want to see more money going to your favourite Charity? Get Frogging!

Frog on Coins Few of us have cash to splash at the moment but this is a Frog that can squeeze a charitable donation out of the money that you have already decided to spend: on a holiday, clothes, wine, gifts or gadgets.

1000 Retailers, 3m products

Whether its Cancer, Homelessness, Children, Animals, Eco or Development that you feel is most deserving, or even a small local project you’d like to see succeed, you can send money their way just by remembering to route your shopping (through all the usual shops like Apple, Dell, Ebookers, even Tesco (although not groceries) and some great designer outlets via www.funditfrog.co.uk.

The frog is the brainchild of Amanda Lord, a self-confessed gadget-addict, who realized that the various commissions paid to internet and other middlemen on all the stuff we buy everyday could go to a better place! She hooked up with business partner Geoff Hughes to build a site that not only looked good and worked beautifully, with lots of terrific features to improve people’s everyday online shopping experience, but also used the commissions paid for their traffic to fund charitable donations to the causes each individual shopper cares most about.

So what are you waiting for? Every time you buy something NOT via the Frog, that’s money NOT going to charity– and you know the charities are hurting at the moment! We have made registering and setting up a Fund super quick and simple, and then you can get on with the shopping…. in a good cause!

Start a Fund in 15 seconds

If you’re a Facebook user, search Apps for Fund it Frog; or you can log in to the website using your Fb account :

Registering is super quick and simple

There is also a terrific Offers Page to save you money and so many other cool features we don’t have time to tell you about! Check it out – now, while you remember. Your favourite charity is needing free money!

Tags: charity, facebook, tech, web, women, women in technology
Posted in Internet, Social Media, Technology | 1 Comment »

Pingg – A new way to invite by Sarah Cooley

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

Planning a party or event in the near future? Let me introduce you to Pingg. Pingg is an evite-like service that allows you to send online invitations to your guest list. What I liked about Pingg at first glance was that in addition to beautifully designed email invites, Pingg will also send out print invitations for you. Making it ideal for those events where you might be inviting your very tech savvy friends who are social networking addicts, and your not so tech savvy friends who never check their email.

“Pingg is the result of a few of us socially-conscious, design-oriented, tech-geeks who couldn’t find an online invitation website that fit our needs aesthetically, functionally or personally. What we realized was that although it seemed easy and cost-efficient to send online invitations, the final resulting invitations felt impersonal, uninspiring, and didn’t represent us or the events we were throwing. “

Create an actual invitation, as opposed to a mere link to a webpage, by choosing from a variety of unique images that reflect your own personal taste, including our Designer Series. Or you can upload your own images for a more personal touch.
Choose to send invitations via ONE or ALL of pingg’s methods- email, print (pingg will print, stamp and mail the invitations to your selected guests), sms/text, or easily share it with your social network. By integrating online and print invitations, pingg makes it easy to reach your guests in a variety of ways, while managing all guest replies online.
Customize your event webpage by uploading photos or videos, writing longer personalized messages and attaching additional information about the event. Pingg also has advanced features for gift & charity registries, money collection and ticketing.
Manage all RSVPs, lists, guest messaging, follow-ups, reminders, last minute changes and Thank You notes efficiently and easily from one place.

Pingg makes it easy when planning an event, from the invitations to the guest list and so much more. They have a great list of features. It goes so far beyond just sending out invites, Pingg deals with guest list management, sending out reminder emails, and automatically sending out thank you notes after you party or event has ended. Pingg is more proper with the invitation etiquette then I could ever be, and that’s why I love it.

Pingg goes above and beyond just an invitaion service. You get a whole event web page to play around with, and they have some great features you can add to it.

Integrated Gift Registry – allows guests to RSVP and purchase a gift simultaneously from your event web page.
Integrated Charity Registry – allows guests to donate to a charity of your choice directly from your event web page.
Collecting Money – allows guests to send money simply and easily in advance of the event.
Ticketing – allows you to sell tickets directly through your event web page.
Photo Sharing – allows guests to submit their favorite pictures. Our functionality will combine them into one fun album for all to enjoy on your event web page.

Pingg is a fairly new service but I would keep my eye on these guys. I know that they have a lot more in store and a ton of potential. I know brides-to-be that would die for this kind of functionality if Pingg could get their pro service off the ground, I’m sure we will see some great wedding stuff coming from them.

Tags: e-cards, evite, invitations, Invitations and Announcements, pingg, postcards, Thank You
Posted in Internet, Social Media | No Comments »