So every now and again it’s nice to get a little recognition for what you do. Below is a list of a few of the things that I’ve been involved with recently.
Courier Mail Interview – Avatars at your service
I was recently interview by the popular QLD paper the Courier Mail about my participation in the upcoming Ideas Festival. The article appeared in the March 17 edition of the paper and if you’re interested to see what I had to say and what others who are appearing there had to say, you can check out the entire article here: Courier Mail – Avatars at your service.
Wit Awards 2008:
Office for Women | ICT Career Development Award
WINNER: Tracy Whitelaw (Pimpama)
Organisation: MyCyberTwin
Women with less than 2 years industry experience
$1 000 cash prize, WiT 12 month Membership.
Bio Highlights:
Tracy has managed the build of complex artificial intelligence characters for clients ranging from NASA to National Australia Bank. Her role ranges from initial scoping to design and architecture and she came from a background in Psychology and in less than 2 years has gained a level of IT knowledge that has enabled her to move into a managerial role as knowledge engineer.
Judges Comments:
Tracy demonstrates a high level of passion and energy for IT and is an inspirational ambassador for women in the industry or those aspiring to move into the industry.
Tracy’s Comments:
This was a real honor for me. To be recognised by a group of influential, smart women for the start I’ve made in the IT industry really flattered me and gave me a great deal of inspiration. To know that there are organisations like WiT and the Office for Women out there who actively encourage women to become involved in what is a traditionally male environment is fantastic. I hope that during my year as the winner of the Career Development Award, I’m able to be a good ambassador for others who want to start in this field.
Mere Mortal Tracy Whitelaw Interview
I was recently interviewed by the lovely Faith Rees who works for the WiT Infotech Chapter and she was interested in what I did at MyCyberTwin. If you’d like to read more about creating your own evil clone, finding out what I actually do at work or simply want to laugh at some of my quotes, you can check out the full interview here: Mere Mortal Tracy Whitelaw.
Queensland Office For Women – Women in Hard Hats Series
The lovely ladies at the Office for Women in Queensland were kind enough to ask me to take part in their Women in Hard Hats series. Being recognised by the Office for Women is a real honor and obviously I was happy to get involved and would actually like to be more involved in what they’re doing there. If you’d like to see my Q&A with them, you can check it out here: Queensland Women in Hard Hats
Cerise Magazine Interview for Lesbian Gamers
As part of my ongoing commitment to creating a safe space for women gamers online, I work alongside the fantastic LesbianGamers.com. With this in mind, I often get asked for interviews about the state of the female demographic in gaming and whether there’s any real female presence in game development and playing. Cerise magazine wanted to interview me about lesbians in gaming in particular and about why I felt that it was important to have a website specifically targeted at lesbian gamers. If you’d like to read more about what I had to say, you can check out the interview here: Cerise Magazine Interview.
After Ellen: Queer Gamers Seize Controller
Another interview in conjunction with my work at LesbianGamers.com. This time it was regarding the inclusion of lesbian characters in gaming and whether there was any advancement on the traditionally male dominated realm of games. You can read the entire interview that was included as part of a larger article here: After Ellen Interview.
Edge Online: Is Lara Croft Sexist?
I was contacted by Kris Graft from Edge Magazine to speak to him about my views on Lara Croft and whether I believe her to be sexist or a feminist icon. It’s long been a discussion amongst academics and gamers as to whether Lara Croft represents everything a woman should be from a feminist perspective or from a sexist perspective. I was happy to share my thoughts with Kris and you can read his article, including my comments here: Is Lara Croft Sexist?
Killer Betties – Girl on Girl Gaming
Bonnie Ruberg is a great writer who specializes in articles and features on online worlds, gaming and other tech areas. She contacted me to speak to her about lesbian video gaming and wrote an article exploring gaming communities and looking at the very relevant issues for lesbian gamers in particular. You can read the article here: Girl on Girl Gaming.
OUTspoken – The Olympian
Ruth Schneider over at The Olympian paper in Olympia, Washington was interested in writing an article about games that include GLBT characters and asked me for my views on games like Mass Effect 2 and Fable II. I was happy to chat to her and give her some quotes for her piece. If you’d like to read Ruth’s view on gaming and gay and lesbian characters, you can read the article here: Games Include GLBT Characters.