International Women's Day and Gratitude

Jenn's Blog Entry

March 8, 2010

This morning one of our designers, Bear Files at Evolution Design reminded his followers over Twitter that it was International Women's Day. We had no idea! He attached a link to the Huffington Post that linked to a New York Times post that listed three items that would negate the injustices that many women around the world today still face. We wholeheartedly agree on every point and know there are some that are missing. The third point really struck a chord with us though, being the ability to make money.

We are so fortunate here in the States, or really in any Western nation for many reasons. During the ecomnomic downturn we've experienced we've met many women who have decided to form a business and leverage the Internet in order to make extra money for their families. I sometimes take this for granted that almost anyone can start a business with little to no money here.

Those in the places that are in most need of the extra capital are also the most limited in ways to engage in the commerce that is happening online. Not only is the easily imaginable a deterrence: the availability of hardware, Internet connection, and education, but there are also other road blocks that cannot be micro-financed away.

For example, in Arab speaking nations, they are just now introducing the ability to type in a top-level domain in your own native language, using your native characters vs. Latin characters. ICANN has fast tracked this change in hopes of making the Internet more accessible to billions of people. They put together a video that explains this in simple terms below. The first four countries to be approved for this were Egypt, Russia, Saudia Arabia and UAE, but will not be available for access until mid 2010. You can test this out at http://idn.icann.org./

Today is a great reminder in gratitude. We are grateful for our ability as women to be able to use the Internet to generate an income to help in contributing to our families and support other women in doing the same!

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