“Girls Gone Geek” is a popular new technology show that lets women explore their own interests in technology. Somewhat like a potential offspring of “The View” and the G4 television network, the show is a hybrid of feminine talk show and technical know-how. In a world where most technology shows are made by men for men, this show finds a way to break the mold.
Dealing with traditional technology categories as well as areas such as health, fitness, beauty and entertainment, “Girls Gone Geek” is a weekly half-hour audio podcast available on the Podango network at http://girlsgonegeek.podango.com. Listeners can also interact through the show’s Web site and blog, located at http://girlsgonegeek.tv.
“We take traditional categories that are associated with women and look at them with a technology angle,” said Staci Degagne, one of the show’s five hosts.
Degagne said this ability to look at everything from the most attractive new stopwatch to use while running to software and games means that the show can appeal directly to women and their approach to technology.
“Women look at technology differently than men in some respects,” Degagne said. “A lot of the podcasts you hear that are created by men and aimed toward men are about trading specifications, whereas women, although they are into that a little, want to know ‘how is this applicable to my life? How can I use this in a productive way?'”
One of Degagne’s favorite episodes was when one of her co-hosts brought together her hobby of cross-stitching and technology. Playing off this idea that women look for technology’s pragmatic uses, her co-host took images from the Web and, after altering the photos into a low-resolution image, made them into cross-stitch patterns.
“It shows this old-world hobby that is traditionally done by women and how she blends technology in a very cool way to make unique pieces,” Degagne said.
The show aims to make technology seem much more accessible to women, and the hosts employ the term “geeky” to describe the varied ways in which they use technology.
“We’ve tried to redefine geeky a little bit,” said Liana Lehua, a co-host on the show. “Geeky would be whatever we are passionate about.”
Lehua, who describes herself as having the most traditional background in technology with previous jobs in the industrial technology field, said they address topics on the show that the hosts are interested in exploring. Since the hosts share ideas in a weekly meeting, this means that sometimes the women will also get to delve into new topics.
Among their shows, Lehua mentioned several that included more fun and different topics than those that might be seen on other shows. One included a segment that featured karaoke machines, which Lehua (a big fan of karaoke) said was a great show that dealt with the hardware as well as the entertainment end of the machines. Another was a segment that explored several Web sites that highlight techniques to get rid of a creative block.
“We wanted to find a way to talk about things that might seem too geeky or not geeky at all, and we needed to make it so technology seems more accessible,” Lehua said.
Lehua said that part of the show’s mission is to help women feel confident in expressing their own desire to learn about technology and their passion for it. They want to not only inspire women to feel confident in being a geek but to inspire men as well. Their show focuses more on women because of the five female co-hosts and because they feel women are mainly ignored in this area.
“A lot of women are scared because they think that they can’t grasp the concepts (of technology),” Degagne said. “I think everyone is capable; it just takes a little bit of effort.”
Both Degagne and Lehua touched on the fact that the show is meant to appeal to people with varying levels of technology experience. The hosts of the show themselves reflect this array of experience levels.
“With our show, you don’t have to be a geek to listen,” Degagne said. “We are called ‘Girls Gone Geek’ because we are women trying to be geeks. We are trying to represent all types of women, and we’re a learning environment.”
With this in mind, the girls will host a free podcast-production seminar on Jan. 14 from 1 to 5 p.m. at San Francisco State University. The event will be sectioned into two parts: “Geek Out! A Podcasting How-To” and “I’m a Geek, You’re a Geek, We’re All a Bunch a Girl Geeks.”
“This is an awesome way to empower and inspire our audience to ‘go geek,'” Degagne said in a press release. “By offering tips on podcast production, they too can share and talk about their interests … and whatever they want to ‘go geek’ about.”