The National Center for Women & Information Technology ( NCWIT ) released their report “Women in IT: The Facts” today, examining the current state of affairs for women working in IT and computing careers. The report addresses some of the reasons why women leave the industry at staggering rates and what companies can do to attract and retain them. Sponsor Although the percentage of jobs held by women in almost all other sciences has increased, the report indicates that women’s participation in computing jobs has been on the decline since 1991, when it reached a high of 36%. Although the overall number of jobs in the computing sector is increasing, interest in computing careers – for men and women – is shrinking. According to NCWIT, if these trends continue, by 2018 the U.S. tech industry will only be able to fill half the available IT jobs. Women’s Declining Participation in IT Impacts Profits & Innovation The NCWIT report contains extensive data about how the loss of women in IT impacts corporate profitability, innovation, and competitiveness. For example, companies with the highest representation of women in senior management teams had a 35% higher return on equity and a 34% higher return to shareholders. The report challenges the stereotype that women are simply not interested in technology careers. Even women majoring in computer science tend to pursue careers in other industries. Women who do work in the tech sector have an attrition rate that is more than double that of men. The NCWIT report contends that 56% of women in technology companies leave their organizations at the mid-level point (10-20 years) in their careers, a costly loss of talent. Simply reducing this attrition rate by one quarter would add over 200,000 workers to the IT talent pool. The research indicates that unconscious bias and gender pay gaps are significant factors. Women account for just 9% of IT management positions and after 15 years experience and earn 11% less than men do. Other factors that women point to for leaving the IT workforce include isolation, lack of role models and mentors, poor supervisory relationships and competing life responsibilities. Addressing the Barriers to Participation The report also provides detailed advice about what companies can do to combat the loss of female IT talent. The primary recommendation is for companies to develop an “ecosystem of reform,” which author and NCWIT senior research scientist Catherine Ashcraft outlines in the report. Ashcraft suggests a multi-pronged approach that includes establishing top leadership support and institutional accountability, as well as improving the supervisory relationship. NCWIT is a coalition of over 200 corporations, academic institutions, non profits, and governmental agencies working to address some of these challenges. NCWIT supports efforts within the workforce, in universities, and in K-12 education in order to increase women’s participation in IT – in the classroom, in startups, and in corporations. “Women in IT: The Facts” was sponsored by the NCWIT Workforce Alliance , which includes Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, Avaya, Bank of America, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cisco, EMC, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Marriott, Medco, Microsoft, Motorola, Pfizer, Qualcomm and Wal-Mart. Discuss

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While Facebook was once again the biggest story this week ( “Likejacking” Takes Off on Facebook ), our top stories range from the coming data explosion to an argument against linking. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010: There are RFID hoaxes and hexes in the Internet of Things ; a special logo for augmented reality ; and the oil spill goes real time . Read on for more. Sponsor Story of the Week “Likejacking” Takes Off on Facebook George W. Bush Has Joined Facebook The Coming Data Explosion The Case Against Links iPad: $1 Billion Later, What Do You Think of It Now? Google.com Gets A Photo – Yours More coverage and analysis from ReadWriteWeb The Real-Time Web Summit, New York City You’re invited to join ReadWriteWeb for our third event and our first on the East Coast: the ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit , on June 11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. This is our second Summit on the Real-Time Web, following on from our successful debut event in Mountain View last October. It will follow the same unconference format, which we have gotten a lot of great feedback on. The Real-Time Web is a set of technologies that impacts almost every service, activity and application on the Web. We were one of the first news outlets to analyze the Real-Time Web and we’ve since written extensively about it . Come to the summit to understand how it impacts you, your business and your next development. The ReadWriteWeb team is excited about our first New York event and we look forward to seeing you there! Click here to get a 30% discount on your registration. Real-Time Web YouTube Adds Real-Time Discussion Support with Google Moderator Oilaholic: Oil Spill Goes Real-Time Spy-in-the-Sky as a Cloud Service More Real-Time Web coverage . Don’t miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb’s report, The Real-Time Web and its Future . Augmented Reality Augmented Reality Get Its Own Standardized Logo How Augmented Reality Helps Doctors Save Lives

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“More than 99% of the stories linked to in blogs came from legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks. And just four – the BBC, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post accounted for fully 80% of all links.” This is one of the assertions in the latest report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism , ” New Media, Old Media .” Sponsor The data the report is based comes from the New Media Index and the News Coverage Index . Pew describes the former as “a weekly report that captures the leading commentary of blogs and social media sites focused on news and compares those subjects to coverage in the mainstream press.” This figure seems wildly out of sync with the admittedly non-statistical experience of the editorial staff at ReadWriteWeb. No Original News on Twitter? Another surprising finding was about original news on Twitter. According to the study, there was no original news at all on Twitter. “Here half (50%) of the links were to legacy outlets; 40% went to web-only news sources such as Mashable and CNET. The remaining 10% went to wire stories or non-news sources…” Pew used the term “links” here, though earlier in the report they ask, “What types of news stories do consumers share and discuss the most?” Have they limited their discussion of Twitter solely to Tweets with links? It is a common way of sharing news on Twitter, but not the only way. ReadWriteWeb has reported several times on not just news reporting but breaking news on Twitter. Questions to Pew about these figures and their sources were not returned by posting time. We will add an update when and if they are. A Difference in Emphasis Which stories were deemed most important differed between mainstream media and social media and between types of social media. “Blogs shared the same lead story with traditional media in just 13 of the 49 weeks studied. Twitter was even less likely to share the traditional media agenda – the lead story matched that of the mainstream press in just four weeks of the 29 weeks studied. On YouTube, the top stories overlapped with traditional media eight out of 49 weeks. ” Of all the social media covered in the study, YouTube had the most international focus. The report states that 26% of the news videos watched were of non-U.S. events. But the most-watched videos were not of “the most important or pressing topic of the week, but rather what image or video was the most interesting to view.” Examples included Susan Boyle on “Britain’s Got Talent” (the most popular video during one week in June and viewed 100 million times in less than a month) and a drunk bus driver endangering students. Discuss

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In its 14th annual report to the United States Congress on wireless competition, the Federal Communications Commission said that far from diversifying, the sector is actually concentrating in fewer hands. Covering a period including 2008 and into 2009, the report, issued today, found that this concentration had increased 32 percent since 2003 and 6.5 percent in 2008, indicating a significant decrease in competition. Less competition usually means fewer choices and higher prices for both individual and enterprise consumers. Sponsor The nature of wireless has also changed, encompassing a great deal more data, such as the “transition to a data-centric marketing” with activities such as text messaging and Web browsing, and a greater emphasis on wireless broadband. This report incorporated these changes. “Over the past five years, concentration has increased in the provision of mobile wireless services. The two largest providers, AT&T, Inc. (AT&T) and Verizon Wireless, have 60 percent of both subscribers and revenue, and continue to gain share (accounting for 12.3 million net additions in 2008 and 14.1 million during 2009). The two next largest providers, T-Mobile USA (T-Mobile) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (Sprint Nextel), had a combined 1.7 million net loss in subscribers during 2008 and gained 827,000 subscribers during 2009.” In a statement accompanying the report, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps agreed. “(C)ompetition has been dramatically eroded and is seriously endangered by continuing consolidation and concentration in our wireless markets,” he wrote. The report also found that capital investment in the wireless industry has declined relative to size. Bottom photography from Geograph Discuss

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It’s not déjà vu – this week’s top story was, like last week, about deleting Facebook: “How Do I Delete My Facebook Account?” A Fast Growing Query (Image) . We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010: We gave readers a rundown of the top Internet of Things blogs; in data portability news Facebook sued Power.com; and we took a look at the state of augmented reality in the aftermath of the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit. Read on for more. Sponsor Story of the Week: How do I Delete Facebook? “How Do I Delete My Facebook Account?” A Fast Growing Query (Image) Wikipedia Goes 3D More Web Industry Leaders Quit Facebook, Call For Open Alternative 10 Internet of Things Blogs To Keep An Eye On Study: Twitter Is Not a Very Social Network Mozilla’s Plans for Firefox 4: Faster, Sleeker Interface & Better Privacy Controls More coverage and analysis from ReadWriteWeb Mobile Web Why You Should Jailbreak the iPad The Slow Death of the Landline: Quarter of U.S. Households are Now Wireless-Only RWW Mobile Summit: Coverage Round-Up More Mobile Web coverage Augmented Reality State of the Augmented Reality Union from the RWW Mobile Summit More Augmented Reality coverage Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Our Newest Research Report We’re pleased to announce ReadWriteWeb’s latest premium report, Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Analysis of the Leaders, the Challenges and the Future . This report will help you develop a sophisticated understanding of Augmented Reality (AR), the mobile and Web technology that places data on top of a user’s view of the physical world. The research included will help you decrease your AR development time to market by learning from the first wave of early adopters. AR offers a new marketing and product paradigm for a high impact, high value customer experience. More than 1,000 AR campaigns were kicked-off last year and we expect to see many more in 2010. In this report, we profile key AR development companies, their campaigns as well as development lessons learned. For more information or to buy the report, visit here . Internet of Things 10 Internet of Things Blogs To Keep An Eye On Ranching in the Cloud More Internet of Things coverage Data Portability Enki Sports Debuts Smartphone-Based Training for iPhone Facebook Suing Power.com for Auto-Logging More Data Portability coverage Real-Time Web Time.com Dips its Toes Into the Real-Time Stream Is Real-Time Search Still Waiting for Mainstream Adoption? More Real-Time Web coverage . Don’t miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb’s report, The Real-Time Web and its Future . Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app . As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we’ve made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes . ReadWriteStart Our channel ReadWriteStart , sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark , is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. When Entrepreneurs Should Ignore Advice Why VCs Won’t Sign Your NDA Balancing Act: Keeping Power Users Happy Without Overwhelming the Newbies ReadWriteCloud Our channel ReadWriteCloud , sponsored by VMware and Intel, is dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing. IBM Uses Emoticons, Social Media for Predictive Analytics Sharepoint 2010 Launch: A Chance To Make Some Comparisons How Darwin’s Finches and API’s Are Connected in the Post 20th Century Economy Enjoy your weekend everyone. Subscribe to Weekly Wrap-up You can subscribe to the Weekly Wrap-up by RSS or by email below. RWW Weekly Wrap-up Email Subscription form: Discuss

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