DC Web Women to Celebrate 12 Years of Service to Women in New Media

Over a Decade Later, Group Continues to Encourage and Support Professional Women in Washington-metro’s New Media-Related Fields

March 21, 2007 [Washington, DC] — Renowned Washington-metro area new media group DC Web Women (DCWW), a virtual community devoted to encouraging women in new media since 1995, will be celebrating its 12th year anniversary on April 19, 2007 at the American Public Power Association in downtown Washington, D.C. DCWW has enjoyed a long, fruitful history of existence, limitless contributions towards advancing women in technology-related fields such as web development and web design, and a strong sense of loyal community compared to other new media groups that had sprung up during the dot-com era but are now defunct.

“When DCWW first debuted in the mid 90s, none of us could have foreseen that 12 years later, our group’s mission would continue to be as relevant now as it was back then,” says Mary Fumento, DCWW’s Technology Chair. “To know that our active community and our steadfast supporters are as ardent about our group today as they were when they first joined is the reason we continue to be in existence. Our mission has always been to encourage women in professional fields of new media; fields that traditionally are known to not be dominated by women. Today and well beyond tomorrow, this will continue to be both our mission and our passion.”

Continuing its steady growth, supporting women in new media as a viable, credible resource and staying relevant in the fickle, ever-changing world of technology is an ongoing challenge but one that DCWW is committed to taking on. “We’ve come along way from our initial small group of Internet early-adapters in 1995. Today, we are a non-profit organization of 2000+ female-members strong who work in the new media trenches day in and day out. From the very beginning, we’ve been all about the women who work the web,” says Merry Bruns, owner of ScienceSites Communications and resident DCWW diva known best for web content strategy her popular web writing classes. “When I moved to DC in 1996, I was speaking to a potential employee I’d found through our newly created list and was working at Proxicom before I’d even unpacked. If anything told me that this organization was going to thrive forward, that did.”

DCWW members could hardly agree more. “I've been a member of DC Web Women since 1996,” says Sara Cormeny, independent web designer. “With all the things that have changed in this industry over the past decade, DCWW has been my constant. Four email addresses and two jobs later, I can tell you that DCWW is the single-most important professional resource I return to time and again. I'm now a web consultant and solo practitioner, and the web women are an invaluable team of virtual co-workers who I can ask for advice on the latest technology, help troubleshooting a computer-related problem, and feedback on my design work-in-progress.” Cormeny adds, “It's an exceptional community that attracts many of the smartest people working in the DC area in technology. And the fact that it's all women in a male-dominated sector is really value-added for me!”

About DCWW

DC Web Women is a completely volunteer-run organization encouraging women in new media and technology. In addition to its formal leadership structure, the organization also has numerous volunteers who work tirelessly to support all aspects of the group, including our mailing list, website, meetings and workshops. For more information about DC Web Women, becoming a corporate sponsor or to subscribe to their discussion lists, please visit http://www.dcwebwomen.org/.

What other
DCWW members
are saying...

"In the 11 or so years since I've been a member I have gotten 3 of the last 4 jobs I had from DCWW leads, recruited 3 consultants and one top-performing employee from job postings,learned about XML, basic javascript and what the heck CSS is and gained invaluable leadership skills from my time serving on the Steering Committee. DCWW has been a success magnet for me!"
Lorelei Brown

"I joined when we were Webgrrls. The first day I joined I hired a programmer and landed a new client-Amnesty International. I'd say that was a great day! It's been like that ever since. I learned more in three months about web technology on the list than I did trying to teach myself over the course of two years prior to joining."
Sherri Arnaiz, Creative Director

"I joined about 3 years ago, and what I’ve found is that it has become a wonderful resource and educational tool for me. I have learned so much about things that I needed to know (and didn’t know how to find) simply by reading the posts!"
Joan Muschamp, Applied Knowledge Group, Inc.

"Since 1999, DCWW has directly and indirectly accounted for 75% of my business. Every major contract I have gotten has been through a DCWW contact. I'm active with many organizations, but at the end of the day, DCWW outperforms them all!"
Jamila White, The E-Commerce Diva(tm)