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Speaking Topic: WIOS: Women and open source: A match made in hormones.
Susan Kuchinskas (susan@kuchinskas.com) is the author of Love Chemistry: How Oxytocin Lets Us Love, Trust and Mate, to be published by Amacom Books in 2008. The book explains oxytocin's central role in positive human interactions. Her blog, Hug the Monkey, is recognized as one of the most authoritative sources for information about oxytocin. She's a veteran journalist and creative writer who's enjoyed a ringside seat at the development of the Internet industry. She charted the rise of digital culture for Wired News, covering the birth of craigslist, the Well and online communities. As senior reporter for Adweek IQ, she was on hand for the birth of e-commerce and interactive advertising. She analyzed the online marketing and ecommerce industries in her role as senior writer for Business 2.0, and then examined the intricacies of mobile Internet technologies as a founding editor for CMP's M-Business. Her first book, Going Mobile: Building the Real-Time Enterprise with Mobile Applications That Work (CMP Books 2003) was a guide for business executives. She became an expert in search for internetnews.com, and parlayed that expertise into The 360, an investigational blog that untangled the tech and business dealings of Yahoo, Google and Microsoft. Susan has written about science, art, design, food and culture for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, Metropolis, Art & Antiques, and AlterNet. She's a regular contributor to WebMD magazine's Mind Matters section.
Abstract
Why women are highly suited to leading collaborative projects Oxytocin is the neurochemical of love and attachment; it's also the neurochemical that lets us form trusting relationships, the kind we need to do business. Two 400,000-year-old systems evolved to help us survive:- Fight or flight = cortisol and adrenaline (norepinephrine)
- Calm and connect = oxytocin and serotonin: Until Kristen Uvnas Moberg identified this overlooked process which is vital to health, oxytocin was seen as the hormone of childbirth
- Coding skill
- Inspiration
- TRUST
- There is at least as much variation among individuals as there is between the sexes.
- Any one person may fall anywhere on the trust/competition spectrum.
- The prefrontal cortex helps us make decisions about how to behave.