FROM MISS "I DON'T KNOW" TO MISS 2.0

HERE IS THE ARTICLE I HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT SO MUCH! SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Justine Ezarik sits at her desk in front of two large computer screens. It's a typical Thursday night and she is live on UstreamTV, a site that acts as a small-scale Big Brother allowing viewers to tune in to video streams from people's web cams. Her online show incorporates her geeky knowledge with plain and simple conversation.

On the surface, Ezarik looks like a typical 24-year-old Quarter-lifer. Someone who is part of Generation-Y, "the Millenials," the kids who are changing the face of the internet. But she is much more. She IS the internet.

Or so she says.

Ezarik (or iJustine -- as she's known in the tech neighborhood), first reached internet stardom when she strapped a camera onto her baseball cap and recorded her life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- setting the stage for the birth of her trademark: "I am the Internet."

Known as a new-media star, Ezarik embodies the Web 2.0 Media Revolution -- she's tech savvy, entrepreneurial, and most importantly, she's a girl. Although web 2.0 has many definitions, it is essentially the internet trend of information sharing through social networking sites, wikis, and blogs, allowing users to collaborate in their online experience.

The recent social media craze with such websites has opened up the possibilities for female journalism and entrepreneurship in the tech world, specifically through online television. From Veronica Belmont to Cali Lewis, iJustine, and Amber Mac, the age of the video podcast and live streaming via Ustream and Qik cam (i.e. live from a cell phone) have broken the gender barrier of the tech world.

In other words, more women are becoming geeks.

"There's not many of us," says Ezarik. "But we're kind of getting there. More power to the ladies!" When Ezarik was in high school she was the only girl in her computer science classes for three years straight.

"It was kind of ridiculous," she says, but it was nothing new. She claims that very early on she started taking apart computers, VCR's, and whatever else she could get her hands on. For girls like Ezarik, being into computers and video games meant having to hang with the boys, but in 2008, the tables seem to be turning.

In a study of 13.2 million people conducted by RapLeaf.com, the only email-based reputation lookup on the web, out of 2.6 million Facebook users, 63 percent are female and 36 percent are male. Women also dominate social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, Hi5 and Plaxo. In a similar report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, teens who use technology to deal with friends and family through cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email represent 28 percent of the entire teen population. And they are more likely to be older girls.

Both men and women use social networking sites, but whereas men and boys are creating business contacts and playing video games, women and girls are decorating their profile pages and building personal relationships.

"It's the iPod generation," says Sarah Meyers, a lifecaster and video journalist with her own daily online tech show, Pop17. "For a woman with a voice, web 2.0 is a great community to get involved with."

Meyers got into tech when she understood that her computer was a powerful tool that could bring people together and lead to social justice. And despite being a girl, it didn't stop her from starting a club, creating a blog, and producing and hosting an online show.

"The community is friendly and responsive to women and gives women more of an advantage," says Meyers.

One female who is taking advantage of this opportunity is Meghan Asha, technology hedge fund analyst and frequent correspondent on Fox. Asha is currently working on a start-up of her own alongside two of her best friends, Star Editor-at-Large, Julia Allison, and Mary Rambin, stylist and founder of Moe bags. As three girls who are soon going to become the leaders of their own company, Asha has become well aware of how powerful women can be.

"I think it's incredibly important to have female role models in the tech industry," she says. "You rarely see companies that are not run completely by men. We need more women to get involved!"

So are young women going to revolutionize the corporate world?

Matt Schlicht, blogger, entrepreneur, and Business Development Associate for UstreamTV, says, "As the internet becomes a part of everyone's daily life it has reached the stage where girls have become curious of what lies beyond MySpace and online stores. The majority of the web entrepreneurs are guys, but like in the business world, I'm sure the go-getters of the female variety will start coming on strong."

While young women are quickly catching on to the social media world, there is still that misconception that the tech industry is a "boys-only club." There isn't a significant number of girls exploring new web 2.0 tools, and even less are taking computer science classes at school.

However, Leah Culver, founder and lead developer for the hot new social network, Pownce, says anybody should be able to pursue technology regardless of gender.

"The web industry can be a little bit intimidating," she says, "but it's easy to get into." Culver suggests that girls who are interested in working with web communities start by becoming members of a social site like Pownce or Facebook.

Culver got interested in technology in high school when she created a few websites using just basic HTML. When she went to college she wanted to study design, specifically web design, and that's where she fell in love with programming.

Culver's advice to girls who are scared to venture into technology is to just do whatever makes you happy. "I can't imagine ever doing anything other than programming," she says. "If you like playing around on the internet, go for it."

Another blogger who says girls shouldn't be intimidated by the techie, geek, or nerd labels if they are interested in technology is Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate for Symantec. Merritt believes that if Web 2.0 is characterized as being a by the people, for the people content creation movement, then everyone needs to participate.

"As the tools for activities like photo creation and publishing, blogging, even website creation become less about writing code and more about ease of use," she explains, "the barriers to getting started have really gone away."

As for the girls who sometimes can't understand social media, Merritt's advice is to relax.

"Don't feel pressure from others that you aren't cool if you aren't on Facebook or Twittering," she says. "Find your personal interests and visit blogs that focus on those subjects. If you are an amateur chef, visit cooking blogs. Post a comment after you try a recipe. Start a blog to record the recipes you try and how they turned out. Take a digital photo of a new dish. Upload it to Flickr or to your blog. Slowly but surely, you will find you are a 'creator' both offline and on."