Aliza Sherman (Uh-LEE-zuh; born December 19, 1964, Honolulu, Hawaii) is a new media entrepreneur, author, women's issues activist, and international speaker.
Sherman has received recognition for her role as an entrepreneur focused on women's issues, particularly women's role in the new media industry and their participation on the Internet.
In 1995, she founded the first full-service Internet company owned by a woman - Cybergrrl, Inc. - and the first global women's new media networking organization - Webgrrls International, a hybrid of online and offline networking, education and mentoring for women interested in technology-related fields. She also launched the first three general interest web sites for women - Cybergrrl.com, Webgrrls.com, and Femina.com - all predating other major women's web sites. She is credited with coining the term "Webgrrls" to refer to women with Web sites.
The initial goal of Webgrrls was to provide a way for women to meet other women who were interested in and knowledgeable about the Internet. From Webgrrls' start as a series of meetups in New York City, the organization grew to include Webgrrls chapters founded around the US and eventually around the world. In addition to this Webgrrls International offered job lists and online training to members.
Beginning in 1998, some chapters began to secede from Webgrrls. The San Francisco Chapter left in August to form San Francisco Women on the Web followed by the Austin chapter, which formed Her Domain. In April 1999, the Washington D.C. chapter followed suit, forming DC Web Women. By the end of November 2000, nearly one third of Webgrrls' 30,000 members, primarily those from the USA and Canada, had defected to a single organization, called DigitalEve. The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia explores the reasons for these chapters and members leaving Webgrrls.
Sherman was named by Fast Company magazine as one of the Most Influential Women in Technology in the Blogger category.
She was also named by Newsweek magazine as one of the "Top 50 People Who Matter Most on the Internet" in 1995, one of only three women on the list.
She spent 1995 through 1999 running Cybergrrl, Inc. and speaking about the Internet for women at colleges and universities including Harvard Business School, Simmons College Graduate School of Management, Rutgers, New York University and Columbia University School of Business. She was also invited to speak internationally about issues pertaining to women and the Internet at events including Technology Conference for Women's NGOs, De Haag, Netherlands; Links Education Technology Conference, Stockholm, Sweden; 1999 Women Leaders Conference, Wellington, New Zealand and 1999 Women's Summit of the Americas, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
She was part of the American Association of University Women's Educational Foundation Commission on Technology, Gender, and Teacher Education exploring the technology gender gap in schools culminating in a report called Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age (2000).
She has been an advisor to nonprofit organizations for girls including GenAustin and numerous websites and women-owned Internet businesses including HipGuide and College Broadband.
In 1999, she resigned from Cybergrrl, Inc. The companies Cybergrrl, Inc. and Webgrrls International are run by CEO Kevin Kennedy. In 2001, Sherman relocated to Wyoming from New York City.
She is co-owner of social media marketing agency Conversify.
She is a blogger with several blogs of her own including Babyfruit and Aliza Sherman Rants and Raves. She blogs professionally for WebWorkerDaily.com, WomenEntrepreneur.com and WorkitMom.com.
She hosts an audio podcast on the Rezzed.TV network called Cybergrrl Oh : Living a 2nd Life as the avatar Cybergrrl Oh in the virtual world Second Life. She is the creator and former host of Quick and Dirty Tips Digital Marketer, a podcast on online tools.
Her sixth book was "The Everything Blogging Book," published in 2006. Her seventh book, "Streetwise Ecommerce," was published in 2008. Her eighth book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Crowdsourcing" will publish in Spring 2011.
