Last year I participated in the first Ada Lovelace Day by writing a blog post about a woman in science or technology that I admired. In my case, I wrote about more than one; in fact I wrote about 5 Australian women in IT that I see kicking arse and taking names on an almost daily basis.

The day was a huge success with something like 3500 people participating. This year it’s happening again on March 24 – less than a month away.

I’d encourage anyone who blogs – even if it’s not regularly – to consider putting their name down and writing something up – it’s all about highlighting the often-overlooked contribution made by women in science and technology fields. You don’t have to be a woman to participate either – blokes are more than welcome!

Now of course, i have to decide who to write about – as last year, it’s going to be a question of whether I choose one individual to concentrate on, or showcase a number of women. There’s just so many to choose from!

Posted from kay lives here

Ada Lovelace Day 2010: coming up soon

These are not the people who get accolades (well, not all of them). But they each possess qualities that I admire and so this post is a little thank you to them for being wonderful.

First up is Sonja Bernhardt. She’s somewhat well known as a spokesperson for the issues facing women in IT and unlike the other women I’m going to talk about, she does get accolades, and they are well-deserved. I admire Sonja for looking at the gender problem and actually doing something about it. Not of all of her ideas succeed, but she has the drive to keep trying different things regardless and she deserves recognition for that.

Second of all I’d like to call out someone near and dear to me: Helen Burgess. Helen is a lecturer at Central TAFE and faces a daily uphill battle to get web development best practices taught to students, in line with industry requirements and expectations. As I write “a daily uphill battle” I can’t help but imagine her battling through a computer-game like world, blasting away at budgetary restraints, stuffy traditionalist teachers and restrictive guidelines as she goes to get her morning coffee. I’m sure it’s less dramatic than that. Helen sits on the Australian Web Industry Association committee (as do I), and is also the Judging Chairperson for the WA Web Awards – so she’s keeping us all honest.

My next local heroine is the fabulous Harriet Wakelam. Harriet works with all kinds of educational technology. I admire Harriet not only for what she achieves, but for her passion for educating which can’t help but come through when you speak to her. Harriet is also on the AWIA committee and when I first met her (at a Port80 networking event at the pub) I was impressed by her ability to juggle a young family and a technology career and still have time for the occasional beer at the pub with some colleagues. She’s a superwoman for sure.

Next I’d like to welcome to my imaginary stage Maxine Sherrin. Maxine is one of the organisers of Web Directions, the web tech conference that has basically become a full time endeavour for her over the past few years and has inspired all kinds of other events, including but not limited to our own Edge of the Web conference in Perth. Maxine is unbelievably cool, and she makes stuff happen. Also she gets to hang out with cool people. In fact, when I grow up, I totally want to be Maxine.

As I write this I realise there’s more and more people I could write about, but I’m going to limit myself to one more: Cheryl Gledhill. Chezza and I share some common ground in that we both decided to start our own businesses in the web development sphere with our partners. I look at the way Molt:n have approached their business and have picked up some things that I think we could be doing better (and I wear my Molt:n “I like code” tshirt with pride). I also love Cheryl’s attitude, which comes through in her blog posts and tweets – this girl does not take shit from anyone.

So there you have – just a few of the Australian women in IT that I admire.

Posted from kay lives here

Ada Lovelace Day: My Local Heroines

Image via Wikipedia

A couple of my Twitter contacts alerted me to this PledgeBank pledge by journalist and blogger Suw Charman-Anderson:

"I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same."

Well, being a woman in technology it’s hard not be interested by the topic, and of course Ada King, Countess of Lovelace is one historical character with a fair whack of geek cred. Being acknowledged as the first computer programmer in general makes also being the first woman in computing seem kind of insignificant in comparison – which is the way it should be. I also have a niece named in her honour.

So who’s with me? March 24 is a fair way away, so you’ve got plenty of time to think of a woman in technology who you admire. As one of the commenters on the PledgeBank page said, it’s going to be hard to pick just one!

Boing Boing says: Ada Lovelace Day needs your support!

Posted from kay lives here

Blog about women in tech for Ada Lovelace Day

…and it was lots of fun. The controversy seems to have died down a bit, but hopefully the publicity and money generated will have a positive effect on the number of women entering IT careers in the coming years.

I see an interesting article this morning on Victoria’s Border Mail: IT babe gets TV interest. Apparently US television producers are interested in calendar cover model Sonja Breeze for a new show dealing with women in IT careers. Wow.

Posted from kay lives here

IT Screen Goddess TV deal?

The IT Screen Goddess calendar, oh the controversy, and the proper web site hasn’t even launched! The Australian IT got an article in already, apparently there was a phone poll on yesterday morning’s Sunrise show, and of course bloggers have started talking about it already.

I wrote a post about my views on the glamour calendar topic yesterday (I am helping out with the web site) and that post is getting some comments, but it was only yesterday arvo as I was walking through Leederville to get to a meeting that I realised what my real issue was. I like being a geek. I don’t have a problem with the stereotype. I don’t think it’s negative (maybe the stereotype I’m thinking of isn’t the one other people think of) – geeks are smart people, and smart is sexy. So it kind of irks me to acknowledge that other people think there’s something wrong with that, and that movie star glamour is somehow better.

At any rate, I haven’t seen the full calendar and I do want to see what all the fuss is about for myself. And anything that promotes discussion of women and careers in IT and the web is A Good Thing. Bring it on!

Posted from kay lives here

Goddess calendar brouhaha