I really want to blog about a woman in tech today. I think Ada Lovelace day is awesome, and was charmed when someone wished me a happy Ada Lovelace day this morning.
However, I have a dearth of role models. Does passively stalking someone on Twitter count as knowing someone? Even with the odd, brief, interaction? Of course there’s a female prof who I speak to perhaps, once every 3 months. A friend from undergrad, except she left computer science in order to be – of all things – an economist.
I’ve uncounted many women who are geeks and proud, even if they’re not programmers – Kelly (who runs GGD Ottawa), Alex who’s in Human Factors, Caitlin who’s a grad student in Communications working on something fascinating to do with Twitter and the future of journalism, Treena who has a social networking startup (Betidings – it’s awesome, check it out). Tammy works where tech and design meet – always supportive, always inspirational. Emily, who’s just starting out as a programmer (and also has a start up).
There are some female programmers – Sacha (IBMer, mentor), fellow grad students Oana, Jen, and Terri. Finally, Hilary Mason and danah boyd, neither of whom are aware of my existence but who I think are really awesome.
But as of Ada Lovelace day 2010, there’s no one female programmer who is a significant inspiration to me. I don’t know any of them well enough.
Is it weird to admit that I inspire myself, when I persevere, create, surprise myself by what I’m capable of?
New goal. Step 1. Find more female programmers. Step 2. Learn from them and get to know them. Step 3. Have something better to write next year.
Meanwhile, I leave you with that list of the most inspiring women in my Twitter network. And console myself with the thought – that compared to the situation in my undergrad, that’s a pretty huge improvement.