Suw Charman, whom I met on IRC some years ago and later met at Northern Voice, tipped me off a few weeks ago that today is Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating both the woman heralded as the "first programmer" and women in technology generally. As part of my pledge, rather than list off those women in technology who inspire me and forget someone, I'll single out the obvious: my girlfriend Karen.
Although we had chatted for a few days before, she and I met at a conference her university class held at the time about Information and Communication Technologies, or ICTs. Her presentation focused on the ICT response during the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and since then she has impressed me with her ability to laterally think about social media and organizational and social change and make connections between emerging ideas in the field. Her appreciation of open source technology equals mine, and her understanding and drive towards transparent collaboration outpaces mine. She wants a better, working world and understands that social media finally puts us on that path.
In 2009 we're still talking about "women in technology" and now we have a single day to highlight the achievements in the field. 2009! Why aren't we celebrating women and men in technology all the time? Why isn't it obvious that there are just as many female geeks as there are male geeks? Why isn't it normal that women roughly equal, in numbers, the employees of technical companies, in computing and otherwise? Why are women-in-technology conferences still necessary? Technology brought Karen and me together, and not a day goes by that she doesn't create another universe I hadn't thought of. Thank you, Suw, for making today a day to celebrate, but really, every day is Ada Lovelace Day. Why we only celebrate it on March 24th is beyond me.
