Thought by thought . . .

How do you define a role model in the category “women who tech?” Conversations about this and what comprises noteworthy examples abound:

• Fast Company’s “The Most Influential Women in Web 2.0” and “The Most Influential Women in Technology”
• Beth Kanter’s addendum –in response to Fast Company’s Lynne Johnson’s request to add women who tech worth noting in the non-profit sector.
• 50 Most Influential Female Bloggers:

In addition to these role models, several hundred women who tech will gather at She’s Geeky and Fem 2.0 over the next 3 days. Their list of speakers and attendees surely boast several hundred (to me) 🙂 more women worth watching.

(Note: BlogHer’s own co founder Elisa Camahort Page will speak at Fem 2.0 on the panel “Feminism on the Move: where we were and where we are now“ along with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director, Moms Rising; Olga Vives, Executive Vice President, NOW; Eleanor Smeal, President, Feminist Majority. The panel will be moderated by Shireen Mitchell who many will remember from Blogher 08.

WAM!, Mom 2.0, Blogher Business 09 and Blogher 09 will provide additional opportunities for women who tech to gather and learn from each other and continue to impact one another face to face while womenenews, wimnonline, womenwhotech shape our thoughts and stir our conversations daily.

But in bringing it home, I’ve started exploring my own definition of technology in considering the women who’ve:

• encouraged me to take risks: from learning how to read to riding a bike;
• taught me to be brave: from riding a motorcycle to traveling solo in other countries;
• motivated me to be a team player: from participating for four years on drill team to working for a decade with core curriculum teachers;
• insisted I asserting my opinions: from not crying when the bullies called me Tresha tubbolard to defending my jobs in performance reviews;
• invited me to think for myself: from not folding to peer pressure to respect diversity of individuality and opinion;
• taught me the value of forgiveness: from making up with your best friend to letting go a loved one.
• taught me how to love, to heal, to bind up the broken hearted and to bless all mankind.

These to me are the ways I’m defining “women who tech” of late.

Each and every element to me has shaped who I am online and offline, if there really is a difference, though of late she is transparent.

Hence, why just a few days ago, I was inspired by an occasion that not only celebrates across the blogosphere women who tech but allows you to expand your sense of that label.

Suw Charman Anderson founded Ada Lovelace Day (March 24, 2009) in hopes of bringing women in technology to the forefront and encouraging us to blog about whoever’s impacted our lives.  “Ada Lovelace,”  she notes, “was the first woman to have created computer programs for an analytical engine.”

Motivated by Penelope Lockwood’s (University of Toronto) findings insisting women need to see women as role models, Suw offers

“Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements.”

March 24, 2009 will commemorate “Ada’s” all round the bloggersphere when 1200+bloggers who’ve pledged to do so will blog about women in tech who’ve made a lasting impression.

You’re encouraged to participate:

• Pledge to blog Ada Lovelace Day
• Promote your pledge with a widget
  

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• blog about it
• follow twitter updates @findingada
• join the facebook event page to listen/discuss the event
• plan your own event to celebrate women who tech on Finding Ada Day(tweet up, joining in on a community event for Women’s History, a girls’ club, a boys’ club).
• Draft your blogpost (think about an expanded sense of tech…who could you include)?
• Teach your mom how to subscribe to RSS feeds.
• Teach your grandmother how to text message.
• Volunteer at a local library to teach someone to read, to write, to practice spoken language.
• Draw, paint, create anything that represents technology to you.
• Write a song and record it.

I could easily come up with 50+ women not to mention those I read who inspire me daily to write better, think more broadly, promote peace.

To them, I am infinitely grateful. To my contemporaries, I’m kneeling at your feet continuing to learn by your examples. To those who will come in the morrows, I salute your efforts. May my own continue to pioneer so that all will enjoy their inherent rights to express their minds in the security and freedom inherently theirs.

Why not join me?

1. Sign the pledge.
2. Ponder how you define ‘women who tech’ and
3. Think about who’s influenced your techie footsteps.
4. Come back and share a comment or several.

Thanks for exploring this with me and others around the blogosphere and beyond.

It’s a rather beautiful thing to consider how much our lives are interwoven by those that have gone before us and paved the way.

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