Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day at Oracle

Lovely infographic including Ada Lovelace Day tweets from many Oracle team members - Enjoy!

GHC13: A Man's Perspective - An Interesting View

I've seen men at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing before, but I've never seen anything written by them after attendance.  This week I came across two outstanding blogs written by men about being a man at a female dominated event.

From Jamie Talbot, Is This What It's Like For Women At Every Conference?

From Owyn Richen, Grace Hopper 2013 - A Guy's Perspective:

"I was a little intimidated thinking about being among the minority at the conference, gender-wise, and it made me better understand how a woman might feel in our male-dominated industry. Once I got there, all I really felt was excitement about having the opportunity to learn from leaders in both the academic and industry sectors, who happen to be women."

Update: a third blog was sent my way by Matt Wallaert, Observations from the Land of Amazons:

"And honestly, having dramatically more women than men around actually made me relax too. There was no implicit competition, no being bothered by obnoxious crowds of guys crowded around the sexually attractive women and ignoring the less attractive ones."

These two [update: three] blogs from men that attended this year's GHC really put in perspective what it's like for nearly every woman at a male dominated conference, minus the fear of assault or having their opinions dismissed due to their gender.

These are really thought provoking and worth reading. Also, from these blogs, you get a real sense that this isn't just a "feel good networking event for women" (as I've heard it called by many who have a drastically incorrect impression of the event), but rather an outstanding technical conference that also helps you to grow your soft skills, inspires and raises your confidence as a person in tech.

GHC is one of the most inclusive conferences I've ever been to. You do not have to be a woman to attend, you don't even have to have a strong gender identity at all. The conference also provides FREE child care which really makes it possible for parent's to travel to such an event and not have to struggle to find child care in a strange city.

I missed this year's GHC (first time since 2007), because I was presenting at another conference the week before (ICMC) - but following the twitter feeds and blogs really helped me feel like I was attending virtually. Thank you, Online Communities Committee, for capturing your memories for me.

With Ada Lovelace Day this week, I have to say I continue to be inspired by the work that Anita Borg did to plant the seed to create this amazing community of women that is Systers, Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology LinkedIn group (nearly 10K strong), Grace Hopper Celebration, Women of Vision Awards... her influence goes on and on and she inspires me nearly every day.

Any other blogs that I've missed? What are you thoughts?

This post syndicated from: Thoughts on security, beer, theater and biking!

Support the Ada Initiative and Drink Beer!

Two of my favorite things to talk about, all in one place! The Ada Initiative, which supports and encourages women participating in Open Technology, is holding a meetup tonight, Wednesday August 1st, at the Tied House in Mountain View, CA (which now has 14 beers on tap!) so we can all learn more about what the Ada Initiative is up to and socialize while drinking beer!

So, if you're curious about open technology, women in open tech, or just want to support this great organization, come on by!

Check out the Ada Initiative's event registration page for more details.

See you there!

Ada Lovelace Day: Women Who Inspire Me

There's about an hour left of Ada Lovelace Day - a day we can all write about women in technology that we've found to be inspiring or in some way encouraging...

I've been mulling over this all day, trying to think of a woman mentor from my past that inspired me to continue in computing, before it finally hit me that I'm actually inspired every day by two very cool (and younger than I am!) women I got to know last year at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing - Ed & Ashley!

These two fun loving former college roommates have a zest for all things techy and geeky unmatched by almost anyone I've ever met. They both actively reach out to other women (and men) in technology with their twitter accounts (Ed's / Ashley's), their blogs and their 5-minute shows on technology.

I was even part of a webinar today with Ed, sponsored by Microsoft, where we talked to high school and college students about our careers (so far) and was amazed at how Ed's love for computing was totally palpable over the phone!