Ada Lovelace Day needs your support!

Suw sez,

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Over 300 people have already signed a pledge to publish a blog post, video blog or podcast episode about a woman they admire on 24th March 2009. We need 700 more people for the pledge to be successful.

Recent research by psychologist Penelope Lockwood discovered that women need to see female role models more than men need to see male ones. But in the tech world women's contributions often go unacknowledged and role models are hard to find. Ada Lovelace Day is a chance for us to sing the praises of the women who make tech tick: entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants... The list of tech-related careers is almost endless and we want to see examples from all of them!

Ada Lovelace Day (Thanks, Suw!)

[#1 posted by KanedaJones , January 7, 2009 11:27 AM]

this will give me a chance to blog about either grace hopper, computer pioneer or the two women whose names escape me who were (uncredited) big shots in the BBC radiophonic department all those long years ago before the doctor who theme was made.

[#2 posted by zuzu , January 7, 2009 11:37 AM]

Rosalind Franklin and the discovery of DNA.

[#3 posted by UglyDeafMuslimPunkGurl , January 7, 2009 11:38 AM]

Sweet. There are way too many women leaders that I admire, it would be too hard to narrow it down to one.

[#4 posted by jmzrbnsn , January 7, 2009 11:39 AM]

I know one is Delia Derbyshire.
Check out the album An Electric Storm by White Noise.

[#5 posted by zuzu , January 7, 2009 11:39 AM]

Bonnie Bassler and bacteria quorum sensing.

[#6 posted by Jake von Slatt , January 7, 2009 11:40 AM]

I'm in!

[#7 posted by TheLoveOfBeer , January 7, 2009 11:42 AM]

Wilma Flintstone and the discovery of fire.

[#8 posted by KanedaJones , January 7, 2009 11:43 AM]

@jmzrbnsn
Right, right.. got that album lying around too.. shame on me.

[#9 posted by NZheretic , January 7, 2009 11:52 AM]

Someone should mention Joanna Rutkowska, Founder and CEO of Invisible Things Lab, if only for her recent breaking of Intel's Trusted Execution Technology. It is one bitter pill for those claiming it is possible to create an unbreakable DRM system.

[#10 posted by winkingskunk , January 7, 2009 11:56 AM]

Thanks for posting this.

I just signed up!

[#11 posted by GuidoDavid , January 7, 2009 12:21 PM]

Rita Levi Montalcini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Levi-Montalcini

[#12 posted by Neil H , January 7, 2009 12:27 PM]

I've just signed up, now it's time to do some research!
Cheers for letting us know.

[#13 posted by Anonymous , January 7, 2009 1:18 PM]

I am a high school math teacher. I ordered a poster of Ada Byron Lovlace because I figured girls deserved role models, too!

My school has gender-segregated math classes in 7th and 8th grade. There are studies that validate both sides of the argument about the effectiveness of such classes, but our anecdotal results are that more girls are taking honors math in high school. Whether there is a causal relationship, I can't say. But future math majors take heart: there may actually be girls in your classes!

[#14 posted by GregLondon , January 7, 2009 1:33 PM]

Ever write code using the "Ada" language? The horror. The horror.

[#15 posted by skeeto , January 7, 2009 1:33 PM]

Before you go praising Grace Hopper, remember she is the one who cursed the world with that unholy language, COBOL. That's just plain evil.

[#16 posted by OM , January 7, 2009 2:41 PM]

...Where does Linda Lovelace fit in all this?

[#17 posted by ultimatecowboy , January 7, 2009 2:43 PM]

Why will this happen only if 1000 people sign up?

[#18 posted by avraamov , January 7, 2009 3:07 PM]

#1 posted by KanedaJones:

i imagine you're thinking of daphne oram.

http://daphneoram.org/

[#19 posted by Kieran O'Neill , January 7, 2009 4:14 PM]

Hmmm ... so I don't have a blog, but I'll think about making one just for this.

However, I reckon I'll get the Wikipedia page on Janet Thornton up to scratch that day.

[#20 posted by Kieran O'Neill , January 7, 2009 4:45 PM]

Hoo boy, and maybe Susan Thunders (although her value as a role model for kids is a little questionable, that woman had spunk, and is a shining example of cyber-feminism)

(Prostitute, hacker, and poker player extraordinaire, as well as the woman who put Kevin in jail - hell hath no fury...)

I'm trying to figure out whether this is her now.

[#21 posted by yish , January 7, 2009 6:11 PM]

And this is what happened when I tried to digg it:

http://yishaym.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/ada-lovelace-day/

[#22 posted by Suw , January 8, 2009 1:59 AM]

I tried to Digg the pledge and also got an error message. I've been told that the whole Pledgebank.com site is blocked, so I've been in touch with Pledgebank and they are doing what they can to get the problem resolved.

Meantime, feel free to Digg the original Finding Ada blog post: http://is.gd/eR0Z

[#23 posted by twobeeshawn , January 8, 2009 10:00 AM]

It's a bit obvious but I never get tired of Hedy Lamarr's story and it will be a FUN blog, I'm in baby!

[#24 posted by Gaudeamus , January 8, 2009 5:13 PM]

Oh this is very exciting. I've signed up, think I'll talk about James Tiptree, Jr.

[#25 posted by Anonymous , January 10, 2009 11:55 AM]

you'd never expect how many great comments i get and great conversations i get into wearing this.

http://www.cafepress.com/ylbissop.62589266

[#26 posted by cathald , March 19, 2009 3:34 AM]

just in case someone doesn;t know what Ada did for us all you can find out more about her on

http://www.adalovelace.info