You Will Be Missed

They put us all together at the same table, the "techies", thinking that we'd have something in common to talk about (rightly so). Janis (Marshmallows & Bile), me, Kim, Cindy, one or two others too far away for me to talk with, and Anita Borg.

Yeah, I had dinner with Anita Borg at the 1999 Journalism and Women Symposium. (I feel guilty almost for being so impressed. ) The aforementioned 4 were the segments of The 3rd WWWave who were able to shake loose the time and money to attend, and even that was only with the (much appreciated) backing of my employer at the time, Alpine Electronics Research & Development.

We didn't talk much (Janis and Anita talked up a storm, you would have needed a crowbar to get them apart -- not a bad thing). The next morning, I stood up and spoke, as the designated 'voice' of the 3rd WWWave, in part because I was still in my 20s at the time. Anita spoke, and then we had a panel on third-wave feminism, and the ball really got rolling. It was one hell of a weekend.

I disagreed, and still do, with Anita Borg regarding the significance of any spikes or dips in the stats on women getting CS degrees. In my career as a computer scientist, I've worked with more people who have a non-CS degree than those that do. Best software designers I've ever met were physicists, biologists, and EE's. Put us in a room together and we don't solve the problem, we *annihilate* it.

So my answer, whenever she would bring that stat up, was that CS degrees are barely even an indicator of women in the industry, (as indicated by anecdotal experience, only, I admit) and what you need to do is survey women in the industry directly. How many women work as software engineers, architects, designers, or programmers?

But god damn, I respect the woman. She founded IWT, the Institute for Women and Technology, to ask questions about technology to make it useful to everyone, not just the stereotypical blinkered binary-spouting 'early adopter' geek. "Everyone" includes women. Just bring a woman into technology assessment , IWT promotes, in full partnership, and be surprised by the new ideas you'll get out as a result, the market you'll open up. So, naturally , IWT pushes R&D, pushes education, pushes political envelopes -- everywhere to promote the full, active involvement of women in society.

Damn. Anita, requiscat in pace.