Women in IT (Aug 3). Online freedom of speech (Aug 5th)

[Andrew Hammond]

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Colin McGregor wrote:
> I have signed up for the "Women in IT" event even
> though I am still attempting to work out the question
> "Where is a story here that I can write about (and
> sell :-) )?". We all know women are seriously under
> represented  in a number of science / technology
> fields (not just IT) and saying "Isn't that quite sad,
> something really ought to be done at some point."
> doesn't sound like the sort of story I would want to
> write...
> 
> Thoughts?

Quite sad is rather an understatement. I can't begin to enumerate our
loss (from both the practical technical stance and the less tangible
culture stance) from the failure to include the ideas and sensibilities
of over half the population (and more, if you consider other groups such
as blacks, who are also significantly under-represented) from the design
and implementation of the devices which will mold our world. As a member
of the best represented group in the industry (white, university
educated, male) I have no idea what kinds of interesting and different
thoughts women and other under-represented groups might bring to a
design discussion.

There's actually a substantial amount of feminist literature on the
topic. I hope you've done some background reading. If you haven't then
you might want to start with the canonical book on the topic: "Women in
 Computer Science; Bridging the Digital Divide" circa 1994 (I'm going
from memory here so I might have the title slightly wrong), which
documents the results of a study performed across the entire education
system.

Naturally, the only reason I really care about this topic is because I
work in tech and would prefer a work environment populated with sexy
ladies who understand the inherent awesomeness of AMD's hypertransport
bus and the beauty of a well designed algorithm.

Drew
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