Well, we made the pledge, but from what I can see my blogging about it didn’t help much at all. I’m particularly disappointed that no one commented with suggestions as to people I might write about. Of course a lot of you are women in technology – and women SF writers count – so one of you might end up as the subject of my blog post. Let’s remember what this is all about:
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. Entrepreneurs, innovators, sysadmins, programmers, designers, games developers, hardware experts, tech journalists, tech consultants. The list of tech-related careers is endless.
So we need role models, right? And we are writers too so we can spread the message. I’ve even taken the trouble to spam a bunch of my Facebook contacts (or I tried to, but Facebook crashed on me – if you get the invite, let me know, please). Let’s make a big splash, OK?
At the moment I’m planning to fulfil the pledge with a short piece about Professor Lynn Conway.
Conway, along with colleague Carver Mead, jointly invented and taught the techniques which allowed microelectronic chip designs to be designed and prototyped in a fraction of the time and cost that would otherwise have been required.
Without that advance (and another key technology that she invented for IBM) it is doubtful that the microprocessor revolution would have taken off in quite the way that it did.
It would simply not have been economic to attempt to put some design ideas into single chip form. The cost and size problems of designing circuits with discrete components means many devices would simply never have been built for mass market.
In turn, it is questionnable whether some of the technologies we take for granted would have been made, or would have achieved the sort of mass market appeal that then helped to fuel the next generation, and so on…
Oops. Could this be a case of premature blogging? 🙂
Seriously, if circumstances permit then I may also arrange a Podcast interview as well – but that will be up to the subject herself.
Kindest regards
Christine
Christine:
Obviously I thought of Lynn, but I figured that would be stepping on your toes. Also I wanted to get away from the software business.
Don’t know if she counts, but Donna Barr?
I’m forwarding the link to folks. My suggestions wouldn’t be useful as they involve mailing lists I’m on.
Twilight and ‘V’ – the only requirement that it is a woman technologist whom you admire. They don’t have to have awards or be a household name. It’s not restricted to the field of computers either. I read the other day about a young woman who’s invented a fridge that works without electricity in desert regions. It could be a science teacher who inspired you. It’s really open.
Hope that helps.