Ada Lovelace Day – recognize the women techies in your community by March 24

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

Awaiting your contribution: who will be your heroine(s) this year?

When we chose names for our meeting rooms in Montreal the theme was “heroes of software history”.  So, around the corner I have a “Lovelace” room, with the puzzling image of a romantic lady.  And she was a lady, and a pioneer, and a visionary. She is often regarded as the world’s first computer programmer.  Babbage, the inventor of the first mechanical thinking and calculating machine, called her an “Enchantress of Numbers.” 

Great conversation starter at our next geeky community meeting, with all these women techies we admire.  And here is what we can do: recognize their contribution publicly, tell the world who these ladies are, how they challenge our thinking, how they are pushing our field ahead.  Think one minute about who they are.  Last year, on Ada Lovelace Day’s first edition, Ada Lovelace Day and the SAP Community Network flowed long, and generated comments in kind.

This year, with somewhat more notice, SCN is proposing you to

• participate in the pledge of blogging right on March 24 with the “Finding Ada” (http://findingada.com/ ) initiative
• AND (making it easy): execute your pledge at your convenience with your 1-click entry here by writing a paragraph that you can update later –SCN will assemble and publicize them on March 24

To get us thinking – do we recognize these women techies?

Julie Payette is an engineer and an astronaut.  Anita Borg, a computer scientist, created an organization (http://anitaborg.org/ ) to bring together women in technology.  Rear admiral Grace Hopper, a computer scientist, was chosen as the flagship person for the annual Celebration of Women in Technology organized by the Anita Borg Institute.  Marilyn Pratt is your favorite evangelist.  Margaret Knight is remembered as the “female Edison”, with 26 patents.  Marie Curie and her daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, do not need an introduction.  Chloe Legris works on energy efficiency and managed to reduce light pollution by 25% to allow better star viewings from the Mont Megantic in Quebec. Nathalie Beaudry created an annual event in Montreal to promote scientific professions with girls.  This lady may be the one who caused you to choose your geeky career. Marge Breya leads Business Intelligence and more at SAP.  Moya Watson is officially an Innovator with SAP.  More on many sites, including http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/admissions/what_is_cs/FamousWomen.html . Thanks to the Anita Borg Institute for flagging the Ada Lovelace Day in their newsletter.