Ada lovelace day - celebrating women in tech | techcrunch

Today (March 24) is Ada Lovelace Day, a great idea organised by Suw Charman-Anderson. Over 1,000 people have signed up to write a blog post about a woman in technology whom they admire.

Although I didn’t sign the pledge I’m doing a post anyway. I knew about Ada since the day I read about her semi-fictionalised character in that amazing steampunk novel, The Difference

Engine, and well, I was impressed. Plus I like the aim of the whole project. Ada Lovelace Day was founded to raise the visibility of women in tech, and rightly so. This sector is woefully

bad at getting more gender balance into the industry, and that is partly why I’ve put a debate about the issue into Geek ‘n Rolla next month. Ada Lovelace herself was fascinating. Born in

1815 she became the world’s first computer programmer. In 1842 she translated some notes on Charles Babbage’s invention, the Analytical Engine, and then created a method for calculating

Bernoulli numbers with it. Thus the first computer program was born. The first computer programming language was thus named Ada. In 1942 the ENIAC was programmed not by men but by six women.

A woman, Grace Hopper inspired the development of the COBOL programming language. So computers are steeped in female history. The Guardian has a great list of women in tech. But I’ll be

honest. I don’t know many of them, so allow me to list some of the great women in this business today I that have had the privilege to meet, aside from Suw herself, and some I’d like to

meet. This list is not comprehensive and yes – before you ask – it includes people who don’t code because there are plenty of men in tech who don’t code but still consider themselves in

tech. Including me! Capeesh? And besides, these women have to put up with all us guys, so I think they deserve a roll of honour don’t you? In addition to which, the next time you see an

advisory board with no women members, or a tech event with no women speakers, then at least now you might have a list to refer to for some ideas, right? Right. (see also Geekspeakr.com)

Adriana Lukas, mediainfluencer.net Aleks Krotoski, The Guardian Alicia Navarro, Skimbit Amanda Lorenzani, Excite Amanda Rose, Twestival Anna Bance, Girlmeetsdress.com Anna Colclough,

Tourdust.com Avid Larizadeh, Accel Ventures Basheera Khan, journalist Bena Roberts, Gomonews.com Bindi Karia, Microsoft Caroline Roberts, WE Connect Carrie Marsh, Mydeo Cate Sevilla,

BitchBuzz Catherine Williams, Osborne Clarke Christina Domecq, Spinvox Clare Logie, HBOS Women Daniela Arens, Linqia.com Deirdre Molloy, Cimaglobal.com Elizabeth Varley, Onlinecontentuk.org

Elizabetta Camilleri, Tereca Helen Keegan, Beepmarketing.com Helen Lawrence, Dare / MeasurementCamp Hermione Way, Newspepper Inmaculada Martinez, Stradbrokeadvisors Isabel Fox, IF

Communications Jamilla Knowles, BBC Jane Houghton, British Venture Capital Association Janet Parkinson, Quirk Jemima Kiss, Guardian Jenny Fielding Joanne Jacobs, Amplified 09 Joanna Geary,

The Times Judith Clegg, 2nd Chance Tuesday Julie Meyer, Entrepreneur Country Karen Hunton, Toptable.co.uk Katie Lee, Shiny Media Katie Lips, Treasuremytext Katie Moffat, PR Leisa Reichelt,

Freelance user experience consultant Linda Bernardi, Straterra Partners Lisa Bilton, Life-Essentials.com Liz Bolshaw, Lymehound Margaret Gold, Betavine Maria Dramalioti-Taylor, Protos

Capital Martha Lane Fox, Luckyvoice.com Melissa Geffert, Opal Telecom Meriem Aissaoui, Smarta Michelle Dewberry, Chiconomise.com Michelle Martin, Digital Planet Miranda Munn, NovaLoca.com

Natalie Diep, Morrison & Foerster LLP Nicola Maguire, Reed Smith Peggy Anne Saltzman, MsearchGroove Petra Johansson, Twistedtree.co.uk Priya Prakash, Priyascape.com Rachel Armitage,

Zoombu Rachel Bremer, Spark PR Rassami Hok Ljungberg, Rassami PR Renate Nyborg, Poken Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp.com Sally Goodsell, Finance South East Sarah Blow, Girl Geek Dinners Sarah

Cebik, DLA Piper UK LLP Sarah Eaton, GLE Growth Capital Sarah McVittie, Texperts Sasha, “sashinka” Sayula Kirby, Index Capital Shaa Wasmund, Smarta.com Sharon Vosmek, Astia Sherry Coutu,

Cambridge Angels Simone Brummelhuis, The Next Women sMary harrington, School of Everything Sonia Calvo, BlueandPink Sophie Cox, Worldeka Sophie Hobson, Smarta Steph Bouchet, Rougefrog Sue

Guerrieri, SugarPlum Shop Sue Lawton, WE Connect Swannny, Gadget Girl Thayer Prime, just unique Vero Pepperrell, Thatcanadiangirl.co.uk Wendy White, Moonfruit / Gandi Group Yuri Bacas

Hosaka, CityAmigo Zoe Margolis , Girlonetrack Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson, Huddle.net (Apologies if I’ve accidentally left you off the list!)