Female ICT Role Models, on TV and YouTube too!
As a new father of a young daughter, this month’s debate has been very personal for me. I look at the strong women I see in technology and I hope, dream, that some day my Hanalei will be a leader in whatever profession she chooses.
So its been with great interest that I’ve read about how Brooke Partridge and Karen Coppock found inspiration for their achievement in ICT. To complete the triptych of women in ICT that I admire, I’ve interviewed Kristen Peterson, a co-founder of Inveneo and now its CEO.
She’s built the organization from just an idea in 2002 to a leading ICT4D organization I so admire, that I pretty much begged her to hire me (and she’s now my boss). Here, I interview her about how she came to be in the technology industry:
Its interesting that she hit on each of the key points of our debate: the importance of parents & mentors, ICT is more than one industry, and how exposure to ICT can excite girls in any culture, without previously participating in this Educational Technology Debate.
My favorite was her early mentor source: TV. Through this often maligned ICT, Kristin saw powerful women role modes to emulate and give her inspiration. Might we use YouTube – this generations TV – to showcase interviews of women in ICT? Please add interviews that you find powerful in the comments below. YouTube videos are directly supported by the commenting system.
Kristin did well and looked good in the interview.
Role models for girls in the Least Developed Countries may come across on web sites like this one.
The vast majority of photos or video of people using technology are of males (including ICT4D web sites). How can we fix that?
We need more pictures and video of girls using computers, camcorders, mobile phones and portable media players.
This is a call to girls and ladies to shoot phots and video and get them onto the web!
Wayan, I understand your feelings towards your daughter. However, be prepared that she will not share your interests. Mine steadfastly refuse to see the joy of mathematics.
Maybe she is not your prefered role model of all times, but you might have a look at Jeri Ellsworth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeri_Ellsworth
She was interviewed by the Linux Link Tech Show (episode 304, Thursday, June 25, 2009
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheLinuxLinkTechSh…
)
She tells about how she came to bake integrated silicon chips in the kitchen 🙂
How about that for a hardware hacker.
Rob
Really a great article and its easy to see that you didnt just copy it!