Five Women of the Web (and more Ada Lovelace Day stuff)

Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Maybe for ALD 2010 I will pick just one woman to profile and celebrate as a woman I admire in technology. But this year, I can’t seem to pick just one.

I thought for ALD 2009 I’d focus on the women in technology closest to my heart: the women of the web. No one who designs, develops or does anything web related should have trouble naming at least FIVE high-profile female web workers off the top of their heads. And if you can’t, here are my five of choice. You now have no excuse.

1. Molly Holzschlag-Author, consultant, web standards advocate.
   If you read articles about web design and development on even a semi-regular basis, you’ve read at least one by Molly. I also consider her the highest profile woman of the web because she attends web conferences and sits on panels all the time. She increases the visibility of women on the web by getting out there and participating. And for that, she gets my #1 spot.
   http://www.molly.com

2. Lynda Weinman - First publicized the “web-safe palette.” Author, entrepreneur and creator the software training site Lynda.com, among other things.
   This should be a “duh” situation, people. If you’re a web design vet, you went to Lynda.com and downloaded the palette and had it open half the time when you were designing for many years. Thank Linda. She was also one of the first people to talk about the web from a design perspective.
   http://lynda.com

3. Marissa Mayer - VP of Search Products and User Experience at Google.
   I love this woman. My age (well, 2 months younger), blonde, pretty, oh, and did I mention in charge of over 150 product managers and 2000 engineers at one of the biggest software companies in the world? Yeah. Mayer’s (and Google’s) continuing success is a high heel in the face of the leftover Mad Men business culture that keeps telling us we’re too young, too pretty (or not pretty enough), too nice (or not nice enough!), too whatever to be successful leaders. And she takes all the heat and scrutiny that any executive (and much that only a female executive) has to take and keeps going. Thank You Marissa!
   http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#marissa

4. Caterina Fake - Co-founder of Flickr.
   What do I even need to say? Who doesn’t use Flickr?
   http://www.caterina.net

5. Esther Dyson - Entrepreneur, Investor, Commentator, original member of the Digerati.
   She helped fund Flickr, del.icio.us and many other start-ups and sits on their boards. Her current interests include space travel!
   http://www.edventure.com/
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Dyson

Honorable Mention

• Kathy Sierra - Author, Programmer, Phenomenal (former) Blogger, and death threat recipient
  I really loved Kathy’s blog, Creating Passionate Users. Before she was scheduled to appear at a conference in 2007, she started receiving death threats and other horrible, abusive comments on her blog. When she did the unthinkable (going to the police with the posts and going public with her complaints) the backlash got many orders of magnitude worse. Finally, she shut down all comments and stopped updating her blog. The web and the world is worse off.

  Fortunately, you can’t keep a good woman down. Kathy tweets.

  http://headrush.typepad.com/
  http://twitter.com/KathySierra
  Salon Article: Men Who Hate Women on the Web

Bonus rounds: Global and Local

So, now you have your five (or six) names that you can rattle off, if challenged. Care for a bonus round? Here are some maybe-not-quite-as-famous women that I particularly admire:

Alex Beauchamp -Entrepreneur, Web Designer and LONG time blogger
http://girlatplay.com/

Jana Eggers - CEO of Spreadshirt.com
http://www.lifeonashirt.com/

Rachel Andrew - Web Developer & Entrepreneur
http://www.rachelandrew.co.uk/

Women of the Web in St. Louis

If you think being a marginalized gender in an area of expertise is bad, try being a marginalized gender in an area of expertise in a city that is under appreciated and under appreciates itself! But yes, there are awesome, successful techie women right here in the Gateway City. And they have names you should know as well. I’m putting them in alphabetical order (because I know most of them and don’t want to play favorites).

Danielle Favreau - Web Designer
http://discretiondesigns.com/

Wendy Gauntt - Entrepreneur
http://techzestblog.com/

ME (Lara Kramer) - Web Developer, Entrepreneur
http://larakramer.com
http://kramerwebdevelopment.com
http://emblazer.net

Shelley Powers - Software Developer, Author
http://burningbird.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelley_Powers

Sue Spencer - Web Designer/Developer, Entrepreneur
http://www.spencerwebdesign.com

Some of you may be shocked and horrified that I had the audacity to put myself in a list (ANY list) of people on my own site. I do it as part of my Ada Lovelace Day duty - to encourage other women to do the same. Promote Yourself. You cannot be afraid. Someone’s always going to think you’re uppity. I have a whole other blog post to write on that subject, but I’ll save it for another day.

In the meantime, please comment on people I’ve missed globally or locally and tell me why you think they’re awesome.