My pledge for Ada Lovelace Day

24th March 2010 sees the return of Ada Lovelace Day. For those that don’t know, Ada Lovelace day is an initiative by Suw Charman-Anderson that is designed to celebrate women in tech. Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer programme for Charles Babbage’s analytical engine – and there’s a full bio on her here. It’s a fantastic initiative and one that I hope you’ll all be getting involved with, men included. In fact, especially men!

Last year they reached 3,500 signups and this year they’re aiming to reach 3,072. (I’m not sure why that number). So far nearly 700 people have signed up, so I wanted to take this opportunity to help spread the word about Ada Lovelace Day, as well as do my bit on the day itself. It is such a worthy campaign to be a part of because it helps gives a voice to women in technology, who can often be drowned out by the male voice (not overstating the facts here – it’s true). What I love about it is it’s simplicity. This isn’t really a campaign for change, it’s not ‘anti-men’ and there’s nothing about it that smacks of self pity. No burning bras here! It’s simply a chance to celebrate those women in technology that are doing amazing things in their field but maybe don’t get recognised as much as they should.

Please show your support – male or female – by signing up to the initiative. All you have to do to take part is to write a blog post on 24th March about your tech heroine. It really couldn’t be easier

A selection of some of the posts from last year :

Chris Applegate writes about Finding Ada in Lyon’s Tea Shops

Worming into Good Science from the nature network

Women in Technology I admire, on the Friday morning report

(A favourite of mine) Let’s hear it for women in technology, in the Guardian

It’s always Ada Lovelace Day at O’Reilly