CNet has published a Top 10 Girl Geeks piece that has provoked much interest and criticism (Lisa Simpson and … Paris Hilton?; no Esther Dyson; etc.?), and seems to have been written more to provoke hot-tempered discussion than for any other reason. Slashdot comments (NSFW) vary from your garden variety geek-boy stuff, to suggestions for add-ons, to pointed remarks about how the triteness of the enterprise demeans Women in Science generally, which actually seems a pretty fair comment about that particular list.
For my part, I’m curious to know whom people would nominate for a list of the top 10 Web 2.0 women geeks – a list of women who are at the center of Web 2.0 and contributing to it in a big way. Arianna Huffington, publisher of that new center of the political blogtropolis, The Huffington Post, seems a natural. So too Caterina Fake, one of the founders of Flickr, Mena Trott, one of the founders of Six Apart, and also Christine Herron, a VC who for a while now has actually been blogging quite a lot about women (and the dearth of) in and around Web 2.0.
It’s actually Christine’s writing about this issue and my role as a co-founder of mesh that has had me thinking about this – for quite a while now. I’d be interested in any suggestions folks would have about who they would put on their list.
Update: I almost forgot – Leesa Barnes, who has helped mesh in a huge way with our – ahem – meshcasts, has a permanent place on my top 10 women in tech and media list.
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Tara has a list too, but that focus only on the Web2.0 circuit.
I still think Rebecca Blood is a class of her own person !! :)-
One of the comments I saw somewhere was right on the money — Hedy Lamarr should be on that list for sure. She helped invent the spread-spectrum broadcasting standard, which was a crucial development in communications and the foundation of the cellphone industry.
I’d completely forgotten about that story. The last time I heard it was in Bubble 1.0 when Wi-LAN was duelling with Cisco over wifi protocols and patents.
meg hourihan who was one of the co-founders of pyra labs — the folks behind blogger. though she’s not that active in tech right now, you can’t question the impact of blogger on web 2.0.
Thanks, Tiffany – good one. I’d forgotten.
Thanks for the tips /pd.
danah boyd
It’s fun leaving a comment on this site… very slick… is it AJAX? :)
Yes, it’s full of Ajax-y goodness.
Wow–where do I begin? Kate Trgovac has to be on that list for certain. I have run into her under so many guises; she really is prolific and I owe many things I know to her (which she probably doesn’t realize).
And Gina Bianchini, co-founder of of Ning has been so responsive to questions and concerns I had.
Tara Hunt living in San Francisco who I love to follow via Twitter.
Eden Spodek is just really hitting her stride with some smart promotion over at Bargainista.ca
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Ms Sassy Science, Sonya Buyting, another one whose exploits I love to follow on Twitter.
And the famous young librarian Andrea Mercado who is shaking things up with new thinking. I had the privilege of meeting and talking with her at Podcamp Boston.
Okay, I have probably missed at least 30 other women I admire, but this is a start! I am interested to see who others choose. ;-)
Cheers,
Connie
LOL Know any world champions that are not worth the risk, when you have others who struggle to make some points. I think the lower order need a shake up and more enthusiastic and talented drivers need to be filling those seats and not just the team banks!
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