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Top 10 Web 2.0 Girl Geeks?


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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12 Responses to “Top 10 Web 2.0 Girl Geeks?”


  1. /pd (3 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 09:30

    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 !! :)-


  2. Mathew Ingram (45 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 14:52

    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.


  3. Rob Hyndman (319 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 15:25

    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.


  4. tiffany (1 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 16:28

    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.


  5. Rob Hyndman (319 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 16:32

    Thanks, Tiffany - good one. I’d forgotten.


  6. Rob Hyndman (319 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 16:33

    Thanks for the tips /pd.


  7. Charlie (2 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 20:48

    danah boyd


  8. Charlie (2 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 20:49

    It’s fun leaving a comment on this site… very slick… is it AJAX? :)


  9. Rob Hyndman (319 comments.)
    November 23rd, 2006 at 22:55

    Yes, it’s full of Ajax-y goodness.


  10. connie (3 comments.)
    February 16th, 2008 at 00:43

    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
    .

    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