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.