On Monday night I went to a reception in Palo Alto hosted by the National Center for Women and Information Technology. My friend Brad Feld is chairman of this non-profit which seeks to ensure that women are fully represented in the creation and application of information technology. This is something that I’ve always wondered as I go around meeting folks and 99% of the time it is men.
I saw some old friends (most from the extended Mobius family) and met a couple interesting people. The point I hammered home to folks was that outreach to women in IT needs to start at the grammar and high school level. For example, in my electronic music class at school 1 out of 24 of the students is a woman, and in the Computer Science AP class I hear there is just one or two. If technology is a “guy’s thing” all throughout school, we can’t be surprised that so few women choose to focus on things other than technology in college and in life.
This is just one of the non-profits I’m monitoring. Check them out. I’ll be posting later on my thoughts on integrating blogs and philanthropy…as the holiday season approaches.