2009 was an exciting year for the Anita Borg Institute’s Communities program. Participation on Facebook and postings on LinkedIn more than doubled. Engagement on Twitter and across the Grace Hopper online communities practically exploded. But what’s really exciting is the ways in which all these online communities contributed to ABI’s strategic goals. Here’s a look back at how the Communities program helped technical women advance by connecting them with resources, opportunities, and each other.
It begins with three primary pillars of ABI’s strategy: Showcase Technical Women, Develop Technical Leadership, and Change the Culture of Technology. Some of our community activities focus on one or two of these strategies, while others deliver results against all three. And all help expand ABI’s visibility and impact to new audiences. Here are a few highlights from the past year.
Showcase Technical Women
- To date there have been more than 7,350 views of the 2009 Women of Vision videos on our YouTube channel (and thousands more views from prior years’ awards). The videos continue to extend the reach of these outstanding role models beyond those who attend the awards banquet each year.
- Community video bloggers Erin Donahue and Ashley Myers turned their GHC 2008 volunteer stint into Ed & Ashley’s 5 Minute Show, a series of interviews of an amazing cross-section of technical women. They not only returned to Grace Hopper in 2009 but also did the same at BlogHer, InWic and other events.
- The tech-women2follow list launched in 2009 works to increase the visibility of technical women on Twitter. (If you’d like to be added to this list or have someone to recommend, post a comment below or send me a Twitter update at @anitaborg_org.)
Develop Technical Leadership
- Since 1987, Systers™ has provided a confidential email environment where technical women can share perspectives, challenges, advice, informal mentoring, and opportunities for speaking or employment. In 2009, the Systers community helped to debug and update their software platform through a Google Summer of Code project and a Code Sprint at Grace Hopper 2010.
- The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) group on LinkedIn provides everything from career advice and guilt-free self-promotion to connecting technical women with diversity-minded hiring managers and recruiters. By the end of 2009 the ABI group on LinkedIn had more than 2,700 members and had launched a subgroup for the Grace Hopper conference community.
- LiC: Latinas in Computing coordinated their submissions to Grace Hopper, providing speaking opportunities for their membership. They also raised the visibility of Latina speakers at GHC through their listserv and with posters listing their sessions.
- Twenty-six awesome Grace Hopper 2009 online community volunteers blogged (more than 100 posts!), twittered, and shared their photos, videos and notes. Starting in April, up through and after the conference they not only evangelized the event and the online community but also gave advice for newcomers, shared what they learned, and provided diverse perspectives of the event.
Change the Culture of Technology
- Their Systers Pass-it-on (PIO) Awards have impact across all three ABI strategies. PIO uses community-raised funds to assist women seeking their places in technical fields. Eleven women from around the world received cash awards in the Spring and Fall 2009 PIO cycles, to meet either individual needs or fund group projects. You can view profiles of previous award recipients or apply for the Spring 2010 cycle from the Systers Pass-it-on Awards page.
- News of the I am a Technical Woman video launch at Grace Hopper 2009 was live-tweeted from the opening session (mostly from cell phones) and spread through retweets (Twitter’s version of forwarding). As I write this, the video has had 7,799 views. Twitter also proved a powerful tool for locating conversations about women and technology, and offering assistance via our research and other resources.
Throughout 2009, across our communities, ABI’s research, resources and role models were shared and disseminated to a larger and more diverse community than ever. In 2010, ABI communities will continue to play a strategic role in advancing the Anita Borg Institute’s mission. And we’re just getting started now with the GHC 2010 online community, so stay tuned for updates.
I’d love to hear your ideas for our Communities program in the Comments below.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:16 am
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