Today is the day I pledged to a blog about a woman in tech for Ada Lovelace Day. Before I mention who I wanted to blog about, let me explain why I am participating. I'm a dad of a very smart, precocious, and interested 8 year old girl. She loves dolls and art and music, but I've also noticed she really loves one of the two OLPC's I have.
I want her to grow up to follow her passion, whatever that is. But as a guy who's been into tech since he was a kid like her, I must say that I'd be tickled pink (no pun intended) if she followed in her dad's footsteps. So, for her, and millions of girls like here, I decided it would be great to participate in today's blogging about women in tech so that some other girl or young woman feels like there's a place for her in the tech world.
I'd like to talk about someone who has personally inspired me to continue to be involved in the various fights around intellectual property and the digital revolution: Pamela Samuelson.
Now, my nomination might come as a surprise, since Pam isn't, strictly speaking, in the tech industry, nor is engaged in a technical profession. But I believe she's had a very profound affect on shaping the techand creative industries attitudes toward intellectual property and its effect on creative expression, innovation, and the growth of the Internet. I first met her when she joined the faculty at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. For me, she made law relevant to the emerging culture around the Internet, and was one of the main reasons I chose to stay in law school beyond the first year. She understood and spoke to the technology but also to the real politik behind such efforts as the DMCA (which would be enacted after I left boalt), and a variety of lesser known, though equally insidious US and international laws and regulations that quietly twisted and distorted intellectual property against the interests of innovation and the commons (as its now referred to). And beyond speaking to just lawyers, she teaches at UC Berkeley's I-School, and has written numerous articles for non-lawyers in publications like the Communications of the ACM and Wired Magazine.
Today, the Samuelson Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law focuses on a wide variety of legal and policy issues around technology, including intellectual property, privacy, free speech, open source, and even voting. She's singlehandedly inspired a generation (or two?) of lawyers and public policy advocates to think of the public interest in technology. For that reason and I others, it seemed entirely obvious that she would be my pick for the Ada Lovelace Day.
I think that to receive the credit loans from banks you ought to have a great reason. However, once I have got a student loan, just because I was willing to buy a house.
Posted by: VasquezPaige33 | October 10, 2011 at 04:56 AM