A is for Ada. And Assertive.

ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange

Over the past two years, two months, and two days, I've blogged regularly about the achievements of women in technology and science, particularly women in open source. More recently, I've interviewed more than two-dozen inspiring women. Today I get to kick back and enjoy stories from other folks about the women who inspire them.

In the spirit of Ada Lovelace Day, I'd like to honor women in technology who assert themselves, including all the women who have yet to do so.

Being assertive doesn't mean being fearless – it means you do it anyway. If you have yet to assert yourself by speaking up in a meeting, proposing or writing an article for publication, participating in or attending your first industry event, submitting a talk, joining an IRC conversation, or anything else you've thought about doing, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible. In fact, you can start today by posting a blog in honor of Ada Lovelace Day, or leave a comment on someone else's blog to share your thoughts.

And how about this for an idea: you can add your name to the growing list of diverse and inspiring women I've interviewed for this blog. Shoot me an email so we can get started.

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

If you or someone you know would like to contribute to this interview series, please send your responses to the following questions to me at rkite AT linuxpromagazine DOT com:

• Who are you?
• What do you currently do in open source? What do you love about it?
• You're speaking to a group of women from other fields who are considering switching careers. Why should they consider moving into an open source-related career? What should they know about the open source environment to prepare them for the transition from a different field?
• You're speaking to a group of high school students (male and female). Why should they consider exploring career options in open source?
• What question do you wish I'd asked? And how would you answer it?

Read previous interviews:

ROSE Blog Interviews You (includes interviews with assertive women: S.P.Zeidler, Amber Graner, and Dru Lavigne)

Margarita Manterola, Debian Developer

Valerie Bubb Fenwick, Staff Engineer at Sun Microsystems

Ellen Siever, co-author of Linux in a Nutshell

Juliet Kemp, author and admin extraordinaire

Red Hat's Mel Chua

Noirin Shirley, Vice President of the Apache Software Foundation

Cheryl McKinnon, CMO of Nuxeo

KDE Project's A. L. Spehr

Con-Techie.com's Kendra "Admin" Schaefer

Emma Jane Hogbin, co-author of Front End Drupal

Sharon Moreland, Technology Consultant at the Northeast Kansas Library System

Meike Reichle, Debian Developer

Máirín Duffy, Team Lead for Fedora Design Team

Hillary Rettig, author and activist

GNOME.Asia's Emily Chen

GSoC participant Kanika Vats

FSF's Deborah Nicholson

OSBR.ca's Dru Lavigne

Stormy Peters, Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation

Linux Foundation's Angela Brown

Erica Brescia, CEO of BitRock

Ohio LinuxFest's Beth Lynn Eicher

Ohio LinuxFest's Moose

LinuxToday.com's Carla Schroder

Urban Forest Mapping Project's Kelaine Vargas