On being a girl in tech

A number of things happened this week that made me think about being one:

 

--Inclusion with Lisa and Elisa on being a top female Web 2.0 Influencer over at the Fast Company site. We join Marissa Mayer, Mena Trott, Dina Kaplan, Kaliya Hamlin, and other ladies I admire. What can I say?

Of course no list can do us all justice, so do hop over to Allyson Kapin's great list, where some other deserving women are mentioned, including Susan Mernit, Tara Hunt, and Mary Hodder.

--While traveling, I read an interesting piece in Inc. Magazine about Columbia University business professor Amar Bhidé's contrarian theories, including his lack of concern about the growing imbalance of free trade. He made an interesting point about Americans: Why should we feel threatened by global competition in tech and manufacturing when our collective talent is taking others' products and commercializing them better than anyone else? The Internet World Wide Web itself was invented by a British scientist in Switzerland; we Americans just took that ball and ran with it.

So that's what Americans do: We are wide receivers, spreaders of the word, supercommunicators. Similarly, with BlogHer, I feel the innovation behind our business is leveraging existing social media tools to allow the full effect of women's influence.

For that reason I've never considered myself a girl in tech. I've always been a girl in commmunications.

Comments

[Skye]

Not that this affects your main point, but the Englishman in Switzerland invented the world wide web. The internet itself was invented in the U.S.

[Toby]

Jory - congrats! to you, Elisa and Lisa .. well deserved recognition!