Talk:Ada Lovelace Day 2012

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It's Ada Lovelace Day on 16 October and I think this is a day we should note in some way. The day exists to celebrate the contributions of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As you may know, Ada Lovelace is considered the first programmer, due to her work on Charles Babbage's analytical engine. As such, she's someone we can very much hold up as a role model. It's a really good opportunity to do something outreach-related I think. Share your thoughts below! --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 12:30, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

If we don't use them for this event, we can still explore the ideas for further events, e.g. next year for Women History Month. (Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 09:37, 3 September 2012 (UTC))

Suggestion

Cambridge will be horribly busy in early October (first couple of weeks of term) - which isn't to say it won't work, but you'd better talk to them soon :-). A possible organisation to approach would be the Whipple Museum or Whipple Library, both history of science oriented. Andrew Gray (talk) 12:41, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Women in Red

Correcting gender bias isnt just for one day. Why don't we introduce our editors to this. These are just normal notable people who are lucky enough not to have a Y chromosome. :-) We put the picture of the person who did the most edits or their nominated "woman in red" on the front of the uk wiki. This way everyone can do it irrespective of where you live etc etc Roger Bamkin (talk) 20:19, 20 August 2012 (BST)

Love, love, love this idea. Absolutly brilliant. Let's do this anyway, whether we do it for Ada Lovelace Day or not. Genius in its simplicity. Powerful, too. --Stevie Benton (talk) 21:13, 20 August 2012 (BST)
Can we produce a list of fifty notable UK women in STEM not yet covered? Andrew Gray (talk) 12:42, 21 August 2012 (UTC)

Possible partners

I've been working on this event in the background for a while now, unfortunately the partner I was developing a relationship with to set this up - Women's Library in London - is having financial problems and cannot cooperate with us. I am still talking to them but knowing that they may move out by October it is not an ideal situation. It would be great to link up with an institution that could offer resources needed for editing - so Women Institution is a possibility for a partner, but they may not have the resources. Isabelle has been looking into this recently. I was also in touch with Manchester Girl Geeks and as much as they are committed for the programme in October, we have a possible event scheduled for November. Daria Cybulska (talk) 08:54, 21 August 2012 (BST)

Really like the idea of the Women's Institute. I wonder if we're too late to arrange for someone to speak at their conference? I think they'd particularly enjoy a visit from Chris or Richard. --Stevie Benton (talk) 10:17, 21 August 2012 (BST)
I've contacted the WI in the London area, awaiting replies. A potential host for an event could also be the Feminist Library in Westminster perhaps? Isabelle Yates (WMUK) (talk) 12:57, 22 August 2012 (UTC)
Another possibility that I am working on is the Royal Society. I think if we get too much interest we could either run two events, follow up with the other organisations in the future, or actually invite some representatives from the contacted organisations to attend the event that eventually gets shaped up. Daria Cybulska (WMUK) (talk) 13:18, 22 August 2012 (UTC)
If we do get quite a lot of interest we could perhaps have a celebratory dinner, sell tickets, and have speeches in Ada's honour. Proceeds could be split between WMUK and a fund promoting women in science and technology. Jimbo could give a keynote, and notable women in technology and science could present as well. We could even bring in someone like Sarah Stierch (who is excellent). --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 13:37, 22 August 2012 (UTC)
At a national level, the WI are interested in getting involved and would like to know more about the ways in which they could participate. Isabelle Yates (WMUK) (talk) 15:25, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Suggestions from a volunteer

One of our volunteers emailed me with some suggestions for this. These are below! --Stevie Benton (WMUK) (talk) 15:18, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

  • Hijack an unconference with a hackathon and talks about how wiki software is awesome.
  • Host a competition for making new and exciting skins for WMUK - someone suggested it already - I think the idea lacks merit BUT on the other hand it would get the tech community & designers interested and maybe editing.
  • Work with Royal Holloway on cryptography problems on Wikipedia! - either trying to crack them or by writing articles about a wide range of them.
  • Work with women's groups having an appreciation day of women who added lots to the sciences - with an added bonus of bolstering the articles with information on their achievements and how many of them seem to be ignored by history
  • This - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_number - seems to be very important. I don't know what it means though!
  • Ada is buried at Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Hucknall - we could get little old C of E ladies involved in helping to catalogue local knowledge of her life.
  • Benjamin Woolley is a good biographer of her - maybe he can give a talk before people edit in any capacity about how she changed history - it's also a good way to sell the thing to the public (we lure them into the honey trap then BAM! they're editing)
  • The Science Museum has some of the most important artefacts and archives from Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage's work...need I say more?
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