The Invisible tech foremother, Ada Lovelace and her Equally Invisible antecedents

Some one, somewhere, perhaps in New Zealand has compelled some 1,000 women to blog about a woman in Tech in honor of Ada Lovelace, aka Ada King, Countess of Lovelace.

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron is unknown, despite the fact that she wrote what is perhaps the first computer program for some guy named Babbage. You probably haven't heard of him either.  

I was all keen to participate--I basically try to do whatever reasonable thing a friend asks me.  But when I realized the task, to write about a tech woman I admire, I didn't have someone at the top of mind. Despite erasing the years of regular print writing from my life, and immersing myself for the past year in the 2.0 world, I still come up kind of blank. Arianna Huffington is the most visible woman in tech, I suppose with the millions of readers and sway she has--but as a woman, I find she's done nothing for the rest of us.  (Very little female content on her site). She and dooce, of the most innocuous eponymous site, are the most read women on the web. But I admire the first only grudgingly. I remember how shocked I was that there were only two women owned sites on Technorati's top 100 blogs.  

The point is, there are not that many visible women; this tech world is just as lopsided as the print world. (See the project women TK or Women's Media Center.)  Sure, there are important contributors to the tech world--many, like Ellen Miller, The Flickr co-founder, but they don't get that constant coverage that the Brins and others receive.  I even read through Wired's List of Women who Tech, and there were loads of admirable people, but their profiles were not as high as they could be.  I often wish for a mentor to lead me as I make my way in the 2.0 world, but don't know who has accomplished something similar to what I am attempting. 

So, thank you Ada for your contributions, and apologies for losing you in the history books.  Now I will spend the rest of the year, looking for my Lovelace. In the meantime....