Claire L. Evans – The pioneering grandmothers of the internet

Anyone who’s seen AMC’s series Halt and Catch Fire knows the importance of representation. Two out of four main characters are female tech pioneers in the early 80s. Claire L. Evans’ book Broadband traces the real story of women behind the solitary geniuses of history, who tend to be men. What if unique solutions and social networks like Microcosm or Echo (both created by women) had received the same attention and capital that e.g. the WWW got in the early 90s? In her talk Evans explores the untravelled paths of history to balance the narrative and to show us the radically different now we could have lived in. Outreach, representation and care – what if all those things were taken into account when designing and coding solutions? Care, especially is a word we don’t hear a lot anymore. But if we’re going to survive the future and its challenges, we need all the help we can get. Which means we need to see more non-males represented in the tech industry.