By Allie Moore, on July 16, 2012

Two things I learned this week:

1. The first computer programmer, Countess Ada Lovelace, died in 1852.

This week I had the opportunity to attend TWO amazing conferences. (Plus one for living in DC) Tuesday and Wednesday I was at AdaCamp, an “unconference” hosted by the Ada Initiative that examined ways to encourage, recruit, and retain women in open source software, Wikipedia and related projects, and other areas of open technology and culture like fan/remix culture, open government, and open data. I am not a developer or programmer, but I am interested in open government, open data and finding ways to support women in technology.

Simply said, the tech world is a boys’ club. It is important to realize this is not just an issue for women, but an issue for all of us. When technology is developed from the perspective of only half the population, it fails to reach its full potential. Sure, maybe it works just fine, but it is bound to inherently miss out on something. Of course, this is not just a problem related to gender; to name a few, race, religion, disability, and economic status require similar review. This is a particularly salient issue for those working in government. As public servants, we are often asked to represent groups we do not belong to and to represent groups that do not have representation of their own. As such, we must be aware of the decisions we make that directly or indirectly effect those who do not have a voice of their own.

2. Government+Wikis= Amazing Possibilities

Wikis are incredible tools for collaboration and knowledge sharing. The federal government has embraced wikis to the point that the use of a wiki is the norm, not the exception. (see Diplopedia, Intellipedia and MAX Federal Community) At the local government level, the development of wikis has been much slower. Why is this?

At the Tech@State event I attended, there was a panel session on local wikis. I see incredible potential for the use of wikis at the local level, especially in promoting civic engagement and informed decision making. I would love to know if any local government in NC uses a wiki, either internally or externally, and what their experience has been so far. (Fair warning, I smell a capstone topic here)

To attest to the awesome potential of the use of wikis at the local level, I offer this as evidence:
MonmouthpediA

Oh, before I forget, I also met David Ferriero,  Archivist of the United States. Yes, I shook the hand of AOTUS. Sadly, upon hearing I went to UNC, he apologized, as he was previously the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke.

Meh, you can’t win ’em all.