January 17 – Happy Birthday, Anita Borg

nPostednon January 17, 2016

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nInremember helping my dad with something at his office. He showed menthe “Star Trek” game on his minicomputer. This was way back innthe early 1970s, and minicomputers were the size of a small desk.nSmaller than the mainframe systems everyone was used to at the time –nbut REALLY large by today’s standards!

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n“StarnTrek” on my dad’s minicomputer didn’t look anything like this:

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nInstead,nit was a text game – again, this was a long time ago, andnbasically, computer graphics were sketchy B&W pictures created out of letters and backslashes, asterisks and numbers. Like this:

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nI was totally smitten by that game. Playing it, it seemed I couldnfeel my brain stretching and learning. I became fascinated by thenpossibility of computers helping us think better and become smarter.

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nFlashnforward a few years, and I became the proud owner of the firstnmicrocomputer on the block. Not just that – I was the first of anyone at my job, of any of my friends, of anyone Inknew, even, to own a computer…an Apple II.

nI learned BASIC programming language, I began to writenand talk about how computers can help us in education and in ourneveryday lives, I began to teach others about programming, and I evenncomputerized my workplace.

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Inwas an early adopter of home computers, and I was really the onlynwoman I knew interested in computers. But at the same time that I wasnlearning about computers and bemoaning the fact that I was the onlynwoman doing so, across the country and the world, Anita Borg wasnalready in her second decade of working with computers andnprogramming! She taught herself how to program (like me) but alsonearned a Ph.D. in computer science (I certainly did not!). She gotnher first programming job in 1969.

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nAnitanBorg did more than just bemoan the fact that few women were workingnwith computers – she did something about it!

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nInn1987, she started the online community Systers, a forum for women inncomputing, and in 1994 she helped create the Grace Hopper Celebrationnof Women in Computing, a conference for technical women. A few yearsnafter that, Borg founded the Institute for Women and Technology. Thisnorganization runs a variety of programs to encourage women inntechnical fields.

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nBorgnwon a variety of awards for her work on behalf of women. Now thenorganization she founded is named in her honor, and severalnother programs and awards honors her, including the Google Anita BorgnMemorial Scholarship and the UNSW School of Computer Science andnEngineering’s Anita Borg Prize.