It’s my birthday, I’ll count if I want to

I’ve never been afraid to go places few women have gone before, and to take names and kick butt.
Thanks to my father, I learned to rebuild the engine in a 1964 Dodge Dart so I had a car to drive in 1974. (I named it Rocinante and aimed it at windmills.)
I won’t reiterate the litany of “firsts” I punched through as a woman in the journalism bidness. Let’s just say I spent a lot of time busting through the “first” wall: The first woman photographer, the first woman investigative reporter, the first woman business editor, the first woman editor, the first … well, you get the drift.
I’ve spent a lot of time in the company of a lot of white guys trying to do twice as well as they did so I could earn a place at the table.
Today, my 54th birthday present was to not be the lone woman at a tech conference.
We were a crowd and a tribe! A flock and a pod! A gaggle and a group!
We were not alone.
About 22 percent of the people registered for Drupal Camp Austin 2009 were women.
I know. I counted.
That’s extraordinary in a world where six percent of people in Open Source software are women. In Drupal, the numbers are more like 12 percent, but that’s still a dreadful minority.
Thanks to @laurenroth, @shana_e and @equintanilla @vitorious @chanaustin this was not a “lone woman” conference.
Women came for many reasons, including that there were people at this conference who look like them. Anglo, Asian American, African American – we were there.

In every session there were from 13 percent to 29 percent women.
I chronicled the ratio in every session I was in, to the dismay of one South Austin cretin (please click to see what an idiot he is.)
It’s my birthday, I’ll count if I want to!!
The tally tells me how far we have come. Thank you for such a meaningful birthday present!

Students out to save the news biz

Here’s the reason for my slow posts this past couple weeks, as I and other faculty herded  students from seven universities to the Online News Association conference in Toronto to present youthful and innovative visions for the future of news.

First, a video of students from each of the three projects from MediaGiraffe.

I’m a little partial to the third project, Tandem, which was created by the team I coached. Besides five awesome students from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, team Tandem had magnificent representatives from Ithaca College, Michigan State University, Kansas State and Western Kentucky University. The other projects also included wonderful students from St. Michael’s College and the University of Kansas.

Here’s a link to the Poynter Online column by Joe Grimm about the students’ projects.

And if you really want to hear a nifty presentation, put this one in your iPod and take a listen.  (OK, I said I was partial — I’ve been living with this project since May!)

We’re halfway into it and now, and seeking media partners to implement each of the ideas. I think they’re going to rock!

But most important, for this cockeyed optimist who got into the news bidness to change the world, here’s the point of the project, straight from the Knight Foundation grant proposal:

“Create new ways for people to communicate interactively to help people better understand one another in geographic communities, share know-how and generate passion in solving local problems.”

Back to basics — doing some good for the world!