Today I saw Tim Berners-Lee speak about linked data/ontologies/the semantic web.   In addition to being the inventor of the WWW, he has really interesting ideas about women in engineering/computery things.  Now I am no engineer, but in a room of a couple hundred people men, I saw maybe 10 women.  Now, first, this is not news. But maybe it’s working with a lot of librarians which has lulled me into a female-dominated, computer-haxx0r haze.  Seriously I cannot recall when I have been in a room with fewer women (relatively), and I went to a high school with a male to female 3:1 ratio.  In fact I think this is certifiably the only time in my life where I have been the most feminine person in the room by a LONG SHOT (I was wearing a dress.  With pink flowers on it.).  And also the only woman under…40ish (that I saw).  I am not uncomfortable in male-dominated situations.  I am not uncomfortable being the youngest person in the room (though when that is taken to mean I am an idiot, it starts to grate).  I am not uncomfortable at a tech conference.    Yet, I was uncomfortable in that room.  While I was not at the conference very long, not one person spoke to me.  They did stare doubtfully at me though when TBL asked if people were familiar with the topic he was discussing, and I was the only person who raised my hand at my table.

So what I am saying, is even in this area, TBL knows what he is talking about.