Apparently today is Ada Lovelace Day. I didn’t know about this day until a few hours ago when Tris Hussey told me about it. For those of you similarly unaware, Ada Lovelace Day is a day in which we honour women in tech that we respect by writing a blog post about them.
The day is named after Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. Ada is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the “first programmer” since she was writing programs—that is, manipulating symbols according to rules—for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities - from Wikipedia
Pretty amazing to think of anyone, female or male, being so advanced and forward thinking. She did this in the early-mid 1800s, whilst I myself am only just learning to code.
When I think of the women in technology that I have interacted with in the past year and a half, it is pretty difficult to limit this post to one woman. There are so many women in tech that I respect and are amazed by. I know last year I was impressed with all the women that were involved in putting Bridging Media together with Meg and I. I want to make this celebration special, however, so I am going to highlight three women whom I was fortunate enough to recently share a panel with at the Women in Film Festival New Media Day - Monica Hamburg, Carol Sill and Gillian Shaw.
Monica Hamburg, because she never seizes to surprise me with how many ways she can use social media to bring a smile to my face and a chuckle to my belly.
Carol Sill, because she was one of the first people to introduce me to blogging and social media. Even though she came from a world of traditional media, she immediately recognized the value of emerging and social media, embraced it whole heartedly, and shared it with those around her.
Gillian Shaw, because she is a testament to the fact that we can bridge traditional and emerging media, and by altering the manner in which we tell our stories, we will see media evolve rather than die.
Ladies - I do hope we get to do the second half of our panel, sometime in the not so distant future. I feel most fortunate for knowing and sharing with each of you.
Full Disclosure: The Green Chain’s producers, Tony Wosk and Mark Leiren-Young are friends mine, but that does not mean that I’d automatically like their movie. And to be honest I didn’t like it ….. I loved it! I knew Mark was a good writer, but this isn’t just good writing, this is great writing.
If you don’t know what The Green Chain is about, here’s the synopses:
The Green Chain is a powerful, funny and thought-provoking film about the conflicts between people on both sides of the battle who love trees — and are willing to risk anything to protect their personal visions of the forest.
‘Powerful’ is the perfect descriptor for this film. It really hit a chord for me and rang so true to many of my own experiences. I’ve worked in the forestry industry, am a biologist and been an environmentalist, and I saw so much of the dialog and characters in myself and the people I met along the way. It’s uncanny how Mark writes them so perfectly. In my late teens, I was the kid that would have found it to be an adventure to live in the tree and as a biologist I would have been there for many of the reasons that the Raging Granny shared. As I matured and spent more time in the smaller towns of BC, I discovered that my youthful ideals were a little naive. It doesn’t matter that I now recognize that the story has more sides, to the forestry workers in the small towns I will always be seen as an educator and one time forestry researcher, and they’ll be too busy defending their right to log to hear me say, ‘I understand’. My cousin will get into actual fights with me where I don’t say a single word, because in her mind I’m still that scrappy, tree hugging, granola eating, 19 year old, who’d still love to live in a tree (I’d be lying to say I’d never considered it).
I love the way in Mark’s account of this age old story, all the characters touch each others lives. He does this so seamlessly, but so that it really pulls at the heart strings of our own connectivity, just like that of the ecosystem. And the beauty is this isn’t just a story about logging. This is a tale that speaks to many small towns and natural resource based industries. Speaking from the BC perspective, this story could just as easily be fish or rocks.
Oh and I don’t think you have to be an uber science geek like myself to enjoy The Green Chain. It is simply a good story and I’ll be the first to admit I am a critical audience. I’m critical of science stories as I am a scientist and storyteller. There’s nothing to be critical of here, it’s just a darn good story and accurate. And unlike some science stories, it’s far from boring. In fact, I will likely watch it numerous time, as I enjoyed it that much!
Go see it! You still have time to make the late show! It starts at 9:10 pm.
Failing that, the daily show times of The Green Chain at Fifth Avenue Cinema, between now to Thursday March 11th, are 1:30, 4:45, 7:10 and 9:10 pm.
