Canaries in the Coal Mine

["Harold Fox" <hfox@>]

Yesterday, Lenore Blum gave a talk referring to women in CS as canaries in
the coal mine. They make a lot of noise, have small brains, and pass out at
the faintest sign of trouble you ask? No! Women dropping out of CS is a
precursor for society as a whole collectively losing interest in our field.

Back in the high-flying dot-com days, computers were sexy. Geeks graced the
covers of Time magazine. Head-scratching website ads dominated the Super
Bowl. Shawn Fanning presented at the MTV Video Music Awards! Now, how can we
possibly compete with the doctors of House or the chemists of CSI with their
shabby-chic stubble, form-fitting labcoats, and designer microscopes?

Here are some of the problems keeping women and other sane people away from
the field and what we can do about it:

*Problem*: Image -- society's conception of what computer scientists do and
the kind of people that do it.
* Solution 1*: That means you, pal! Get a hair cut, shave, and buy some new
clothes. DEC hasn't been around for a while, so you should throw out that
backpack. No, it's not "retro".
*Solution 2*: Show off all the cool things computers can do once you get
past all that nasty coding and debugging: terrorist-hunting autonomous
military vehicles and high-resolution video games with physically realistic
gore.

*Problem*: Social networks -- Male computer scientists meet each other in
their normal peer groups: dorms, frats, etc. They have a natural mentorship
and support network.
*(Sample frat house)*
"Hey, aren't you in my 6.046 class?"
"Yeah! Where is everybody."
"It's Friday night. They all have dates. Wanna do algorithms homework?"
"Sure!"
*Solution*: CS clubs for women. Social events like "Eating chocolate and
writing compilers: a natural pair", "Knitting scarfs for your multi-meter",
"Trading web-pages: Lavender is this year's blue", or "Hello Kitty
robotics".

*Problem*: Bad high schools -- No qualifications for CS instructors and a
counter-productive AP test.
*Solution*: Imports! Americans may be dullards, but the rest of the world is
producing plenty of smart, motivated students. Grab them. Emphasize the mild
weather, good food, and plentiful baseball.

Come mourn the demise of computer science at this week's:

           +-                                                  -+
             girl scout benefit -+-  5:30 pm  -+- 32-G9 lounge
           +-                                                  -+

              For those coming from elsewhere: Building 32 is
               <http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=32>
          Once you are in 32, just take the G-elevator to the 9th
      floor and we will be in the lounge that you will be looking at
                    <http://projects.csail.mit.edu/gsb>

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