Ada Lovelace Day – Donna Benjamin, Brianna Laugher, Lorna Jane Mitchell and Elizabeth Naramore

One of the reasons behind the Finding Ada campaign is to promote the wealth of female talent in science, engineering, technology and computing. In previous years, I’ve heard the laments of many would-be bloggers; “but I don’t know any women in technology or computing!”. In contrast, I believe there are so many to choose from!

Donna Benjamin

Donna is a stalwart in the Linux and Drupal communities in Australia, and a key member of AussieChix. Although she holds many positions of responsibility within those communities, it is her passion, dedication, fervour and strong commitment to the values underpinning open source  that make me admire her so much. Education, openness and freedom are principles she strongly advocates – and on that basis alone she deserves credit. Her leadership abilities enable her to gain support – often from volunteers at events such as Software Freedom Day or for running conferences – and drive people to deliver on a shared vision. She is a force to be reckoned with, and a wonderful role model for other women.

Donna is @KatteKrab on Twitter, Identi.ca etc.

Brianna Laugher

Also a key player in the open source community, Brianna heads up Wikimedia Australia, an organisation dedicated to supporting the creation of free cultural works. She is active in the open source and Linux communities in Melbourne, and shares my passion for language.

Brianna is @pfctdayelise on Twitter, Identi.ca etc.

Lorna Jane Mitchell

Although having collaborated online as part of PHPWomen, I had the privilege of meeting Lorna while travelling in the UK. She is one of the most dynamic, energetic and determined people I’ve ever met – and an absolute dynamo during her time with PHPWomen. She now looks after the developer community at iBuildings, and has the (fun!) job of organising the Dutch PHP conference. As part of PHPWomen’s Big Sis L’il Sis programme, Lorna has mentored and coached a number of up-and-coming PHP developers, imbuing them with the confidence and skills to hone their PHP development technique.

Lorna is @LornaJane on Twitter, Identi.ca etc

Elizabeth Naramore

One of the founders of PHPWomen, Liz has previously worked on PHPArchitect magazine and in a number of development roles. She has played an instrumental role in establishing PHPWomen’s partnerships programme, in which open source software projects with strong values and statements about supporting equity and diversity within their development communities are promoted through PHPWomen. Liz is also a Mum – and how she manages her young family and still has time to code, I just don’t know!

Liz is @ElizabethN on Twitter, Identi.ca etc

So? Do you know a standout women in science, technology or computing? Then blog about them for Ada Lovelace Day!