Communication
as we know it today is not just connecting people, by words, mail,
phones, social pages or why not, being together with others, actually
face to face talking, singing, gossiping, arguing ... but in hundreds of
ways, fields, across mountains, oceans and space, globally and even
between planets. It's a concept unimaginable say just half a century
back, let alone well over a century ago.
But,
in the factual history, there had been a few women, granted, only a
handful, who had got in their heads the idea of practicing what is now
called 'hacking', like Lisbeth. the word has diverse meanings and the
majority of them practiced the less aggressive: to be excellent
programmers.
As
far back as in the beginning of the 18th century, when speaking to
anyone not in your immediate vicinity within a few yards, would have
meant making a trip involving horses and carriages, yet there was this
woman, Ada Byron, Daughter of the poet Lord Byron, born and died in
London (1815-1852). She was later considered as the first programmer and
mother of communicative programming. Self-taught, she worked with
Charles Babbage, father of the computers by his invention of the
analytic machine.
Eniac
was the first electronic computer (1946). It was programmed by 6 women,
specialists in mathematics: Betty Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings
Bartik, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Ruth
Lichterman Teitelbaum and Frances Bilas Spence. Together they have
worked and calculated manually the course and paths of the bombings in
the 2nd World War.
Grace
Murray Hopper (1906-1996). She was one of the 3 people who designed a
programme for the 1st electromagnetic computer, the Mark 1. Participated
in creation of the 1st commercial computers Binac and UNIVAC 1
Supervised the department that developed the 1st compilation and the 1st
programming language of high level, orientated to the management and
administration, foresaw the artificial intelligence, the parallel
processors, and the day to day use of the computer.
Evelyn
Berezin, born in 1025, invented in 1953 the office computer when
working in Underwood. Developed the 1st system of flight reservations.
Was known as mother of processors of text since she developed the idea,
in 1968, of a programme that permitted storing and editing texts.
Lynn
Conway was born in 1938. Pioneer in the field of architecture of
computers and microelectronics. Great part of the evolution in the
design of chips based on her work. In 1965 she participated in the 1st
super scale computer.
Jude Milhon (1939-2003) was mother of the Cyberpunk, programmer, writer, rebel, and defender of cyber rights.
Frances
E. Allen, born in 1932, was the 1st woman that, in 2007, received the
Turing Prize, equivalent to the Nobel of Information. She is the
investigator of IBM and pioneer in the automation of parallel tasks.