CS - The Image Problem
Fri Sep 24 2004 13:46 MDT #So last night going to the airport to pick up my sister and Jamie, who are in town this weekend, I listened to an IT Conversations show Memory Lane. This episode was an interview with Lucy Sanders, the CEO of the National Center for Women and Information Technology. At one point in the show she was discussing the reasons that so many girls opt out of Computer Science so early. She feels that one of the main reasons is the image of Computer Science. It is a horrible image, massively geeky, and this puts off girls at a higher rate than guys.
The conversation turned for a few minutes to the image problem. And concluded there was little to be done right now, with no money behind it. The best that could be hoped is that tv shows like CSI present their computer guys as doing exciting work, and being somewhat hip. This is not much of a hope.
However this morning I was looking at the back cover of Paul Grahams Hackers and Painters and I was stuck by how much it was aimed at non-hackers. How it aims to explain the "world and the motivations of " hackers. It hypes that "This book will force you to re-think your ideas about the nature of computer programming." Clearly the publishers are aiming this book at non-geeks. And the book is clearly aimed at making geeks appear every bit as cool as painters. Which is really hard to imagine. But I do think this PR effort is important. And I'm glad I found at least low level evidence of it so fast.
This field needs bright people, and right now we are scaring them off. We need to do better. Particularly amongst women, but really we just need to do better. PR matters. This image is hurting the industry.