Today is Ada Lovelace Day, an event initiated by Suw Charman-Anderson, and at the point of writing this, AdaLovelaceDay have 1776 bloggers who have signed up to blog, today, about women excelling in technology in whatever form we choose.
As this is a general topic that crop up on most conferences (where are the girls?) combined with the fact I have worked with so many great and awesome female developers, I figured I should contribute as well, by highlighting that there indeed are many great girls out there who rarely get into the limelight or steal the honour from the boys. In fact, I even struggle to think of any of the tech girls I have worked with who also bang their own drum, or who have a technology/development related web site of their own, or even blog about technology!
Other priorities
As with many others out there, some of the best people in general, and apparently also with most girls I have worked with, they don’t have the time or energy to put into a personal web site for their own glory, as they are being busy churning out awesome work for clients instead.
Now, leaving this a tad late (surprise surprise) I decided that instead of talking about all of the girls I have worked with as a group, and to avoid mentioning too many names (as that inevitably will mean I will forget one or more of them) I figured I should concentrate on telling you about one of them. Eva.
Dreadlocks
I first met Eva when I was in Hamburg working 10-11 years ago and as soon as you walked into the room you would have noticed her, which in Hamburg during the DotComBoom was quite a feat: the first guy I met was tall, had a mohikan and tonnes of piercings, tattoos and chains going from all possible and impossible parts of his anatomy, and he was blending in fine with rest of the office. Eva on the other hand had crisp white long dreadlocks, dressed in strong colours, had an awesome full shoulder tattoo, and she looked awesome. I didn’t actually work with her until after a week or so, but just being in the same room I noticed she was a quite feisty little bugger, and she was, at the time, doing ActionScript though (I later learnt) not feeling extremely comfortable with it.
Most notable quote from this period would have been various explicit things between gritted teeth in both German and English, so I shall spare you from it.
Now, there are a few things that can’t really be told about people, you just have to meet them and figure it out, but two things came across even during these initial first weeks of being around Eva: she is really cool, as in relaxed life loving cool, and secondly that everyone she has ever met, love her.
Land of Steel and Smoke
Steel and Smoke
Later that year I got a job for the same company that I had worked for in Hamburg, but this time in London. Eva was still in Hamburg and had moved on to other development, mainly PHP, and was giving the London office support on development issues as we were setting up a team both with staff (and desks) as well as hardware, and after having been in London (I still am) a few months we needed more people on this project we were working on (Wallpaper Magazine) and Eva was sent over to help us out.
When she arrived she still had her dreadlocks but by now they were carrot orange. The rest was the same though, in particular her smile and view on life. We spent months working almost around the clock together, we even shared a flat for 6 months, and she was (almost) always great fun, and I picked up a lot from her development wise myself (at the time I was a Sr Interactive Developer who dabbled in “back-end stuff”). Most importantly, we turned into the best of friends, based on mutual respect.
Notable Eva quotes from this period was “everything is simple when you know how to do it” and “it was working alright in most things, now I have “improved it”, which made it stop working in pretty much everything“.
Next!
The project ended and several of us weren’t happy with the company in general, so we bailed ship and went to another company. Eva stayed behind for a few months, but as an opening came up at the new place I was at (still in London) she came over there as well, this time to mainly do ASP (VB) development. This company was less than good at selling us, so there was only one notable client (AIG) but they were steaming ahead quite strongly, and contractors were brought in. One of them was…umm…special, and Eva didn’t really like the way he was bossing her around (as they were on the same skill level and he wasn’t her boss), and one day she snapped back at him: “you are not my brother, you are not my lover, you cannot speak to me like that” which caused applause and which is also her notable quote for this period in time. He never spoke to her like that again. Dreadlock status was now black/purple.
Another one, please.
As they didn’t sell us that well I moved on to another company, and we were small to start with, but were expanding quite a bit, so it didn’t turn into a massive surprise that an temporary (PHP/ASP) opening came and I suggested Eva to come in to fill it and we jokingly said “buy 1 get 1 free!!” as this was now the fourth time we worked together.
Eva
I could go on, but shall instead fast forward a bit. Eva helped starting up a small company with another of my old colleagues. Though that business is not blooming today they did alright for a few years. Dreadlocks came off. She got married (in Vienna) and is today the mother of two wonderful little daughters (the latest so brand new I haven’t even met her, she is still wrinkly), living in France and working from home. Most importantly, she is still one of my best friends even though it now gets to be way too far between the times we meet up, and she has taught me loads about life in general and development in particular.
The last 8 years we have been saying we were twins separated at birth (though she got the looks AND the brains and you would laugh if you saw us next to each other as she is about 4 apples high) as we have always been thinking in the same patterns (which is a scary thought for most who know me). Even my mum and my wife bought into the slightly unconventional imported twin concept, mainly because what I learnt during that first week in Hamburg is still true to this day: everyone who meets Eva love her. And she still says the most wonderfully quotable things.
