Java Women Network ??

A couple of weeks ago, Tom Marble asked Tania and I what we thought about starting a group for Women who are interested in Java. In attempt to tie together the technology industry, we need to make the under-represented and extremely talented more visible. I was really impressed with the ideas he had, but we began to notice that there are not a lot of women (we know of) who are interested in contributing because of busy schedules.

The aim of this group is to promote the collaboration amongst women who develop and use Java technology. We want to increase the visibility of every woman’s contribution, create mentoring opportunities and, above all, professional networking.

We do not want to exclude the men! This group is open to anyone who support women in Java, and technology, as a whole.

The group is still in the planning stages. As of now, our ideas have been thrown up onto a wiki. We are looking for more members and ideas from everyone.

Some ideas we have thus far:
- A planet for blog aggregation.
- Profiles and bios of all the women participating
- A mentoring program
- Events/Public speaking
- Female friendly T-Shirts.

We have already created an IRC channel (#java-women) on OFTC for members to communicate. Drop by and say hi! I have sent emails out to all my contacts, and got great feedback, but, I am still looking for more people to help get this off the ground.