Women Surpass Men Online

[kelley]

At 12:18 PM 8/27/00 -0700, John Kawakami wrote:
>>John Kawakami wrote:
>>
>>>So, what kinds of software will women develop?
>>
>>Over the last 10 years, the share of women entering tech professions
>has declined, as has the share of women majoring in engineering. It's 
>still mostly a boy's game, at least on the production side, even if more 
>women are now using the stuff.
>>
>>Doug
>
>Is this the general direction of the Internet - into a largely 
>non-participatory medium?
>
>Is the history of the internet being lost?
>
>I ask these rhetorically, but as someone who basically grew up online, 
>it's really pissing me off that online culture, which, for all its faults, 
>was a medium that was largely created by its users, has not only been 
>taken over by AOL and Microsoft, but that it looks like the history of the 
>net is being rewritten too.  I don't know how.  All I know is, I talk to 
>people who are new to online life, and they think it's an extension of 
>MSNBC, and it's a commercial space created by corporate interests.
>
>More disturbing is that most of these people simply accept that these 
>systems are impenetrable, and that great expertise is required to create 
>websites.  Something is wrong here.
>--

joseph turow, breaking up america, discusses the discussions about whether 
to publicly fund the development of the 'net and web or to go 
commercial.  the model of TeeVee won out.  You should read the crap that 
these people (advertisers, p.r. putzes, etc) maintained as to why it would 
be more "free" to go with advertising supported internet/web than it would 
be to continue to underwrite its development via public funds.

kelley