Julie Lerman's DevLife

DevLife Part I [May 2005 - March 2007]

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A blog for DevSource.com.

This blog was originally part of the blogs.ziffdavis.com site from May 2005 through June 2007 when the blog was moved to the Movable Type blog engine and hosted at blog.devsource.com/devlife.
The original blog was eventually shut down and I was given the posts so that I could host them on my own site.


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E-Gaming program at Vermont's Champlain College is headed up by women

Champlain College offers the first college level e-gaming program and it is headed up by two women: director Ann DeMarle and the new assistant director, Amanda Crispel. Amanda has a pretty impressive gaming software resume including titles like Carmen Sandiego, Lego Mindstorm and Leapfrog. Here's a link to the program's home page.

This is a subset of the software industry that is associated with women even less than business software development - and of course game players are more likely to be guys as well. I remember Microsoft's Sara Ford, in her first Channel 9 interview, saying that she grew up playing games which made her very interested in technology and now she has the job at Microsoft to prove it.

I have always championed the “role model” theory of having more women visible in software development (writing, speaking at conferences, etc.) to encourage other women who are interested, but might otherwise be daunted by the lack of women. I would bet money that there will be young women applying to that program that might not have considered it without Ann and Amanda there. Certainly there will be others who this doesn't make a difference to one way or another, but I like the fact that it can definitely have a positive impact.

posted on Saturday, October 29, 2005 3:15 PM