Along with over a thousand other people, I have pledged to celebrate the first ever Ada Byron Lovelace Day by publishing a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire.
My nomination is my longtime friend and former colleague Stevie Vanhegan, of Lady Bay, Nottingham, UK. Stevie has taught computing in the Dept of Education at Nottingham Trent University for longer than I can remember, and she was there when I began a Humanities degree as a mature student in 1985. By then I had known her for around five years - we both had small children and were members of the same baby-sitting circle. I was a customer of her small wholefoods delivery business, run from her garage. There was always something interesting going on at Stevie's yet she had time to stop for coffee and chat in between tending to the chickens and rabbits in the garden or looking after the numerous kids always streaming in and out.
Stevie was the only woman I'd met at that time who had studied any kind of science - in her case chemical engineering. This was an unknown land to me - everyone I knew had taken arts subjects. But Stevie was of a different breed. For example, when a household appliance was ready to be thrown out, she would hand it over to her kids to take apart and figure out how it worked. She was passionate about understanding the world around her and made sure her kids continued that enquiring nature.
So in 1985 when I began my Humanities degree and chose English and History as my two core subjects, Stevie was quick to jump in with her recommendation - "You've got to take a computing option. Everyone has to know about computing. It's vital." I wasn't keen, I must admit. I had always been useless at maths and science and there was no reason to assume I'd be any better at computing. But I gave in under the pressure of Stevie's not inconsiderable persuasive techniques (i.e. nagging) and elected to take an option module called Humanities Computing. It changed my life.
In 85, those pre-web days, Humanities geographer Brian Dittmer taught bemused arts majors how computers worked and how to communicate with them via snippets of Basic. Stevie was not my teacher but she was always available to answer my questions as the whole notion of code turned into an enormous revelation - not just technically but conceptually and philosophically too. Very quickly, computers became my muse. I started writing about them then, and haven't stopped since. In 1988 my Humanities final year dissertation, Close Encounters of the Machine Kind, was about the relationship between computers and humans (later I would discover HCI but at that time I was working completely alone), and by 1992 I had published my first novel, Correspondence, a fictional extension of those first discoveries.
None of that would ever have happened without Stevie's very characteristic suggestion, and I know she has helped many others too, not least a fellow ABL poster. Despite that, she is very modest - I couldn't even find a homepage or a picture to include in this post, although amusingly this morning I received an email from her reminding me it is Ada Byron Lovelace Day!
Almost 25 years ago, Stevie Vanhegan opened the door for me to an entirely other world, one I would never have even thought of venturing towards if I had not known her. We continue to be good friends, and we still talk about technology, but I don't know whether she realises the importance of her influence on my life. Hopefully, today she will. Thanks Stevie!
I also mentioned Stevie as my own Ada Lovelace heroine. I loved your story, and wasn't it great to have the opportunity to celebrate other women's contributions-
Best wishes
Susan Hallam
http://www.shcl.co.uk/blog/2009/03/ada-lovelace-day-a-nottinghamshire-heroine.html
Posted by: Susan Hallam | March 24, 2009 at 04:11 PM