RE: Carnegie Mellon Study On Gender and Computer Science

www.hackingplay.com/carnegie-mellon-study-on-gender-and-computer-science/

This is a telling article. It demonstrates that the gender gap in computer engineering can be overcome with surprisingly little effort. Decades have been spent cultivating this "basement nerd" stereotype, especially by film and tv shows. The average high school student thinks that engineering requires "the knack" which a few socially unbalanced people are born with. No! Computer science is about real-world applications of beautiful math. Most importantly, good computer science requires the ability to contribute to a team without causing conflict.

Google Fiber and inequality

Google's recent fiber program is coming to Provo soon. The lowest 100 megabit tier is practically free (7 years for $300). So why is it free, and why in Provo? The simplest and most obvious answer is, "it makes Google money". Google sells advertisements through passive views and clicks; more people on the Internet means more money for Google. Google might be losing a lot of money on Google Fiber, but delivering free advertising for a minimum of 7 years is an excellent investment. Google, being a rational company, seems to be choosing Google Fiber cities where people are 1) most likely to use internet, and 2) most likely to appeal to Google's advertisers. Provo is full of college students and large middle-class families who are excellent targets for advertisers. But then this begs another question: "what about communities that don't appeal to Google's advertisers, and what are they supposed to do to compensate for not having fiber internet in the coming decades?"