Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day and the women who made the internet

Ira Flatow (0:00)

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Ira Flatow (1:03)

Hey, it's Ira, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Remember the hidden figures, NASA's human computers, or Apollo computing pioneer Margaret Hamilton, whose software helped land people on the moon and who passed away last week? Just a few examples of women who were pioneers in computers and technology. Women helped build the structure of our modern Internet, from Univac to Arpernet to Hypertext, and no woman is more remembered for her work in computing and is a programming pioneer than Ada Lovelace, creator of the first computer algorithm. Today we celebrate Ada Lovelace Week, and what better way than to listen to a conversation I had back in 2018 with Claire Evans, author of the book Broad Band, The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet. She told me the book came from a crisis of faith she had about her place as a woman on the Internet.

Claire Evans (2:00)

I grew up online, essentially. I'm of the generation where, although I can remember a time before the web, it's not very clear for me, I grew up learning how to write on the Internet. I saw text on the screen and it empowered me as a young writer. My father worked for Intel. I had computers in the home growing up. I had always felt that the Internet was my country in some way. But in the last few years, I started to feel a little bit disconnected from it. Unsure if as a woman, I had a place on the Internet anymore. I felt more vulnerable. I felt like it was harder to express myself as freely as I had in my early days online. So yeah, the book comes from that.

Ira Flatow (2:39)

Did it resolve your issues there?

Claire Evans (2:41)

I don't know about the future, but I'm certainly much more confident about the past.

Ira Flatow (2:46)

Where exactly do you think women's stories and why have they been left out of the history of the Internet?

Claire Evans (2:52)

Well, the Internet is an interesting case because it was developed by the Department of Defense and to serve the needs of computer scientists and engineers at the highest levels of academic computer science. So by definition, it was a very male-dominated environment in terms of the infrastructure. But women have always found ways to position themselves even within those kinds of spaces. I mean, one of the most fascinating characters I think in my book is a woman who ran what was called the Network Information Center of the early ARPANET, the first version of the Internet. She was the secretary, the air traffic control, the librarian, the sort of head information resource of the network. She wasn't a computer scientist, but she brought a lot of value to organizing the information on that network and connecting people on it, which tends to be a theme if you look at the history of women in computing and also in my book.

Stacy Horn (3:39)

That was Jake Feinler?

Claire Evans (3:40)

That's Jake Feinler, yeah.

Ira Flatow (3:41)

Yeah.

In your reading your book, I learned a lot of new stories. I've been reading, living the Internet for my whole career, but two of the names you write about are absolutely familiar, Ada Loveless and Grace Hopper.

Claire Evans (3:52)

Yes.

Ira Flatow (3:52)

Now, I have a particular soft spot for Grace Hopper because she, I remember she did an interview with David Letterman in 1986 and it's one of my favorite clips. I play it as much as I can.

Beverly (4:05)

And you worked on the original computer in this country, right? I was very fortunate. The Navy ordered me to the first big computer in the United States, Mark 1 at Harvard.

Ira Flatow (4:13)

It was called Mark 1 at Harvard?

Beverly (4:15)