October 14 is Ada Lovelace Day (ALD), an annual global event that recognizes not only the 19th century mathematician and aristocratic super nerd who wrote the first computer program, but other women in our community, too. ALD founder Suw Charman-Andersons goal is to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths by encouraging people around the world to talk about the women whose work they admire.

Supporting diversity is important to us, so were participating in ALD this year. Weve compiled some stories of women in tech from OReilly staff and members of our extended family you can read about them below.

What women inspire you? Let us know in the comments below and/or add it to the list on Finding Ada. Also, stay tuned for news Thursday on a new OReilly campaign about making geek culture one that welcomes and supports everyone.

Sarah Allen

She was my boss for a while (engineering manager at Macromedia), and I have learned so much from her.

Shes also super awesome, teaching women in tech via the Ruby classes she set up all over the countrycheck out her about page for all the details. Peldi Guilizzoni

Mary Gardiner (left) and Valerie Aurora

Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner are Linux hackers who decided to do something about the lack of women in the open source community and founded the Ada Initiative, which supports women in open technology and culture through activities such as producing codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies, advocating for gender diversity, teaching ally skills, and hosting conferences for women in open tech/culture.

They have been extremely effective: hundreds of conferences have adopted codes of conduct, and they have widely presented their ally skills workshops and made the materials available online under a Creative Commons license.

Read more:

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day