Thanks to Gail Purvis for this review

The first Edinburgh Geek dinner was originally planned for 40 people and held last week at the Edinburgh Informatics Centre. Three weeks before the launch it had sold out and had to increase the numbers to 50 so the next is planned for October 1 at Edinburgh Napier University.

Browse ‘Geek’ and you will find it defined originally as a ‘carnival performer, often billed as a wild man’ The the word equates to nerd, gimp, dweeb, or dork, though it seems there’s been a shift in implication to ‘a person who is interested in technology, especially computing and new media.’ And a move from being the provenance of boys and men, to the emergence of the “Geek chic” now being adopted by girls and women.

If you go hunting websites, you will find Geek Girls (with a plain English guide to Computing) and you will also find Girl Geek Scotland, or a networking community for technically minded women. It all began in London with Girl Geek Dinners a few years ago, and now there’s a network throughout the UK and Europe, where Jan Van Mol’s cross-over creative cross-over Addict Creative Lab, with more than 4,000 registered creatives from all over the world and from 32 disciplines (fashion, photography, architecture, cooking, design, textile, music, advertising, branding….) might be considered a creative Geek sparking point.

Geeks Girls in Scotland originally emerged in Dundee with Morna Simpson (involved in the start-up through to programme review (2008) of the BSc in Interactive Media Design, at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee): Mel Woods, (interested in convergence of visual, text and sound based media through interdisciplinary research in optics) and Sarah Kettley (artist researcher working in the field of wearable technology, collaborating in the Speckled Computing consortium designing wearable devices and developing lo-tech design to smart materials, mapping the space between handhelds and wearables.)

The Edinburgh Girl Geek committee: (R-L)Sarah Kettley, Caroline Turnbull, Jenny Tizard, Allison Johnstone, Kate Ho and Bonnie Webber.

Opening the meeting, executive director of Scotland IS, Polly Purvis declared “The idea behind the Girl Geek movement is great and it is tremendous to see the enthusiasm with which it is being taken up in Scotland.”

Though, good researcher that she is (and confirmed shoe addict) she noted that in London, Girl Geek sponsers, Silicon Stilettoes, were adding a fashion note to the term Geek, and shr concluded in wishing all Edinburgh Geeks, ‘diamonds on the soles of their shoes’.

Changing the image of IT

Purvis (left) confesses she is “constantly perplexed that computing,.. instrumental in breaking down information barriers, through broadband communications, the internet, and the web; which helped unlock the complexity of DNA; provides us all with a mobile computer in our pockets, and is creating a paradigm shift in community building, through social networking, is so little understood, and appreciated.

“Ten years ago who’d heard of Skype, twitter or iphone? In the interim, social networking has become a business tool, instant messaging has replaced email for many, and blogs are now more powerful than the press,” she noted.

“To set the context, the software and ICT industry is one of the powerhouses of the Scottish economy, employing around 100,000 people. Not only a knowledge industry in its own right, it underpins so many other industries, is a vehicle for transformation across business and the public sector, and breaks down the barriers created by our geographic location.

“It is a high skilled industry, providing exciting, challenging and demanding careers and we need talented people to join it. In an increasingly competitive world market we cannot afford to be complacent about the skills base we have. We must raise our game to attract talented people and that means many more women. So how do we do that?”

Top priority she feels is “Collectively we need to do much more at schools, ensure access to up to date informed careers advice raise the profile of the industry.

At school,” she feels, “young people and girls in particular are turned away from an interest in computing, partly because what they are being taught is not what they experience on the web, and doesn’t match their knowledge of the technology interfaces they use – their phones, their games consoles and the internet.

“Making sure careers advice is up to date is in itself a major challenge. The growth in new industries and disciplines, new specialist roles, such as procurement professionals and environmental scientists, nanotechnologists, sports scientists,the list is endless…

“I think we can all help in developing a suite of materials that will provide detailed information about the variety of job roles and opportunities the industry offers, using the latest media such as YouTube.”

The third factor to be addressed she feels is that “downsizing in the electronics industry and the high profile offshoring of jobs has led to a view that there are no jobs in technology. We must dispel these myths, provide careers advisors with regular updates on opportunities and requirements and a concerted effort to promote the industry to everyone.”

Asked for her reaction to the Borders moves to cutting computing lessons in a bid to save cash, she expressed real concern. “At ScotlandIS we have queried whether computing should continue to be taught in schools because the current curriculum is so seriously out of date. Currently schools tend to equate ICT to word processing and spread sheets, and this is turning young people away from an interest in computing. What a tragedy!

“Computing is the corner stone of information technologies, is an essential skill set for Scotland’s economic health, and we need to ensure that our young people are highly skilled in its use. Increasingly ubiquitous, IT will impact all aspects of their lives. Understanding how to maximise its potential to benefit work, rest and play is increasingly important.”

Scottish Geek network hopefully should be a move to compute enthusiasm for creative IT into our schools.