BPC-A: Collaborative Research: WWW.2, a Wide Web of Women

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DePauw University with the collaboration of the Anita Borg Institute (ABI) and the University of Virginia, and in partnership with the ACM Women's Council (ACM-W) and the National Center for Women and IT (NCWIT), proposes to create self-sustaining, regional communities of women in computing. National-level activities, such as the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, have positively impacted thousands of women. They cannot, however, reach all women. In particular, national meetings have limited ability to recruit women from isolated areas of the country, to include women at institutions that cannot afford expensive and time-consuming travel to national meetings, to provide leadership roles, to encourage participation by high school students, and to support interactions that are frequent enough to spark and sustain collaborations among budding students and professionals. This project -- called WWW.2 for Wide Web of Women -- aims to overcome these impediments. The project will create twelve new and upgraded Regional Celebrations of Women in Computing that will bring students, faculty and indistry representatives together for biennial conferences. The conferences will increase women?s participation in computing through intentional role modeling, networking, group and indivudal career mentoring, providing career information, and oportunities for experiences in presenting their work. The attendees will be encouraged to continue their interactions between Celebrations, for example, by forming ACM-W student chapters, hosting multi-institutional get togethers, and maintaining connections through a wiki. Focusing on women (as well as regions) serves a population powerfully united by gender, yet diverse in experience, with personal stories varying by race, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation. This "Web of Women" will build momentum toward a tipping point of cultural change in stereotypes about gender and computing.