为什么产品比技术更重要_为什么技术很重要-CSDN博客

为什么产品比技术更重要

Computers have always been a part of my life.

电脑一直是我生活的一部分。

I know, most people who work in tech say that and it is not always the case. For me, it’s true! When I was young, my dad purchased a personal computer and put it in my playroom. I spent a large part of my youth with a Barbie in one hand and a computer manual in the other. In high school, I began coding, but at that time I did not realize it was called coding, so I called it “playing with a computer”. As a junior in high school, I went away to summer camp for a science training enrichment program where I spent six weeks on a college campus, learning about computers and chemistry.

我知道，大多数从事技术工作的人都这么说，但并非总是如此。对我来说，是真的！小时候，爸爸买了一台个人电脑，放在游戏室里。我一生中的很大一部分时间都是一只手牵着芭比娃娃，另一只手牵着电脑手册。在高中时，我开始编码，但是那时我没有意识到它被称为编码，所以我称它为“玩电脑”。高中时，我去了一个夏令营，参加了一次科学训练强化计划，在那里我在大学校园里呆了六个星期，学习计算机和化学知识。

All these experiences helped me determine my passion for computer science early on, so when it came time to choose a career path in college, it was a no-brainer decision! For other girls, this early access and interest in technology was not a given. For some, it was not even an option.

所有这些经验帮助我早日确定了自己对计算机科学的热情，因此当需要选择大学的职业道路时，这是一个明智的决定！对于其他女孩来说，这种早期获得和对技术的兴趣是没有的。对于某些人来说，这甚至不是一种选择。

I noticed this disparity when I began my career as a software engineer with the NSA, moving to other companies like Delta Air Lines, the University of California, Irvine, the United States Air Force, McKesson, etc. I would sit at conference room tables and see no other women, no one else of color. When I would look up the chain of command, I would see no one who looked like me. This was perplexing! I wondered why was there such a lack of diversity in these technology roles.

当我在NSA担任软件工程师的职业生涯开始时，我注意到了这种差距，后来转移到了其他公司，例如达美航空，加利福尼亚大学，尔湾分校，美国空军，麦基森等。我坐在会议室的桌子旁没有其他女人，没有其他有色人种。当我查找命令链时，不会看到任何人看起来像我。这真令人困惑！我想知道为什么这些技术角色缺乏这样的多样性。

I soon came to find out that most young girls not only lack exposure to computer science, but they often reach college and don’t even consider computer science as a possibility. And for those who do enter tech, many of them leave. I’ve had several friends leave IT because they felt isolated, different, or that they weren’t part of a “tribe” at work.

我很快发现，大多数年轻女孩不仅没有接触计算机科学的知识，而且她们经常上大学，甚至不考虑计算机科学的可能性。对于那些真正进入技术领域的人，许多人离开了。我有几个朋友离开IT，因为他们感到孤立，与众不同，或者他们不是工作中“部落”的一部分。

My research showed the motivation for both the decision to leave and the decision not to pursue computer science often came back to two things:

我的研究表明，决定离开和不追求计算机科学的动机通常归结为两点：

A lack of positive female role models to show this path is possible.
缺乏积极的女性榜样来表明这条道路是可能的。
A lack of exposure at an early age, leaving many women who choose a STEM path left feeling behind their male counterparts.
幼年时缺乏接触，使许多选择STEM路径的女性感到与男性相比有所落后。

So I created Colors of STEM as a response.

因此，我创建了STEM的颜色作为响应。

The Mission of Colors of STEM

STEM颜色的使命

At Colors of STEM, we seek to change the isolation and lack of diversity in these core industries—science, technology, engineering, and math. We provide girls and young women with their own tribe and access to others who are just like them. The site operates as an online social and professional networking platform to reduce the gender gap by giving girls and young women of all colors of the rainbow positive role models and examples of what women are doing in STEM careers.

在Colors of STEM，我们寻求改变这些核心行业（科学，技术，工程和数学）中的孤立和缺乏多样性。我们为女孩和年轻妇女提供他们自己的部落，并让他们与他们一样的其他人接触。该网站是一个在线社交和专业网络平台，通过为各种颜色的女孩和年轻妇女提供积极的榜样和妇女在STEM生涯中的榜样，来减少性别差距。

We are currently 100 members strong, spanning the U.S., U.K., and Australia. We have a Slack channel to make communication easy and we raise awareness of women doing great things through our blog. For people with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, there is an app called STEM Women. When you ask your home device to tell you about a successful woman in science, technology, engineering, and math, it’ll read aloud information about what these amazing women are doing.

目前，我们在美国，英国和澳大利亚拥有100名成员。我们有一个Slack频道，使交流变得容易，并通过我们的博客提高了女性做大事的意识。对于使用Amazon Alexa和Google Home的用户，有一个名为STEM Women的应用程序。当您要求家用设备告诉您科学，技术，工程和数学领域的成功女性时，它将大声朗读有关这些杰出女性正在做什么的信息。

The highest request we receive from young girls is around marine biology. Many girls from all over the world are very interested in this line of work. Through Colors of STEM, we are able to partner them with professional marine biologist members who can mentor them and give insight on how to pursue this line of work.

我们从年轻女孩那里得到的最高要求是关于海洋生物学。来自世界各地的许多女孩对此工作非常感兴趣。通过Colors of STEM，我们能够与专业的海洋生物学家成员合作，他们可以指导他们并就如何开展这一工作提供见解。

While there’s a lack of diversity in all STEM industries, I’ve personally always felt it in technology. Tech has always been a white male-dominated industry, offering no role models for young girls (especially young girls of color) to look up to. Colors of STEM strives to highlight women making waves in their career so girls feel they can step into these roles when they grow up.

尽管在所有STEM行业中都缺乏多样性，但我个人一直在技术上感到如此。科技一直是白人男性主导的行业，没有为年轻女孩（尤其是有色女孩）提供榜样。 Colours of STEM致力于凸显女性在其职业生涯中的风潮，以便女孩长大后可以感觉到自己可以扮演这些角色。

It’s important to send this message early and make an impact when girls are young. For example, according to ComputerScience.org, girls make up more than half of all Advanced Placement (AP) test-takers, yet boys outnumber girls 4:1 in computer science exams. In 2014, not a single girl in Mississippi, Montana, and Wyoming took the AP Computer Science exam. It’s statistics like these that Colors of STEM wants to change.

重要的是要及早发送此消息，并在年轻时发挥作用。例如，根据ComputerScience.org的数据，在所有高级分班考试（AP）考试中，女生占一半以上，而在计算机科学考试中，男生的比例却超过了女生4：1 。 2014年，在密西西比州，蒙大拿州和怀俄明州，没有一个女孩参加过AP计算机科学考试。像这样的统计数据，STEM的颜色想要改变。

Though I noticed the imbalance in my 23-year career, it really hit home for me when my daughter (who was nine at the time) called herself a computer programmer. My first thought was, “Oh cool! She will follow in my footsteps!” But I suddenly realized if she did, her experiences in the world could be similar to mine. This motivated me to take up the cause and try to the move the needle so the next generation won’t feel isolated the way women in my generation have felt. I want her to go to college and join the world as a computer programmer with an experience totally different and separate from mine!

尽管我注意到我23年职业生涯中的不平衡状况，但当我的女儿（当时只有9岁）称自己为计算机程序员时，这确实使我感到震惊。我的第一个念头是：“噢，酷！她会跟随我的脚步！” 但是我突然意识到，如果她这样做了，那么她在世界上的经历可能与我的相似。这激发了我去追寻事业，并努力推动发展，使下一代不会像我们这一代女性那样感到孤立。我希望她能上大学并以计算机程序员的身份加入世界，而她的经历与我完全不同，并且与我完全不同！

Lack of Diversity Affects End Results of Tech

缺乏多样性影响技术的最终结果

People who do not fall into a minority group may think they are not affected by a lack of diversity in technology, but that would be an incorrect assumption.

不属于少数群体的人可能会认为他们不受技术多样性缺乏的影响，但这将是一个错误的假设。

Consider, for a moment, our society’s increased reliance on AI and machine learning technologies. Most people are not aware how much these systems have infiltrated everyday life. If you apply for a loan, the bank may use a machine-learning program to determine if you qualify. If you are trying to work for a company, they may use machine-learning models to test if you will be a good fit. There are even judges who use machine learning in court to determine if someone is going to be a repeat offender. If the program says yes, the person does not get parole.

考虑一下，我们社会对AI和机器学习技术的依赖性越来越高。大多数人不知道这些系统已渗透到日常生活中的程度。如果您申请贷款，银行可能会使用机器学习程序来确定您是否符合条件。如果您想为一家公司工作，他们可能会使用机器学习模型来测试您是否合适。甚至有法官在法庭上使用机器学习来确定某人是否会成为重犯。如果程序说是，则该人不会被假释。

I believe this reliance will only grow. It begs the question: How can these technologies perform effectively, improve business, and provide accurate responses if you only have one set of developers from one common background inputting the data used to build the predictive machine-learning models and make decisions? This is a problem we are seeing today that creates biases in technology. These biases affect every person interacting with the technology, even those who aren’t a minority.

我相信这种依赖只会增加。这就引出了一个问题：如果您只有来自一个共同背景的一组开发人员，输入用于构建预测性机器学习模型和做出决策的数据，这些技术将如何有效执行，改善业务并提供准确的响应？我们今天看到的这个问题在技术上造成偏见。这些偏见影响着每个与该技术进行交互的人，甚至不是少数人。

There are reports of computer-vision models (the technology that allows computers to see the world around them) that are biased toward African Americans to the point where African Americans don’t even register. This is due to a lack of diverse training data, and it is something I have encountered in my own development work.

有报告称，计算机视觉模型（使计算机能够看到周围世界的技术）偏向非裔美国人，甚至使非裔美国人甚至没有注册。这是由于缺乏多样化的培训数据，这是我在自己的开发工作中遇到的。

For example, when I first began exploring machine learning on my own, I realized I needed to remove biases that could affect the system I was building, called SAM (also known as Suspicious Activity Monitor). SAM is a predictive-policing, machine-learning algorithm that predicts the likelihood of crime (inspired by the pre-crime concept from the movie “Minority Report”). Anyone can take a picture of someone thought to be participating in suspicious activity and tweet it to SAM. He will pull attributes from the photo using computer vision along with additional information from the tweet and run it through a machine-learning model trained on past crime data from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Based on his knowledge of past data, he can make predictions on the future and inform you whether or not a crime is about to be committed around you.

例如，当我第一次独自探索机器学习时，我意识到我需要消除可能影响正在构建的系统（称为SAM）（也称为可疑活动监视器）的偏见。 SAM是一种预测性策略的机器学习算法，可以预测犯罪的可能性（受电影“少数派报告”中犯罪前概念的启发）。任何人都可以拍摄被认为参与可疑活动的人的照片，并将其发给SAM。他将使用计算机视觉从照片中提取属性以及推文中的其他信息，并通过对佐治亚州调查局过去犯罪数据进行过训练的机器学习模型来运行它。基于对过去数据的了解，他可以对未来进行预测，并告知您是否将要在您周围实施犯罪。

In this development process, I did not include race as a data factor, because I did not want this tool to ever racially profile individuals. Other developers from the white, male, computer-science background may not have thought of that.

在此开发过程中，我没有将种族作为数据因素，因为我不希望该工具从种族上对个人进行描述。其他来自白人，计算机科学背景的开发人员可能没有想到这一点。

This example shows that when tech teams have a diverse makeup, there is diversity in thought. The act of considering different data sets and variables outside of ingrained thinking can result in the creation of better solutions and systems.

这个例子表明，当技术团队组成多样化时，思想就会多样化。在根深蒂固的思维之外考虑不同的数据集和变量的行为可以导致创建更好的解决方案和系统。

Diversity can make such a positive impact in these industries. Not only can diversity bring about an improvement of work, but it can help fill the millions of vacant STEM jobs across the U.S. It’s true; studies have shown this daunting reality for a while. A recent Emerson study specifies that “the U.S. will need to fill about 3.5 million jobs by 2025; yet as many as 2 million of those jobs may go unfilled, due to difficulty finding people with the skills in demand.”

多样性可以对这些行业产生积极影响。多样性不仅可以改善工作质量，而且可以帮助填补全美数百万个空缺的STEM职位。研究表明这种艰巨的现实已有一段时间了。艾默生最近的一项研究表明，“到2025年，美国将需要填补约350万个工作岗位；但由于难以找到具备所需技能的人，这些工作中有多达200万可能无法填补。”

When we don’t fill these roles, we slow progress. The solution, in my mind, is simple. Think about it: we have a huge market of untapped potential available in women and people of color. When we increase diversity and bring more of these individuals into the fold of STEM education and jobs, we no longer have a deficit of unfilled roles. For me, it’s a no-brainer.

如果我们不担任这些角色，则会减慢进度。在我看来，解决方案很简单。想想看：我们在妇女和有色人种中拥有巨大的未开发潜力市场。当我们增加多样性并将更多的这些人纳入STEM教育和工作的范围时，我们将不再缺乏空缺的角色。对我来说，这很容易。

How to Make a Difference and Promote Diversity

如何有所作为和促进多样性

So many organizations have formed in response to this issue—and also to shine a light on it. I am involved in a few, like Women Who Code, Technovation, and WEST (Women Entering and Staying in Tech).

为了应对这个问题，已经成立了如此众多的组织，并且对此也有所启发。我参与了一些活动，例如《 Women Who Code》，《 Technovation 》和《 WEST》（《 Women Entering and Stay in Tech》中的女性）。

Technovation, for example, is a global organization that seeks to expose elementary, middle, and high school girls to computer programming. The program challenges participants to solve an issue in their local community by building a mobile app. They brainstorm and develop prototypes, build the app, and at the end, they write a business plan. At the competitions, they pitch the business plan and the app to a panel of judges. Winning teams walk away with a cash prize. As the leader of the Georgia chapter of this organization, it has been constantly inspiring to see the spark of interest and excitement this competition brings forth in young girls.

例如，Technovation是一个全球性组织，旨在让小学，初中和高中女生接受计算机编程。该计划要求参与者通过构建移动应用程序来解决其当地社区的问题。他们集思广益，开发原型，构建应用程序，最后编写业务计划。在比赛中，他们将商业计划和应用推销给评审团。获胜团队将获得现金奖励。作为本组织佐治亚州分会的负责人，看到这个竞赛给年轻女孩带来的兴趣和兴奋火花一直在鼓舞人心。

Though my professional career and extracurriculars promote gender diversity and exposure to technology, it’s also become a family activity. One Saturday a month, my daughter and I teach an Hour of Code workshop at our local library where we teach elementary school students about coding.

尽管我的职业生涯和课外活动促进了性别多样性和对技术的了解，但它也成为家庭活动。每个月的一个星期六，我和我的女儿在我们当地的图书馆里开设了“ 小时编码”研讨会，在那里我们向小学生教授编码方面的知识。

There are so many ways to get involved, from large organizations and nonprofit involvement or volunteering in your local community and sharing your story of success on Colors of STEM.

有很多参与的方法，包括大型组织和非营利组织的参与，或者是您当地社区的志愿者，并通过Colors of STEM分享您成功的故事。

We are even seeing this issue tackled at the corporate and enterprise level, with many companies creating a Diversity and Inclusion arm of their business. Together with input from employees, initiatives are built to move the needle so that diversity is no longer lacking, but commonplace.

我们甚至看到这个问题已在公司和企业级别得到解决，许多公司在其业务中创建了多元化和包容性分支。结合员工的意见，制定了各种举措以推动发展，从而不再缺乏多样性，而是司空见惯。

Isn’t that the dream? To live in a world where this is no longer a topic of conversation, because diversity simply “is”.

那不是梦吗？生活在一个不再是话题的世界中，因为多样性仅仅是“是”。

_____

If you’d be interested in mentoring girls and young women in STEM, please send me a message or visit Colors of STEM for more information.

如果您有兴趣在STEM中指导女孩和年轻女性，请给我发消息或访问Colors of STEM以获取更多信息。