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Today is Ada Lovelace Day, “an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology.”

I came across the Ada Pledge several months ago, and thought to myself, that’s a nice idea. I’m not sure who I’ll blog about though, I can’t think of anyone off hand so I’m going to have to go away and do some research.

Then I joined Twitter – thanks Tasha – and recently discovered Jamie Varon.

I want to feature Jamie because not only has she decided what she wants to do, but she’s going all out to get it and she’s using new technology brilliantly, making it really work for her.

Social media is still pretty new, for all we’ve technically had 2.0 for a few years now. It’s beginning to really come into it’s own, and it’s people like Jamie who demonstrate how we can really use it to enhance our lives. As a member of Generation Y I’m supposed to be totally on board with this, but it’s scared me. I was becoming painfully aware that I was lagging behind ‘the kids’.

I used to sit in the computer rooms at uni (not my own one – not back then) chatting away to new friends on IRC and ICQ, I had email down pat, and even got myself sorted on Skype recently, but I don’t Facebook, and I could feel the ‘youth’ coming past and overtaking me. That’s a quick way to feel old I’ll tell you – and as I say, I’m Generation Y.

In a matter of days Jamie built a whole website in her bid to get a job at Twitter. She then backed this site with a concerted contact campaign, promoting it through Twitter so people like me, who’ve never even heard of her, think that actually, yes, she might be a pretty good candidate for them. Not only that, but I feel invested in her success. I want Twitter to hire her.

So far she’s had lunch with them. They’ve chatted through some things, and told her they like the way she thinks. They’ve not given her a job yet, but the work she’s been doing has opened the door for her to work for a company called techVenture

If she can do that much with it, then maybe I can learn to use this technology a bit more effectively too. Thanks Jamie.

Jamie’s other blog is here.