Google, National Parks Partner To Let Girls Program White House Xmas Tree Lights

theodp writes The Washington Post reports the White House holiday decor is going digital this year, with dog-bots and crowdsourced tree lights. "Thanks to Google's Made with Code initiative," reports a National Park Foundation press release, "girls across the country will experience the beauty of code by lighting up holiday trees in President's Park, one of America's 401 national parks and home to the White House." Beginning on December 2, explains the press release, girls can head over to Google's madewithcode.com (launched last June by U.S. CTO Megan Smith, then a Google X VP), to code a design for one of the 56 state and territory trees. Girls can select the shape, size, and color of the lights, and animate different patterns using introductory programming language and their designs will appear live on the trees. "Made with Code is a fun and easy way for millions of girls to try introductory code and see Computer Science as a foundation for their futures. We're thrilled that this holiday season families across the country will be able to try their hands at a fun programming project," said former Rep. Susan Molinari, who now heads Google's lobbying and policy office in Washington, DC.

Comments

Re:But, as the feminists say..

[HBI]

Women were not well represented in tech even then. I love the revisionism now. When I was a kid walking through my father's office, the only women there were in the typing pool. When I visited the county offices with the big computers in the glass rooms, all neckbeards. When I visited the local nuclear plant in 1976, all men. When I went to the local community college - all men again. Every CS teacher through the 80s - all men.