You might want to take a look at national organizations for women in CS, such as http://www.acm.org/women/ and http://www.awc-hq.org/
There are a number of women's groups at tech companies; for example, Micro$oft has the "Hoppers" group, which raises money for scholarships for girls who want to go into CS, sets up events for Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and runs a mentoring program for/by employees. That sort of model may work well for a college group.
How to get more women in CS? It starts when parents encourage their daughters to play with computers, when they play Halo and other fun videogames with their girls, and when they challenge their girls to set up their own computers and video game systems instead of doing it for them. Girls who like this sort of thing, and aren't discouraged early on, are the ones who grow into programmers and engineers.
Paying for access to politicians -- or justice -- is the American way.
The idea is that those who care strongly enough about something will put in the time, effort, and money (which ultimately represents time and effort, albeit with things like social status and potentially nefarious dealings ala Enron thrown in) to advocate their position. The pricetag on such advocacy represents how important the issue is, and the amount the advocate is willing/able to pay represents how important she/he/it is.
This is the winnowing process that ensures that only important issues, advocated by the "right" people, gets onto the radar of the courts or the politicians. Of course, what happens then depends on the advocate's ability to sell his or her idea in 30 seconds or less.
Moreover, politicians justify listening the those who have the most money and the most interest (corporations) because they are the ones who most clearly affect our economy, and thus, the national well-being. Disney, AOL/TimeWarner, the RIAA and the MPA are the Most Important Players because they are the self-proclaimed biggest exporters, the "jewel in the American trade crown". See "Impediments to Digital Trade" at http://www.mpaa.org/legislation/.
It's not just the simple idea of stopping bribery. It's the idea that this is a special kind of bribery that represents, not just the status quo, but the ideal -- as taught in American law schools, the common experience of many politicians and lobbyists.
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You might want to take a look at national organizations for women in CS, such as http://www.acm.org/women/ and http://www.awc-hq.org/
There are a number of women's groups at tech companies; for example, Micro$oft has the "Hoppers" group, which raises money for scholarships for girls who want to go into CS, sets up events for Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and runs a mentoring program for/by employees. That sort of model may work well for a college group.
How to get more women in CS? It starts when parents encourage their daughters to play with computers, when they play Halo and other fun videogames with their girls, and when they challenge their girls to set up their own computers and video game systems instead of doing it for them. Girls who like this sort of thing, and aren't discouraged early on, are the ones who grow into programmers and engineers.
Paying for access to politicians -- or justice -- is the American way.
The idea is that those who care strongly enough about something will put in the time, effort, and money (which ultimately represents time and effort, albeit with things like social status and potentially nefarious dealings ala Enron thrown in) to advocate their position. The pricetag on such advocacy represents how important the issue is, and the amount the advocate is willing/able to pay represents how important she/he/it is.
This is the winnowing process that ensures that only important issues, advocated by the "right" people, gets onto the radar of the courts or the politicians. Of course, what happens then depends on the advocate's ability to sell his or her idea in 30 seconds or less.
Moreover, politicians justify listening the those who have the most money and the most interest (corporations) because they are the ones who most clearly affect our economy, and thus, the national well-being. Disney, AOL/TimeWarner, the RIAA and the MPA are the Most Important Players because they are the self-proclaimed biggest exporters, the "jewel in the American trade crown". See "Impediments to Digital Trade" at http://www.mpaa.org/legislation/.
It's not just the simple idea of stopping bribery. It's the idea that this is a special kind of bribery that represents, not just the status quo, but the ideal -- as taught in American law schools, the common experience of many politicians and lobbyists.
How do you fix that?