ABCNews.com/Technology posted a great article by By Susan Donaldson James yesterday. It details the story of the ENIAC women programmers and highlights Kathy Kleiman’s efforts to develop a documentary, as well as the risks faced by US software industry workplaces which are often not receptive to women and where those that are welcoming continue to have challenges recruiting and retaining women.

Jean Bartik, one of the ENIAC programmers, who went on to have a successful career in software developments is quoted in the article with a message that every young person should hear:

“Do what you love, because it’s not really work,” Bartik advises girls intimidated by computing. “There are no stupid questions. Act as if you have permission to do things and don’t let anyone intimidate you.”

“What I did seemed like play because it was fun,” she tells them. “Even though we were pushing back frontiers.”

Forester has recently issued a new report which describes how “RIAs emerge to deliver the information workplace of the future.” (via Read/Write Web). This contents of this report seems underscored by Pandora‘s mention in Doonesbury last week:

Rich internet apps with superior user interfaces like Pandora, Google Maps, and H&R Block‘s consumer-oriented tax program Tango and have entered into common use by regular folks, who then expect a higher level of polish and usability in the applications they use at work.