Ada Initiative

Ada Initiative
Founded2011; 13 years ago (2011)
FounderValerie Aurora
Mary Gardiner
DissolvedOctober 2015; 9 years ago (October 2015)
Type501(c)(3)
FocusWomen's rights, FOSS, free-software community
Location
Websiteadainitiative.org

The Ada Initiative was a non-profit organization that sought to increase women's participation in the free culture movement, open-source technology and open culture. The organization was founded in 2011 by Linux kernel developer and open source advocate Valerie Aurora and open source developer and advocate Mary Gardiner (the founder of AussieChix, the largest organization for women in open source in Australia[1]). It was named after Ada Lovelace, who is often celebrated as the world's first computer programmer, as is the Ada programming language.[2] In August 2015, the Ada Initiative board announced that the organization would shut down in October 2015. According to the announcement, the Initiative's executive leadership decided to step down, and the organization was unable to find acceptable replacement leaders.[3]

  1. ^ "About Us". Ada Initiative. 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  2. ^ Quart, Alissa (May 17, 2013). "When Geeks Attack". Marie Claire.
  3. ^ Announcing the shutdown of the Ada Initiative August 2015