ITWire

Her appointment follows the ITU naming her as a laureate at its World Telecommunication and Information Society Awards on May 16 in Geneva and, it says, is "the first major announcement linked to a new ITU campaign highlighting the empowering role technology can play in the lives of women and girls."

The ITU said: "The three-year campaign will raise awareness worldwide of the role information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in empowering women. Via high-profile ambassadors like Ms Davis and an extensive programme of online multimedia content, major advocacy events around the globe and key partnerships with industry, government, civil society and other UN agencies, the campaign highlights the potential of technology to transform women's lives, whether it be through ICT-based career choices or by improved access to services like e-health, e-education, e-commerce, e-banking and a host of new applications and devices that can help girls and women address their day-to-day challenges."

According to the ITU, through public appearances at high-profile events held by ITU and others "Ms Davis will speak on the importance of further extending access to technology to women worldwide, will reinforce the importance of positive gender role models, and will highlight the many exciting career opportunities available to young women in the high-tech sector."

Earlier this year, the ITU launched a multilingual 'Girls in ICT' http://girlsinict.org/ web portal focused on helping girls and women access training, job opportunities and career information in the ICT sector. The Portal houses over 400 programmes, including over 100 scholarship programmes and an equal number of contests and awards, some 60 training and internship opportunities, over 100 online networks offering career support and mentoring, as well as tech camps and other activities.

Remember Hedy Lamarr?
Actresses and ICT are a rare combination. The most famous, and the only one we can think of, is Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000). She was, according to Wikipedia, "celebrated for her great beauty [and] was a major contract star of MGM's 'Golden Age'" ... and credited with no lesser achievement than developing, in conjunction with composer George Antheil, the spread spectrum technology widely used in today's communications networks. They were granted a US patent for the technology. It is now owned by patent troll WiLAN.

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