After Helping Other Companies Grow, A Lecturer Launches His Own

The latest news about women in technology isn't good. In 1996, women accounted for 41 percent of the total information technology workforce. In 2004, that portion fell to 32.4 percent, according to a study released yesterday by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), an Arlington industry group.

Some of the drop can be attributed to the elimination of administrative positions in technology companies, but even discounting those, the portion of women in the field dropped by almost 10 percent.

"It's very disappointing. . . . We still are in a situation where we're trying to compete globally and we're fighting with one hand tied behind our back because we're finding that a large portion of our population is not interested in being in our industry," said Harris N. Miller , president of the ITAA.

The lesson, Miller said, is that industry organizations and the government need to be more proactive in luring women to the field. Earlier this year, the ITAA helped found a group called the National Information Technology Education Alliance, which hopes to promote technology careers to students -- and women in particular -- at universities and community colleges.

"We need to understand this better to figure out how we can prevent this from being an issue," said Dede Haskins, past president of Women in Technology (WIT), a local organization for women working in the industry.

For five years, WIT has run a nonprofit organization called Girls in Technology to encourage young girls to consider careers in technology, but that is aimed at long-term solutions, Haskins said, and if the drop persists, tech employers are going to have to find more immediate ways to attract women.

Harry L. You , chief executive of BearingPoint Inc. , didn't gloss over the rough spots when he was persuading Connie Weaver to join the troubled McLean consulting firm.

"He was certainly very open about the challenges the company has to overcome," said Weaver, who joined the company as its chief marketing officer yesterday.

Weaver's role will be to resculpt BearingPoint's battered image. In the past year, the company has disclosed that it has significant accounting problems, has gone through major executive upheavals and has become the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

"I would be disappointed if it didn't stretch me in some cases and challenge me in others," she said.

It's a safe bet the job will deliver on those fronts.

Overheard:

William J. Raduchel , founder of Ruckus Network , a Herndon company that provides an online music-sharing service for college campuses, last week tried to explain the compulsion of some students to illegally download 20 or 30 days' worth of music. He was at the Washington Digital Media Conference , an event sponsored by Digital Media Wire Inc . that drew 350 local entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

"The reason? They need friends. Most people who did it would be boys -- their fond hope that some of the kids that came to them for music would be girls," Raduchel said.

Ellen McCarthy writes about the local tech scene every Thursday. Her e-mail address ismccarthye@washpost.com.