A friend of mine once told me that Indigitous is a movement for women women. I wondered what she meant since out of a team of about 15, there were only two ladies! We were at a strategy meeting and women were the minority. She tried to explain how women use these digital platforms more than the guys. I assume that the fact that the population of women is higher than that of men is a factor. Sometimes it seems that men are good at creating but not really good at using; I guess it is because they prefer working on one thing at a time.
My friend and colleague is no expert on psychology or behavior patterns; she is in fact an IT guru. We had this conversation about 3 years ago. At the time, I didn’t know what to make of her comments but today I understand exactly what she meant and I concur.
Two colleagues of mine, a guy and a lady, made a bet. The competition was who would have the most tweets by the end of the week. The guy, who is in IT, was so sure that he would win and suggested that the loser buy lunch for the winner. He was so shocked because he lost miserably!
My conclusion was farther strengthened at the Code for the Kingdom hackathon in our city, Nairobi. The ladies present were a meager 20% but their impact was tangible and yes something to write home about. Of the women that attended the event, only one was a coder. That didn’t stop the other ladies from helping, though. Contribution at a hackathon is not only in coding, but also suggesting, giving input to a project, and testing of the project’s usefulness.
The event had some previously prepared challenges which prosed problems to be solved by the projects. The women came up with new ideas. Some were even birthed at the event! The project proposals were very good and easily adopted by the rest of the crew. Because the women who pitched the projects would also be the end users, they offered good insight into what the user would want.
The women’s usefulness did not end there, though. The ladies kept giving valuable input on how to improve the projects. I am in no way saying that the men did not give ideas; by no means! What am saying is that although hackathons are usually thought of as appealing to men, the ladies were vocal and not afraid to say the wrong thing, especially considering that they are not coders. This is very valuable in our time. If we will reach the nations through digital strategies, we will need all the creativity we can get. Are you one that will give your thoughts for innovative digital ministries? Show up at the next hackathon! Or share with someone what you’re thinking about; it just might be the next big thing!
