>> Announcer: Live, from Boston, Massachusetts, it's The Cube, covering Red Hat Summit 2017. Brought to you by Red Hat. >> Welcome to more of The Cube's coverage of the Red Head Summit 2017, I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. I'm joined today by DeLisa Alexander, she is the Chief People Officer here at Red Hat and then, joining us also, are the women in Open Source Technology winners. We have Jigyasa Grover and we also have Avni Khatri. So congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm looking forward to hearing more about why you were bestowed with this honor but I want to start with you, DeLisa. >> DeLisa: Thank you. >> Why this award? Why did Red Hat feel that highlighting women and what they're doing in Open Source was worthy and we needed to showcase these women? >> Red Hat believes this is incredibly important. We all know that there are not nearly enough females in the technology industry and as the Open Source leader, we felt like we had a responsibility to begin to make a difference in that way. >> So tell us about the process. How do you find these women? How do you then winnow it down to who deserves it? >> So it's community based. It's a power of participation. >> So it's the Open Source way. >> It is the Open Source way. So the nominees come in from whomever would like to make a nomination. We do have a panel of judges that narrow down the nominations so there's five of each, the academic and the community And then we put it out to the community to vote. And so the community selects our award winners. >> Great, okay. So let's start with you, Anvi. So you, you're based here in Cambridge. >> Anvi: I am. >> And you were talking about how you had a five year goal. >> Yes. So, I was working at Yahoo! at the time and my boss at that time had asked us to make one year, five year, and 10 year goals. And in my five year plan, I had listed I wanted to set up computer labs for underserved populations. I wanted to travel, I wanted to see other cultures and I wanted to bring technology to other cultures. And I went to this awesome conference, the Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing. >> The Cube has a great partnership and long-term partnership with Grace Hooper. >> Awesome, it's a great conference. I was there and I met ... I reconnected with some folks and I was so inspired by all the women that were there and I came back and I was looking at my goals and I was like, why do I have to wait five years to do this? And I looked online and I saw that someone I had reconnected with, Stormy Peters at Grace Hopper, was running Kids on Computers and so I emailed her and the rest is really history. I found one of my passions in life is to bring technology to people who don't have access to it and doing it with Open Source so that it's accessible to everyone who needs it. >> So tell me about some of the stories, some of the kids that you're working with, and how it is, in fact, changing their lives. I just got back Monday night from a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico for Kids on Computers. We were there for a whole week. But we were setting up computer labs for these local rural communities. Most of them don't have internet. Some of them are now starting to get internet but what we do is we take donated equipment and grant money and Red Hat has also been ... Has awarded Kids on Computers a grant for contributing to some of the labs we set up last week. But we set up two new labs, we took donated equipment and we purchased equipment in country and we worked in the small towns of Antequera and Constitución. Those are actually the school names. We worked in the city of ... It's a suburb of Oaxaca City, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán and working with them is really enlightening. So, some of the teachers have never used a computer before. Some of the kids have but most of them have not. So just seeing them trying to use a mouse, learning how to do single-click, double-click and going from the point where they haven't used it to the point where they have and where the understand it and getting to the point where one kid is teaching another kid is just really ... Just seeing that makes you feel, like, wow. I've actually made an impact and then, hopefully, by providing accessed technology and also providing access to educational content. So the offline content pieces for schools that don't have internet, working with a partner of Kids on Computers, Internet in a Box, providing offline Wikipedia, Khan Academy, MEDLINE content, offline books, that we give them a pathway to bettering their own lives and bettering the lives of their communities. >> That's really incredible and it will be this really big leveling of the playing field. >> Yes, I hope so. I really hope so and I am hopeful that will come to fruition 'cause I think education is one of the most sustainable ways to improve communities and I think Open Source is an avenue to get them there. >> Thank you. Jigyasa, so you are the academic winner. You are still a college student and with this wonderful award so congratulations. >> Jigyasa: Thank you so much. >> I want to talk to you. So you went to an all-girls high school in India and then got to university in New Delhi and weren't very happy with what you saw when you got to university. Can you tell us a little bit more. >> So I told you what was at the end. What I see is ... I am doing my undergraduation in Computer Science and Technology. In my batch, 80% of them are boys and the rest, girls, and not much interested in pursuing a career in technology, as such. They're pursuing different stuff like arts, designing, or even going for civil services back home. So when I came, I wanted to actually pursue a career in technology and do something apart from cataclysm. Not just books, but do something so that I can apply the concepts somewhere. We were just studying different mordents of software engineering but I wanted to be a part of a team, which actually implements it. So Open Source was the only way because I had internet, I had a good internet connection, I had a laptop and lots of free time. So one day I came across Pharaoh. The name itself fascinated me because it reminded me of Egyptian mummies and all. So that's how I actually got into Pharaoh. I've been contributing to it since three years now and also been apart of different world wide programs like Google Summer of Code and to give back to the community which has helped me so much, starting right from scratch. I tried to meet 13 rich developers and budding programmers through programs, like one of them is Learn IT Girl. So it pairs females, both mentors and mentees, worldwide. So not only do you get to know about technology but you can also know about their culture by being a team and knowing about how it works, how are their working styles and temperaments. Also, I wanted to be a part of something local so that I could interact with them physically so I'm the Director for Delhi Network of Women who Code which has more than 400 plus members back in New Delhi and I organize code labs, teach them, or randomly give pep talks sot that they do not feel bogged down and have enough to look forward to. It's been a pretty exciting journey, as I say. >> It's just beginning. >> And this is the thing is that we are bombarded with headlines about how difficult it is for women in the technology industry because it is such a male-dominated industry. There's a lot of sexism, there's a lot of discrimination, a lot of biases where people just don't put women and technology together. You think of a technologist, you think of an engineer, you think of a guy. So how do you think that these awards, DeLisa, are changing things? What are your hopes and dreams for women in this sector? >> Well, we've come so far in terms of the way we think about supporting women just in our conference alone. And so, I think that when we're really, really successful we won't need this award anymore. But we have a long way to go between now and then. Women like these women are just so inspiring and by sharing their stories and showing what women can do future generations of girls, hopefully, will be inspired to join. Men will understand the contributions that women are making today and it will help really generate the next leaders in Open Source that are women. >> Anvi, five years from now, what do you hope? How many labs do you hope to have opened? What's your grand plan? >> So we have 22 labs right now, which is so exciting, in five countries. >> In how long? >> So, we're eight years old. We were a 501(c)(3) in 2009, so super exciting. So my hope is that ... We are currently focusing in Oaxaca and we just formed a partnership with a local university down there to provide support because, as we know, technology is just one piece of the puzzle. We need the community, we need the support, we need the education pieces along with the technology to really fulfill the project. So my hope is that ... At this point, we've kind of figured out how to deploy one lab at a time and my hope is that now we can do this at scale. That we can work with local universities, governments, and actually get .... Reach out to kids who need it because I think Oaxaca has one of the lowest literacy rates in all of Mexico. This is definitely communities where most of the kids do not go on to high school and definitely most do not go on to college. So if we can make an impact, show the measure, like be able to measure the impact that we're making, longitudinally, I think that then we can grow and we can scale. So, very hopeful. But this is my passion, right. So it's going back to as a woman, how do you find your passion. I think, find what you're passion is and go for it and that makes things so much easier. And I think there's a lot of opportunities for growth and look for people that will support efforts that you're doing, like DeLisa. And Jigyasa, she's mentoring girls already. >> And I think that that's also a great point too. This is the Open Source way because it is about community building and it's about collaboration and that is also, you're doing these things ... The software is a metaphor for what you're doing in life. >> [Jigyasa and Anvi] Yes. >> Jigyasa, what's next for you? So first, graduate from college, that would be >> Yes. (laughing) >> A big priority. But then where do you hope to work? >> Actually, I want to learn lots and travel the world, know more about everything. That's what Jigyasa means. So Jigyasa means curiousity in Hindi and Sanskrit so I hope I live up to my name and the next few years, I just want to keep the learning mode switched on, be curious, and if I want to do something, at least I'll give it a try so that I do not regret that I never gave a try. So always be curious, interact, and give a try. >> Do you want to continue working in technology or do you want to come to the States? Where do you see your career path? My career path, it's like I'm trying to balance everything. I want to learn more theoretically about computer science and technology. Maybe do a Master's degree further and then move on to industry. Also, I am pretty excited about the research work. I've done a couple of them in Europe, Asbarez, and Canada so I want to do something which is a mix of everything so that it keeps me going. >> Do you see ... These are really social initiatives that you're both working on. Do you see that as sort of a real future for Open Source innovation and technology? We know that Open Source is helping companies grow, get more customers, make more money, improve their bottom lines, but we also see it having this big impact on global and social progress. I mean, how untapped is this, where are we in this? Open Source is a way, it's not a technology, it's a way. It's a way of doing things and thinking about the world. Transparency, using the best ideas, innovating rapidly. We have a lot of complex problems to solve, now and in the future. Using the Open Source way, we will solve those problems more rapidly. Whether it's a technology issue or something entirely outside of technology. >> I agree with that completely. Open Source is a mechanism by which we can accomplsih not just technical innovations, but also social innovations. We have to look at it wholistically. We have to look at the ecosystem wholistically. It's not just technology, it's also society, it's also community, education and how do all the puzzle pieces fit together. JeLisa, we talked a little bit about the challenges of recruiting and retaining women in this industry. What is Red Hat doing to get the best and the brightest and the most talented women engineers? Well, we've come a long way. We have a long way to go. The first thing we wanted to do is to create an ecosystem within Red Hat that was very welcoming and inclusive because if you are recruiting people and they come in and they have an experience that isn't positive, they're going to go right out the door. So the most important thing was shoring up our community and creating an environment. So we focused on that, really, in the beginning. Then we started thinking about outreach. Now, the problem is so complex to solve, right. So we started realizing there's not enough people to outreach to. So now our next step has been to start to go deeper into the school systems and start partnering, We have a partnership with BU and also the city of Boston where we supported girls coming from middle school into a lab environment and doing some fun stuff, they get introduced to technology and we're going to keep our eyes on them and we'd like to recreate this type of experience in multiple places so really go deeper in to help create an interest at the middle school age with girls. Because that's what we understand that's when we need to get them interested. >> And that's when research shows confidence falls off and women, young girls, start raising their hands less in class. >> And all that stuff. Yeah, it's such a difficult issue but we hope that we will make a difference by reaching into the pipeline and then certainly retaining. We develop our women, we really focus on that. We want to support them as leaders and so it's the whole pathway. >> And Jigyasa, are you finding that your mentorship is making a difference for the young women you're working with? Young girls? >> It certainly is because even after the program ends I receive messages and emails from girls and boys alike about the program or how they want to build their own product. So, I remember one of the girls from Romania. I mentored her during a program sponsored by Google and all she wanted to build was a website for herself and she's very young. So she used to text me about what technologies she should use and how is it shaping up. Can I test it for her? So I really liked that even after the program ended, she kept up her spirit and is still continuing with it. >> And as DeLisa says, now you got to keep an eye on her and make sure she stays with it and everything. Well, DeLisa, Anvi, Jigyasa, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. >> Well-deserved. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> This has been Rebecca Knight at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. We''ll be back with more after this. (electronic beat)