 Live from Boston, Massachusetts. It's theCUBE, covering Red Hat Summit 2017. Brought to you by Red Hat. Welcome to more of theCUBE's coverage of the Red Hat Summit 2017. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. I'm joined today by Delissa 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 Jikyasa Grover, and we also have Avni Katri. So congratulations. Thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing more about why you were bestowed with this honor, but I want to start with you, Delissa. 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 nomination. 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 Avni. So you, you're based here in Cambridge. 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 Hubbard Conference for Women in Computing. The Cube has a great partnership, a long-term partnership with Grace Hubbard. Awesome, it's a great conference. And 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 like, 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 Hubbard was running kids on computers. And so I emailed her and the rest is really history. And it's like, I found one of my passions in life is like 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 last week's, some of the labs we set up last week. But we set up two new labs. We took donated equipment and that, and we purchased equipment in country. And we worked in the small towns of Antiquera and Constitución, or those are actually the school names. So we worked in the city of Oaxaca. It's a suburb of Oaxaca city, Santa Cruz, Oaxaclan. And working with them is, it's really enlightening, right? 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 like trying to use a mouse, like 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 they understand it and getting to the point where one kid is teaching another kid is just really it's, there's just seeing that makes you feel like, wow, I've actually made an impact. And then hopefully like with, by providing access 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 because I think everybody, 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. So thank you. Jigiasso, so you are the academic winner. You are still a college student and with this wonderful award. So congratulations. 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 entered university and what I see is like, I am doing my undergraduate in computer science and technology. In my batch, they are like 80% of them are boys and the rest girls are 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 curriculum, just not just books, but do something so that I can apply the concept somewhere. Like, you know, we was just studying different models 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 like, I had a good internet connection. I had a laptop and lots of free time. So one day I came across Faro and the name itself fascinated me because it reminded me of, you know, Egyptian mummies and all. So that's how I actually got into Faro. I've been contributing to it since three years now and also being a part of different worldwide programs like Google Summer of Code. And to give back to the community which has helped me so much, you know, starting right from scratch, I tried to mentor teenage developers and budding programmers through programs again, like one of them is Learn IT Girl. So it pairs females, both mentors and mentees worldwide. So not only you get to know about technology, but you can also know about their culture, you know, 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, you know, more than 400 plus members back in New Delhi and I organize code labs, teach them, or, you know, randomly give pep talks so that, you know, they do not feel bogged down and have enough to just look forward to. So yeah, it's been a pretty exciting journey as I say. It's just beginning. And this is the thing is that we, as 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. Just you think of a technologist, you think of an engineer, you think of a guy. So how do you think that these awards, Delissa, are changing things? Do you, 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 at 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'll help, you know, really generate the next leaders in open source that are women. Avani, 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. And so we're eight years old. We were 501C3 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 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 then we can grow and we can scale. So very hopeful, yeah. But this is my passion, right? So it's going back to as a woman, how do you like find your passion, right? I think find what your passion is and go for it. And that makes things so much easier. So, 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, yeah. And Jogasa, she's mentoring girls already, so. And I think that that's also a great point too about this is, it is the open source way because it is about community building, it's about collaboration. And that is also, you're doing these things that are, the software is a metaphor for what you're doing in life. Yes. Jogasa, what's next for you? So first graduate from college, that would be. Yes. That's 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 Jogasa means. So Jogasa means curiosity in Hindi and Sanskrit. So I hope I live up to my name. And the next few years or maybe 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'd never give a try. So always be curious, interact and give a try. And do you want to continue working in technology or do you want to come to the States? How do you, 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. And also I'm pretty excited about the research work. I've done a couple of them in Europe as well as in Canada. So I want to do something which is a mix of everything so that it keeps me going. Do you see, I mean, 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 with 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, you will solve those problems more rapidly. Whether it's a technology issue or something entirely outside of technology. I agree with that completely. I think it's, open source is a mechanism by which we can accomplish not just technical innovations but also social innovations. And I think it is, we have to look at it holistically. To look at the ecosystem holistically. It's not just technology, it's also society. It's also community education. And how do all the puzzle pieces fit together? Delisa, 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 with that 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. 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 in an introduced 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 and 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. 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 really support them as leaders. And so it's the whole pathway. And Jigessa, are you finding that your mentorship is making a difference for the young girls? It certainly is because even after the program ends and 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 now she wanted to build 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, Avni, Jigessa, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Well deserved. Thank you. This has been Rebecca Knight at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. We'll be back with more after this.