Quotes from Megan Smith

We culturally decided, as the personal computer came in, that it was for the boys.

We have two boys, and one of our kids is much more interested in history and stories, so if you want him to do some calculations about lenses, you would start talking to him about Galileo... Then he would be into the lenses, but if you just start talking to him about lenses, he might not stay with you.

Each kid is unique in what captures their attention and their passion.

Take everything you know. Take your whole selves. Be inclusive. Be open. Make history in the infinite ways that your heart takes you.

Second graders learn to read: that's a perfect time to make them code.

Net neutrality is such an important principle for the Web and for the Internet. It's how the Internet's operated for all this time.

The most important thing is, we really want to make sure the American people are able to get to any Web site they'd like to get to.

If we're the country that makes Amazon and Facebook and Twitter, why can't the federal government have websites and digital services that are awesome?

I have a good eye for great projects, talent, and entrepreneurs.

There are hundreds of historic and current examples of women and minorities doing groundbreaking work in technology, but so many of these stories are not well known, and in some cases, the stories have been all but lost.

It's so interesting that when somebody's pregnant, we are obsessed with knowing the gender of the child so we can figure out what we need to buy that child, what the present would be. Like we're pre-programming the kid before they were born.

I think it's so important in preschool and in kindergarten and elementary school that we're not biasing ourselves.

It's an incredibly important thing to make sure we preserve net neutrality.

I went to an inner-city school in Buffalo. We had no money. But our teachers believed in hands-on active learning - there was a mandatory science fair, which was critical.

Code is just a list of instructions. There are countries that are teaching it as part of the core curriculum. Having some experience in those early years is very important.

In the early IBM team, that was a racially diverse team, a gender-diverse team.

We are the only country with an operating rover on Mars. We are an amazing country on tech.

I've been working on the lost history of technical women.

I actually think that working in the federal government, or state or local, is one of the most significant things that a technical person can do.

I love to use technology to help people have better lives and to reduce our impact on the planet.

There are 2 to 3 million women programmers in the world. We need to see them more.

We need to have making, including computer science, shop, etc. as part of the core curriculum from the beginning, not just an optional afterschool thing. Things like First Robotics and all of those great programs need to become mainstream.

We very much use a prototyping model, play with ideas, and then get stuff started that way, which is how the greatest projects get started.

I think open source is an evolutionary idea for humanity, this idea of transparency. It played out for us in the technology world, but it also played out with the idea of a truth and reconciliation commission and Wikipedia.