VoIP phones helping women in IT initiative

VoIP phones are being used to help run an initiative which promotes women in IT throughout the world.

Doing IT Around the World is a scheme which followed 36 women IT workers from every continent over the course of a day, from when the sun first rose in Australasia and Antarctica and set in the Americas.

The initiative is aiming to change the fact that fewer women are taking up careers in technology, reports Computerworld.

Thanks to VoIP phones and other new technologies like social networking, founder Sonja Bernhardt has been able to find and communicate with the women without having to travel or pay large phone bills.

"Many people are just playing with these tools for fun instead of realising that you can have a global project that basically costs nothing, by using all of the social networking tools, collaborative web databases and content management systems to connect in a seamless way," she told the website.

The roles held by the women transcend the normal boundaries of IT, with some working in molecular biology for instance, as Ms Bernhardt wanted to extend IT to mean anyone that uses technology in an innovative way.