Thanks Yahoo Taiwan for taking down the tech community several more notches. 2009 has been a banner year for sexist behavior in the tech community and this event is a prime example.

Interesting to note that this sunny, upbeat recap does't bother to mention the strippers and lap dances. Is it somehow supposed to make it "ok" because this Hack Day was in Taiwan and they just have "cultural differences" to the rest of us? Were there some "Hack Boys" to entertain the handful of female programmers who showed up?

Thanks for sending the signal that women are just fine at tech events so long as they are scantily clad and know how to dance... on a man's lap.

Please address the "hack girls" controversy. Was this authorized by Yahoo? Will there be any kind action taken against whoever authorized this?

Women both develop and utilize Yahoo technology. It would be both right and in its best business interest for Yahoo to apologize.

It is totally unacceptable for Yahoo to hire lap dancers as "entertainment" at its developer events, as was reported here:
http://simonwillison.net/2009/Oct/19/hackday/

I would like to hear Yahoo's statement on this incident.

Sherry, Beth,
@Yahoo, the official corporate blog of Yahoo on Twitter, issued a < 140 character apology:

The problem runs much deeper, though, and it's one that Carol Bartz needs to address. Unfortunately, the issue will likely be swept under the rug at Web 2.0 Summit where Bartz is scheduled to be interviewed by John Battelle.

The hacker community at Y Combinator appears to be overwhelmingly in favor of the lap dances that Yahoo hosted:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=891108

There's a big difference between working to foster change for women in tech and promising that "it won't happen again."

Carol Bartz has taken flak for not having the tech chops to run Yahoo. She's unlikely to take on tech developers in her own backyard.

After all, Yahoo Hack Day awarded Honorable Mention 2: “Wretch Babe Bomber” by Jiu-bao Digital Poultry Co., Ltd. This also won the "Hacker's Choice" award.

Wow, maybe you read a much different, earlier version of the thread than me, but:

"the hacker community at Y Combinator appears to be overwhelmingly in favor of the lap dances"

is not even closely accurate. Please read the Hacker News thread at news.ycombinator.com linked above and you will see a balanced discussion. I trust it wasn't your intention to be sensationalistic about hackers and to knock down a particular group of them.

Please respect local culture.
Chinese respect foreign culture too.

I find this outrage to be a little silly. It was a trashy for sure, but didn't seem to be much different then what happened at the 2008 taiwan hack day. where was all the outrage then?

Is it Taiwanese women and men that are upset here? Or is it uptight, puritanical, politically correct Americans afraid of their own human nature?

If there ever was an industry where women were prized, extremely well paid and appreciated - it would be the tech industry. Yahoo! for example is led by a woman and whenever given the choice between two equally qualified engineers, every team I've ever been on chose the girl over the boy due to the lack of women in the business.

Frankly I'm getting a little sick of all this wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

This was an event in TAIWAN...

If Taiwanese women (or men, for that matter) felt this was wrong, they will speak up for themselves, thank you very much.

It boggles my mind why people think their views apply somewhere else half way around the world. And that they are correct speaking on behalf of other people.

Despite of the incidents, Yahoo! is really great to held such an event like this! Go go Yahoo!

Oh brother. What puritanical crap. Was it appropriate? No. Does it deserve the outpouring of utter outrage it's receiving? Hell no. But seriously, get over it. The girls were cute and adequately clothed, they didn't actually make contact with anyone's lap, it created some buzz, and that's about the true extent of it.

To the people crabbing about equality -- would it really have satisfied you to have hunky guys dancing around some of the female participants? Or would you have just been more angry yet less able to justifiably elocute your complaints?

What a bunch of pilgrims...

It's not that I find female dancers offensive, what's so offensive is the "oh yes, we're all about equal rights, and we tolerate women at programming events, but we only _tolerate_ them, they shouldn't think they're part of the group or something, and we're totally ok with sending a message that says 'Programming is mainly for guys, but _of course_ women are allowed here, too, after all, this is the 21st century.' " - mentality openly displayed by a team of organizers and backed up by a large company.

That's what's so sad about this. It has nothing to do with being an "uptight, puritanical, politically correct American". I wouldn't mind some sexy dancers at a fashion show, that wouldn't stop a little girl from dreaming to become a fashion designer, but how many girls do you think say after watching the hack girl clip "I totally want to be a cool programmer because then I can be like the few female programmers in this video"?.

Nice One,,,,,,,