The IT Screen Goddess Calendar 2006-2007 is the brainchild of IT visionary Sonja Bernhardt. Featuring 20 amazing IT women of all shapes and ages in classic screen goddess poses, the calendar aims to smash the nerd stereotype and profile real women who work in technology. Proceeds from sale of the calendar will go to organisations promoting IT careers to women and girls.

The project has not been without controversy, however. The Australian Computer Society objected to the cover shot which showed Brisbane IT Manager Sonja, naked but for some strategic rose petals in a parody of American Beauty, and publicly withdrew their support. Debate raged across web sites, newspapers, radio and even television – bringing the issue of the decline in the number of women in technology careers to the public eye in spectacular fashion.

With the full-blown media frenzy starting many weeks before anticipated, the Screen Goddess web site needed to be completed in record time. Clever Starfish Kay joined the team of volunteers to implement the automated payment gateway, but ended up helping to bring the design to standards-compliant life.

The calendar will be launched Australia-wide on August 11, a significant date in IT history: on this day in 1942, movie star Hedy Lamarr was awarded the patent for spread spectrum, the technology behind today’s mobile telecommunications.