60 Seconds with WITS Southeast Speaker — Amanda Barkus

Amanda Barkus is the VP of Technology Transformation at MetLife. Her session at WITS Southeast is Shaping IT Culture and Technology through Open Source.

Why is speaking at WITS important to you?

I am passionate about increasing the inclusion of women in IT and I think it is especially important to increase the visibility of technical women. I believe the WITS is a phenomenal conduit to encourage women to engage more in the technology field.

What inspires you?

That is tough because so many things inspire me… insightful conversations, thought provoking books, the peacefulness of nature, the curiosity of children, and the possibility of change that we create through our actions today.

Most useful article you’ve read in the last month

Maybe more than an article, it was a short story I read this week on “Letters from an Astrophysicist,” the most recent book by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The story was about encouraging children into STEM fields and it emphasized the importance of having empathy and compassion towards others.

When you were a kid what was your dream job?

My dream job was in computer science — so I guess I have my dream job!

Tell us something about your session

Technology advancements have an impact on society and in how we behave and deal with change. My session focuses on the impact that Open Source software development has on IT Culture; the desire to have universally reusable software functionality that is continuously improved for quality and security has led to the concept of community-driven co-creation in software. This community-driven model is inspiring the culture that we want to adopt more widely in our IT teams.