Megan Smith

“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 things you're passionate about and interested in, get experience with them by going deep on projects. I would encourage science projects, plays. Pursue science, math, writing, history - the 21st century demands a lot of cross-disciplinary thinking.”

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

“Across our great nation, we've begun to see an acceleration of the power of data to deliver value.”

“I'm on the MIT board, and a lot of our buildings now have daycare centers; it's becoming a standard.”

“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.”

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

“I like to work at the beginning of projects. Once they get stable, I'll hand them off.”

“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.”

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

“We know that diversity can sometimes be more uncomfortable because things are less familiar - but it gets the best results.”

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

“Americans really expect to interact with our government digitally.”

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

“What was so special about the Mac, we all know, was the graphical computer interface.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”