The world of technology conferences is rarely controversial. Sometimes a well-spoken developer can challenge the status quo by presenting something wildly new and different, but it can certainly not be said that technology conferences are akin to awards shows or sporting events when it comes to gossip.

But when Matt Aimonetti gave his talk, "CouchDB: Perform Like a Pr0n Star" at the Golden Gate Ruby Conference two weeks ago, he sparked a debate that is still spinning around in the blogosphere and the Twitterati. Long story short, Aimonetti's talk did not leave the pornography references in the title. The talk, linked above via Slide Share, features many border-line images and some crude language to explain why Ruby and CouchDB make a powerful one-two punch for scalability.

Much of the discussion still going on around this whole affair is focused on the fact that there were only six women at this conference, and most of them seem to have been either offended or embarrassed. I think the most unfortunate part of this whole affair is the fact that CouchDB has been swept up in it. There's no need to clutter up Damien's work with this sort of gossip, and it's a shame he had to take time out of his day to address the issue.

Still, this raises the same questions we've all be wondering about since the days of yore: How do we get more women into the software development world? I've heard stories of female developers placing signs with their names on the doors of bathroom stalls, as the female employees outnumbered the toilets in their rest rooms. 

Unfortunately, giving semi-pornographic talks and sticking with the standard gross jokes we've all heard (or thought of quietly) while programming isn't going to help the gender imbalance. Personally, I think the only way to increase the number of women in the industry is to teach programming side-by-side with reading and writing. At least that way if girls are learning this stuff before they realize that many of their soon-to-be coworkers will always be making fart jokes, they might be more likely to stick with it. And they might found their own blue-humor-free companies. Or give their own tasteful talks.