8 Asians

Make all the jokes about Chinese and Indians getting Computer Science and Engineering degrees you want, but as a regular attendee of technical conferences, the faces you see that are speaking back at you in panels and workshops are surprisingly… well… Caucasian. And with more generalist technology conferences such as SXSW Interactive, there’s always some sort of discussion about a lack of women and minority speakers.

That’s why Jeremiah Owyang from podTech has compiled this list of Asian Tech speakers, used as a reference for conference planners should their panels have a demand for… uhm… Asian people. Possible speakers run the gamut from the Vice President of Linden Labs to Tila Tequila, or as my friend Chris says, “that Vietnamese MySpace chick with hella friends.”

Expect in a day or two a large debate on whether Tantek Celik, who is of Turkish decent, is really Asian-American or not.

(Total shameless disclosure: Yes, 2 of the 8 Asians, including Min Jung and I, are on the list as well.)