There's a technological revolution happening around the world, but it must be more than a boys' club if it's to create worthwhile change, according to computer programmer Linda Liukas.

The Finnish tech expert is on a mission to get more young girls interested in technology and wants them to try their hand at computer coding.

She is in Australia to spread the word, where the topic of coding is gathering momentum at community and political levels, and a yawning gender gap in the tech sector still exists.

So what actually is 'coding'?

At the simplest level, coding is what makes your computer and electronic devices work.

"Computer programming, or coding, is basically a set of instructions for a computer to understand," says Code Club Australia general manager Kelly Tagalan.

"It's what controls apps in websites, it's what controls your wearable devices."

Coding is based on a script, which is that series of letters, numbers and symbols you sometimes see when you get an error on a website.

So who is teaching it?

A growing number of Australian schools are offering classes in coding to prepare kids for the jobs of the future.

The Queensland Government announced coding would soon be compulsory in all schools in the state, while for other areas it's on a school-by-school basis.

In 2014, the Federal Government allocated $3.5 million over four years towards its Coding Across the Curriculum initiative to have more students learn the skills.

And ahead of the last election, Labor promised that, if elected, coding would be taught in every primary and high school in the country.

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Computer coding is already part of the primary curriculum in England, Belgium, Estonia and the Netherlands.

According to Ms Liukas, Finland goes even further.

"So what we did back home was implemented coding into the core curriculum of Finland and in a particularly interesting way because we didn't make computing a separate subject, we implemented coding across the curriculum," she said.

"Which means that in biology you learn coding, you learn it in English classes, or arts and crafts and PE, and it means we are getting a much more diverse group of people excited about programming as a tool of self-expression and problem-solving."

In Australia, a number of volunteer and community groups — such as Code Club Australia and Code4Fun — have filled the gap in school curriculums by running their own workshops.

So why the focus on girls?

Because the statistics at a career level still show a wide gender gap.

A report last year from Australia's chief scientist, Alan Finkel, found the number of people qualified in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas was increasing.

However, only 16 per cent of the 2.3 million STEM qualified people in Australia were women.

For Ms Liukas, variety is the spice of digital life.

"I started to slowly see that it's very important that we get different kinds of groups of people excited about technology, not only the 20-something boy, but also girls and kids who learn in different ways and all types of demographics," she said.

"If you only let the 20-something-year-old boys decide what kind of problems require solving, we're going to get just more dating applications or more food delivery apps.

"But just by introducing different types of people we see different types of problems that computers and technology can help us solve."

So what's being done to address this?

Again, it's community groups that are really driving this point.

Code Like A Girl is one grassroots initiative that is striving to get more women to pursue careers in coding and the tech sector, and is rolling out workshops and events in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

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In 2010, Ms Liukas co-founded the global network Rails Girls, a not-for-profit organisation that teaches women to create web applications. It started in Helsinki but has since held events in Australia.

"It really got started from my own frustration," Ms Liukas said.

"I wanted to have a like-minded community of young women learning programming with one another.

"It got started as a weekend workshop to sort of show tangibly what programming is for young women."

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Ms Liukas also created a series of children's books following the coding adventures of a little girl named Ruby.

Funding for the series began on Kickstarter and blew past its $10,000 goal to reach more than $380,000.

"We all have these magical childhood stories that stick with us, for years to come, and influence the way we see the world, [but] for some reason, we haven't really used storytelling as a part of technology education," Ms Liukas said.

"So what I wish is that little girls and boys growing up have this role model to show that a career in technology is not boring and not something that only belongs to the introverted, mathematical or nerdy boys, but something that any of us can be a part of."