More SCALE 8x LinuxChix LA Pics!!!!!!!

Feb 25th, 2010 Posted in And You Did What? Where?, Tux for Fun | 1 Comment »

A lot more SCALE 8x pictures have been posted on Flickr.com. Just use the SCALE8x search to see them all. Here are some more LinuxChix LA at SCALE 8x highlights:

Enjoy!

/JilliX

Wow. SCALE 8x just rocked out

Feb 24th, 2010 Posted in And You Did What? Where? | 1 Comment »

Great times, great friends, great talks. I’d do it again tomorrow.

SCALE 8x!!!!!!!!!!

Feb 22nd, 2010 Posted in And You Did What? Where?, Tux for Fun, What Chix Think | No Comments »

Another wonderful SCALE was enjoyed by all. And we have to wait another year to enjoy this “tuxfiled” vacation. Sigghhhh . . .

Here are some of Beth Lynn Eicher’s candid pictures from SCALE 8x uploaded to Flickr :-)

And here is my LinuxChix LA slideshow that was running on my Chumby at our LinuxChix LA Booth at SCALE 8X!:

LinuxChix LA Chumby Slideshow

Also, this is another post on SCALE 8x WIOS by Scott Ruecker at LXer.com that will fill in the gaps that our LinuxChix LA live WIOS blog post missed:

SCALE 8x: Day 1 - WIOS Talks

These are just the first SCALE pics and articles online . . . wait another few days and there will be hundreds more :-)
To be continued . . .

/JilliX

WIOS SCALE 8x Live Blog (afternoon session)

Feb 19th, 2010 Posted in And You Did What? Where?, What Chix Think | No Comments »

Katherine Druckman

“This is what we have, and this is what we’re going to win with.” How to be a web developer, graphic designer, u/i research, sysadmin team, as one person.

  • Plan and prioritize your site goals and organize your plan of attack accordingly.
  • Version control is necessary (!) even as a one-person developer.
  • Set realistic time milestones
  • Accept and move on when you’re not PERFECT.
  • .

Notes: Cheap and easy U/I feedback. Buy a bunch of non-geek friends a pizza and watch them tear your site apart. Find the community in which you can ask/receive help … LUGS, Regional events, IRC.

Pitfalls for the solo web team include featurtis creep … feature curve -> too many features can actually diminish usability.

Observation: Finding it easier as a female to ask another female for help. RTFM issues. Discussion on gender hiding, yes, it happens for various reasons.

Some resources: drupalchix, phpwomen, .51, women who tech.

Multidisplinary approach draws from resources in other fields. Quick poll … how many came from a non-tech field into tech? Many. (Flosspols point of interest … acknowledge non-coding contributions as just as valuable as code contributions as a way on increasing diversity.)

KD personal path … came from art field and followed inclination into web development, and here she is.

===============================================

Sarah Mei

Gender activitism in Ruby started with RubyCon in SF … presentation would have been different with 150 men/150 women as opposed to 292 men/6 women ration. Increasing gender diversity means changing the environment by changing the ratio.

1 year ago 2% women, this year 18%, target 50%

Process in Ruby community: Set goals, Do events, Cultivate people. All three necessary, most just focus on ‘Do Events’. Important to work on attainable goals, i.e, increase participation for monthly meetings. Picked specific target, 1) women who were not programmers, but worked at companies who were tech focused, and tech women who have been out of the workforce for a period of time and were looking to update skill sets.

Logistics tips: Offer childcare. Technical women are more likely to have a technical spouse (Anita Borg Inst statistic) and would be likely to attend same events. Just the fact that it’s offered sends positive message -> low cost high signal message. Social component important … after party incorporates women into wider community.

Visibility -> put name on events makes a difference, contribute to mailing lists, and do talks.

Expected outcome: After year more women have attended monthly meetups, and more women at events.
Unexpected outcome: mailing list activity has picked up with more signal than noise., more interesting talks, more women giving talks, and MEN are feeling more comfortable in not knowing everything. (Guess not wanting to appear ‘dumb’ is one of those universal traits :) , and events have become more newbie friendly.

=====================================================

Rikki Kite
Pretty In Print
Associate Publisher, Linux New Media

10 Tips for Getting Published

1. Don’t be afraid!
2. Writing samples optional
3. Know your topic
4. Know your publication
5. Know your editor
6. Write
“Don’t try to be clever. You use Linux so you already are clever. Write about the trivial things . . .”
“Revise, Revise, Revise!” -Rikki Kite
7. Submit . . . & wait
8. Be clear on compensation
9. Know your rights
“Review your freelance agreement carefully.” -Carla Schroder
10. Repeat

Rikki Kite gave a beautiful and concise talk and actually intended this topic as a lightning talk, so it was quick but very informative.

WIOS SCALE 8x Live Blog (morning session)

Feb 19th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Amber Graner … NTEU (Not Technical End User). A year in the life of an Ubuntu end user activist. BIG MESSAGE … you can be involved without being an application developer, you are a contributor even without coding.

Open source can change world, sometimes one person at time, one application at a time. Even small contributions to open source in whatever capacity makes a difference.

Open source is not a ladder with directional rungs, but a lattice. Any entry point leads to somewhere.

====================================

Malakai Wade, Mirano Cafiero, & Saskie Wade
Ultimate Randomness-Girl Voices in Open Source

This was the first talk at WIOS and I am sure is going to be one of the best of SCALE 8X :-)
All three speakers were enthusiastic young girls who talked about their experience in Open Source and Linux. The girls talked about creating artwork in the GIMP and Tux Paint and their use of the OLPC Sugar OS Laptops. They also presented us with their artwork created in the GIMP and Tux Paint and with a beautifully made slideshow with sound created in Linux. The slideshow was a whimsical stop motion piece of Barbies waking up in the Barbie Doll House. It was created in the style of an old silent film, complete with music and verbal cue slides. All the girls are geeks, enthursiastic. learning Linux and spreading the word of Open Source! Yeaaahhhhaaahhhh!!!!!

/JilliX