ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange

Rikki Endsley
Where do all the geek girls go?

Jul 29, 2009 GMT

Jeffrey Elkner has taught computer science for 13 years and shares some of his experience with teaching girls on his blog post: Where do all the geek girls go? Over the summer he taught two week classes on "Creative Computer Exploration with Scratch" (4th-6th graders) and "Games Programming with Python and GASP" (7th-9th graders). Jeffrey writes, "The number of 'geek girls' in the Scratch class (11 of 30) is much higher than in the Python class (4 of 30), suggesting that the geek girls drop out somewhere between 5th grade and 7th grade." He also notes that the young girls are every bit as geeky as their male counterparts and great programmers. For example,...
Standing out in the crowd: Kirrily Robert's OSCON keynote

Jul 29, 2009 GMT

Stuck at our Linux Pro booth, I missed Kirrily's OSCON keynote. Lucky for me (and you), she's posted a summary of it online: Standing out in the crowd
ROSE Blog Interviews You

Jul 29, 2009 GMT

I think I'm recovered from OSCON finally, so I can get back to my poor neglected blog. Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I met many women in open source. I also got to spend some quality face time with women I already know. The topic of "women in open source" was covered in depth and with frequency at the Community Leadership Summit and OSCON 2009. A lot of the conversation was productive, and plenty of it was more heated and divisive. I'd like to take a step over (not back, and not quite forward) and take a look at where we are, who we are, and why are we here. Please take a moment to answer a few questions either in the comments or by email (if that's how you...
POSSE 2009

Jul 20, 2009 GMT

One of the many interesting, inspiring people I met at the Community Leadership Summit was Mel Chua. Mel left the event early to head to a bootcamp (POSSE 2009: Professor's Open Source Summer Experience) for educators who are interested in teaching classes on open source. According to the event site: Sponsored by Red Hat, the POSSE program is a weeklong bootcamp that will immerse professors in open source projects. Participants will spend a week of intensive participation in selected open source projects, led by professors with experience in teaching open source development, in partnership with community members who have deep experience and insight. By the end of the session, participants...
Community Leadership Summit: Day 1

Jul 19, 2009 GMT

The first Community Leadership Summit kicked off today in San Jose, California, and the turnout is great. If you couldn't make it in person, you can follow along on Twitter (#cls) or read the session notes on the event wiki. Jono Bacon and the other event organizers and volunteers have done a wonderful job of creating an event that feels inclusive. Attendees range from actual "community managers," to community members and people who are just interested in aspects of creating and fostering community. The first session I attended this morning was led by Kaliya Hamlin (organizer of She's Geeky) and covered the topic of tools for community managers. Session participants discussed...
Danese Cooper Interview & Women at OSCON

Jul 14, 2009 GMT

O'Reilly Radar's James Turner recently interviewed Danese Cooper: Making Government Transparent Using R. Danese talks about our new administration and creating a more transparent government, her role with R and Revolution Computing, and OSCON. It's a great interview, so check it out. James asked Danese what talks she plans to see at OSCON, and she said that Deborah Bryant's panel, Bureaucrats, Technocrats and Policy Cats: How the Government is turning to Open Source, and Why, should be a good one.If you want to see Danese talk at OSCON, check out her Open Source/Open Government talk on July 22.Other women OSCON speakers include Cat Allman, Valeria Aurora, Addison Berry, Silona Bonewald,...
Community Leadership Summit & OSCON 2009

Jul 10, 2009 GMT

Next Friday I'm flying out to San Jose for the Community Leadership Summit. The summit is free, but registration is required so don't forget that detail if you're planning to attend. (And it looks like attendees will be in very good company!)Are you going to OSCON? If so, be sure to stop by our booth (#504) and pick up a copy of the magazine. (Save an additional 15% off when you use discount code: os09lpm.)I've spent the past couple of days frantically preparing for my week-long trip, because there's nothing like waiting until almost the last minute to get organized. Of course, I did figure out some of the details a couple of weeks ago, like how to get there, where to stay, and who's...
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