LinuxFest Northwest 10th Anniversary

Apr 21, 2009 GMT

LinuxFest Northwest 2009 is this weekend in Bellingham, Washington. Be sure to swing by the Linux Pro Magazine booth and get a free copy of the April 2009 issue. We'll also be offering a $10 trial subscription that starts with the May 2009 issue, which we're bringing with us to the event. If you want to skip the trial offer and sign up for a 1-year Linux Pro Magazine subscription at the event, you'll walk away from the booth with a free, 100% cotton Linux Pro bag.

Hanging with my Tweet Peeps

Apr 16, 2009 GMT

I'm not the earliest adopter ever, but eventually I started a Twitter account (or two). And recently I met a couple of people after I responded to a tweet from someone who was headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Last night, I went to the local monthly Tweetup, which was held right across the street from my office. If you have a Tweetup in your area, I highly recommend that you check it out. (And if not, maybe you're the one who should organize the event.) The Tweetup was a wonderful way to meet new people, see the people I recently met via Twitter, and even run into people I haven't seen in a while. If you're in the Lawrence area, maybe I'll see you at the next Tweetup, scheduled...

Book Review: Front End Drupal

Apr 16, 2009 GMT

This week I received my review copy of Front End Drupal: Designing, Theming, Scripting (Developer's Library), by Emma Jane Hogbin and Konstantin Käfer. Because I'm a realist, I won't wait to post my review of this book – it took me weeks to set aside the time to write and post an article about a talk I gave in February, so reading Front End Drupal and putting together a coherent review could take me longer than it took the authors to write the book. Instead, I'll stick with the spirit of my blog and link to a review written by Addison Berry, one of the authors of Using Drupal . As a side note: Emma Jane Hogbin is one of the people I met not long after I wrote about her on this blog...

Her PR Problem

Apr 13, 2009 GMT

We've all seen the statistics and it's clear that women are a minority in the world of free and open source technology, and there are plenty of articles and research papers that offer ideas to help increase participation by women. What about women already working in open source? How do we take the next step up in our careers and help pull other women up with us? And what can our male colleagues do to help? In this article, which is a summary of a talk I gave at SCALE 7x, I will discuss some lessons I've learned over the course of my 12 years working in tech publishing. Imposter Syndrome If I could play a doctor on t.v. and act in a Women in Open Source Technology infomercial, my part...

African-American Women in Computer Science Program Grant

Apr 09, 2009 GMT

The National Science Foundation awarded a $552,000 grant to the Florida A&M University Computer Information Science Program to help increase enrollment. Specifically, the African-American Women in Computer Science (AAWCS) program grant is intended to provide scholarships to help recruit minority women into the computer science program. According to the US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine story, "An added benefit to the students is the conference participation, where selected AAWCS scholars will be chosen to attend two national conferences, paid for by the grant, each year, such as the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and the National Conference...

Linux Foundation Announces Video Contest Finalists

Apr 07, 2009 GMT

Read Amanda McPherson's blog for links to the five videos chosen as finalists for the "We're Linux" contest. I watched all the videos this morning – it's going to be hard to pick a winner because each video is pretty cool. Congrats to all the finalists! Winners will be announced Wednesday (tomorrow) evening, Pacific time. You can follow Linux Foundation on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/linuxfoundation (P.S. Check out the video submitted by our sister publication: Soy un PC y uso Linux)

Women Who Tech: 2nd Annual Telesummit

Apr 01, 2009 GMT

Mark your calendars for May 12, the date of the 2nd Annual Women Who Tech Telesummit, which will be held via phone and web. Registration opens in April. The 2009 Women Who Tech Panels are: Launching Your Own Start-Up: Rashmi Sinha, SlideShare and Amy Muller, Get Satisfaction Women and Open Source: Michelle Murrain, NOSI and Amy De Groff, Howard County Library Breaking Through the Digital Ceiling: Allyson Kapin, Rad Campaign and Women Who Tech Feminine Mystique: Holly Ross, NTEN Social Networks and Diversity Barriers: Shireen Mitchell, Digital Sistas Video Activism: Ramya Raghavan, YouTube and Yvette Alberdingk Thijm, Witness What Shirky Didn’t Tell Us:...