Comments for Sarah Mei

Comment on Why Rails is Still a Ghetto by Mauro Toffanin

Mauro Toffanin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:08:32 +0000

Hi Mei,
you write that “you felt marginalized and a little scared” and I agree with you, using “sex/porn/soft-porn” as an excuse to make talks and events more attractive is sad and extremely sexist against women.

You aren’t the only woman who is fighting against these type of porn-slides during conferences, recently there was also a case during a WordCamp at Boston as reported by Adria Richards: http://butyoureagirl.com/2010/01/11/wordcamp-boston’s-ignite-session-turns-to-porn-pitch-for-votes

In the future, I hope to see more people fighting against all these type of events that objectify women. Thank you very much for your efforts about changing the community and for your amazing talks at the SCALE 8x.

p.s.: Adria Richards is moving to SF, maybe you can join forces with her or share ideas/experiences about this post’s topic.

Comment on SCALE 8x Slides Posted by sarahmei

sarahmei — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 23:55:19 +0000

@Elizabeth - thanks! I added a link in the post to the audio, plus Jake Edge over at Linux Weekly News did a decent summary article. @mpm - thanks for the suggestion. I've edited the post to add a link to a PDF. Hope that helps!

Comment on SCALE 8x Slides Posted by mpm

mpm — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:59:11 +0000

Any chance you can post this in a non-Flash-based form?

Comment on SCALE 8x Slides Posted by The Third Bit » Blog Archive » Times Nine in a Year

The Third Bit » Blog Archive » Times Nine in a Year — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:29:43 +0000

[...] slides are here, and Josh Wehner has asked how we can achieve the same improvements in Toronto. (Thanks to Andrew [...]

Comment on Why childcare matters at tech events by Lorna

Lorna — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:38:31 +0000

Hello Sarah, I know your name from the devChix group online. Just ran across this blog post and had to comment. I have been home for five years raising my kids, running my business, and trying to stay current in the business world; and I cannot tell you how many conferences and growth/networking opportunities I’ve missed because there’s either no child care, or the price is way above my pay grade. These events are unintentionally (in most cases?) set up so that no primary parents can do these events unless they live next door to their unemployed mother.

Right now I’m on my way to a computer science degree (career change) and want to specialize in Ruby. So the idea that there may be child care available at Ruby conferences/workshops is very exciting to hear. (And for the record, my kids would loveto hang out with an experienced dad.)

Thanks for taking the initiative here and making the effort!

Comment on SCALE 8x Slides Posted by Elizabeth Naramore

Elizabeth Naramore — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:09:22 +0000

Hi Sarah,
This is awesome information and I wish I could have seen it in person. You’re doing a great job bringing Ruby to women and women to Ruby – kudos to you for all your efforts. They are clearly paying off! I look forward to reading your full blog post on the subject.

Comment on Why childcare matters at tech events by shanna

shanna — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:58:31 +0000

Wonderful idea. Good for you for doing this.

I was a single parent from the time my son was 3 until he was 10. Tech conferences were rough. Once I was sponsored by my work to attend a SANS conference. There were probably about 1000 attendees, but not a child in sight. I had to arrange a patchwork of help, including flying my mom out to stay with us for some of the time, and finding an (expensive) nanny for two days. This prevented me from going to any of the BOF evening meetings. As a single mom at SANS I was definitely not in the main demographic, but I have always been somewhat of an iconoclast, so it didn’t bother me that much. Still it would have been nice to meet at least one other parent who had their kids with them.

I can’t help but think that if childcare was a norm at conferences it would allow more, different types of people to come. Certainly more single parents! Having childcare available allows parents to network around their children.. Create more connections – and strengthen a “parent community” for future conferences. I also think it is a good learning experience for kids to see what their parents do.

Comment on Teaching Ruby to High School Girls by banane » Blog Archive » Cootie Catcher

banane » Blog Archive » Cootie Catcher — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:28:30 +0000

[...] attended a talk by my friend Sarah Mei on “Teaching Ruby to High School Girls” at SF-Ruby Meet-up a month or so ago. There was a discussion afterwards that was very inspiring- [...]

Comment on New job by Bing

Bing — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:51:01 +0000

Hi Sarah – I found your profile this morning and was just going to contact you about a contract gig. Oh well – congratulations, though!

Comment on New job by Gir Startup

Gir Startup — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:18:10 +0000

Congrats that’s a real feat indeed. Pivitol are working with Laura Fitton of oneforty.com! I just learnt about her recently she is in an inspiration for me…maybe you will be lucky enough to meet her