Sarah Mei » devchix http://www.sarahmei.com/blog Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:16:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The First Rails Workshop http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2009/06/14/the-first-rails-workshop/ http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2009/06/14/the-first-rails-workshop/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:35:23 +0000 sarahmei http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/?p=109 Two months ago, Sarah Allen and I started planning a Ruby on Rails outreach workshop for women. Our goal: each participant leaves with a fully-functional development environment, a working application, and some space online to show off their work.

As we got into it we realized it was really, really ambitious. But I am profoundly thrilled to report that the SF Ruby community came together this weekend and made it happen.

O HAI NEW RAILS PPL

O HAI NEW RAILS PPL

It was really, really incredible. More than 60 people spent their Friday evening installing Rails. Then they came back on Saturday and learned how to use it. A lot of them had never programmed before, but now they have Github accounts and a URL on Heroku. Watch out world!

I’ll be following up in this space with more lessons learned (and some further events), but for now, I want to share some feedback we got last night from one of the participants:

In addition to learning way more than I expected, I enjoyed the tone of the entire weekend. It was the only attitude-free, newbie-safe and mama-friendly tech event I have ever attended.

There were lots of things I could have organized better – projectors, class allocations, installation instructions – but I’m really happy that these folks got to experience a bit of the Ruby MINASWAN. In fact, I think something just got in my eye. *sniff*

So a million thanks to our sponsors, our volunteers, and the entire SF Ruby community for making this happen. Seriously. You ROCK.

]]> http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2009/06/14/the-first-rails-workshop/feed/ 9 My drop in the bucket http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2009/05/04/my-drop-in-the-bucket/ http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2009/05/04/my-drop-in-the-bucket/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 14:37:52 +0000 sarahmei http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/?p=75 Since I got into computer science in college, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and talking and reading about the gender imbalance in computing. I’ve decided it’s time for me to help fix the problem.

So I’ll be offering a free workshop in San Francisco to reach out to women who want to learn Ruby and Rails. Sarah Allen and I are spearheading with the assistance of the San Francisco Ruby Meetup and Devchix and (your org here?).

The first one is June 12th and 13th – Friday night is a mixer and installfest, then Saturday is the workshop and hacking space. We’ll go from nothing to a fully-operational web application on the internet (mwa ha haaa!).

Registration will be open next week – check back for details then.

I’m posting this today, though, because RailsBridge, a grassroots effort to make the Rails community welcoming to everyone, is launching today. We’ll be releasing the slides, talking points, and logistics info for these workshops (oh yes, there will be more) under their umbrella.

Now, I’m a developer, not a trainer or an event planner, but…they’re all nails, right? And Github is a mighty fine hammer. Fork the kit and use it to your own ends. Maybe, if I’m feeling generous, I’ll merge you back in. But my goal is to have a continuously updated presentation that any Rails developer can pick up and use to run a similar event in their city.

Want to help? Maybe you actually know something about how to run a workshop like this? Get in touch and let’s talk.

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