Girl Develop It – Detroit

I find myself part of, or involved with, a lot of groups. There is something about getting people in the same room to learn or share a common interest that really excites me. I know I have had my share of lolipop moments while attending an event and I hope I’ve been able to give my share back.

Being a developer it’s only natural that I end up talking with a lot of other developers. It has always amazed me how few girl (women) developers there are. When I find one though I always have to apologize in advance because I end up asking them a million questions. The story of how they became interested in development is always intriguing and unique. But most have the same theme, they are not developing because they have something to prove in a male dominated field but instead they started to tinker early on with manipulating their environment to make it better or they wanted to make something their own.

Unfortunately that spark doesn’t always come as a child and women find themselves curious about code, the Web, and mobile after they are already in a career. Doing online tutorials can get someone started but without a community to bounce ideas off, to push, and to help with the few extra resources needed to get something launched, it is hard to stay motivated. This in person group is essencial for long term success when learning anything new.

A few months ago I was talking to Michelle Srbinovich about this very topic. We both handle social media for our organizations,  being a girl developer herself and my interest in the same topic we both stumbled across Black Girls Code, who coincidently was having an event on campus. We started talking more and Michelle discovered this much larger community of groups and events for girls looking to learn to code. One of those groups, Girl Develop It, is starting a Detroit chapter.

What is Girl Develop It?

GDI is a nonprofit that empowers women of diverse backgrounds to learn how to develop software.  Starting this November, GDI Detroit will be offering affordable classes for women (and men) who want to learn how to code – from introductory HTML/CSS classes to advanced courses for professional developers looking to expand their skill set.

Detroit Chapter kickoff event

Come learn more about Girl Develop It Detroit on Tuesday, October 23rd at Great Lakes Coffee at their kickoff event.

First Class: Intro to HTML & CSS

Want to learn how to build your own website? Already have your own Tumblr/WordPress/etc. site, but want to have more control over it? Interested in learning to program, but want to start small? This class is for you!

We will guide you through the basics of HTML and CSS, give you some readily-applicable skills, and answer any questions you may have along the way.

The course will be taught by Cara Jo Miller, UI/UX Designer at Are You A Human and co-organizer of Refresh Detroit and WordCamp Detroit.

November 10, 2012 – More details on the Meetup.com.

Interested in helping out?

The success of these events are driven by people like you, if you’ve read this far I can tell you already have what it takes. Attend a class, spread the word, or teach a class. There is someone waiting for you to reach out, your support could be life changing.

Discover more at http://gdidetroit.com.

[What I’m Reading] The post HighEdWeb edition

Back from a week at HighEdWeb and catching up. My RSS reader was stacked with articles and these were the ones that caught my attention. They aren’t organized in any way, so scan the list and I hope you’ll find something to enjoy. 🙂

Unintentional stop motion video of my life

Life happens; and like most people I take a lot of photos to remember it. My phone automatically uploads photos via Dropbox (shameless referral link), for both immediate access and to ensure all my data is in at least two spots at all times (habit from my life as a developer). As my phone and Dropbox get full I batch import the photos in to iPhoto for long term storage.

By far my favorite part of this process is watching the photos preview as they import. I tend to burst take photos and pick the best one to share at the time, but I never delete the blurry, crooked or duplicate shots. The side effect of this is a stop motion video of what I’ve been up to as the photos are importing.

As I started the process today it made me relive the memories and in itself was bringing back all the emotions of the events. I wanted to capture this so I could replay it later, after a few hundred photos I started recording my screen and the process (really wish I started at the beginning, oh well).

I’ve created stop motion videos before and there is typically a standard stop length in between each photo. With this import process though the files are being transferred at the same time so the time delay based on file size. This creates a really cool effect of stops and bursts through the photos. Really wish iPhoto had a way to reproduce this effect without going through the import process.

2,500 photos later this video of my life over the last few months was produced:

It may be a little meta but the memory of the memories really makes me appreciate everyone and everything around me. And now it makes me want to take more photos.

(15 minutes is a long time to sit through a video without sound, I don’t blame you if you bail) 😛

[What I’m Reading] The responsive edition

It’s been more time than usual since I’ve posted a “Friday Links” so this weekend when I found myself at RSS zero I thought it would be a good opportunity to rebrand and post “what I’m reading.” The idea behind Friday Links was far more than just a list of links that were published during the week, these links were able to catch my full attention, which is hard to do with the schedule I have.

The last few weeks have exploded the responsive concept in to a full blown science, even Google Analytics is getting involved with reporting on hard numbers. The links below represent what I’ve been paying attention to and what I feel you should at least take a glance at. Enjoy.