Posted by rainbreaw on June 11, 2009 at 7:32pm
The LA user's group is planning the 2009 DrupalCamp, and nbluto and I are going to organize a drupalchix-themed track of some sort. We've just begun planning - and are hoping for feedback from you as to what themes/topics/discussions you would find most useful in such a track!
Please let us know your thoughts in this discussion. This will help us organize something truly useful :)
And if you are LA based (or thinking of joining us for DrupalCampLA in early August) and want to help out, please let us know that, as well.
Thank you!
Comments
Awesome idea!
I guess if I could describe my "dream" Drupalchix conference track, it would be basically a showcase of women in the Drupal community and the awesome stuff they're doing. And hopefully mostly (or entirely) women that people in the wider Drupal community don't already know.
Each presenter would get up and talk about something she knew, and the day's topics would range from geeky development ninja tricks to theming/design tips, to marketing/SEO stuff, to "showcase" talks that describe how interesting Drupal sites were built. The Drupalchix would get a chance to show the world (and also one another) how much we kick ass! :D
There would also be a couple of sessions that focus on issues such as the gender divide, sexism, crap women have deal with both in technology and open source, and an exchange of stories/experiences (both positive and negative). It'd be great to come out of this with a wider awareness of the issues, and also some concrete strategies for how to address things that come up, and how to encourage participation from women. But I would caution against making the entire track about stuff like that, though.
thanks for the feedback!
webchick, thank you for this feedback. The idea of showcasing women, but doing so with topics that are useful regardless of gender, is a very good one.
Given your broader knowledge of the community, are there specific women you recommend that we reach out to?
I would want to make sure that any session(s) focusing on issues of the gender divide are properly informed and constructive, with real focus on concrete strategies. When we get further along in the planning, would you be open to helping us get the material right (perhaps by offering feedback to our plan, and/or sending any leads you may already have)?
Find my introductory Drupal 8 video course on O'Reilly.com: Learning Drupal 8: Install, Build, Deploy and Maintain a Customized Drupal Website.
Given your broader
Well, I could start spewing out a list of all of the awesome women in the Drupal community that I know of, but a lot of them are pretty high-profile already. I think it might be cool instead to identify awesome rockstars who we don't know about yet. Maybe the organizers of LA Drupal could put a call out to the local community, and ask people to recommend a woman they know who's doing awesome things. :)
Sure, I'm happy to do what I can! I definitely don't want to be the only person providing feedback though, since it's important to get a diverse range of perspectives. Maybe send it to the group, and we can see if we can somehow shape it into something that could be repeated at other conferences?
Thank you for your
Thank you for your willingness to help out. Definitely understand not wanting to be the only person giving feedback, and am starting to reach out now to the broader community. I'll come back to this conversation, with more ideas, soon!
In the meantime, anyone with thoughts or ideas, or a desire to participate (are you an awesome woman who's doing awesome things? do you know one?), please let us know you are out there! :)
Thank you.
Find my introductory Drupal 8 video course on O'Reilly.com: Learning Drupal 8: Install, Build, Deploy and Maintain a Customized Drupal Website.
Sometimes being positive can
Sometimes being positive can be elusive for me, but it is worth it, because I begin to see the oh so many wonderful people that I might have missed if I focused on the negative.
I would love to hear talks on concrete strategies to how to attract more women to IT / Open Source.
Also, side note, I just created a Drupalchix Flickr group. Everyone is invited to join and add photos to the group, I know that there are many photos out there that I would love to see added to this group.
Business model
rainbreaw, i would like to see some business women who work in drupal projects and which are her business model because you can develop lots of web sites in drupal but you can't make money with that. Else someone think to make money with advertising but there are other ways.
I hope it helps you (sorry for my bad english i speak spanish :P )
Biz models, a great idea
It is something we ALL struggle with (I think), so that would definitely be a great topic. Along these lines, it would be awesome to hear what other folks are using as client relations tools- support, invoicing software, etc. I know those are sometimes OS-dependent so a couple examples for each of the 3 major OSes (or maybe, web-based solutions) would be really informative.
ps. your english is fine, besides, hay muchos miembros en esta comunidad que tambien hablamos español. :)
Could be ongoing...
I have a feeling there are already a lot of women doing great things with Drupal in the LA area. Probably a very small percentage really participate in the local/global community or are even aware of it's existence. Here are a few ways we can reach out and involve more women in the local scene:
The more outreach we can do on an ongoing basis should make for a more engaging 'track'.
Gus Austin
PepperAlley Productions
Gus Austin
Additionally...
Piggy-backing on your extensive list, Gus, I´d like to add a group that was overlooked:
http://linuxchixla.org
I know there is at least one member who is pretty active using Drupal. I haven´t seen them post any of this to the mailing list so I´ll just go ahead & do that.
Additionally, what about getting a jumpstart on this by having something similar (women in Drupal showcase) at our next LA Drupal meeting?
great feedback
esteinar -- successful business models are definitely of interest, thanks for the thought!
gusaus -- thanks for the leads! I'm curious about your thoughts re: WIF. I'm an active member, so it's not difficult for me to engage the organization. Do you have something specific in mind?
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panel idea
I made the idea at our Cafe meeting for a DrupalChix panel (session).
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
sacha = spam!
ey! #webchick could you deny the access to sacha?
Is this still a problem?
I'm not seeing a 'sacha' in this thread, so I assume someone has already blocked that account. Is this still a problem?
______
Senpai
Joel Farris | my 'certified to rock' score
Transparatech
http://transparatech.com
619.717.2805
an update
Based on the feedback we are getting (thank you!), we are thinking that the most effective way to present a "drupalchix track" at DrupalCamp LA is to foster a series of sessions at the camp that are led by women, but are of interest to all drupal users, regardless of gender.
By encouraging women to led these sessions, we raise the comfort level for women using drupal to begin networking with each other and coming to the fore. Meanwhile, everyone has access to more sessions that are useful.
Our goal is to have everyone show up, and make sure that this does not appear to be "for women only."
In doing this, we hope to tackle a number of the principal themes we are hearing from feedback and seeing on the discussion forms. nbluto culled a few of the themes together:
Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5 will all begin to be addressed by encouraging knowledgeable women doing interesting work to share through formal or BoF sessions at drupalcamp, especially in a format that is not gender exclusive.
Another great idea came out of the la user group drupalcafe meetup on Thursday evening: a panel of drupalchix who can both present their work and contributions, and also speak to any questions that come up about theme #4 above.
And now we reach out directly to all of you: are you interested in coming up with a session idea? If you don't feel ready or as though you have the time to do one on your own, perhaps you would be interested in teaming up with someone to present a session? Might you be interested in being on/available for a panel? Do you know someone that you would recommend we reach out to for a panel?
Please get in touch (through this discussion or via direct message).
A number of great people are already reaching out, but we could still get more people to help make this a very useful part of DrupalCamp LA!
Thank you.
Find my introductory Drupal 8 video course on O'Reilly.com: Learning Drupal 8: Install, Build, Deploy and Maintain a Customized Drupal Website.
Willing to help
I'd love to come down to your camp from San Farncisco. I'd be willing to lead a session, demonstrate my contributions, be on a panel, or help in whatever other way is necessary. Let me know what you need!
Drupal Developer
Chapter Three LLC
http://www.jenlampton.com | http://twitter.com/jenlampton | http://jenerationweb.com
Note that there's a poll
There's a poll where I believe if you can help, you should comment. See http://groups.drupal.org/node/23549.
Drupal Camp LA 2009 open for registrations!
Thank you those who registered early and already posted sessions (PingVision, LA Drupal, OCPPH/Drupal, SD Drupal, etc.). Drupal Camp LA 2009 is our third annual free community training event across two days. Registration is open. RSVP required.
http://drupalcampla.com
Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant
I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us
please continue submitting!
As Chris mentions, a lot of great session proposals have already been posted by drupalchix! We'd love to see more, so if you have a great session idea, or are interested in presenting a session along with someone, please submit!
If you are coming to the camp: we're looking for people to take shifts at the drupalchix table (we'll wait to schedule those shifts until the camp schedule is more firmed up so people don't miss sessions). Ping me if you'd like to help :)
We're also moving forward with putting together a panel of 3-4 cool women in drupal to tackle the question of why women participate less than we'd like. We have a couple of women for this panel already, but are still looking for 1-2 more women. Please ping me if you are that woman, or think you know that woman.
We're super excited! Thanks for your help!
Rain
Find my introductory Drupal 8 video course on O'Reilly.com: Learning Drupal 8: Install, Build, Deploy and Maintain a Customized Drupal Website.
DrupalCampLA 2009 was fantastic
Thank you, drupalchix who came out and participated, for doing so! We had a great presence at the camp. Crystal Williams pointed out that there were a notable number of technical presentations being led by women at the camp, and that is really thanks to all those who responded to our request for session proposals and really came out strong! Great presentations from Beck Farris, Nicole Bluto, Pam Diaz and more. Thank you, Brenda Boggs, for doing a "Doctor Is In" session, twice, at our drupalchix table!
We are continuing the conversations that began at the Drupalchix Panel on Sunday here:
http://2009.drupalcampla.com/drupalchix/panel/questions
Please feel free to stop by and participate in the discussion. In the next few days, I'll also post a mash up of the audio recording from the conversation, as well as minutes from the panel taken by myself and Peter Benjamin.
Thank you, again! What an awesome crew!
Find my introductory Drupal 8 video course on O'Reilly.com: Learning Drupal 8: Install, Build, Deploy and Maintain a Customized Drupal Website.