New subject: report from two (2!) women-oriented hacker events tonight

17 Sep 2013

hi all,

a bunch of us went to the totally excellent and huge (50+ people) double
union <http://doubleunion.org> launch event which had a bunch of really
great short talks on all kinds of topics (technical projects, a women's
google glass hacking group, history of textiles, singing in navi - which is
apparently an inclusive language, experiences from using the internet with
a male-gendered handle, comics, and stand-up). it left me personally
totally inspired to have open short short talks at sudo (less pressure than
5 minutes of fame) and totally amazed by the density of hacker women in our
area. we are not doing a good enough job getting women at sudo room, but we
have a great new partner in double union.

afterwards a few of us went to a women who
code<http://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-SF/>open hack night at the
new relic office (more on that below). they had
pizza (boo) but also salad (yay). there were at least 30 women here, all at
various levels of experience. there was a lot of app talk and a lot of
interest in working for companies.

a number of women shared their experiences of getting work at corporations,
getting mentorship in order to move up in corporations, and forcing their
organizations to take gender inclusion seriously. while i applaud the
accomplishments of all women who find work in an exclusive field and also
applaud the formation of alternate professional networks, i am very sad
that we have to applaud and cheer whenever a single women gets a leg up, or
support, or a job, or successfully leverages another woman in her network
to help her find work.

it was also interesting to observe in myself the effects of efforts at
inclusion - when women would say that their attempts to bring attention to
the lack of women at their company were well-received, or when they talked
about how a boss was supportive of their professional development, i could
see myself giving little ++'s to their organization. sharing with other
people the ways that communities demonstrate their commitment to inclusion
is a key part of getting more people in the door. this is why i think that
it's really important to share what we do at sudo and the ways we pay
attention to and act on our mission of inclusion.

finally, jordan and i chatted with the women who code people about their
organization. it's all volunteer-run, they have no budget. they have
meetups three times a week now (algorithms study
group<http://www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code-SF/events/132650642/>2/>!)>!).
they meet at different companies who give them space for free and agree to
cater (apparently organizing this is not as much work as it would
seem..they said they now have a pipeline and enough industry connections to
make this easy). they rarely meet at hackerspaces because of the lack of
ability to sponsor food.

we talked to them about starting an east bay chapter at sudo focused on
linux/open source projects/?? and they were super supportive. they said
that this would meet a need that they saw in their community: from their
experience, many women were able to reach "intermediate" levels of
experience through their groups, but hit snags when starting to develop
projects of their own and joining open source communities. their people
needed support learning how to navigate open source communities and knowing
where and how to start. we'll see what comes of this.

finally, the new relic office is so fancy! which brings us to....

*The New Relic Office is so Fancy: A Photoessay*

this is their fireplace-oriented lounging area:

[image: Inline image 1]

this is another lounging area with the view of the led side of the bay
bridge:

[image: Inline image 2]

this is the tiny room whose purpose can only be sex (what other purpose
could it possibly serve??? it has a sweet chaise lounge!):

[image: Inline image 3]

and here they are, the women who code!!! yayy!!!!!

[image: Inline image 4]

we invited some of the women to sudo room and they were down, so hopefully
they will come. yay!