[Actionchix] Re: [Issues] OK that *was* a little negative - here's the positive side of me!

[Sulamita Garcia]

I hope this idea works. I started (finally) to work with development a
year and half ago, and now I'm thinking start to help with code. I
already download some softwares I know well, but never had look the
source, and I saw some "fixme" entries... would be very nice have some
experienced chix to guide me into development...

On 6/21/05, Mel Chua <mallory.chua at students.olin.edu> wrote:
> If I may resummarize (badly) what I think I've been hearing on the
> issues list...
> 
> 1. It would be great to see more women develop open-source software,
> because we are a fairly untapped group with talents and skills and an
> unique perspective that can Do Cool Stuff.
> 2. We want to encourage women  to get involved with technical issues -
> to become beginners and start learning.
> 3. We want to encourage and help women that have learned cool things to
> be able to use them to help others - help them channel and leverage
> their energy for maximum benefit.
> 4. How do we do this?
> 
> Here's a thought.
> 
> Google's Summer of Code sounds wonderful. (App deadline is over now, but
> the page and explanations are still up at
> http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html) Why not sponsor something like
> it - don't necessarily go for a full-fledged distro right out, but have
> the experienced programmers volunteer as mentors to the less experienced
> ones, have everyone post project suggestions - start with small, very
> doable things that we can actually do well; have a three-month (or so)
> "project time" so everyone feels like they're pulling together and we'll
> help each other along towards the same goal of Get Project Done By X
> Date (as opposed to having projects start and end pell-mell), and... go
> from there? Kind of like an apprenticeship. One thing I've seen, being a
> teenage girl with an interest in open source, is that it's /really,
> really hard /to find a good mentor. And nothing against males at all - I
> have had wonderful male teachers - but it makes a difference, really, to
> have a strong female mentor that really knows her stuff.
> 
> For those who are computer-comfy but haven't programmed before, projects
> can go from learning html and web-admin stuff and keeping the Linuxchix
> Summer of Code website up to date, or - I saw my roommate (a 19 year old
> female), who had never programmed and was very nervous about anything
> involving computers, go from that - to turning out a graphical poker
> game you could play over the campus network in python - within a
> semester. And this was on top of all her other classes and clubs and
> choir and drama, so it's not like she devoted hours and hours daily to
> it; just a couple hours a week. So small learn-as-you-go projects are
> totally doable.
> 
> For those who want to get computer (or Linux) comfy, I've had a design
> project in mind that could turn into the Linuxchix distro, possibly. I'm
> really into user interface design, and I'd love to have a design team
> made of folks across all skill levels - from "what's a mouse?" to "I can
> patch kernels in my sleep!" (leaning more towards the former) to work
> with, objective being to create a killer open-source "family machine."
> You know, the computer you'd have in your living room or by the kitchen
> or otherwise acting as your "general house computer." Everything from
> the physical hardware to the software interface to the... heck, you
> could wire it to your bathroom lights, if you really wanted - would be
> open to questioning and overhauling, and the goal would be to make it as
> "hack-friendly" as possible. To be so friendly and intuitive as to
> /encourage /people to play around, make their own things - because
> that's how you get interested, that's how you learn.
> 
> Now, I don't know a lot about anything, and I could be talking crazy
> here. I'm a student, I'm new to this, and I probably rank near the
> bottom in terms of Linux knowledge, but... I'm trying to learn, and I'd
> like to Do Something. Something to help out. Any thoughts?
> 
> -Mel


-- 
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 °v°  Sulamita Garcia
/(_)\  LinuxChix Brasil
^ ^  http://www.linuxchix.org.br/
         http://toskinha.multiply.com/

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