Mandy Moore, also known around the Internets as @therubyrep, is a podcast production expert, mother of orange tabbies, sucker for bad reality television, and boxed wine connoisseur. She adores her 7-year-old daughter, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and sitting around fire pits while listening to country music. She is a huge advocate for STEM education and women in technology.
I went to AlterConf in New York City this past weekend and wrote about it!
Shoutouts:
Intern at Basecamp this summer! Basecamp is offering remote, paid internships in the following areas: Data, iOS, Ops, Product Design, Programming, and Support. Apply through February 10th!
Mentor Holiday Office Hours: A bunch of people in the tech industry are offering their time over the next few weeks to talk with others about anything ranging from business practices, to program development, design, and even healthy living and exercise. Names of who is participating and links to schedule time on their calendars are in post!
Volunteer to Improve Diversity in Tech: A list of organizations working to improve diversity in technology careers. Open a pull request and add your organization!
Reading:
The One Thing Every Person Can Do To Support More Women in Enterprise Technology: #HacktheNetwork
“There is one thing every successful person has in common: a mentor.” The #HacktheNetwork initiative aims to match mentors and mentees specifically in New York City with the goal to have pairs meet bi-monthly to establish and grow relationships.
My takeaway from the article is that regardless of where we live, we should be doing ^^. Find someone and go by this model. I know that I live in a small, rural town…but there has to be somebody within a reasonable distance who is in tech and my goal is to find them. I’ve realized that I can attempt to learn on my own all I want. I can sign up for all the courses, do all the online modules, and ace all the online quizzes. However, there is something missing and that “something” translates to “someone”. By the new year I have made a goal for myself to find them. Will you do the same?
Why Inclusion Matters
It has been proven consistently that companies led by women and diverse leaders perform better and achieve better results in terms of innovation and creativity. This post examines why ditching the “boys club” is ultimately best for business.
How chatbots will become better at listening
Chatbots are interesting in that when they don’t work, usually we’ll get a laugh out of what they thought we were trying to convey, and when they do work, they’re cool.
Bots will improve further by going above and beyond the user’s original question or request by appealing to them in an advertising sense and using “meaning representations” to infer people’s plans. This means asking a bot when the next [band name] concert is will ultimately result in the booking of tickets.
Conference Talk of the Week:
This talk is part of our “Favorite Talks” YouTube Playlist. Check it out and subscribe!
Alisha Ramos talks about lessons she learned from a beginner to a professional developer, reminding us that we sometimes take for granted the accessibility of careers in technology. In her talk, she shares eight tips on how we can help make coding and tech careers more attainable for everyone by becoming mentors, being visible in communities and lending that visibility to less privileged people, volunteering, and being aware of our own privilege and unconscious bias.
Upcoming Events:
All conferences have been screened and abide by clear and strict Code of Conducts.
Black Women in Computing Conference
Friday, January 6th – Sunday, January 8th: Washington D.C.
ngVikings
Saturday, February 11th – Sunday, February 12th: Copenhagen, Denmark
Sustainable UX
Thursday, February 16th, 2017: Online
PyCon Pune
Thursday, February 16th – Sunday, February 19th: Pune, India
PyCaribbean
Saturday, February 18th – Sunday, February 19th: Bayamón, Puerto Rico
DevNexus 2017 – Scholarship Opportunities Available! Apply by January 20th, 2017.
Wednesday, February 22nd – Friday, February 24th: Atlanta, Georgia
ElixirDaze
Thursday, March 2nd – Friday, March 3rd: St. Augustine, Flordia
nz.js(con);
Thursday, March 9th – Friday, March 10th: Wellington, New Zealand
RubyConf Phillipines
Thursday, March 16th – Friday, March 18th: Bohol, Phillipines
DjangoCon Europe – Financial Assistance Available! Apply by January 16th, 2017.
Monday, April 3rd – Friday, April 7th: Florence, Italy
Women Techmakers Montreal
Saturday, April 8th – Sunday, April 9th: Montreal, Canada
Codeland (a CodeNewbie Conference) – Scholarship Opportunities Available! Apply by December 25th, 2016.
Friday, April 21st — Saturday, April 22nd: New York City
DrupalCon – Scholarship Opportunities Available! Apply.
Monday, April 24th – Friday, April 28th: Baltimore, Maryland
Continuous Lifecycle London
Wednesday, May 17th – Friday, May 19th: London
PyCon
Wednesday, May 17th – Thursday, May 25th: Portland, Oregon
PHP[tek]
Wednesday, May 24th – Friday, May 26th: Atlanta, Georgia
Call For Proposals:
PHP[tek] – Closes December 30th, 2016 11:59PM EST (Offers Travel Assistance!)
Barcelona NodeConf – Closes December 31st, 2016 6:59PM EST (Offers Travel Assistance!)
DjangoCon Europe – Closes December 31st, 2016 6:00PM EST (Offers Travel Assistance!)
PyCon – Closes January 3rd, 2017 11:59PM EST
Codeland (a CodeNewbie Conference) – Closes January 8th, 2017 11:59PM EST (Offers Travel Assistance!) Submit a Talk AND/OR Apply to Become a Panelist
Women Techmakers Montreal 2017 – Closes January 15th, 2017 7:00PM EST (Offers Travel Assistance!)
CircleCityCon 4.0 – First Round Closes January 20th, 2017 11:59PM EST, Second Round Closes March 3rd, 2017 11:59PM EST
nz.js(con); – Closes January 22nd, 2017 3:00PM EST
DrupalCon – Closes February 1st, 2017 11:59PM EST
Do you know an upcoming conference or CFP that should be included? Email leads to mandy@recompilermag.com.
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