Besides a great speaker line-up, JRubyConf is hosting Kids Code Camp as part of their program. We’re excited to be part of the mix!

What motivated you to start this, and how difficult or easy was it to get off the ground?

Susan:
The specific motivation for Web Start Women, like any fun idea, came from us scratching an itch we had. Nicole and I were working together on some web start-up ideas, and we realized we were feeling isolated in our pursuits. Nicole mentioned some women friends of hers who were also working on businesses and we decided we should have a regular pow-wow with them so we could share ideas, get energized, learn from each other.

Around the same time, I started coming across some posts on Quora asking “What successful tech companies have had women leaders?” This lead to a bunch of link hopping, and I started really getting into this question – where are all the women doing what I do?

These two events sparked this idea: We can help build this community and provide necessary education and tools. We sidelined our other start-up ideas and started full speed ahead on developing Web Start Women.

Do you see a strong crossover in women who want to learn technology and women who want to start their own technology-fueled businesses, or are those more likely to be different camps?

Nicole:
That’s an interesting question and I’m not sure we have quite enough data to answer it yet, but here’s a rundown of what we’ve observed so far. One of the things that we love about Web Start Women is that we are drawing a wide range of women. We have had girls as young as 12 learning HTML and CSS alongside women who are retired. Our members have all kinds of backgrounds (e.g., librarians, musicians, sociology graduate students, nurses, elementary school teachers, and of course, web developers of various stripes). Some have never written a line of code in their lives and others have written excited notes about classes they would love to teach for us in their Meetup profiles.

Not surprisingly, we’re seeing a vibrant diversity of interests and goals. In terms of crossover between technology and technology-fueled business, it seems like most, if not all, of the women who are interested in building their tech skills also have some kind of business idea, even if it’s just that they want to have a business! I can only think of a few women who are solely focused on a business idea and aren’t interested in learning to do (at least some of) the technical work themselves.

To get back to the data issue, we should point out that most of the events and classes we’ve done so far have been more tech-oriented more than business-oriented. Starting up, it made the most sense to focus our educational efforts on the material Susan has years of experience with and was already teaching at Penn, which is web development. We have some biz-oriented topics in the works, so we might start seeing a stronger crossover as a result.

What informs your teaching technique choices?

Susan:
I think our primary goal is to break down any fears that might exist. I had unpleasant experiences in Computer Science courses in college where I always felt behind – as if the rest of the students had read some secret textbook that was assigned before the course began, but I didn’t know about it. We do our best to combat that feeling, encouraging a lot of questions and contact before, during, and after classes.

Aside from what we do at Web Start Women, Nicole is teaching at Harvard and I’m teaching at Penn, so we spend a lot of time talking about pedagogy in general. I look at our courses as a product we build for our students, and we’re constantly trying to build the best product we can. There’s no shortage of places you can learn about web development (textbooks, online tutorials, local groups, school), but we work really hard to provide a quality of instruction and an experience that you can’t always get in those places.

Because the courses I teach at WSW overlap with what I teach at Penn, I get the benefit of constantly fine-tuning the instruction. I had some experiences this past year where schedules lined up such that I would literally be teaching the same lecture to Penn students during the day that I would take to a WSW course that night. It was a great opportunity for me to smooth the edges out on lectures, because if something didn’t work in the afternoon, I could tweak it for the evening.

Aside from all this, we’re basically really big nerds about all these topics, and I think our excitement shows through; I hope that’s energizing for women who take our classes.

Do you see any social/cultural changes in your larger tech community resulting from WSW’s work? Is it any more comfortable for women, and/or for men (or not)? Is there a more visible presence of women?

Nicole:
(The tech community we’re most connected to is Philly, so this answer speaks to the tech community there.) We have absolutely seen positive developments in the time since we started Web Start Women. Though we’d love to chalk it up to the work we’ve done, being a scientist, I have to point out that these are correlational data from which we can’t infer causation. WSW has really been our introduction to Philly’s tech community–Susan is a recent transplant to the area and I was wrapped up in academia. From our perspective, it seems like the energy behind women-focused tech groups hit critical mass early this year and just took off. WSW is a part of that wave and (we like to believe) a force for positive change. In addition to Web Start Women, Philly now has a very active Girl Geek Dinners chapter, a women’s Python group, and several other organizations that are focused on getting women into the tech field.

From talking with people who’ve been in the community for years, we’ve learned that there’s been sustained effort toward growing all areas of tech (by/for both women and men). What we think is really cool about Philly is that the explosion of women’s tech groups seems to be coinciding with a major growth spurt in the tech community overall. This is a fabulous opportunity for Philadelphia as a city to develop as a tech hub that is very female-friendly, because women are getting in on the ground floor. Rather than fighting an uphill battle like they have to in SF or NYC, Philly’s technical women will be able to scale as the community grows.

Is there a strong online component to your program, or forums for questions and technical support?

Right now the online component is limited to the usuals: Facebook, Twitter and email dialogues. However, we’ve got plans in the works to expand on this; we’ve been testing online education platforms and are aiming to build a stronger, more centralized online community. We love the local roots of our groups, but we also want to be a resource to women who are not in metropolitan areas and who feel isolated from the sort of opportunities they provide.

How long have you been doing the StartLucks – can you tell us about them? Are they a big part of how women you teach stay in touch with you and each other?

Our very first event was a Startluck and we consider them to be a keystone of everything we do; they’re an opportunity for new members to get a sense of what we’re about, and it’s a place where existing members can come and check in with everyone. At some Startlucks, it’s just a relaxed conversation talking about who we are, what we do and what we’re working on. Other times, someone asks a thought-provoking question and we end up having a big group brainstorming session. At our last Startluck, the topic of web accessibility came up and it sparked a great flow of questions and ideas.

We think of Startlucks as a place to come and get recharged about the work you’re doing. These events always leave us with a touch of that feeling you get after a conference in your field; new ideas are seeded, any isolation is broken, and you’re fueled up to create stuff.

What have you learned from doing this? What advice would you give on grassroots teaching to other groups or individuals who would like to do this themselves?

We began Web Start Women to help empower women and in the process, empowered ourselves. It often feels very meta: we’re growing this project that helps other women grow their own projects. Speaking to other individuals who would like to do this themselves, I guess that’s not really advice so much as it is encouragement: go for it. Women and other minorities are hungry for this stuff, you just have to put it on their radar and they will come. In the process, you get to meet a lot of great new people, learn a lot yourself, and feel warm and fuzzy from the rewards.

Susan Buck and Nicole Noll, Web Start Women

What motivated you to start this, and how difficult or easy was it to get off the ground?

I started Ladies Learning Code by accident. I was eager to learn some programming skills, and after attending the first-ever Pyladies workshop while I was in LA on business, I tried to find a similar group in Toronto upon my return home. I was surprised when I didn’t find anything, so I wrote a blog post about how Toronto needs a group for women who want to learn beginner-friendly programming skills and tweeted it out. I started receiving emails, and 85 people ended up signing up for the first event. I was blown away.

My team at Ladies Learning Code works really hard to run awesome monthly events that people like, but we would all tell you that we’re surprised at how easy it’s been to get the word out about what we’re doing. The only way people find out about Ladies Learning Code is through social media and word of mouth (and lately, though the media). In four months, we’ve assembled a community of almost 1000 people. About 200 of those are developers and other technical folks who want to help out by volunteering at a workshop. The support from Toronto’s tech community has been incredible.

What informs your choices in curriculum – is marketability or ease of learning or merits of the technologies themselves? What informs your teaching technique choices?

So far, we’ve covered JavaScript, HTML & CSS, Ruby and WordPress – and all of those workshops have sold out in less than a day. (Actually, the WordPress workshop sold out in three minutes!) We select the topics based on who steps up to lead a workshop and what people are asking for. We also like our workshops to be hands-on, so we consider which languages or topics will make it possible for our participants to feel as though they’ve completed something by the end of the day.

As for our teaching technique choices, we’re still iterating (although, what we’ve done so far seems to be working really well). The key, I think, is our 4:1 student-to-instructor ratio. Four participants sit at a table with a developer and they work together throughout the day. It’s more fun, because it gives everyone a chance to get to know each other. It makes for a better learning experience for the participants too, because the developer can offer challenges to participants who are catching on quickly, and offer more help to those who need it. What we’re finding is that our volunteer developers have as much fun as our participants!

Do you see a strong crossover in women who want to learn technology and women who want to start their own technology-fueled businesses, or are those more likely to be different camps?

We’re finding that there are a lot of reasons why women (and men) want to attend Ladies Learning Code workshops. For many of them, it’s curiosity. In general, our participants are super tech-savvy, and they want to learn more about the technologies they use every day. Some people definitely attend because they want to have a startup one day (or next week!), but some attend just because they want to be better at their job. Some are looking to upgrade their skills and add something new to their resume. And there is definitely a number of people who come because they work with developers, and they want to be able to do a better job communicating with them.

Do you see any social/cultural changes in your larger tech community resulting from LLC’s work? Is it any more comfortable for women, and/or for men (or not)? Is there a more visible presence of women?

I think it’s too soon to tell. There’s no doubt that Toronto’s tech community has been incredibly supportive of Ladies Learning Code, which is a great first step, but since we’ve only been around for five months, we’ll have to wait and see if our efforts result in a tangible difference. Of course, I’m a big believer in the power of communities, and ours is definitely a strong & passionate one. I believe that what we’re doing in Toronto is going to make a difference here. Especially as we diversify our offerings and target different demographics, especially girls.

Is there a strong online component to your program, or forums for questions and technical support? Do the women you train stay in touch with you and each other? What have you learned while doing this? What advice would you give on teaching to other groups or individuals who would like to do this themselves?

At the moment, there is no online component to Ladies Learning Code (other than the informal community on Twitter and Facebook). It’s something we’re thinking about. Many of the women who attend Ladies Learning Code workshops stay in touch. We have quite a few women who have attended two or more workshops, and we are all starting to recognize each other at tech events in the city, which is fun. Since our community is made up of people who are generally very social media-savvy, many of them connect on Twitter before, during or after events, and stay in touch that way. It’s another area that we might look to improve in the future.

The biggest thing we’ve learned while getting Ladies Learning Code off the ground is how much is possible, as long as you have a community that supports you. It’s been really exciting to build Ladies Learning Code over the past few months, but none of it would be possible without Toronto’s super supportive tech community. We’re so grateful to our community partner, The Centre for Social Innovation, for helping make our workshops accessible by providing us with amazing spaces to use for our workshops, and to the companies who have supported us, and of course to the developers who are giving up their Saturdays to help us inspire and empower more women to become builders – not just consumers – of technology and the web.

The biggest piece of advice I would give to someone who wants to start a group like Ladies Learning Code in their city is to think community first. Don’t think about the workshops you’re going to run, or about building a website, or getting a Twitter handle or a Facebook Page. We did all of that weeks after our first event – a brainstorming session. By bringing together a group of like-minded people and asking them what an organization for women who want to learn to code should look like (and even giving them markers and big pads of paper and having them breakout into groups and tackle different pieces of the puzzle), we got a better sense of what to build, but also brought together a group of people who cared about it and wanted to see it come to fruition.

Heather Payne, Founder

Maybe we here at RailsBridge are incurable optimists, but we see the rise of women teaching women to code as a pony worth betting on. Girl Develop It, Ladies Learning Code and Web Start Women are all great examples of start up savvy applied to gender in tech. This is the first in a series of interviews with each of these organizations. Watch for these recurring themes: breaking down fears about technology, building confidence, support from their local technology community, the success of hands-on teaching techniques, and changing relations between women and men.

Girl Develop It

Founded in 2010 in New York by Sara Chipps and Vanessa Hurst, GDI has expanded to Austin, Columbus and Philadelphia – and even beyond the States to Ottawa, Canada and Sydney, Australia.

Alexis Goldstein and Izzy Johnston are both experienced software engineers and GDI instructors.

Which of GDI’s teaching techniques do you think work best?

Alexis:
Our emphasis on making the space non-intimidating. Just by saying that over and over, it encourages questions students may otherwise be afraid to voice.

What informs GDI’s choices in curriculum – is marketability or ease of learning or merits of the technologies themselves?

Alexis:
Our main aim is to encourage women to program, so our curriculum is mostly based around laying the proper foundation to support future learning.

Izzy:
The first and most important factor is student interest. We are very open with our students and have an ongoing dialog about their needs. We want our classes to empower students and equip them to face technological challenges in their careers and lives.

All of my classes blend teaching the theory via an interactive lecture and allowing students to play with the code in class as part of a lab. Besides teaching students how to learn languages, we also want them to leave every class with the feeling that they have built something that they can be proud of.

Are GDI classes comfortable for women, and/or for men (or not)?

Alexis: I do think it is a very comfortable experience for the women in the class. I also teach classes that are mostly men, and I find that the women who’ve taken classes with me both in and outside GDI tend to prefer the GDI class. One of my favorite by-products is watching the men (who are normally the minority in a GDI class) adjust to being in a predominantly female environment. I do think it’s a unique experience for many of them, and I suspect it does inform their behavior.

Do you see any social/cultural changes in your larger technology community resulting from GDI’s work?

Izzy: I have had multiple students come back to me months after taking my course to tell me that they were able to get a new job or that they received a promotion because of the class they had with me. But we want our students to reap more than just financial rewards. We want people who might be uncomfortable with the traditional world of computer science to learn they can improve their lives and the lives of those around them with the knowledge and the confidence that they have gained.

And I have seen more women attend hackathons, go to NY tech meetups, and generally participate in the tech scene. There is nothing more rewarding as an instructor to see than a student gain confidence and be able to insert her/himself into a conversation that they felt they couldn’t be a part of before.

Do the women you train stay in touch with you and each other?

Alexis: Some of them do send me their websites and projects after the class, which I always enjoy seeing. It’s wonderful to see their end product and what they’re able to do with the skills they learn.

Izzy: Many of my students email me today with a variety of questions. We also have a growing community of people on Twitter who support one another well after the courses they have taken.

What have you learned while doing this? What advice would you give on teaching to other groups or individuals who would like to do this themselves?

Izzy: I’ve learned that the most important gift you can give a student is not knowledge of a specific language but knowledge that they are capable of learning a language. I would advise anyone who wants to be involved in instruction that the first issue you have to address is never about the language. Not “What is a variable?” or “What does a for loop do?” The first issue you have to address is making sure each person in the room believes that they are capable of learning everything you are about to tell them. From your curriculum, to your slides, to your attitude–create a class that builds confidence at every step.

Alexis Goldstein and Izzy Johnston

More about the instructors: Alexis had conducted training sessions during her seven years as software developer on Wall Street, though most of them were via phone conferences. Teaching in a formal setting was new to her, though something she’d always wanted to do. Izzy has over seven years of instructional experience in software development and has been coding for twelve, and is also obtaining her Master’s at Pratt in Information and Library Science.

Now, LivingSocial is teaming up with JumpstartLab to offer a new program in Washington, D.C. that they call “Hungry Academy.” With just a week left for people to apply, I took time out today to interview Jeff Casimir from JumpstartLab who will be leading the training.

What’s Hungry Academy all about?
It’s a five-month, full-time, paid training program put together by JumpstartLab and LivingSocial. 24 attendees will be selected for the program and will divide time between classroom instruction, team project work, and open source / community contributions. Instruction will be led by Jeff Casimir and Matt Yoho from JumpstartLab.

We’ll focus on Ruby, Rails, and related technologies. And while some participants will have CS backgrounds, we expect others to have no programming experience whatsoever. You bring the passion and drive, we’ll help you develop the skills.

It starts in March and applications are being accepted until January 9th.

You say that people don’t need any programming experience to apply, how will you balance teaching people who have programming experience in other technologies with students who have never coded before?
From my background teaching middle school and high school, I’m accustomed to pushing people of drastically different abilities. Good teaching is individualized, so it doesn’t matter that people have varied skill-sets. As long as you plan for it, pushing people at their own “right pace” is possible.

What happens after the program?
If you successfully complete the program you’ll join the engineering team at LivingSocial as a full-time developer.

And what happens if they are unsuccessful?
We can’t guarantee jobs, but if you fail then I fail. LivingSocial would love to hire everyone from the program if they can prove their mettle. I promise that anyone who comes with the right attitude and works hard will be ready at the end.

Is it remote or on-site? Do I have to stay in DC?
All attendees need to be on-site daily at the office in DC. If you complete the program and join the team, there are likely opportunities in DC, Seattle, and maybe Boulder, Portland, and Austin.

Why “Hungry Academy”? Are people allowed to eat?
It’s a little weird, admittedly, but LivingSocial came out of a company named “Hungry Machine”. “Live Hungry” is still one of the core values — it means constantly striving to do better. We’re focusing on people who are passionate about their work, want to learn and grow, and can be awesome team members — that’s being Hungry.

How does someone apply?
All of the info is at hungryacademy.com. Please be sure to read the instructions in the job description.

In the application it says that a video is required. What do you think about research that indicates that people screening job applications with a photo of the applicant are biased toward white men?
Yeah, I decided that the application should be a video. Words on a page are just too easy to fake and too boring to read. Under the premise of hiring non-programmers, we’re basically taking people who, on paper, are not qualified. There’s little you can do on a resume to say “I am hungry and ready to kick butt,” it’s just a boring list of what you’ve done and which schools you owe money to. In the video we can see the evidence of your passion and hear it in your voice.

We don’t have an idea of what developers should “look like.” If anything, my concern is that we’ll be biased against those who fit the stereotype of developers. Both LivingSocial and JumpstartLab believe strongly in diversity because, at the core, both companies rely on creative ideas. Creativity is cultivated best when there are many inputs allowed to mix together, not one dominating profile.

In the end, we love people in all their genders, shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, and preferences. If you do too, then you’ll fit in here.

What’s the deadline again?
Applications are due Monday 1/9 and the program starts in March.

What if I have more questions?
Email me at contact@jumpstartlab.com and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

Since 2006, the percentage of female computer science majors has more than tripled, to about 40 percent.

This is because of revolutionary changes in the program designed to build confidence during the early stages of learning. Intro to CS, a requirement for all incoming students, is now broken into three sections – one for total beginners, one for those with some programming experience and one geared toward biology. This “minimizes mistaking familiarity for aptitude and the negative impact that mix-up has on inexperienced students’ confidence.” Assignments are aligned with students’ existing interests to illustrate and enhance the fun of programming. A research project is now offered much earlier, to sophomores — giving them exposure to mentors and the value to be gained by applying even basic skills in real-world CS problems. And a trip to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is offered, introducing women students to the vibrant community of professional women Computer Scientists. All of these things provide a broader experience of the field, and promote students’ belief in their abilities through their own experiences — something women are less likely to have because of cultural barriers to gaining it.

This is an interview with Christine Alvarado, one of the professors who has engaged in this ground-breaking new program.

How long you’ve been teaching? Have you taught at other institutions besides Harvey Mudd?

I got my undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and my graduate degrees (MS and PhD) from MIT. I joined the HMC faculty in 2005. I actively taught for 6 years, and now I’m on sabbatical at Georgia Tech. Next fall I’ll be leaving HMC for a tenured teaching faculty position at UCSD. All of these positions have been in computer science (and all of my degrees are in CS as well).

What has your experience been like with the new curriculum and techniques?

My experience has been very positive. Of course, any time you completely change a course (in this case the first course in computer science) it’s difficult at first, but this change was actually easier than major changes to other courses, probably because of the fact that we had so many people working on the new course.

Was the transition difficult or smooth?

Perhaps surprisingly, it was quite smooth. One reason is probably that we were all really excited about the new course. Another was that I think that almost immediately the students really liked it. It’s always easier to make a transition when both the faculty and the students are behind it.

How has the change impacted the department socially and culturally?

This is more at the college-wide level, but I think there’s a much more positive attitude toward computer science now that we have this new version of CS5 (the first CS course). Prior to the change, CS5 was something that many students just survived (though many students also loved it). Now, almost every student at least appreciates the class, and many more love it, even if they do not go on to become computer science majors.

Within the department we have a much more diversity in the students who choose to major in CS. For one, almost 40% of our majors are women (previously it was around 12%). But more than that, we have many more students who had never considered studying computer science, so there’s sort of a “fresher” attitude toward CS that contrasts with the students who have been doing CS for years before college. Neither culture/attitude is better, it’s just that now there’s more perspectives within the major.

Do you see men and women relating differently? Is it more comfortable for women? For men as well as women?

I think that there is a general difference (which of course doesn’t hold for every male or ever female), but I think this difference has more to do with their experience before coming to college. I think the major is much more accepting now of students of either gender who are newer to the discipline. Students who come in with less experience (who tend to be women more often than men)
approach the discipline with a little more trepidation, but also more fresh excitement. I think that these students don’t feel as isolated in their views as they once did.

Would you say students’ relationships to their machines are changing because of the emphasis on personally relevant projects and fun?

I’m not really sure here. I know that they have fun within the class, but I can’t say whether that changes their relationship to their computers more generally.

And lastly, of the things that are working, how would you suggest we can implement them in grassroots trainings that are often one-time or short-running endeavors?

One thing might be to help students see how broad the field of computer science really is. That it’s more than just programming, and certainly more than just programming in a specific way. There are other hard and intellectually stimulating challenges to be addressed.

Professor Christine Alvarado

Last weekend at Engine Yard San Francisco, 39 students learned how to build, commit and deploy a Ruby on Rails application and now have access to the Railsbridge network of technical support. Today we’re posting what some of the students and volunteers had to say about the experience.

Cathy – student and first time organizer

I was totally impressed by the organization, the curriculum, the volunteers and the fun and ease with which the participants got the concepts. I was in the beginner class since I haven’t programmed anything in over 10 years. It was fun – the curriculum was great and the teachers/TAs were so happy to help me when I got stuck and just tell me cool things about Ruby and tricks with using the editor. I was inspired that I got it and it makes me want to do more.

The participants and volunteers were super cool and easy to be with. I had the feeling that what the organization values people just being themselves. I heard many peers mention how safe it was and how taken care of they felt. I felt that way too. When you’re trying to learn something new – something that’s potentially difficult, like programming, it makes a ridiculous huge difference to know that you can ask a question if you’re stuck – you don’t have to pretend to have anything figured out!

I hope many more women get a chance to participate.

Alison – student

What made you want to attend the workshop?

It’s a unique opportunity for women. I just wanted to become more technical. I’m a business consultant and my clients are always wanting to integrate with stuff – I need to be able to speak the language and become more technical in my current work.

What did you expect – what was unexpected?

I didn’t expect the TA ratio to be so high. There is always someone to move you along. And I didn’t expect to be put in groups with people who are at my level – that’s great.

What do you recommend about it?

Since it’s open to all skill levels, all experience, you just need a laptop and you can move at your own pace.

Tammy – student

Who would you recommend this to?

I would recommend this to anyone who’s interested in technology, and to people who work with technologists.

How it’s going?

It’s awesome – I’m really enjoying it and learning a lot – I’m at a very basic level because I don’t have any programming skills and the TAs are really good about teaching the basic things that can really slow you down.

How would you describe the experience to others?

Everyone is so nice. The teachers are great , no judgement – it’s like “Okay, let me tell you.” Sometimes at work with engineers – they don’t have the same reaction.

Is there anything you would change?

I would like to learn more about Rails.

Nina – student

What are you inspired by?

The space is awesome, I was impressed that there is so much space and everyone is comfortable. The new curriculum is nicely formatted – the change from the wiki to an application is cool and it’s a good structure.

Amy – first-time volunteer teacher
Amy works for Engine Yard in Portland.

What made you want to volunteer?

I’ve been encouraging women to work in high tech for many
years. And especially since I joined Engine Yard, I’ve
been wanting to give more back to the Ruby community. I’d hoped to get
involved with Railsbridge organization in San Francisco (before I
moved to Portland). This weekend’s workshop was a golden opportunity
to gain experience, which I can contribute to Portland’s women’s Ruby workshops.

How was teaching?

Great! And co-teaching worked really well.

What are you taking away from this workshop?

I’m excited to have met so many inspiring and inspired women.

Who would you recommend this to?

Many people! Especially women who are working in a technical field but don’t have a programming background.

What are you inspired by?

The collaborative atmosphere and people teaching each other, people getting confidence.

Railsbridge workshops are an open source project. We are individuals who volunteer their time and work to make these events happen. All of the materials are open source and we welcome feedback.

Installation instructions
Curriculum

Want to stay informed about our workshops? Sign up for announcements on our mailing list.

A couple of weeks ago, we held the second Seattle RailsBridge workshop, which had 25 students and 20 teachers/TAs.

Sonia, one of our awesome volunteers, wrote up the following review of the event:

I just got back from the second Seattle RailsBridge and I wanted to tell you all how well it went. Very!

Even the weather cooperated by being overcast and foreboding, making us all feel just fine about spending Saturday inside writing code.

The curriculum (http://seattlerailsbridge.heroku.com/toc) was very clean, well-thought-out, and entirely achievable in the given time without being trivial. The color-coded structure of the lessons made each one easy to follow, and the “What Just Happened?” sections were a wonderful way to sum up each step. Well done!

After the class one of the students who I had worked with praised the class effusively. She said, “I felt like I could ask anything and I didn’t worry if it was a stupid question or not. I felt like I could take my time and still keep up. And everyone was so incredibly nice! The teachers, you TAs — everyone! I was very comfortable there.”

I explained to her that it wasn’t an accident that she felt so comfortable, that we worked hard to make it a woman-centric event, in both subtle and obvious ways. It makes a difference, I said, to have the class be mostly women (we had a few male students and most of the TAs were male) because there’s a sort of gentler silence in the room when it’s mostly women, a sense of open space into which you can ask questions. In a male-majority class, you don’t quite get that.

I was impressed with [the] teachers. Both of them did some subtle and powerful things, including being encouraging without condescension, making plenty of time and (emotional) space for questions, being supportive, and staying light-hearted.

Afterwards there was a general sense of excitement about doing more development. A number of women seemed quite ready to pursue more RoR study. Inspiring! I intend to be part of the next one.

*This event was sponsored by Substantial, Blue Box Group, and PeepCode.

Making these events get bigger and better will rely on getting more leadership involved. If you’re interested in organizing (or co-organizing) an event in the Seattle, contact the team through the group page.

Este fin de semana se ha celebrado el primer Taller en Español en San Francisco, en la Mitch Kapor Foundation. Carmen Díaz Echauri (@cucurucho), Directora del Spanish Language Outreach, fue la catalizadora que hizo esto posible.

Carmen enseña a Sandra Vilaro Ruby on Rails, junto al voluntario Raul Murciano de Heroku.

Hoy ya existen materiales en español para el taller (instalación y currículo), tenemos un grupo en google en español y una versión en español del sitio web de railsbridge.org.

El taller siguió el formato habitual de RailsBridge Outreach for Woman, con una fiesta de instalación en la tarde del viernes y la realización del taller el día sábado. El patrocinador change.org proporcionó pegatinas para los participantes que consiguieron completar la instalación con éxito y proporcionó fondos para la fiesta posterior, que terminó siendo un gran evento de networking para todos los profesores y estudiantes que hicieron posible este evento.

Gracias al gran apoyo de la comunidad Ruby de San Francisco fuimos capaces de emparejar a cada participante con un ingeniero experto en Rails para programar durante todo el sábado.

Si tienes interés en que celebremos un taller para tu comunidad, queremos colaborar contigo. Por favor, inscríbete en la lista de correos y háblanos acerca de tu grupo.

Muchas gracias a Ulili Onovakpuri de Kapor Capital, al Level Playing Field Institute y a Freada Kapor Klein por contribuir en la planificación y la logística, así como por proporcionarnos la comida y un bellísimo espacio para este evento.

Muchas gracias a todos los que apoyaron el evento del viernes y el sábado y a los amigos que ayudaron a preparar todo el currículum para el evento. Carmen organizó dos reuniones previas donde hispanohablantes ayudaron a los voluntarios técnicos que tenían menos soltura a revisar el español técnico del material enseñado a lo largo del evento. Me gustaría personalmente dar las gracias a los siguientes voluntarios que cedieron gran parte de su fin de semana para hacer esto posible:

• Carmen Díaz Echauri
• Ulili Onovakpuri
• Francisco Viramontes
• Rodrigo Vanegas
• Nicholas Fowler
• Thuon Chen
• Raul Murciano
• Mariana Hernandez
• Juan Esparza
• Nick Chaffee
• Mary Jenn
• Kai Middleton
• Garance Poppy Burke

y gracias a nuestros patrocinadores:

This weekend, we held our first Spanish-language Outreach workshop, at the Mitch Kapor Foundation in San Francisco. Carmen Díaz Echauri (@cucurucho), Director of Spanish Language Outreach, was the driving force behind making this happen.

Carmen teaches Sandra Vilaro about Ruby on Rails, with volunteer Raul Murciano of Heroku.

Workshop materials (install instructions and curriculum) are now available in Spanish, we have a spanish language google group and the railsbridge.org website.

The workshop followed the usual format, with an install fest on Friday evening. Sponsor change.org supplied stickers for participants who successfully installed, as well as funding the after-party which was a great networking event for teachers, students and everyone who helped make this event happen.

With great support of the local SF Ruby community, we were able to pair participants with experienced Rails engineers in a full day of coding on Saturday.

If you have a group of Spanish speakers who would like to learn web application development, we would like to work with you! Please join the mailing list and tell us about your group.

Special thanks to Ulili Onovakpuri of Kapor Capital and the Level Playing Field Institute and Freada Kapor Klein for helping with planning, logistics and inspiration, as well as providing food and beautiful space for the event.

Many thanks to everyone who supported the event on Friday and Saturday, and the folks who helped work through the curriculum in Spanish in advance of the event. Carmen held two advance meetings where native Spanish speakers helped technical volunteers who were less fluent to review the technical Spanish needed for effectively teaching at this event. I’d like to thank the following volunteers personally who gave up much of their weekend to make this happen:

• Carmen Díaz Echauri
• Ulili Onovakpuri
• Francisco Viramontes
• Rodrigo Vanegas
• Nicholas Fowler
• Thuon Chen
• Raul Murciano
• Mariana Hernandez
• Juan Esparza
• Nick Chaffee
• Mary Jenn
• Kai Middleton
• Garance Poppy Burke

and thanks to our sponsors: