Girls In Tech

Last week wrapped up the Grace Hopper Celebration Women in Computing 2011 in Portland, Oregon. 3000 attendees (over 140 companies, 235 academics representation and closed to 90% women attendees) from all over the world flocked to attend this 4 days conference. What if, is the topic of the conference – It is about creating the next generation to be the leader in STEM/Tech (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Telle Whitney opened the conference by introducing an initiative by Anita Borg/Grace Hooper “TechWomen” change agent scholars: 6 women mentees (Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Egypt) selected as up-and-coming leaders who will advance in women’s participation in technology and help support more women in their hometown and expand STEM education. TechWomen pairs technical women in the greater San Francisco Bay Area with their counterparts in the Middle East and North Africa for a professional mentorship and exchange program at leading technology companies.

Keynote speaker, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook gave a career advice for any young woman who wants to move up the ladder in the career of technology:

1. Believe in yourself
2. Dream big
3. Make your partner a real partner
4. Don’t’ leave just yet
5. Start talking about this

The conference sessions range from career, academic, technical, theme and industry track. With Saturday dedicated for an open source day: Codeathon for humanity.

Grace Hopper Aspirations computing by NCWIT took place on Thursday night. More than 1200 applicants applied for and top 30 young women were chosen to attend this conference. The Aspirations award is the catalyst that propels young women into studying computer science in college and ultimately pursuing a career in computing and information technology. Event sponsored by Microsoft, Intel, viawest, Lewis and Clark, puppetlabs and 24Notion

Career fair and exhibitors from Google, yahoo, Microsoft, NSA, Deutsch bank, Lockheed martin, Amex, Intel, Pixar, Facebook, Twitter and hundred others gathered to recruit the brightest STEM young leader to lead their company. (Did you know that STEM jobs paid 20% more than regular career?).

Leaving the conference energized and excited that at Girls in Tech Mentorship Program, we are here to support and developed the next generation to raise them up the top. So, what are you waiting for? Get into it!

Follow me @MsSonicFlare

Tags: 24notion, engineering, girls in tech portland, GIT Mentorship, gitpdx, grace hopper celebration, Ivo Lukas, mathematics, mentorship, mssonicflare, Science, sheryl sandberg, STEM, technology, women in computing
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Mayor Sam Adams gave a closing speech at OSCON this year – “Great beer selections, no sales tax; come to Portland, move your family and start your business here”. I’ve had the liberty to sit down with Mayor Sam Adams to chat about tech scene, start ups and a great lifestyle by living in Portland, Ore

Sam Adams – Mayor, City of Portland, Oregon.

Mayor Sam Adams of Portland, Oregon was elected Mayor of Portland in May 2008. Prior to being elected Mayor, Adams served as a Commissioner on the City Council for four years earning a reputation as a “policy-driven” advocate for sustainability, public transit, transportation planning, the arts, and gay rights. As a City Commissioner, Adams was Commissioner in Charge of Portland’s Office of Transportation and the Bureau of Environmental Services, and council liaison to, among others, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the Association of Portland Neighborhood Business Districts, and Worksystems, Incorporated. In his role as Mayor, Adams is the lead Council member on Economic Development, Planning and Sustainability, Education, Arts and Culture, and Transportation.

During his first year as Mayor, Adams has launched a number of initiatives designed to showcase and provide support to Portland’s open source software community. Notably, Mayor Adams and City Council approved the nation’s first open source and open data resolution, which places open source software on equal footing with commercial software for purposes of City contracts. Also, Portland recently launched Civic Apps for Greater Portland, which is the nation’s first regional open data and open source app contest. Mayor Adams brings renewed focus to developing and implementing plans that will not only keep Portland livable, vibrant, and economically healthy, but will also increase Portland’s status as a national leader. He is proud of Portland’s open source software community, and he wants to do his part to ensure Portland maintains its reputation as an international hub for open source innovation.

Q&A

Exciting how the city of Portland is hosting OSCON again this year! How’s OSCON in Portland this year?

Portland, Oregon is the perfect host city for the open source convention. As a city, we have a wide breadth of un-matched talent; proprietary and open source software development, digital media firms, programming, coding and creative skill-sets. As a city, we are faster, cheaper and more creative. We have to be to compete with the other cities.  We have the quality and value – all in one city.

How has the tech scene evolved over the last several years?. What’s next? Where do we grow?

The Portland technology community has been able to take collaborative and open source philosophies to the next level. We’ve done some creative stuff; from digital development through productization.

Take Civicapps for example; CivicApps is an open data / open source project sponsored by several Portland-area government agencies to promote innovation in the public and private sectors. Currently over 120 civic data sets are available, including geographic, 911, transit, streets, and parks data. The aim is social change. The path is regional collaboration. The focus is local. A cool transportation app that displays arrival times for public transport in Portland, Oregon –PDX Bus—was developed using these public datasets, and it is available on a number of platforms including iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad

Technology products and services developed in Portland are most appealing to end-users because from the underlying software to the user experience we really figure them out to the fullest–we have high expectations. In the future, we need to focus on delivering value, quality and creativity in the most competitive ways. Portland has the potential be the most creative technology community in the world. We have so much opportunity here!

What’s your thought about expanding the women/girls presence in technology in Portland?

I think a mentoring approach is the way to go. We’ve had success with Rock and Roll Camp for Girls, which is a summer program that helps girls build confidence as musicians and learn about the music industry. That model could be used to help girls learn about other industries –like tech.

What current device/technology could you not live without? iPhone. It’s the one source that I rely on to get all of my news, connect with constituents. I tweet a lot, and I rely on a couple of applications for tweeting, including tweet deck. Beyond that I’m a news junky.  I use fluent news, incorporate, dig, and other apps.

Favorite apps? Pdxreporter.

What do you want people outside of Portland to learn about one of the most dynamic cities in the US?

Besides our worldclass beer and no sales tax?  We are a very open city that rewards creative thinking and values innovation.

We seek to be the best place to have both a fulfilling career and a balanced personal life. You really can have it all.

Also, this is a welcoming place and one of opportunity for people who want to make a difference. I am an example—I grew up poor, worked hard in public service, and now I have the honor of serving as Mayor.

To learn more about the city go to http://www.portlandonline.com/mayor/index.cfm

and be sure to follow @mayorsamadams

Be sure to join Girls in Tech Portland Chapter at OSCON 2010 this year at Portland Oregon. Girls in tech Portland is sponsored and powered by 24Notion

For More info for our local Portland chapter, go to our facebook page. If you are interested in being a guest speaker and/or panelist for our workshops and lectures, pls feel free to drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

tweet @mssonicflare @oscon @24notion @gitweet #oscon #portland #opensource

photo by David Snyder

Tags: 24notion, business, creative, designer, Developer, girls in tech portland, gitpdx, innovation, ivo, ivolukas, marketing, mobile apps, mssonicflare, open source, oregon, OSCON, Portland, PR, programmers, startups, technology, user experience, VC, women in technology
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Paul Fenwick is the managing director of Perl Training Australia, and has been teaching computer science for over a decade. He is an internationally acclaimed presenter at conferences and user-groups worldwide, where he is well-known for his humour and off-beat topics.

In his spare time, Paul’s interests include security, mycology, cycling, coffee, scuba diving, and lexically scoped user pragmata.

Check out Paul’s closing day Keynote presentation here

Follow @pjf

photo by David Snyder

Be sure to join Girls in Tech Portland Chapter at OSCON 2010 this year at Portland Oregon.

If you are interested in being a guest speaker and/or panelist for our workshops and lectures, pls feel free to drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

tweet @mssonicflare @oscon @24notion @gitweet

Tags: 24notion, Developer, girls in tech portland, gitpdx, ivo, Ivo Lukas, mssonicflare, open source, OSCON, technology, women in technology
Posted in All Chapters, All Chapters, Portland | 1 Comment »

David Recordon is the Senior Open Programs Manager at Facebook, where he leads open source and open standards initiatives. He joined Facebook from Six Apart where he focused on platform strategies, and previously worked at VeriSign in the emerging business group. David has played a pivotal role in the development and popularization of key social media technologies, such as OpenID and OAuth. He collaborated with Brad Fitzpatrick in the development of OpenID, which has since become the most popular decentralized single-sign-on protocol in the history of the Web. In 2007, he became the youngest recipient of the Google-O’Reilly Open Source Award.

Check out David’s Keynote presentation at OSCON

David is a native Portlander. He enjoys hanging out with his friends and family

Working in Facebook, what’s the most challenging task to date?

Scale to continue to grow. Active users double in the year after year. Constantly continue to scale; new products and platforms; new version of API and more…We have about 400 Engineering team that support 500M growing users by day.

What’s current technology/device that you couldn’t live without- if you could take in a deserted island?

Kindle; I love to read.

Follow David on twitter @Daveman692

Tags: 24notion, api, david recordon, Developers, Engineers, facebook, girls in tech portland, gitpdx, ivo, ivolukas, mssonicflare, open source, oregon, OSCON, technology
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Tell us more about Chris Dibona and your Google team

Chris DiBona is the open source and public sector programs manager at Mountain View, Ca. based Google. His team oversees license compliance and supports the open source developer community through programs such as the Google Summer of Code and through the release of open source software projects and patches. In the public sector space, he looks after Google Moderator, the polling locations API. More information about Google’s open source program can be found at http://code.google.com/opensource

Tell us more about your keynote presentation tomorrow?
I’ll be sharing more about how the open source has been changing in the last 3 years. I’ve been doing this for 6 years now in open source; I will give an overview how Open source is growing. A couple years ago were about licenses. Last year was about languages and now it’s about licenses, languages and people. It’s more entertaining now. In this short, weensy eensy, talk, Chris will give an update on how open source has changed over the last three years. Is Ruby growing? Actionscript? Or is it all PHP all the way down? How’s gplv3 doing? Agpl? MIT? Will the Nasa open source license domainte? Come and find out!

You are one of the most accomplished individual; what can we learn from you?
I was actually a very bad student; I wish I would’ve paid more attention earlier then I wouldn’t be in this much farther along. It took me a while to straighten up.

Which sessions are you most excited about?
Tuesday night-Ignite was a blast. Today is all about press.

What would be a single take away for the attendees that you want them to gain from your session/keynote? Open source is vital. Tons of exciting resources. It’s a place for us to hack. More importantly there are billions of codes out there to be used. Many people have never used them before and I think everyone who has a computer could use it.

Is this your first time being part of Oscon?
No, I’ve been here before. I like leaving for another city though. It gives me a reason to get out from my town every so often.

What’s current device that you couldn’t live without?
My mobile-Nexus one

So what’s next for you your team? Any exciting development?
More data, more code… and more of everything.

Be sure to watch Chris’ keynote presentation tomorrow morning at 9am- OSCON ; follow him @Cdibona

Be sure to join Girls in Tech Portland Chapter at OSCON 2010 this year at Portland Oregon.

If you are interested in being a guest speaker and/or panelist for our workshops and lectures, pls feel free to drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

tweet @mssonicflare @oscon @24notion @gitweet

Tags: 24notion, api, chris dibona, community, Developer, girls in tech, girls in tech portland, gitpdx, Google, ivo, Ivo Lukas, open source, opensource, oregon, OSCON, Portland, technology
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I’ve had the chance to chat with Marten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus  systems about open source, cloud computing, and leadership

Eucalyptus Systems delivers private cloud software. This is infrastructure software that enables enterprises and government agencies to establish their own cloud computing environments. Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Securities, Gartner and other prominent observers of the technology industry predict that cloud computing is the most significant IT shift of this decade.

CEO of Eucalyptus, Marten Mickos builds global disruptive businesses. As CEO of MySQL AB for seven years, Mickos grew that company from a garage start-up to the second largest open source company in the world. After the acquisition by Sun Microsystems of MySQL AB for $1bn, he served as Senior Vice President of Sun’s Database Group.

Tell us more about Eucalyptus

With Eucalyptus, customers make more efficient use of their computing capacity, thus increasing productivity and innovation, deploying new applications faster, and protecting sensitive data while making savings in capital expenditure.

Eucalyptus is an open source solution that originates from an NSF funded research project at University of California, Santa Barbara. The open source model is generally considered a superior way of creating infrastructure software. Innovation is faster, users and customers have more freedom and flexibility, lock-in is avoided, and secondary benefits accrue from the massive ecosystems that naturally evolve around the most prolific open source products.

You are one of the most accomplished individual and successful CEO; what can we learn from you?

Wait, why didn’t you like me before “I was accomplished”? No one is born to be accomplished.

People should not be afraid of being successful. It is such a great inspiration. I knew nothing about open source and decided to learn about it. There is always first for everyone. We all should define our own success; so don’t be afraid to be successful is the key.

Being an entrepreneur yourself, what can you tell those folks out there who would have the desire to start something small and to grow bigger?

I’ve learned in my life, weaknesses is also my strength. Make the best of them. As a young boy, I was a stubborn kid; my stubbornness grounded me to become one of the good positive quality for me in this day. To keep going and never give up

I am keen of this quote by Eisenhower-“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

What’s next for Eucalyptus Systems?

We are expanding. We are a team of 25 and growing tremendously. We are hiring team of engineers, business and more for an additional 20+. We are also developing a testing lab for our products. We are building stronger in offering and more in partnership; we are fine tuning our strategy.

Is this your first time being part of Oscon? If not, then how’s it different from previous years?

No. I’ve been here since 2002.  I would say it’s much bigger now. This convention is steering toward the open source fanatics.

What’s a current device that you couldn’t live without?

Digital camera.

To learn more about the product go to http://www.eucalyptus.com/ And be sure to follow @Martenmickos

Be sure to join Girls in Tech Portland Chapter at OSCON 2010 this year at Portland Oregon.

If you are interested in being a guest speaker and/or panelist for our workshops and lectures, pls feel free to drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

tweet @mssonicflare @oscon @24notion @gitweet

Tags: 24notion, cloud computing, Developers, eucalyptus systems, girls in tech portland, gitpdx, ivo, Ivo Lukas, Leadership, management, marten mickos, mssonicflare, open source, oregon, Portland, tech, technology
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Kevin Whinnery is an engineer and platform evangelist for Appcelerator. In addition to his contributions to open source and Appcelerator projects, Kevin is also the developer and maintainer of a Ruby on Rails student information system in use by several elementary schools in his home town of Saint Paul, Minnesota. A frequent speaker, blogger, and writer on technical and business topics, Kevin has appeared in multiple print and online publications.

HTML, CSS and JavaScript are quickly becoming the development languages of choice for creating native mobile applications. By using the open source Titanium platform, web developers can create apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry using a single code base. One of the must attend session this week at OSCON

Tell us more about Appcelerator. What’s unique about your technology?

Appcelerator is an open source software company based in Mountain View, CA.  Our primary product is Titanium, which allows you to build native applications for desktop and mobile devices using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.  I’m here at OSCON to present on Titanium Mobile for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry

How’s it different using open source in building your mobile apps?

It’s important when building an application to have unfettered access to the framework you are using for those cases when you need to know how specific functions work, or need to extend the platform yourself.  Open source empowers developers to do just that.  In the case of Titanium specifically, we also think it’s more productive to use our framework than the tools of multiple different platform vendors directly.

How is mobile different compares to a decade ago? Where do you think it will go in the next decade to come?

Mobile devices today are significantly more capable than ever, becoming essentially mobile computers.  Also, mobile technology is already ubiquitous, and will be more so in the years to come, with developing markets getting access to mobile technology far in advance of other technologies.  I think today we have better devices and technology than ever before, and in the future we will have this technology in the hands of nearly everyone on the planet.  This presents a great opportunity to develop cool software that users all over the globe can leverage from wherever they are.

Which sessions are you most excited about?

I’m really excited to learn more about the Scala programming language.

How’s your session today?

The session went well – we had to take a few minutes to get everyone set up, but we had over 100 people attend and as a result got lots of folks up and running with Titanium.

What would be a single take away for the attendees that you want them to gain from your session?

The mobile web is a great tool, and is progressing fast.  But when you need to go native, Titanium is a great (free and open source) option for developing cross-platform apps that still leverage native UI and platform capabilities that make them indistinguishable from their full native counterparts.  And you get to use JavaScript, which is awesome!

Is this your first time being part of Oscon? If not, then how’s it different from last year?

Yes, this is my first time, but certainly not the last, I had a great experience.

What’s current technology that you couldn’t live without?

If someone took my MacBook Pro away I’d probably cry.

To learn more about the product go to http://appcelerator.com And be sure to follow @kevinwhinnery

Be sure to join Girls in Tech Portland Chapter at OSCON 2010 this year at Portland Oregon.

Register now and save 15%. Use discount code os10pgit when registering at: http://www.oscon.com/oscon2010

For More info for our local Portland chapter, go to our facebook page. If you are interested in being a guest speaker and/or panelist for our workshops and lectures, pls feel free to drop me an email: ivo@girlsintech.net

tweet @mssonicflare @oscon @24notion @gitweet

#oscon #portland #opensource

Tags: 24notion, Developers, Engineer, girls in tech portland, gitpdx, ivo, Ivo Lukas, kevin whinnery, mobile, open source, oregon, OSCON, platform, technology
Posted in Girls In Tech, Portland | 2 Comments »

Topic: Leadership challenges in the 21^st century

• The need for transformational leadership
• Global governance and business implications
• Gender differences in leadership and the unique role of women in leadership

(Note: It will be a very interactive event, so be ready to get inspired and energized)

Guest Speaker: Annette M. Nemetz, MBA, PhD (in progress)-Assistant Professor of Management, School of Business, George Fox University

WHEN: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM(event starts at 6:15pm, so don’t be late)

WHERE: Candy http://www.candyportland.com/ 904 Northwest Couch Street Portland, OR 97209

RSVP: WE ARE SOLD OUT! Space is limited to 25. If you are not GIT PDX member and  interested in attending pls drop me an email at ivo@girlsintech.net

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=118946584796890

Cost: Free for GIT PDX members; $10 for non-member (pay cash at the door)
Event and door prizes are sponsored by 24Notion

For more info about Girls in Tech Portland, go to http://bit.ly/bAZb4H

Biography:

Annette M. Nemetz, MBA, PhD (in progress)-Assistant Professor of Management, School of Business, George Fox University

Ms. Nemetz currently teaches undergraduate and graduate business courses in strategy, leadership, international management, operations and marketing. Her research interests are leadership, international and domestic economic development, global governance and the effectiveness of the intersection of business strategy and government policy.

Most recently, Ms. Nemetz was Executive Vice President at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, a marketing and public relations firm. Major clients included Microsoft, AMD, BMC Software, MasterCard and Amazon. Prior employment included executive roles in two startups; management roles at Sun Microsystems and Sequent Computer Systems (now IBM); and engineering roles at ABB/Combustion Engineering Inc.  Her professional career spans 20 years in the information technology industry and 7 years in the energy industry. Ms. Nemetz has lived in Oregon for 19 years. She is married and has a 15 year old daughter.

Tags: entrepreneur, girls in tech portland, ivo, Ivo Lukas, Leadership, oregon, tech, women executive, women in tech
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If you had three minutes to get to know another business professional, what would you say?  Join Girls In Tech as they put a new spin on traditional business networking with “Speed Networking”.

Speed networking is a unique and fun way to network without dealing with the awkward conversation starters and exit strategies at typical networking events.  It allows you to meet more people throughout the evening and helps you to get straight to the heart of the conversation.  If three minutes isn’t enough for you, be sure to send a follow-up note after the event and keep the conversation going! Sound like fun?  Join Girls In Tech Portland on Tuesday, March 23^rd for speed networking /Mixer with some of your fellow PDX’ers at the Henry Tavern. Please RSVP for this FREE event. Be sure to bring lots of business cards!

WHEN: Wednesday, March 23, 2010 from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

WHERE: Henry’s 12^th Street Tavern- Pearl district

10 NW 12th Ave
Portland, OR 97209

RSVP: http://bit.ly/d2H0Jv

This event is open to the public and men are welcome- so bring your friends and colleagues. Free Door Prizes sponsored by 24Notion – American Express Gift Card and more

For more info about Girls in Tech Portland, go to http://bit.ly/bAZb4H or drop me an email ivo@girlsintech.net

See you there!

GIT PDX team

Tags: 24notion, girls in tech PDX, girls in tech portland, GIT PDX, ivo, Ivo Lukas, mixer, oregon, Portland, Portland business, social gathering, speed networking, technology, women in technology
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Girls in Tech Portland presents

A Social Recruitment Event: The changing landscape on job market in Pacific Northwest Market & beyond.

Come and join us for an amazing 2 hours event! We have invited some of Portland’s recruiters to speak on the current work environment and provide a valuable networking opportunity! During the first hour we will open the floor to a session of speed networking. Bring a handful of your business cards and be prepared to meet many new people. The second hour we will clear the floor and introduce you to our special guests. Combined, these recruiters are experts in the technology, finance, accounting and other fields. We offer you to take this opportunity to meet with a crew who has their finger on the pulse of Portland’s workforce

This is open to public, you must RSVP by June 23rd through eventbrite. http://gitpdxsocialrecruitment.eventbrite.com/

DATE: Thursday, June 25th
TIME: 5:30 – 8:00pm
PLACE: Souk 322 nw 6th avenue, suite 200
portland, oregon 97209
p: 503.517.6900

hors d’oeuvres and wine are provided

COST: $5/person (to offset cost of food/wine); At the door: $10/person

Free Door prizes sponsored by 24Notion

Guest recruiters/panelist
Robert Half International has been named to the America’s Most Admired Companies list by Fortune magazine, ranking number one in the temporary help industry.

Abraham Klatt- Branch Manager of Professional Staffing Services
Jessy A. Culp-Division Director – OfficeTeam, a division of Robert Half International
Chad Meek-Technology Account Executive
Jeff Markham- Technology Division

Join our FB Portland Group and view our FB invite

Tags: Events, girls in tech, girls in tech portland, Ivo Lukas, Portland, social recruitment
Posted in Events, Portland | 2 Comments »