Part motivator and part story showcase, the new ILearnedToProgram project has earned nearly 500,000 pageviews from developers, students and general Internet users in its first weeks of existence. By inviting people to share their experiences and finish the sentence “I learned to program…”, it’s capturing and sharing the work of featured programmers, a third of whom are women.
The decision to overrepresent females (who are still the vast minority of computer science students and professionals) was a deliberate one, says creator Benjamin Chun, a CS teacher in San Francisco. He wanted girls to feel that they have a place—and adult role models—in the field. The project ultimately highlights the diversity of the industry by providing a shareable space for people to reflect on their own introductions to coding.
Visitors see one-sentence tales about the initial allure of programming, which range from empowerment to self-education and escape. Chun’s response? “I learned to program by reading comments in an HTML file.”
Chrome opened its 4th Street doors for a late-in-the week launch of its new custom bag design program. Created to give cyclists and computer carriers a chance to pick their own fabric and tarp hues, the program is created not for online selections (a la Mission Bicycle Co.) but for walk-ins to stores in San Francisco, New York, and (as of this summer) Chicago’s Wicker Park.
Two existing bag shapes can be customized–think hologram effects and basic bolds–for an extra $30 per bag. When participants meet Mike, the resident custom bag and fixer-upper guy, I challenge them to take less time than I did (40 minutes) selecting the colors seen on the in-development bag below (fuschia, turqoise, and deep purple won out). The colors of the Velcro, panels, flaps, and vintage badges are at shopper’s discretion, but know that the seatbelt fastener isn’t going anywhere.
Over the past two weeks I’ve enjoyed working with education expert Tina Barseghian to consider the question of whether parents would pay for mobile data plans their kids use for classroom purposes. This was in response to a Speak Up report released earlier this month that suggests 67 percent of families would pay so that their children could use phones as learning tools. You can read the full story Parents Weigh In On Paying for Mobile Access in Schools, and thanks to Baat Enosh (National Center for Women & IT), Rashmi Sinha (SlideShare), Stacey Foreman (FM), and Jean Hagen (Institute for the Future) for sharing their thoughts on the topic.
When the rad team at Clever Girls Collective reached out about a chance to share good spring news, it was good incentive to pull this post out of draft and hit publish for y’all.
After a few years working in online publishing, I’ve left my full-time work in the City by the Bay to start studying in Stanford’s Learning, Design & Technology program this fall. After discovering how interested I am in the ways that people–and especially school-aged girls–learn online, I’m looking forward to working with engineers, designers, educators, and MBA types in Palo Alto (though I’m not yet sure what will happen to the name of this fair site when I go).
In the meantime, you (and Twitter) can find me trying to stay out of trouble thanks to:
Writing and video projects with entrepreneurial friends at Ecofabulous and Women 2.0;
Heading to Nairobi in July with the Africa Yoga Project, a group that trains yoga instructors to find… more
At this week’s ODC conference Women Who Frame the World: A Symposium on Creativity, I was deeply struck by the work of sculptor and creator Beverly Pepper. It takes a lot to stand out in a group of presenting artists that included novelist Carol Gilligan, sound artist Kui Dong, and documentarian Eleanor Coppola (even a sampling of the total group reads like a coffee table book about major creative contributors, no?).
Pepper’s talk–Monumentality, A Life in Art–at the B’Way Theater focused on her “amphisculpture.” It includes very large scale sculptures with watercolors (“Sol y Ombra,” Spain, top right), cast iron, stones (the Italian “Omphalon,” top left), and steel. She’s as humble–”when I think about bodies in conjunction with my work, it’s mostly how I can’t get hit by it during the construction”–as she is visionary.
How does she know when one of her large scale pieces is complete? “When you step away from it and the only reaction is ooooohhh.” The same went for her dialogue with local lady artists.
I knew local developer Saroj Yadav would create great things following the startup Supercool School. Welcome Kreeya, a commerce site featuring the wares of independent creators. Fourteen designers are currently selling their clothing and accessories on the site, whose members celebrate the term “I choose to wear local” in addition to lines from Nooworks and SAAKO. It’s one of those properties I’d selfishly prefer to keep to myself but can’t resist sharing with y’all.
What do you get when you combine the creative firepower of a sound designer/architect and a robotics professor? A lot of questions.
A collaboration between the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Gil Gershoni and Ken Goldberg, the new Are We There Yet? takes an audio approach to understanding the nature of inquisition. Visitors–including those shown in photographer Molly DeCoudreaux’s images from a Thursday exhibition event–are introduced to a sound installation that provides unique experiences based on their movements. Consider it intelligent cameras + acoustics + algorithms + religious and cultural questioning = custom interactions x exhibit interaction.
You have until the end of July to see it, but why wait?
I’ve long been a fan of The [Un]Observed (or at least since the radio magazine’s inception last year) and am excited to share creator Tania Ketenjian’s first live sound event. OHIO at Treat and 19th will play host to the listening party on March 24, when details about the project’s collaboration with The Guardian will also be shared. The [Un]Observed’s collection of online conversations includes produced audio pieces from contributors around the world, and if your Thursday night is already booked, at least tune in.
Inspired by the local Team In Training teams that rode the Solvang Century this weekend to raise funds for blood cancer treatment, I wanted to share a new collaboration between clever teams at design consultancy IDEO and Stanford. They’re using the former’s community platform for brainstorming and project development to encourage more people to consider donating bone marrow (the transplant of which can be a life-saving course of treatment for people with leukemia and lymphoma). Current concepts consider how Girl Scout cookies, lemonade stands and the launch of Gmail can all inform a public action campaign. Won’t you consider adding your own ideas and, in the word of a friend who works on the initiative, consider how your own acumen can inform the community at large?
