Updated 7/9/2010

Adria Richards is an organic technology consultant, trainer and speaker. She is dedicated to empowering people through technology. Adria started her career at Geek Squad in 1999 and has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. She launched her own consulting company in 2006. She blogs here at ButYoureAGirl, offers online training at Freshworkshops, does a weekly tech show at AskAdria and strives to raise awareness for open source, cloud/SASS applications and equality in technology.

Adria spoke at this year’s SXSW on the following geeky topic: “How Sci-Fi Shapes The Internet” which focused on the concepts, messages and values that have crossed over into our real world from the land of science fiction.

Upcoming speaking events

• “Professional Blogging: Your Stats Are A Business Asset“
  BlogHer New York City, NY, August 2010
• “The Security of  Digital Health Records”
  Private Conference, Colorado, August 2010
• “Google Analytics Demystified”
  Blogalicious Miami, FL, October 2010
• “Everything To Gain: Utilizing Social Media For Your Organization”
  Private Conference, Alabama, October 2010

Adria has appeared on and been interviewed by The Rachel Maddow Show, The Associated Press, ComputerWorld, Cnet, MPR, Star Tribune and several other news outlets for her citizen journalism on computer security.

You can also find her speaking at this year’s BlogHer, “Your Stats Are A Business Asset”. She will be attending several technology conferences including Drupalcon, Wordcamp San Francisco, Wordcamp Chicago, Blogging While Brown, RailsConf, Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Of Women In Computing Conference, Blogalicious, Gnomedex, Web 2.0 Summit and TechCrunch50. TC Disrupt/The Launch Conference.

Live Training With Adria

Join Adria for training over at Freshworkshops! Topics include SEO, blogging, Joomla, WordPress, Google Apps and productivity apps!  Sign up for the email newsletter to get notified of upcoming training.

Navigate Adria’s About Page

• Women in Technology
• About Me
• Favorite Songs
• How I Embraced Technology
• How I Learned to Love Social Media
• How I Got Involved With Google Apps
• Wishlist
• Goals

Women in Technology

Ok, this has morphed more into a personal blog. That’s ok though because by posting articles with technical content, I’m still accomplishing my goal to create awareness for women and technology.

Women often get the short end of the stick when it comes to technology.

Where are the Women in Tech and Social Media? – Fastcompany.com, Allyson Kapin 8/10/2009

Where are all the women? – Inc.com 4/19/2010

People’s perceptions of what she’s capable of and interested in affect her opportunities and earnings. I know I’m not the only female in technology who is sick of pink laptops and rhinestone cell phones.

O’Reilly Women In Tech

Girls in Tech

Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology

LinuxChix

I’m going to blog about things I enjoy in the technology world and gripe about the frustrating things in a constructive way. Through this blog, I plan to reach out to people interested in IT.

About Me

Hello, I’m Adria Richards. I live in San Francisco, CA  Minneapolis, MN and make my living as an Organic Technology Consultant. When I’m not working, I put in time making the world a better place by volunteering, teaching and taking action on good ideas. I want to attend a TED conference to connect with other people who have big dreams.

In 2006, I made a decision that changed my life. I realized I probably wasn’t going to find a job that continued to be interesting after the first year. I’d seen what companies like 37signals could accomplish by discarding old ways of thinking. I admired the GTD methods of David Allen and Lifehacker so I took a deep breath and jumped in and began consulting full time for myself.

Hugging Trees

I am a newly declared treehugger.  I joined my first food coop a few years ago after being consistently impressed by the food quality, staff knowledge and ease of preparing delicious food in my own kitchen.  I began to change cleaning products in my home and look for opportunities to reduce my impact on the Earth.  In 2009, I used less than 1 ream of paper (500 sheets) for my consulting business!

Pet Lover

I own Bluey the Chihuahua and Turtle the Tortishell cat.  I’m proud to say they’re both well behaved, housebroken and non destructive.  They bring me joy and serenity in my daily life which makes me a big advocate of animal ownership.  During my relocation to San Francisco, Bluey is staying with my technology client in Minneapolis and Turtle is in Burlingame with a coworker until I find a permenant place.

I enjoy helping people online and am a “Contributer to the YouTube Learning Community”

Favorite Songs

• NYOIL – “You’re A Queen”

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• Weird Al Yankovic – “White and Nerdy”

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• Weird Al Yankovic – “It’s All About the Pentiums”

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• Looper – “Modem Song”

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• Common Featuring Will.i.am – “I Have a Dream”

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The 3 Songs That I Used To Listen To Before A Job Interview

(Now whenever I need to be reminded of my purpose and focus)

• Eminem – “Lose Yourself”

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• Macy Gray – “Do Something”

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• Black Eyed Peas – “Anxiety”

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How I Embraced Technology

Comptia’s A+ hardware certification was the first one I earned back in 2000 while working at the Guidant helpdesk. I continued my self study, earning my MCDST in 2004. I actively looked for opportunities that would immerse me in technology. I learned about Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Altiris, drive imaging, VMWare, VPN access, routers and general network administration. I kept up to date with my certification path and earned my MCSA in 2006. Yipee!  I actively encourage others to pursue careers in technology and have produced several video shows at AskAdria.com including “How To Get A Job In Technology With No Previous Techie Experience”

How I Embraced Website development and Open Source software

In 2003, I started working with open source. I’d installed my first Content Management System that fall; PHP-nuke. Soon I was hosting several websites for customers. I kept trying, testing, tweaking various web applications, looking for something that was easier, better, faster, better supported. I learned about Apache, PHP, MySQL databases and various Linux distros including Gentoo (Thanks Jonathan!), Knoppix, Mandriva and CentOS.

How I Learned To Love Social Media

2006, I started in social networking. Being a geek, it’s not the easiest thing to maintain connections with people you don’t talk to everyday. It’ often feels akward and uncomfortable in real life and online. I kept working it out to fit into my life even though I felt uncomfortable. Weird Al’s song, “White and Nerdy” talked about him having a MySpace page and Wikipedia account so I signed up for both since I think he rocks. I found out about “Wikipedia Nazi’s” and tried to make my MySpace page look nice and reflect things important to me. I will continue this in a blog post…

How I Got Involved With Google Apps

I became aware that Google had launched a suite of services known as “Google Apps”. This included domain branded email, document storage, calendaring, chat, a company intranet and more. I migrated my first client December 2006 and moved my own domain email to Google Apps July 2008. I’m working with Google to become a certified support partner. I think it’s hands down the best solution for companies with less than 50 staff.

I enjoy helping others.

If you enjoyed my blog and would like to help expand my knowledge about technology, the environment, empowering people, data privacy, coffee, chocolate and the world, feel free to pick up something for me from my wishlist.

Wishlist

I enjoy helping others.

If you enjoyed my blog and would like to help expand my knowledge about technology, the environment, empowering people, data privacy, coffee, chocolate and the world, feel free to pick up something for me from my wishlist.

I’ll thank you on my blog!

View items from Adria’s Amazon Wishlist

Goals

• Write a book about technology – In Progress
• Get my Comptia Certified Technical Trainer – In Progress
• Build a Ruby App for something I’m passionate about
• Speak to young women about careers in technology
• Speak to youth about how to navigate the internet safely and securely
• I’m going to start formal technology mentoring this year
  • I will offered a program for people to make technology their career, full-time or freelance
  • Everything from defining their interests and building skill sets to finding fulfilling gigs
  • Interested?  Email me via the contact page
• Attend workshop on how to start a nonprofit
• Establish a non-profit to empower Brown people and women in technology
• Meet as many Twitter friends in real life as possible. So far I’ve met, @calinative, @winedivergirl, @ohdoctah, @filmsnobbery, @mtolbert, @victortolbert, @jbrotherlove, @tammyhart, @gem2001
  Still to meet: @s0l_uk (Scotland)
• Meet Gina Trapani
• Meet Scott Hanselman
• Meet Valerie Aurora Henson
• Meet Tyler Perry
• Appear on TWIT (This Week In Tech) with Leo Laporte
• Create a nationwide directory of security and penetration testing professionals
• Visit Google headquarters
• Visit Seattle
• Visit Jerusalem
• Visit London in June 2010
• Visit Scotland in August 2010 for Edinburgh Fringe Festival and meet @s0l_uk
• Write a book about my life
• Attend a TED conference by 2012
• Speak at a TED conference by 2015
• Live to be 120 years old, oldest person on Twitter

Completed 2010 Goals

• Move to San Francisco in 2010
• Apply for my first US Passport in January 2010
• Received my passport 2/16/2010
• Find technology sponsors to support my vision of empowerment through technology

Completed 2009 Goals

• Get my cat Turtle to stop sleeping on the couch
• Speak on a technology subject outside the state of Minnesota by November 2009
  • Wordcamp NYC November 14th, 2009!
• Find conference sponsor for Blogworld / Sponsored by Zendesk and Logmein!
• Attended BlogHer 2009 Conference
• Do public speaking here in Minnesota
  • Spoke at Women Venture
• Launch live, online training website Freshworkshops
• Attend at least 2 out of state gatherings related to Open Source, WordPress, Joomla, Web 2.0
  1. Signed up for WordCamp Chicago coming up in June 2009
  2. Blogging While Brown June 2009
• Did my first lifestream online
• Get more social with people
• Increasing Awareness of Women in Technology This happened DeFacto from the Norm Coleman database incident. I have had so many people and SO MANY WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY contact me about this that I now don’t feel so alone in being female and a geek. One woman from LinkedIN is certified in Computer Forensics and has Homeland Security clearance!
• March 24th, 2009 Write blog topic celebrating a woman in technology for Finding Ada Day
• Achieved my 5 year goal I set just 6 months ago by doing public speaking to empower people through technology
  • 2/26/2009 – Submitted request to present a workshop “Connecting with Blog readers through Photography” at WordCamp Chicago
  • March 2009 – Interviewed by The Rachel Maddow Show, Associated Press, Pioneer Press, Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio and ComputerWorld regarding the Norm Coleman Database
  • March 2009 – Asked to speak at local Meetup.com Web standards group about website development and security

Cancelled 2010 Goals

Not important anymore
Incomplete 2009 Goals

• Participate in NaNoWriMo in November and write a novel! / Chickened out but there’s next year!
• Get a BlogHer09 sponsor / No go.  Started looking too late.

Completed 2008 Goals

• Make travel arrangements to Las Vegas for friend’s wedding and get back in one piece
• Upgrade WordPress Multi User (WPMU) to 2.6.3
• Upgrade WordPress Multi User (WPMU) install to 2.6