We’ll be at Pivotal Labs both days getting our environment setup and learning the basics of programming in Ruby.

I’ve picked up the book by Chris Pine, “Learn To Program” and am installing my Ruby development apps checklist now.

If you’re an experienced developer on the Ror platform, volunteers for this event and upcoming ruby trainings are welcome!

I’m going to share with you the reasons why I’m learning to program after so long.

Ruby on Rails: The Vision

Welcome to Ruby on Rails!

Ruby on Rails is described by it’s creator, David Heinemeier Hansson
(known as “DHH”) in a 2006 interview with MySQL the following terms:

Rails is about allowing beautiful code to solve the problems most people have most of the time in web-application development. It’s about taking the pain away and making you happy.

Successful and popular applications running in the cloud with with Ruby On Rails include Twitter, Basecamp, Hulu, and of course Zendesk who I do webinars for.

Ruby on Rails development subscribes to the logic of agile development.  Rapid, collaborative progress based on direct feedback from customers drive innovation.

Ruby on Rails is a framework.  Frameworks allow for rapid software development.  This allows for fast roll out of new features.  It can reduce the overall cost of a project for two reasons:

• Focus on functionality
• More frequent testing
• High value on customer feedback

Ruby For Development

Ruby is very, very popular but many of the best practice guidelines for security, planning and workflows still apply.  I talked about this last year at a local web development meetup.  No matter what the language, there are basic best practices so one of the things I look forward to with RoR is the practice of “pairing” with another person during development as an aspect of agile development.

Tools of the Trade

For this workshop, I am being asked to get the following applications for RoR development installed:

• Git - http://git-scm.com
• Ruby –  http://www.ruby-lang.org
• RubyGems –  http://rubygems.org
• Cucumber, Rspec, Rspec-rails, Webrat – Grab these from github from the Terminal
• Rails – http://rubyonrails.org
• SQLite – http://www.sqlite.org
• SQLite manager Firefox plugin – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9148
• Heroku – Sign up at http://heroku.com
• KomodoEdit – http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit

Why I’m Learning Ruby As My First Programming Language

1. I want to be able to better relate to developers, programmers, database admins
2. I want to advise my clients on the best solutions based on their needs
3. I want to be able to give back by volunteering, teaching and mentoring
4. I want to be able to tell good code from great code and call out BS code
5. I want to help empower women
6. I want to help empower Brown people
7. I want to be a role model to others
8. I’m a life long learner
9. I value understanding all the gears in a watch
10. I want deeper discussions about data architecture and workflows
11. I support open source

I’m known as a translator.  People tell me what they’re trying to get done and I find the solutions in the technology world.  This leads to days filled with emails, phone calls, Skype chats and tweets between non-technical people and developers.

I first learned about computers because I was stuck trying to install my CD-Rom drive.  I dug the process of troubleshooting and was hooked.  That was 1998.   I was then asked to create a website.  I figured out domain name registrations and website hosting.  That was 1999.  Since then, I’ve pursued my interests in computer networks and helping people which has now ended up looking something like a cross between a life coach and trainer.  A technology advisor of sorts; which I love!

The world of programming has been sort of a cloudy place for me.  I stayed away from taking any actual training because I said, “I don’t want to be one of those people sitting in a cube late at night with the gleam of my monitor keeping me company as I code for some jerk off”.  I worked with and had friends who were programmers and they felt unappreciated, overworked and not challenged in what they did.

Ruby on Rails appears to be fast paced, exciting, upwardly mobile in terms of adoption and embraced by forward thinking companies.  Sounds like my kind of world!

Working with Content Management Systems like Joomla and WordPress, I was still able to skirt learning in depth PHP using forums, friends and books to find the right snippet of code to get me through.

I’m comfortable using a text editor and can write/edit well in HTML and somewhat in PHP and CSS.  EditPad Pro is my choice on the PC; still undecided on favorite text editor on the Mac but we’ll be using KomodoEdit Saturday.  I understand how applications push/pull information from databases and am sensitive when it comes to technology + security.  Usability has become an area of interest for me in the last 2 years as well as best practices for writing copy for the web.  Since I have a hardware/networking background, the world of storage, drivers, operating systems, ip addresses, DNS and centralized authentication systems are part of my toolkit.

The missing piece is programming.

I understand now that simply having a skill doesn’t mean you need to use it in “pure form”.  Two analogies here: Vanilla beans can be used to add a lovely smell to your sugar simply by placing them into the bowl. You’re not eating the vanilla beans but you receive the aroma.  Another example is a big tough looking guy.  It doesn’t mean he beats people up all the time just because he has muscles.  In that vein, I’ve come to understand that I can retain skills but choose the form in which I offer them.

This January, I met with Mary Tolbert in Boston this January (part of my “Meet my Twitterfriends goal”) who had organized an east coast version of the RoR Women’s Workshop by inviting the San Francisco women developers out for an event.  It went very well!  Here’s an excerpt:

The Berkman Center at Harvard University in coordination with the Center for Research on Computation and Society is putting together a Ruby on Rails workshop for women on October 16th and 17th.

We are seeking to create an attitude-free, newbie-safe and mama- friendly tech event to encourage women to join the Ruby on Rails community.  This is an inclusive event meant to promote mixed gender collaboration.

Women are a minority in most technical communities, but in open source communities the numbers are even smaller — by a factor of about ten or more. Moving forward, we would like to encourage our newly empowered programmers to meet monthly and use their skills towards open source projects in a welcoming, collaborative environment.

The Free Ruby on Rails Workshops was created by Sarah Mei and Sarah Allen.  The success of their San Francisco workshop has led to creating this event.  We are so happy to have Sarah Allen teaching the workshop in Boston.

Not only did  I have a wonderful time meeting up with Mary for delicious hot chocolate at L.A. Burdick, her passionate story about this event and her own experiences being a woman in technology made me determined to undertake RoR this year.  Thank you Mary!

Get More Women Into Programming

In case you’re not aware, not only is there a disparity in the number of women involved in technology, there is even a bigger disparity when it comes to women being involved in open source projects.

One of my heroes working to raise awareness and create change with this is Valerie Aurora.  She is a programmer, consultant and serious bad ass when it comes to speaking her mind.  I found her site in something like 2006, got the book she recommended and truly admire her gusto.

Valerie wrote a manifesto, How To Encourage Women In Linux, which speaks to many of the barriers women face in finding out about, participating, learning and contributing to open source projects.  Being the problem solver she is, she also talks at length how to make user groups and events more inviting:

Do make meetings easy to attend

As usual, following these suggestions will make your meetings more attractive to everyone. Try to schedule your meetings at family and school friendly times – not too late in the evening. Make sure your meeting is in a safe, well lit place with easy access to public transportation, if your city has any. If you want new people to attend, the meeting place should be clearly marked and easy to find. If you serve food or drink, try to vary the menu a bit.

Do encourage women in computing

Instead of complaining about the lack of women, start doing something about it. Take women’s complaints seriously (starting with this HOWTO), read the studies on why women avoid computers, math, and science in general, and find ways that you can help encourage women. Be encouraging and supportive when other people discuss the reasons why women are being driven out of computing. If you have the opportunity, try to mentor women. Mentoring means guiding, encouraging, and counseling someone in their education and career. Not everyone is capable of mentoring, and it’s difficult to find compatible mentors and mentees, but when it does work out, the results can be spectacular. Don’t, however, think of mentoring as a way to find a girlfriend – all a mentor gets out of the relationship is reflected glory from your student and the joy of watching another person grow.

and this Ruby on Rails Workshop addresess the opportunity for women to develop mentorship connections:

Like any other discipline, computer science is easier to learn when you have friends and mentors to ask questions of and form a community with. However, for various reasons, men usually tend to mentor and become friends with other men. When the gender imbalance is as large as it is in computer science, women find themselves with few or no other women to share their interests with. While women have male friends and mentors, it’s often harder and more difficult for women to find a community and then to fit in with it. Many women leave the field who would have stayed if they had been male.

It’s true that this is a feedback loop, fewer women in computing leads to fewer women in computing. It’s important to understand that this feedback loop causes women to leave computing who wouldn’t have left if, all other things being equal, they had been men. This is important because male classmates often assume their female counterparts leave the field because they “just aren’t good enough.” Women’s low self-estimation contributes to this false impression.

So the message is, stop complaining there aren’t enough women at your event, meetup or conference.  Invite women from work, at parties and feel free to bring along your wives and girlfriends in a sincere effort to share something you are passionate about *smile*

My Experience With Cloud Apps

One of the first apps I used running on Ruby On Rails (going forward to be referred to as RoR) was Basecamp in 2005.  I think I was searching for a more effective way to keep track of work for a side project and came across Basecamp.

Now, back then, I was wary of storing my data in the cloud but over time, came to trust SaaS apps (Sofware As A Service).  Reading the 37Signals book, “Getting Real” helped me understand a whole new model for doing business.  I now pay over $200 a month for 15+ apps in the cloud like: Harvest, Highrise, Logmein, Bascamp, Flickr, Blip.tv, Citrix GoToMeeting, ScreenStepsLive and many more.  I love the thought that in 2010, I can run my entire business from a web browser!

The world is constantly in motion and so is the Internet.  Nature finds the most efficient way to do something while many of us struggle with the daily grind of life.  We desire to achieve solutions of beauty and simplicity we see in nature.

Here I come Ruby on Rails!

photo credit: Sam Catchesides

Photos from the last Workshop

Photo credit jenniferabe

The goal is to get 500 blogs in the 50 days leading up to March 10th, 2010.

I found out about this day of awareness and prevention through education via @LuvvieIG who is the most crazy fun person in person, on Twitter and abundant blogger I’ve ever met! She is full of positive energy and truly puts her heart into this work.

Did You Know

• There are over 33 million people infected with HIV/AIDS?
• 1 million are here in the USA
• 280,000 of those are women

She started The Red Pump Project with Karyn and tirelessly works to raise awareness how women can have fun yet stay safe when being sexually active. I attended a fundraiser last year for The Red Pump Project and had a great time!

In 2006, teenage girls (yes someone between the ages of 13-19 years old) represented 39% of new AIDS infections.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to be told that you have contracted a virus that can kill you at what should the the start of the rest of your life.  Can you?

Of that number, 69% were Black and 19% Latino.

This needs to change and I support the Red Pump Project as decisions drive behavior.  Let’s help these young women make better choices that will help to secure a future for them without the pain, shame and burden of being infected with a lifelong virus!

Please join in by visiting the post and adding the badge to your site to show your support!

For the last 7 days, the entire world has been pulling together to help.  The United States and many other countries have not only asked their citizens to donate but have also allocated funding, medical staff, firefighters, equipment and transportation to help.

An interesting thing happened that I have not observed in previous disasters like 9/11 or Katrina.  It seems that many people found it more interesting to bicker about who was the “best helper” for the people of Hati.  I even saw @ev, CEO of Twitter, wonder this aloud:

Now I normally don’t reply to “Internet Famous” people I haven’t met but I replied back telling him I’d donated $25.  I made this donation directly through the Yele website.

After I shared this, I got some static offline about my choice.  This was due to an article about the Yele foundation, put out by the smoking gun about discrepancies with the organization’s tax and financial reporting.  One person in particular felt that due to the content of the article, I should not be giving any money to Yele.  I was very tempted to ask if they had made a donation of any kind besides an opinion.

Yele was founded by Wyclef Jean, a native a Haiti.  He is best known as a member of the Fugees and later for becoming a successful artist in his own right and being outspoken on his views on politics and freedom.  Many of his songs have to do with things he loves about his history, the pain he has endured and his hope for a better future.

Now, I wasn’t aware of the #haiti earthquake for a few hours.  I then began seeing people in my Twitter network hashtag it then send up tweets about donating to Yele.  I checked out the site and told one of them it was having problems loading up.  I attributed the “Digg effect” and proceeded with my donation.

Then, I began hearing the drama questioning Wyclef and Yele.  My first thought was, “Really?”.

There’s 3 parts here:

1. Why we help people like ourselves
2. No one likes shady nonprofits
3. Is Yele the wrong organization to give to for the #haiti relief effort?

Part 1

This may seem harsh if you’re reading this and you’re White –

I am initially more willing to support the efforts of an organization founded by a Brown person than I am that of an organization founded by people who are White.

This isn’t rocket science.  We give to our church when a member is ill.  We borrow money to friends and extended family.  I feel that right off the bat, I have a common connection with other Brown people.

Why in the world would I say this about people I’ve never met before?  Because of how I’ve been treated by people who don’t look like me, because of the first person accounts by people who are Brown, because of the books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen.  I can immediately empathize with people who are Brown like me.  Now, I still go about qualifying businesses and services just like I would do a piece of hardware.

I hoped by being honest about things this person (who was White) they would “get it” and have an “ah ha” moment.

Part 2

If you’ve read my previous posts on nonprofits and my volunteering efforts, I think there is a huge issue in this sector when it comes to providing value.  If you work at a nonprofit, you get paid whether you help anyone or not.  You can collect money and not help a single person.  I’ve worked for and with nonprofits that had obvious productivity issues.  I tried to address them but these organizations had politics just like an office.

That said, I don’t like seeing dollars wasted.

The book, “Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient, and Rewarding for All” looks like a good read to figure out what is going wrong in our nonprofit industry as a whole:

You are a good person. You are one of the 84 million Americans who volunteer with a charity. You are part of a national donor pool that contributes nearly $200 billion to good causes every year. But you wonder: Why don’t your efforts seem to make a difference?

Fifteen years ago, Robert Egger asked himself this same question as he reluctantly climbed aboard a food service truck for a night of volunteering to help serve meals to the homeless. He wondered why there were still people waiting in line for soup in this day and age. Where were the drug counselors, the job trainers, and the support team to help these men and women get off the streets? Why were volunteers buying supplies from grocery stores when restaurants were throwing away unused fresh food every night? Why had politicians, citizens, and local businesses allowed charity to become an end in itself? Why wasn’t there an efficient way to solve the problem?

Robert knew there had to be a better way. In 1989, he started the D.C. Central Kitchen by collecting unused food from local restaurants, caterers, and hotels and bringing it back to a central location where hot, nutritious meals were prepared and distributed to agencies around the city. Since then, the D.C. Central Kitchen has been named one of President Bush Sr.’s Thousand Points of Light and has become one of the most respected and emulated nonprofit agencies in the world, producing and distributing more than 4,000 meals a day. Its highly successful 12-week job-training program equips former homeless transients and drug addicts with culinary and life skills to gain employment in the restaurant business.

Robert Egger looks back on his experience and exposes the startling lack of logic, waste, and ineffectiveness he has encountered during his years in the nonprofit sector, and calls for reform of this $800 billion industry from the inside out.

I think one of the most important things to do when we see wrong occurring is to speak up.  Period.

Part 3

So after hearing about the article at the Smoking Gun, I decided to see what companies did mention Yele as a viable donation choice.  The short list included SXSW and Google.

Google recommended a number of organizations including Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, UNICEF , Direct Relief, Yele Haiti, Partners in Health, Red Cross, World Food Program, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, Lambi Fund, Doctors Without Borders, The International Rescue Committee, Care, William J. Clinton Foundation, Meds & Food For Kids, Feed the Children, Habitat for Humanity, Mayor’s Fund for NYC.

This made me think why the Smoking Gun would bring this up and why Google would still name them.  I mean, doesn’t Google have the dirt on the entire internet under their fingernails?

Below, @BlackCanseco points out, via series of tweets, many of my thoughts about this focus on Yele vs the much larger problem of actually taking action on this world event and taking a step back to consider why the focus is being put here.  Throughout our recent history and with magic, our attention is often diverted from the truly important to a sideshow.

It turns out there were many, many, many, many people with opinions about how the money should be collected, what they thought of the organizations and the situation in Haiti.  Is our culture becoming a bunch of couch potato sideline commentators?

Bill Clinton and George Bush uniting for Haiti?

Now I had heard everything!  Maybe everyone wasn’t bickering.  It seems that just days into this disaster,  a Clinton Bush Haiti Fund was created!

Actually, it turns out Clinton and Bush also created a Katrina fund as well.  Interesting!

UK Firefighters Rescue Toddler

Lastly, remember that our “world view” in America is actually considered quite narrow by many others.  In recent years, I’ve been paying more attention to the BBC and UK shows for what I feel is more “balanced” coverage.

There has been a lot of footage on the television of what’s going on in Haiti.

I don’t want something that makes me feel bad for the people.

I want something inspiring.

I found this video clip to be well done and comprehensive of the situation including opportunities to help

If you made it this far, I hope that you will consider giving to an organization you feel comfortable with for the Haiti disaster.

Thank you and happy MLK day.

Today I share this music video from Common and Will.i.am, “I Have A Dream”

As I shared on Twitter today, my family is new to the word, “freedom”.  My grandfather was a sharecropper and according to my mom, my great grandfather was a slave.  This means my dad and his siblings were the first to really have “opportunties”.  On my mom’s side (she’s the Jewish one), her great grandparents came from Poland.  My grandparents were born in NYC, grew up, met each other, got married and lived the “American dream” but not before my grandfather and all his siblings changed their last names from Jepnick to Richards in hopes of avoiding discrimination for being Jewish (anti-semitism),

I am grateful I have the freedom to truly pursue what makes me happy.  I thank the people before me who stood up for those of us who could not find our voices (or who had not been born yet!).

Thank you Dr. King

Amanda Luker, local Linux and Drupal developer has successfully launched a local chapter of Free Geek (http://freegeek.org).  This awesome program gives people the opportunity to learn essential computer skills and earn a computer as they help to recycle donated computer systems.

They will open their doors October 1st (http://freegeektwincities.org) and are kicking things off with a “Geekathalon” where you can win prizes and gift certificates from local and national businesses!


I am excited to be a part of this because the one work I associate with technology is empowerment!  I still remember my first computer, the first time I got onto the internet and even my first html page I created with the help of my friend Jesse.  We all have to start from where we’re at.

Prize List Update

Folks, the prize list continues to grow!

• Snagit screenshot software from Techsmith
• Dinner certificates from Triple Rock Social Club
• Pet microchipping from Midway Animal Hospital
• Coffee from Peace Coffee
• Oil change from Bona Bros
• and more!

How You Can Help

Free Geek Twin Cities needs your support and participation.  They have their 501(c) nonprofit status, sponsored by the Twin Cities Media Alliance so let’s help them hit the ground running!

What they need are chairs, tables and equipment for the new space they’ve secured.  Amanda and the Free Geek Twin Cities team hare hosting a “Geek-athalon” Contest at Grumpy’s bar and Grill in Downtown Minneapolis - RSVP via Facebook

Can you read l33t speak? Identify geeks through history? Name that video game tune? Name pi out really far? If so, you will want to come to Free Geek’s Geekathlon. This quiz bowl will feature ten intense rounds of questions focusing on the history of computers and the internet, with fabulous prizes from local sponsors including the Seward Cafe, Bedlam Theater and Triple Rock Social Club — all for a good cause: helping the needy get nerdy!

What: Get your geek on and win prizes with l33t speak, Pi countdown, Matrix meltdowns and Star Trek Easter Eggs!
When: Saturday, September 26th, 2009 from 7pm – 10pm
Where: Grumpy’s Bar and Grill, 1111 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, mn 55415
Cost: $5
Who: Geeks, Nerds, Nonprofit folks and happy people
Why: To raise money for the local chapter of Free Geek

So you’ve got 3 ways to help:

1. Donate gift certificates or geeky items for the upcoming Geekathalon
2. Attend the Geekathalon to win great geeky prizes
3. Spread the word about Free Geek Twin Cities

Comapanies that donate will receive prominent mention at the event, on the website and in the press releases.

Have Questions?  Contact Amanda Luker amanda@pinkslipmedia.org

How Free Geek Works

Free Geek program works is that we accept computer donations, and volunteers can learn to take apart computers and build working computers and in doing so earn a free computer.

That means if you want to help, you’ll end up learning about computer technology, how to run a business AND get a computer to boot!

Free Geek Twin Cities is based on a very successful organization in Portland, OR called Free Geek, which accepts donations of old computers, trains volunteers on how to identify and sort hardware, and teach them to build refurbished computers using open source software. Once volunteers have completed 20 hours of volunteer hours or have built five working computers, they get to take a computer home with them for free.

The organization aims to help repurpose used electronics that might otherwise go to landfills, as well as empowering people with an understanding of computers (both how to work with them, and how they actually work) so that they can actively contribute to our increasingly connected world.

After several years in the making, FGTC will finally be opening their doors in mid-October at 3405 Chicago Ave. S. The organization will have open hours to accept computer donations, and, beginning in November, work hours, during which volunteers can come in a take apart and build computers.

The Free Geek Twin Cities is going to be located at 34th and Chicago in South Minneapolis so I know I’ll be over there geeking out and helping!

Photo Credit Boab24, Extra Ketchup