Code Studio rocks; diversity does, too

If you want to quickly get some kids introduced to computer programming concepts, you could do a lot worse than using Code Studio from code.org. That's what I did the last couple weeks - took two hours to lightly shepherd the Dayton YWCA day camp through a programming intro.

It's really well-organized and easy to understand - frankly, it pretty much drives itself. It's based on block-dragging for turtle graphics and/or simple 2D games, all easy and appealing stuff. (They even got their turtle graphics branded as the sisters from Frozen ice-skating!) I didn't need to do much more than stand there and demonstrate that programmers actually exist in the flesh, and occasionally nudge a student over a bump. Though, by pair programming, they did most of the nudging themselves.

Here's most of my awesome class. Sorry I'm as bad at photography as at CSS.

Hey - we got demographics, huh? Right - if you announce that you're teaching a coding class through your usual geeky circles, they spread the word among their circles and recruit you a class that looks pretty much like the industry already looks. And if you seek a venue through your geeky circles, the usual suspects will step up to host. In badly segregated Dayton, that means "as far from the colored parts of town as possible." That's less than inviting to the people who don't live there.

But if you partner with groups that already have connections in diverse communities - like the YWCA, which makes anti-racism one of its keystones - getting some fresh faces can be pretty easy! And there are venues available outside the bleached-white exurbs you're used to - you just need to think to look.

Another benefit of Code Studio is that it's entirely web-based, so you don't need to restrict your demographics to "kids whose parents can afford to get them laptops". The public library's computer classroom did the job with flying colors.

Seriously, this was about the easiest outreach I've ever done. I'm working on the follow-up, but I think I'll be able to find further lazy options. Quite likely it will leverage CodeAcademy. So, what's your excuse for not doing it in your city?

Now, in other news: You are running out of time to register for PyOhio, a fantastic, friendly, free, all-levels Python conference, and my pride and joy. The schedule is amazing this year, and for better or for worse, I'm keynoting. So please come and add to my terror.

G+ Public Hangout Fail

tl;dr:Do not use public Google+ Hangouts under any circumstances, because people suck.

Before the PyCon 2014 CFP came due, PyLadies hosted several G+ hangouts for talk proposal brainstorming. Potential speakers could talk over and flesh out their ideas with each other, producing better talk proposals. More importantly, it was a nice psychological stepping stone on the way to filling out that big, scary CFP form all alone. I thought they went great.

I wanted to emulate them for Postgres Open and PyOhio, which both have CFPs open now. The PyLadies hangouts had used EventBrite to preregister attendees, and I unfortunately did not consider this and the reasons why. Instead, I just scheduled hangouts, made them public, and sent out invitations with the hangout URLs, encouraging people to forward the invites onward. Why make participating any harder than it has to be?

The more worldly of you are already shaking your heads at my naiveté. It turns out that the world's exhibitionists have figured out how to automatically detect and join public hangouts. For several seconds I tried kicking out and banning them as they joined, but new ones kept arriving, faster than one per second. Then I hung up - which unfortunately did not terminate the hangout. It took me frantic minutes to find how to delete a hangout in progress. I dearly hope that no actual tech community members made it to the hangout during that time.

I had intended to create a place where new speakers, and women especially, would feel safe increasing their community participation. The absoluteness of my failure infuriates me.

Hey, Google: public G+ hangouts have been completely broken, not by technical failure, but by the degraded human condition. You need to remove them immediately. The option can only cause harm, as people accidentally expose themselves and others to sexual harrassment.

In the future, a "public" hangout URL should actually take you to a page where you request entrance from the organizer by text message (which should get the same spam filtration that an email would). But fix that later. Take the public hangouts away now.

Everybody else, if you had heard about the hangouts and were planning to participate, THANK YOU - but I've cancelled the rest of them. You should present anyway, though! I'd love to be contacted directly to talk over your ideas for proposals.

TRUCEConf

Please consider participating in TRUCEConf (March 18-19 in Cincinnati)!

The goal is to help the tech community heal, through learning from others outside our industry and having an open dialogue and on how we can be better humans to each other in the world of tech.

You may remember fierce controversy around TRUCEConf when virtually nothing was known about it but its name; without solid information, it was easy to read bad connotations into the name. I would have been uneasy myself if I hadn't known the founder, Elizabeth Naramore.

But now there's plenty of information, including the schedule, that should replace those concerns with enthusiasm. I think the format - a day of mind-opening speakers from all over, followed by an unconference day - should be very productive!

I'm really looking forward to it and hope that many of you can come. If you can't come in person, consider supporting the conference with a donation - they're going without corporate sponsors so your individual support means a ton. Thanks!

Python Workshop for Women Indy #2 and CMH #2 coming up!

The Midwest Python Workshop for women and their friends is back! We've got new workshops scheduled, ready to take new batches of students:

Indianapolis Python Workshop, Sep. 27-28, 2013; sponsored by Six Feet Up and hosted at Launch Fishers

Columbus Python Workshop, Oct. 18-19, 2013; sponsored by LeadingEdje and hosted at The Forge by Pillar

The Workshop is a free, friendly, hands-on introduction to computer programming using Python. Women of all ages and backgrounds are the primary target (but you can bring a male participant as your guest).

Please spread the word!

Dayton Python Workshop, April 5-6

Announcing the first Dayton Python Workshop for women and their friends, April 5-6, 2013!

tinyurl.com/day-py-workshop

The Workshop is a free, friendly, hands-on, beginners' introduction to computer programming. In one short weekend (a Friday evening and a Saturday), participants get a real handle on programming for practical tasks, using the easy yet powerful Python language... while having a fun time with new friends!

The primary target audience is women of all ages and backgrounds, including those who have never programmed before. Men can participate as the guest of a female attendee - that's where the "women and their friends" part comes in. If you're a man who wants to take part, ask a woman you know to join you. Don't underestimate the power of a personal invitation - you'll never know which of your friends just needs a nudge to try it until you give her that nudge.

The workshop is the latest in a series based on the famous Boston Python Workshop; they've already introduced hundreds of beginners to programming in Boston, Columbus, Indianapolis, Portland, Chicago, and Kansas City. It's designed for true beginners to programming - absolutely no programming or computer experience is assumed. (Even experienced programmers have enjoyed the workshop, though - so long as they're new to Python!)

We'll enjoy food and a great venue at New Horizons in Fairborn.

Space is limited, so please sign up at tinyurl.com/day-py-workshop

New Horizons: newhorizons.com

Hooray for Columbus Python Workshop 1!

The first Columbus Python Workshop for women and their friends was a success!

We had about 18 students from all sorts of backgrounds, plus TAs Alyssa and Ryan from the Central Ohio Python User Group. They dived in with a will and learned an amazing amount in a short time. We all had fun and I loved having them there... there's something uniquely wonderful about teaching to faces that are smiling at you. By the end, we had several nice variants on the Color Wall.

Food sponsorship by LeadingEdje kept us all nicely fed and caffeinated, and Pillar provided The Forge, its new creative workspace in the Short North.

Over lunch on Saturday, COHPy members Ann Elliot and Thomas Winningham stopped in to show samples of some of the seriously fun things our Python programmers can look forward to as their skills increase. Ann showed some awesome astronomical charts she'd made with PyEphem, and Thomas used Python and an Arduino to make a string of multicolor LEDs do tricks. (With a little forethought, we could have married up the students' ColorWall scripts to Thomas's lights... maybe next time!)

For a first follow-up, some of us worked together at GirlDevelopIt Columbus's Hack Night:

... and we're expecting to see a bunch more at the next Central Ohio Python User Group meeting on Monday.

My experiment with running the exercises through IPython Doctester rather than CodingBat was... partially successful. Many students had to fall back on CodingBat thanks to trouble installing pyzmq on Windows. So I know some improvements to make for next time around.

To get involved with our next workshop in Columbus, sign up for the Central Ohio Python User Group. The next Ohio workshop, though, will be in Dayton... home sweet home at last!

If you came to the workshop, I would love for you to stay in touch, to ask questions or for any other reason. Thanks to all the students, the sponsors, and to the Boston Python Workshop for leading the way!

ipython_doctester 0.2

The big improvement for 0.2 is that ipython_doctester now optionally reports test results to an instructor's webapp, http://ipython-docent.appspot.com. In a classroom setting, this helps a teacher see who needs more time or help.

To turn on reporting, at the beginning of the IPython Notebook session,

import ipython_doctester
ipython_doctester.workshop_name = 'demo1'
ipython_doctester.student_name = 'Catherine'
from ipython_doctester import test

The instructor should run through the notebook first, executing all cells just to register each of the function names in order. Then she can check on the class's progress at http://ipython-docent.appspot.com/workshop_name.

You can also optionally set ipython_doctester.verbose = True to get the full table of results for every exercise, even the successes.

I plan to use this for the Columbus Python Workshop on Jan 18-19. Anyone you know from central Ohio needs to hear about this class!

Indianapolis Python Workshop for women and their friends - the results

This April 13-14, Mel Chua, Jessica McKellar, and I ran the first annual Indianapolis Python Workshop for women and their friends... and I loved it!

We borrowed our curriculum (not to mention Jessica) from the Boston workshop, and the time they've put into fine-tuning it really shows. The participants varied from absolute first-time programmers to computer science graduate students, but the materials did a great job of not leaving anybody behind.

I chatted with a few of the participants about their backgrounds and motivations for coming, and I was fascinated by the diversity among them. One woman was re-entering the programming workforce after a decade away. One was an artist and designer of 3D games who wanted to learn to script her favorite gaming engine. One was the business manager for an IT firm who wanted a deeper understanding of the nuts and bolts of her own company. And, of course, several were students, from high school through graduate school.

We had roughly 20 participants, plus assistants from IndyPy, and the classroom dynamics were great. Usually, when running an IT event, I strain to convince the participants on to work together. Far too many programmers tend to struggle along in private silence, each at their own machine, which ruins the point of having a group learning event in the first place. Not our workshop students, though! They did a wonderful job of grouping up and helping each other out. I loved the sound of students teaching each other and laughing with each other. We had lots to teach and we worked them hard, but they met the challenge with enthusiasm and teamwork. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again at IndyPy's project night on May 8.

We have many thanks to give! Thanks to the Python Software Foundation and FewerHassles for their financial support; to DirectEmployers for their logistical help; to Indiana LinuxFest for providing a locale; and to the Boston Python Workshop for sending Jessica and all her experience. Mel and I are looking forward to keeping the ball rolling with more workshops in Indianapolis and elsewhere in the Midwest. Please contact <mpw-staff at lists.openhatch.org> if you'd like to help make it happen.

Girls in IT

This Friday, there's a conference at Sinclair Community College here in Dayton (and other sites in Ohio) called We Are IT Day, designed to encourage high-school girls' participation in information technology.

We Are IT Day website
They're still accepting "lunch buddies" - technology professional women who can chat with a small group of girls over lunch.

And, if you know a girl here in Dayton who should be there, try to make sure she can go!

(Sorry I didn't publicize this earlier - I hadn't found a website for it.)

The destructive power of stereotypes

I hope that this study receives all the attention it deserves.

"Women exposed to bogus scientific theories linking their gender to poor math skills did worse on arithmetic tests than others..."

This is why people who care get so upset about "harmless personal opinions" about women being inherently worse at acience/math. They're not harmless. They push women away from technical excellence. Yes, that bothers me, and no passive-aggressive whining about "political correctness" will make me accept it in demure silence.

It's especially remarkable that the study showed an easily measurable effect of just one claim of male superiority. Now imagine the cumulative effect of hearing such claims, again and again, over an entire lifetime... it's no wonder that the women who do end up in technology are the exceptionally flinty ones.

Smurfette syndrome

One thing about the CodeCamp, though: severe Smurfette syndrome. Maybe 10% of the attendees were women, but probably closer to 5%.

I don't think it's the CodeCamp's fault; I'm afraid they may have gotten an accurate sample of the programmers in the area, and that's the scary thought. Possibly things would have been a little better on a weekday; men might feel more comfortable in taking a day away from home duties for their professional development. Still.

I know, it's been talked to death, and there are a million theories and stuff, but... yikes. It's just scary that one year goes by after another, and the situation persists.

On the other hand, the GCOUG meeting was about half women, maybe even a majority. At a small meeting, granted, but it's still a bright spot.