Coding Geekette

100% girl geek, all the time

Jan 14

Exciting Adventures at CodeMash – Part 2, Session Days

by sarah

With CodeMash coming to an end, I figured I better recap my experiences while they’re still fresh on my mind.  I’ve recapped my Precompiler experiences in the previous post.  Now, let’s see how I did on the days with sessions.

Thursday

I had Thursday figured out early on.  I figured I’d wake up early, catch breakfast and an awesome keynote, and then catch some sessions to inspire me for future projects.  Unfortunately, none of that happened, as I managed to wake up in the middle of the night to turn my alarm off and go back to sleep.  Doh!  By the time I arrived at the conference center, I had time to talk with friends, vendors, and other attendees and then make my way to lunch.  It was a great chance that I got to meet my Microsoft MVP Lead, Esther Lee.  She came to CodeMash to meet up with some of her MVPs, as well as other developer MVPs from other countries.  It was great to talk with her and give feedback on products, knowing that our feedback is heard and taken into consideration.

GesturePak

I managed to make it to one session on Thursday – Carl Franklin’s session on GesturePak, used for creating gestures for Kinect for Windows.  I wanted to sit in on this mostly for my own curiosity.  Now that I have a child in my life who seems obsessed with our XBOX Kinect – only 9.5 months old and already yelling at the XBOX to turn on and try to get it to do things, I want to look into writing programs for him that he can interact with.  When I was younger, I used to write flashcard apps in VB6 for my baby brother, who’s 8 years younger than me, so it’s natural for me to want to write apps for my own little guy.  Seeing how easy it was to create gestures with GesturePak, I can only hope to one day find the time to write some apps for Kinect for Windows for Logan to play with.

Friday

I knew I wouldn’t catch much in the way of sessions on Friday.  My goal on Friday was to check out the Arduino session and then relax, as my family was coming.  My dream for Friday came true.

Arduino

I really wanted to check out Sharon Cichelli’s Arduino talk on Friday.  We have an Arduino here at home that has a bunch of temperature sensors connected to it, so that we can monitor our house temperatures.  We originally had kept our chinchillas in a room on our 1st floor and had to make sure their room stayed within a certain temperature range.  However, once I was pregnant, we moved the chinchillas to our basement (where the temperature would be acceptable) and turned their old room into the nursery, where we could monitor the room temperature for our little boy.  We take the data from our temperature sensors and graph it with Cacti.  Here’s a sample of the output from our Arduino:

tempsensors

 

Sharon’s talk was great!  It was great to get other ideas on how Arduinos can be used – robots, video games, ambient clock,  greenhouse monitoring, and many more things.  Honestly, the ideas for using Arduinos are endless.  She also has a great list of resources for getting started with Arduinos.  Seeing how easy it is to work with, I am  tempted to play around with Arduinos more at home.  Either that or – after seeing many presentations on it – I may consider playing with a Netduino and using the .NET Micro framework.

Conclusion

While I didn’t catch much in the way of sessions this year – as the session list just didn’t really jump out at me and excite me as much as it has in the past, I still enjoyed the sessions I did catch.  More importantly, I was happy to talk with people who I see sometimes just once a year at CodeMash and seeing friends in general.  The hallway discussions and chatting with friends at lunch really got me thinking about the rest of this year.  CodeMash was my first big conference since having my son, and it’s great to be back in the community again.

Community Events

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Dec 4

Central Ohio Day of .NET this weekend!

by sarah

The past couple months have been crazy, between wrapping up things for the year at one of my clients and the overall craziness of parenthood, that I forgot to mention – I’m presenting on PowerShell 3.0 this weekend at Central Ohio Day of .NET (CODODN) in Columbus!

What I love about this conference is that it’s purely technical, no soft skills.  If you want a great soft skills conference in the area, check out Kalamazoo X.  However, if you’re looking for super affordable .NET training, CODODN is a great opportunity!  The speakers include published authors, MVPs, Microsofties, and those who are active in the community.  The content is all over the board – including web (HTML5, ASP.NET, JS), cloud (Azure), desktop (Windows 8, XAML), overall (BDD, application security, deployment strategies), embedded (Gadgeteering), and backend (MSMQ, VMs, PowerShell).

Tickets are free or $10.  If you don’t mind giving your email and name to sponsors, then get a free ticket.  Otherwise, if you don’t want to give your email and name to sponsors, pay $10 for the ticket.  Either way, those prices make those tickets a steal – especially if you consider the content and the speakers.

If you haven’t gotten your ticket yet, (updated 12/4/2012 9:40pm) it looks like you may be missing this awesome conference, as tickets are SOLD OUT!

Hope to see you there!

Community Presentations

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Jul 23

Adventures at Cleveland GiveCamp 2012

by sarah

This past weekend, I had the fun experience of participating in Cleveland GiveCamp.  This was my 5th GiveCamp overall, 3rd in Cleveland, and 2nd as a project manager.

Why I Love Cleveland GiveCamp

Growing up, my parents raised me to put my skills to work and help others when I can.  Besides being able to put my developer skills to use, I can also take advantage of my abilities to translate tech into plain English by taking on a project manager role, which I enjoy a lot more than developing because it has me dealing with the client more.  While I like writing code, I get more satisfaction in knowing that the big picture is taken care of and that the client’s needs are getting met.  What I love most about Cleveland GiveCamp is that it’s here in Cleveland, my hometown.  It takes place both on a boat and in an airport – no other GiveCamp can claim that.  (Special thanks to LeanDog and Burke Lakefront Airport for giving us space to work.)  The last thing I truly love seeing is that the non-profits here are extremely appreciative of the work and some come back and pay it forward.

Paying It Forward

I have to admit it – I love when previous years’ non-profit representatives come back and volunteer at GiveCamp.  In 2011, we had Sherrie Zagorc from Kiddie City (my project from 2010) helping with the food.  This year, we had three different non-profits from last year come help this year – Tim Smith of Community Greenhouse Partners and Kathy & Rich Wickens of Euclid Beach Park Now and Cleveland’s Euclid Beach Carousel Society.  For non-profit reps to  come back and help out – this is a great thing!  It’s good to see that they not only appreciate the work that was done for them while at the GiveCamp but they remember what was done and come out a year later to again show their appreciation.  I love that they come back like that!

My Team – New Avenues to Independence/Buckeye Industries

I had the privilege of being the project manager for 1 project this year – Buckeye Industries, a business enterprise of New Avenues to Independence, Inc.  They needed a website and were on a Microsoft-based host.

After getting our team together on Friday, we talked about what was out there.  I had recommended that the team get WebMatrix to see what options are out there.  We originally were considering either mojoPortal or Orchard, as that’s what a couple of us on the team were familiar with.  However, since we needed to set up a storefront and wanted something easy to work with, we ended up using DotNetNuke with the NBStore module.  We also used the helferlein_Form extension for creating contact forms.  I’ll update this post with our final site once DNS propagates.  Special thanks to Joe Brinkman for getting us set up with Applied Innovations hosting.  Here’s our team:

 

Buckeye Industries - Cleveland GiveCamp 2012

Etsuko Dunham, Ryan Marinoff, Karen Knavel (our non-profit contact), me, Matt Lucas, and Toby MacKenzie

This team worked really hard and put together an amazing site over the weekend!  I’m proud to have worked with such a talented team!

The Recap Video

Once again, my awesome husband Kevin volunteered at GiveCamp and took pictures.  You can see most of his pictures on the Cleveland GiveCamp Facebook page.  He also created another recap video.  Check it out:

If the video doesn’t appear above, check it out on YouTube.

Conclusion

I had a wonderful time at GiveCamp this weekend – working with a talented team and helping such a wonderful non-profit.  While it’s an exhausting weekend, it was also quite enjoyable!  I look forward to Cleveland GiveCamp 2013!

Back to my Roots Community Events

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Mar 10

There Are Other Geeks Like You…

by sarah

Hi!  My name is Sarah, and I’m a programming language junkie.

If only there were a 12-step program for that… maybe then I wouldn’t feel so odd.  Every time I meet a developer who doesn’t understand how to switch between languages or paradigms, I wonder what’s wrong with me.  Every time I meet a developer who doesn’t get that I enjoy coding and really have no problem going from coding at work to coding at home, I feel sad.  Every time I show my excitement for learning more about programming and the art of software development, I feel weird because people around me don’t understand it.

Silly me… I went into a field that I actually enjoy!  There are 9-to-5ers who just don’t get me – they go to work, do their job, collect a paycheck, and go on their merry way doing other stuff.  For me, I’d go home from work only to write more code, working on a side project, or blogging about what I found intriguing or frustrating.

Finding Geeks Like Me

While studying at the University of Toledo, I got involved with the student Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) group.  It gave me a chance to network with fellow EECS students and find others who were just as passionate as me when it came to programming.  It gave me the opportunity to meet minds much smarter than mind and learn from them.  Even when I changed to the CSET program, I still stayed in ACM, as I had found like-minded individuals and CSET really didn’t have a group like that.

I also learned about the local Linux users group that happened to meet on campus.  My then-boyfriend, now-husband’s best friend is a hardcore Linux guy who came up to Toledo for the meetings.  So the group of us ended up going to many of those meetings.  While I was obviously the odd one – female and *gasp* could work with Linux tools even though I loved Microsoft products, I found it great to be in another group of minds that I could understand.  These guys were passionate about Linux, and I was able to show my passion for tech in general by speaking at their group a couple times.  This “user group” thing, I decided, is a good thing.

User Groups – Other Geeks!

Once I moved back to Cleveland, I figured I’d get a job, settle in, and then eventually figure out the user groups here.  Well… I took a tech support job and got settled in, forgetting about the user group thing.  I did talk with a co-worker about the local Linux user group, but I just couldn’t convince myself to go.  I had too many other things keeping me distracted – moving home, finding a job, buying a house, getting married – that I lost interest in the whole user group quest.

After my first job here, I moved on to an IT job – one that felt very much like a dead end.  I felt as if I was isolated from the world, going to work and coming home in the dark.  Add to it that the only windows that were in my office overlooked the shop floor or overlooked the “fun” neighborhood outside.  The passionate developer in me was feeling suffocated and losing hope.  I just had to get out, and I did after almost 4 years there.

The next job, I returned to development and played with .NET a bit.  One of my co-workers mentioned that there was a user group meeting coming up and that I might want to check it out.  ”User group” triggered all sorts of memories and started me back down the path of finding the answer to Where are the technical groups in Cleveland?  Back then, they were scattered and I spent a lot of time looking up local user groups in Cleveland.

The first group I attended was a .NET group that did a lot of face-forward presentations, where there wasn’t a lot of interaction between the speakers and the audience.  While I didn’t mind learning a lot, I had hoped to find others who were social like me.  Many months later, that .NET group had a holiday gathering with a SQL group, and I started to see some people talking and I slowly started feeling in my element.  Soon, I found another .NET group that was more social and that group had a WPF group form out of it.  It was nice to finally meet geeks like me – not only did they like learning about new stuff but they liked talking with each other.

The Formation of a User Group List

That question of Where are the technical groups in Cleveland? plagued me for awhile.  Then, in October 2008, I had serious health issues that kept me from going to work.  Since my employer didn’t let us work remotely and since my mind wouldn’t slow down, I had to put it to work.  With about 4 or 5 user groups in the list, I launched Cleveland Tech Events.  Now, over 3 years later, there are over 60 technical user groups on the list.  The site is still solely maintained by myself, but there are many groups out there promoting the site, all through word of mouth and social networking.

Why this “User Group” Thing is Good

If you’ve ever found yourself excited about the technology you’re working with or even playing with, you’ve probably wondered if there were others like you.  User groups are great for finding like-minded individuals who share the same passions and excitement.  It’s great for bouncing ideas off of like-minded individuals and learn from each other.  Also, being able to network with others, you never know where the networking will lead.

Conclusion

So… looking for other geeks like you?  If you’re in the Cleveland area, you can always check out Cleveland Tech Events.  However, if you’re elsewhere, do a search for “{insert tech here} user group near {your city}” in your favorite search engine and get out there today!  (And if there isn’t a user group in the area… you can always check a site like Meetup.com to see if there are people in the area with similar interests and form your own group!)

Community

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Mar 9

My Love for Local & Regional Conferences

by sarah

Recently, I was talking with a local guy who wanted to get more involved with the community, as he wants to eventually go the MVP route with hopes of one day working for Microsoft.  He mentioned that some people told him about conferences like TechEd and VSLive.  While those are great conferences, they’re also expensive – not just the ticket price but also accommodations and other incidentals.  In my reply back, I had to recommend looking at local conferences.  Here are a few reasons why I recommend local and regional conferences over the big conferences.

Quality of Speakers

Something to keep in mind is that speakers have some place they call home, even though they may travel a lot for work.  Here in the Heartland District, we have all sorts of speakers who’ve spoken at the bigger conferences (TechEd, VSLive, etc.) who call Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, or Tennessee home.  Even here in Cleveland, we have quite a few hometown greats who have spoken at national conferences.  So just because we’re in the Midwest and not on either coast does not mean that we’re exempt from having awesome speakers.  What’s nice about having these speakers calling this home is that it’s easy to woo them to speak at a conference close to home – not travelling far from family, giving them time with both the community and their own families.

Cost of Attendance

Looking at TechEd, the student rate is $995.  The student rate – as in a discounted rate –  is close to $1000, which is expensive for a typical student’s budget.  While I may be out of college for almost 10 years now, I remember what it was like to live on a student’s meager budget.  There’s no way I could have afforded going to something like that.  The professional rate is $2195 or that and an additional $400 for the pre-con.  While the “big names” are presenting there, it’s quite a bit of money to see content that we can find online, perhaps by the big name or someone else.  Add to it that this rate doesn’t include travel or hotel accommodations.  All of these numbers add up.

Now let’s look at some of the local conferences that can attract the big names at a fraction of the cost.  Take a look at conferences like CodeMash (in Sandusky, Ohio in January) and devLink (in Tennessee in August).  These conferences have attracted well-known speakers including Steve Smith, Scott Hanselman, Eric Meyer, and Mary Poppendieck.  These are multi-day regional conferences that are typically more affordable – both in terms of conference costs and accommodations.  They offer typically conference talks, workshops, and open spaces, amongst other networking opportunities for their attendees.  These are the two closest to my home and held here in the Heartland District.  Similar conferences include MADExpo and That Conference.  Other conferences that attract similar caliber of speakers include Stir Trek,  CodePaLOUsa, CodeStock, and Kalamazoo X.  The ticket price of these, even at the professional level, aren’t much greater than $300 for multi-day events – much more affordable than even the student rate of TechEd.

Networking on a Local Scale

While you may be wanting to network with people throughout the world, it might be even more helpful to network with those in nearby communities to achieve whatever goal you’re trying to achieve.  Local and regional events are greater for reaching the local audience (as opposed to the larger conferences that target a wide network).  Other local and regional events in this area that are great to check out include  DevDays, Days of .NET, SQL Saturdays, PowerShell Saturday,  TechNet Events, and MSDN Events.  The costs for these tend to be minimal – usually to cover food.  Some of these events may also be free.

Conclusion

In an economy where employers may not necessarily pay their developers well or even cover their training, events like TechEd and VSLive become even less of an option for training.  However, besides going to user groups where you usually hear about one topic and network with the locals, there are other options.  When budgets are tight but you still want to get a great quality of presented content, take a look at local and regional conferences.  Once you look at them, you’ll find a great way for growing your career perhaps in your own backyard!

Community Events

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Mar 8

The 9 Month Long Get-ChildItem Cmdlet

by sarah

I’ve got to start off by apologizing for being so quiet here lately. I’ve been ramping down my community involvement, as I’ve had a new opportunity in my life that will be changing things.

Ramping Down

You may not be seeing me at user groups or other events as much as you used to.  This isn’t your imagination.  In January, my main focus was CodeMash.  In February, it was settling in for the last of my travels – speaking on PowerShell at the .NET group in Detroit and then checking out the Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group while in Columbus (for a conference my husband was attending).   Earlier this week, I sponsored the Ohio North SQL Server User Group.  It was a PowerShell-themed meeting, so I couldn’t resist sponsoring the group!  But now, I’m done with user groups and events until Stir Trek on May 4th.   Registration for Stir Trek opens on Pi Day at 1:59pm… so mark your calendars!

Why Ramping Down… and Going Forward

For almost 9 months now, as I’ve told my PowerShell friends, I’ve been running the Get-ChildItem cmdlet and am waiting for a result.  You could say that I’m working on spawning a child process.  Oh the euphemisms I could come up with using technical terms!  Long story short, my first child is due on April 4th, so I’m ramping down my community involvement so that I can focus on my little one’s arrival.

I’m hoping that once I adjust to my little one, I’ll blog more and continue my presence on Twitter.  I’ll also be working on Cleveland Tech Events, as there are a few more features I’d like to add to that site.  Of course, I’ll also be at Stir Trek, as I’m in charge of volunteers again this year.    Then there’s Cleveland GiveCamp, which both Kev and I are already committed to helping out.  As for other events, we’ll see as the time comes.  For the next few months, events will be on a case-by-case basis.  There’s a greater likelihood to find me at a Cleveland-based event that’s a couple hours long than at an out-of-town multi-day conference.

Stay Tuned!

I’m going to try to squeeze a few more blog posts in before Logan arrives. If you have a PowerShell or random question that you’re hoping to see answered here, drop me an email at sarah at this domain, and I’ll do what I can to include it here!

Community WiTty Perspectives

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Aug 3

Cleveland GiveCamp 2011 – Sadukie’s Tales, Part 3 – This One Time At GiveCamp…

by sarah

This past weekend, I saw how my project managing skills would fare at Cleveland GiveCamp.  First of all, if you aren’t familiar with GiveCamp, check out GiveCamp.org for a basic explanation.  Now for a basic overview of Cleveland GiveCamp, check out this post from Bob at Simplex-IT or even this video made by my favorite IT guy (my husband!):

As I mentioned, I had to manage 2 projects this year – a new website for ASL Advocates and a revamped website for the American Indian Education Center.  In both cases, our clients wanted sites that were easy to maintain.

I have to give a shoutout to my teams – they were awesome.  I got my team assignments on Friday night, and after giving them the notecards I made based on my discussions with the non-profits, I found them to be strong, self-organizing teams.  I walked away for the first standup, and when I got back, I found out that one team had relocated and the other was fine where they were.

Team ASL Advocates included Aoirthoir an Broc, Dave Shah, and Matthew Fousek.  Team American Indian Education Center included Kevin Solorio, Dan Schultz, Marco F Sanchez Chaires, and Gabe Keith.  Both of these teams were great to look after, as I really didn’t have a lot of heavy lifting for either team.  This allowed me to help Team AHRC with their Dreamhost DNS issues and Team Cleveland Rape Crisis Center with their SQL Server issues.  I also got to meet Adam Ryder, one of the GravityWorks guys who really enjoys GiveCamps.  He came in from Lansing, and this was his third GiveCamp this year.

I am very proud of my teams and their work.  Dave and Matt went out to take pictures of A-S-L being signed.  Matt’s hands really brought some life to the ASL Advocates logo on their page.  Gabe really rocked out his designer skills on the AIEC page and even had his daughter – a mini-designer – follow him out one day.  It was great to have a designer on at least one of the teams.

So without further ado, here are my teams’ pages:

ASL Advocates: http://asladvocates.org

American Indian Education Center: http://americanindianeducationcenter.org

I have to also give a shoutout to Kate Hawk and Pat Wolansky at Cinecraft.  They wanted to get involved with GiveCamp and help somehow.  They donated their video talents to one non-profit this year, and ASL Advocates happened to be the beneficiary of that.  They worked on a super short timeline… talked with ASL on Thursday, met at their offices Friday, shot the segment Saturday, and then video edited and had a video ready for us by early Sunday afternoon.  In the GiveCamps I’ve been to in the past, I’ve never seen a donation as awesome as this.  Kate and Pat were a pleasure to work with, and I would highly recommend doing business with them in the future.  You can see their promotional video here:

And to Sherrie Z. of Kiddie City Euclid – one of our 2010 Cleveland GiveCamp projects – thank you for coming out to help in the kitchen and help with snacks.  It’s always good to see when our non-profits come back to help.  This is truly what a community is about – offering our skills to help each other succeed and make it in the world.  Thank you!

Words can’t explain how awesome Cleveland’s community is for stepping up to help 22 non-profits over the weekend.  From organizers to sponsors to staff and volunteers, this event couldn’t have happened without everyone’s involvement.  This year’s Cleveland GiveCamp is yet another reason why Cleveland rocks!

Special thanks to the places that gave us a home this weekend – LeanDog and Burke Lakefront Airport!  Without you guys, we wouldn’t have such great “home”s during Cleveland GiveCamp.  And what other GiveCamp can make the claim of taking place both on a boat and at an airport?  None other than Cleveland!  Again… more reasons why Cleveland rocks!

This one time, at GiveCamp, I really had a lot of fun meeting new friends and seeing old friends.  I am overwhelmed by how supportive Cleveland is of its non-profit community and just who made an impact.

Caught in the Web Community Events

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Jul 28

Cleveland GiveCamp 2011 – Sadukie’s Tales, Part 2 – Meet Sadukie, the Project Manager

by sarah

Cleveland GiveCamp starts tomorrow afternoon, and I’m excited that it’s finally here.  This year, I am working as a business analyst/project manager for two different charities.  I’ve talked about ASL Advocates; however, I’ve also taken on another one, so that we can help multiple non-profits.

My Other Non-Profit

My other non-profit this year is the American Indian Education Center.  We’re going to create a website that’s easier for them to maintain.  This group’s goals include spreading the work about Native Americans, American Indians.    I hope we can get them a site that they can keep updated.

My Role as a Project Manager

I was happy that Mark and his committee figured I’d be a great fit for the project manager role.  I’ve led many development projects in my past, and I’ve enjoyed being the project manager and the one who focuses on getting a great user experience for the client.  It’s great when you have a developer who can fit this role and deal with end users directly, acting as a go-between between the non-profit contacts and the devs.  I like to encourage the devs to meet the contacts and talk with them – I’m all about open lines of communication.

Tonight, I made notecards of the various features that each group wants on their site.  Each group has special specifications – certain colors have certain meanings, certain audiences require extra attention to accessibility.  I just hope that I get teams who understand the benefits of notecards and using them as a method of tracking tasks and getting things done.  After all, our goal this weekend is to complete some decent-sized development projects for selected non-profits.

Look forward to some upcoming posts on how the event is progressing and what’s going on at Cleveland GiveCamp 2011.  I will be blogging about it here at CodingGeekette.com.

Got any GiveCamp tales you want to share?  Leave a comment here!

Community Events

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Jul 14

Cleveland GiveCamp 2011 – Sadukie’s Tales, Part 1

by sarah

This year, I’ve been asked to use my business analyst/project management skills for a group.  I asked for this group in particular because once I saw them, I knew it’d be a non-profit that I believe in.  Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working with ASL Advocates – a group that promotes American Sign Language and wants to bridge the gap between the hearing and deaf communities.  As I work for them and with the Cleveland GiveCamp team, I will be posting here about our experiences on their project.  But today, I wanted to share my view as to why I believe in them.

Learning ASL While Young

When I was  in Girl Scouts as a kid, I remember seeing a section in our book on American Sign Language.  It intrigued me to see that you could “talk” through these hand signs.  I made it a point to learn the ASL alphabet so that I could at least spell my way through a situation should it ever come up.

Shortly after that realization, I learned a few words from someone close to me – my little cousin Maureen.  She was three years younger than me, and she had Down’s Syndrome.  Moey taught me how to sign a few words, including my favorite… cookie!  I wouldn’t realize just how cool it was to learn from Moey until a few years later, when we lost Moey.  While she may be gone, her memories still live on.

Continuing to Learn ASL

When I was in high school, I spent a summer as a volunteer camp counselor at Augustine Rainbow Camp.  I heard about the camp through a diocesan committee that I served on while in high school.  It was great to work with the campers, other counselors, and other staff on board.  Some of us had most of our hearing, others were deaf.  However, we learned from each other that summer. I learned how to say hello and how to introduce myself.  I also learned to slow down a little when speaking and stay patient while trying to communicate with each other.  It was definitely a great learning experience.

Fingerspelling in Action

As an adult, I’ve used my fingerspelling abilities a couple times.  One year, I met a friend’s friend (who is now a friend) – and he’s deaf.  When I first met him, it was my nature to just jump into fingerspelling. I eventually got past that.

Another time, I was waiting in line at a Marc’s retail store.  I noticed two gentlemen sign with each other as one was entering and the other was leaving.  Later, while waiting to check out, the one who entered got into our line.  Our cashier had to step away for change for the cash register.  The gentleman had a look of frustration on his face, as there were longer lines and this one seemed held up without a reason.  As soon as I spelled out c-h-a-n-g-e, he nodded and the frustration disappeared.  It was an unexpected skill that made someone else’s day easier.

A Non-Profit I Believe In

These experiences are part of why I believe in getting ASL advocacy out there.  I look forward to working with ASL Advocates in getting them a solution that works for them!

This is just one of the many non-profits that we’ll be helping at Cleveland GiveCamp on July 29 – 31.  Have you signed up yet?  If you haven’t, check out their Volunteer page and then sign up!

Community Events

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Jul 13

Pittsburgh GiveCamp Needs Volunteers!

by sarah

This weekend, I was supposed to be going to the Pittsburgh, PA area to help them with their first-ever GiveCamp. Unfortunately, I have to stay back due to health issues, but while I can’t be there, I want to be able to get them the help they need.  One of their organizers sent this today:

Come and be a part of something
special this weekend

A small group of software developers and web site designers will be
spending this weekend helping 7 local non-profit groups to build web sites,
system integrations, and solve other technical issues. It will be a marathon
event for sure but on Sunday afternoon we will go live with all of the projects
from Pittsburgh’s first GiveCamp.

Even with all of the support there are still some technology gaps that need to
be filled and we can really use your help in these areas.

- PHP experience

- Web Design (HTML, CSS, Photoshop)

- Experience with any CMS including Drupal, DotNetNuke, Joomla, Orchard, etc.

- WordPress themes

Even if you can’t volunteer for the entire weekend, please consider
volunteering a few hours on Friday or Saturday and add your experience to one
of our projects. In just a few hours you can help make a difference to these
groups and in turn they will spend the rest of the year making a difference to
thousands of others right here in Pittsburgh.

The event is being held at the DDI offices in Bridgeville. You can find the
location and sign-up form on our web site.

http://pghgivecamp.org/Volunteer

 

If you’re able to help them, please volunteer to help them!  The Pittsburgh community, from what I met in April, are a great group – yes, they seemed to like me even though I root for their rival NFL team!

Community Tech Events

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