ROSE Blog: Rikki's Open Source Exchange

Win a Free Pass to LISA '10

Oct 15, 2010 GMT

I have 2 free passes to give away to LISA '10 (includes the technical program and evening events only). If you would like to win one of the free passes, here's what you have to do: Send me an email (rkite@linuxpromagazine.com). The catch: Your email message must be in either limerick or haiku form, and it must include the word "LISA" or "Linux Pro". The first 2 qualifying submissions will earn the budding poets a free pass to LISA '10 and a Linux Pro t-shirt (so you can arrive at LISA in style, of course). Winning submissions will also be posted here on my blog.Happy Friday! And Happy Haikuing or Limericking!UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners!Julie Baumler...

Announcing our new Associate Web Editor

Oct 14, 2010 GMT

Back in my Sys Admin magazine days, we editors had a saying: Change is good... You go first.We've had a lot of change in our Linux New Media USA offices these past few weeks, and now we have additional change to announce. Our news editor, Trevan McGee, recently accepted a position at another company and starts his new job next week. We wish him good luck in his new adventure! I'm happy to announce that Amber Graner joins our team Monday as our new Associate Web Editor! I first wrote about Amber 588 days ago: Putting Open Source to the Mom Test Since then, Amber's had a lot of blog-worthy open source adventures and she has become an active, enthusiastic, well-respected member of our...

Girl Develop IT: James Turner interviews Sara Chipps

Oct 06, 2010 GMT

On O'Reilly Radar, James Turner posted his interview with Sara Chipps. In the interview, they discuss the Girl Develop IT project, a new approach to computer science education geared toward women. Chipps tells Turner, "With Girl Develop IT, we wanted to create an environment where women weren't afraid to ask stupid questions. We also wanted to make programming a lot more accessible for them. And now, we actually have two guys in our classes." Chipps explains how Girl Develop IT got started, and she answers the question, "Is there misogyny in the open source community?"

Grace Hopper 2010: Highlights

Oct 06, 2010 GMT

Sadly, I missed Grace Hopper again this year. Amber Graner called me from the event and said, "You should be here!" She volunteered at the Free Software Booth and spent time with some of my favorite women. I was chartreuse with envy. Happily, I didn't focus too much on what I was missing at GHC because I was too busy packing up our Linux New Media USA office and organizing our move in KS. (It's surprising how much time, effort, energy, and expense goes into moving an office one block over.) We also welcomed a new woman who joined our team last week (as I mentioned in my previous post). Now that I'm unpacked and settled into my new office with a view, I have some time to catch up...

120 Reasons I haven't been blogging

Oct 04, 2010 GMT

    We've been even busier than usual in the Linux New Media USA offices lately. In addition to launching two new magazines this year (Admin Magazine and another publication in the works), we've been growing. We added a new full-time production editor last Friday. Many readers might recognize Lori White's name in our upcoming mastheads because her name also graced the masthead of Sys Admin magazine for many years as the production and art director. Last Friday, Lori's first day on the job, we also moved into a new, much larger office. We were busting at the seams in our old office, but...

Open Source Harassment Mapping

Sep 20, 2010 GMT

Linda Harrison posted this interesting piece over on TechEYE.net: Open source mapping tech goes global, helps women fight back. Harrison writes that a group in Egypt introduced a service to report street harassment via text message. She says, "If a woman experiences unwanted attention from a man in a public place she simply picks up her mobile and sends a text to HarassMap where it’s reported on a centralised computer. She receives a reply offering support and some practical advice while the information is collated by the group at HarassMap who plot the incident on a publicly-available map and pass their findings on to police." Harrison also links to similar projects, the LASH...

Internships: Gnome Outreach Program for Women

Sep 17, 2010 GMT

Flyer by http://mairin.wordpress.com/ This morning I saw this gem on one of the mailing lists to which I subscribe:GNOME is an innovative free software desktop. It is easy to use and is the most popular desktop distributed with free operating systems. In an effort to get more women involved in free software, GNOME project is sponsoring several internships for women from December 15, 2010 to March 15, 2011. The application deadline for the program is October 25, 2010. The applicants need to get in touch with individual GNOME projects ahead of time to decide which project they are interested in working on. The stipend for the program is $4,500...