10 May 2013
This month: Brainstorming events and activities for this group in the second half of 2013. What do you want to get out of Drupalchix?
Site builders, themers, content editors, project managers, community builders, plain old interested parties, whatever your role may be you are all welcome. We have an ambitious goal to find all the hidden women of Drupal to help build and strengthen the wider Melbourne Drupal community, as well as provide a forum for women to network and learn about Drupal.
Thanks to the Electron Workshop for hosting us again - 31 Arden St, North Melbourne.
Please RSVP on Meetup to assist with planning and catering. Drinks and nibbles provided.
17 Apr 2013
The last few Melbourne Drupalchix meetups have been cancelled due to lack of RSVPs. If you are interested in Drupalchix meetups, please comment:
- How would you like to be involved?
- What discussion topics or types of activity do you want to see?
- What days of the week work for you?
17 Feb 2013
I’m finally finding some time to reflect briefly on DrupalCon Sydney, which ended a week ago. This was my first DrupalCon, and the first DrupalCon to be held in the southern hemisphere. It was described as a ‘floating’ DrupalCon (in addition to the two regular northern hemisphere ones); the next big Drupal event in the southern hemisphere will be a return to Wellington, New Zealand, for DrupalSouth. I have fond memories of DrupalSouth Wellington 2010; it’s where I gained a lot of encouragement in developing my Drupal skills, and where I started making connections with key contributors to Drupal outside of Australia.
DrupalCon Sydney was encouraging for similar reasons – it coincided with the next big step in my Drupal career, to go freelance full-time, and I was able to make further connections with the international Drupal community. Overall, what encouraged me about DrupalCon Sydney were:
Growing Drupal down under – The Drupal Association is gradually recognising the significant Drupal community in Australia and New Zealand (if not the wider Asia-Pacific region). While we still don’t have the same status as North America and Europe, we are being taken a bit more seriously. Kudos especially to Donna Benjamin for being a voice for our region within the Drupal Association.
A welcoming community – I have been involved in a few Linux/open source user groups, and I have stayed with the Drupal community because it is genuinely friendly and welcoming to new developers. (Its shortcomings in welcoming non-developers is a blog post someone else can write.) It’s not just that, like some other large open source communities, it has a written code of conduct – my online and offline experience with Drupal meetup groups and contributors is that many of us already share these values and don’t need to be taught them from scratch. There are also initiatives to help developers contribute to the core project. xjm and ZenDoodles’ talk on patch review and the Saturday code sprint helped me make my first (imperfect) patch to Drupal 8 core.
Women in Drupal – I met Angie Byron, the core maintainer for Drupal 7, at Linux.conf.au and DrupalSouth in Wellington in 2010, along with EmmaJane Hogbin and Liz Henry. It already appeared to me then that Drupal didn’t share the boys’-club atmosphere that plagues many open source projects. Since DrupalCon Sydney I have a better appreciation of how many women are involved in technical leadership, including xjm who is now Code and Community Strategist at Acquia. I don’t have any illusion that the Drupal project is some kind of geek feminist utopia, but I certainly find it a welcoming and safe place to develop my skills.
Budget permitting, I hope to get to DrupalCon Prague in September for my first European DrupalCon and first ever visit to (‘Continental’) Europe. If not, next stop Wellington!
16 Feb 2013
The first Drupalchix/Women in Drupal Melbourne meetup for 2013 is on next Thursday, 21 February, at the Electron Workshop coworking space in North Melbourne. This group is a supplement to the wider Melbourne Drupal meetup group, and aims to provide a forum for women who use Drupal (or are even thinking of using Drupal) to network and learn from each other.
Full details are on Meetup.com.
21 Jan 2013
How often do you read books written by Australians, let alone by Australian women? I know I haven’t read as many Australian women as I would like. This year I’m joining the Australian Women Writers Challenge. I am committing to the ‘Miles’ level of the challenge, to read at least six and review at least four books by Australian women this year, with an emphasis of diversity, especially by Indigenous, migrant, and LGBT authors.
I haven’t formed a list or chosen my first book to read. Suggestions are very welcome.
UPDATED:
I just went through my to-read shelf on Goodreads and found five novels that fit the bill, a good mix of ‘classic’ and more recent works:
- Christina Stead, The Man who Loved Children (1940)
- Elizabeth Harrower, The Watch Tower (1966)
- Helen Garner, Monkey Grip (1977)
- Gail Jones, Five Bells (2011)
- Meg Mundell, Black Glass (2012)
It shouldn’t be hard to keep adding to the list, hopefully including authors from more diverse backgrounds. I just have to get reading!