We cancelled the August networking drinks due to a sad combination of work, exams, and travel
But we’re back on for 16 September 2010 – you can RSVP on Facebook
Despite the fact this video is really quite sexist, some of the lyrics are quite humorous.
This news just in for Sydney geekgirls from Maxine and John at Web Directions South:
===== The Hack Day reloaded =====
Hi,
We’ve just launched something very cool, exciting and free that’s going to take place in Atlanta [September 25] and Sydney [October 16], the day after Web Directions in both those places. And you’re invited! Make sure you register now though, as this will sell out fast 
1. Amped – The Hack Day reloaded
2. How does it work?
3. What’s all this about amazing prizes?
===== 1. Amped – The Hack Day reloaded =====
When you’re hearing about the latest web technologies and techniques don’t you always think “I wish I could play with these right now”?
Enter Amped – the Hackday, reloaded, brought to you by Web Directions.
We’ve taken the traditional hack day, pulled it apart, thought long and hard about what’s great, what’s not so great, and how as many different kinds of web folks can come together for one intense 10 hour period of hacking, designing and making amazing things.
Then we’ve assembled all the pieces to create an event that’s challenging, inspirational, and more fun that it should be legal to have with technology.
Whether you’re a developer, designer, an IA, IxD, whatever your role, at Amped you’ll find
* challenges to engage you
* mentors to inspire you and bring out your best
* prizes including an all expenses paid trip for Tokyo for Web Directions East for the top FOUR place getters
* a sensational closing party
Not only that, but Amped is catered, with food and drink to keep you energized throughout the day. And best of all, thanks to our generous partners, Amped is free.
===== 2. How does it work? =====
Step 1 – sign up. Places will go fast!
Step 2 – in the weeks leading up to Amped, we’ll let you know more about the challenges, so you can be prepared to hit the ground running on the day
Step 3 – turn up to the venue on the day, ready to rock
The challenges will help provide structure to your work on the day – you’ll be able to choose from a range of possible challenges focussing on front end design and development, interaction design, data and information visualisation, back end development, mobile web application development and more.
Each challenge area will have mentors on hand to help you, and there’ll be prizes for the best work on each challenge.
Then it all wraps up with a fantastic party – food and drink, music and more.
It’s free, fun, and open to everyone, but places are limited, and will go fast. So register now, and clear your diary for September 25 [Atlanta] or October 16 [Sydney].
===== 3. What’s all this about amazing prizes? =====
Then, the winners from each challenge go into the Amped smackdown – with the overall winners off to Tokyo for an all expenses paid trip to Web Directions East.
Yes, that’s right, The Grand Prize is a once in a lifetime, all expenses paid trip to Japan to attend Web Directions East for the four top placegetters. Plus there’s a tonne of amazing prizes from our partners to be won.
Look forward to meeting you soon at an Amped event!
Regards
Maxine and John
===================================
Maxine Sherrin
John Allsopp
http://south10.webdirections.org/
http://usa10.webdirections.org/
maxine@webdirections.org
===================================
In 2010, the Open Source Developers’ Conference (OSDC) is back in Melbourne!
Running Wednesday 24th – Friday 26th November 2010, OSDC is a great way to meet your peers, share your knowledge, and improve your skills.
Be part of our 7th year of this fantastic conference, run by open source developers for open source developers.
Submit a proposal on open source languages, technologies, tools and projects.
http://2010.osdc.com.au/call-for-proposals
Key dates:
Call for Proposals Closes 23 August 2010
Proposal Acceptance 6 September 2010
OSDC 2010 Conference 24th to 26th November 2010
Please feel free to pass this on to any other people or groups you think might be interested in submitting a paper!
The linux.conf.au 2011 organisers now welcome proposals of papers from all areas of the open source community.
linux.conf.au is a fun, informal, seriously technical conference. In 2011 it will also cater to a range of end users including those new to the open source community.
“We’re excited to be carrying on the proud tradition of linux.conf.au in our home city of Brisbane.” said Shaun Nykvist, director of lca2011.
“We’re mindful of the important role that this conference plays in the F/OSS community both here in Australia and internationally. We are focussed on bringing knowledgeable and exciting speakers, the latest and finest of Linux and F/OSS expertise, and also a few innovations to linux.conf.au in Brisbane in January 2011.” said Nykvist.
The theme of this years conference is “follow the flow”. The warm and friendly river-side Brisbane will be hosting the best linux.conf.au ever. What does the theme “follow the flow mean”? It is about the growing movement of open source, whether its down at the kernel level or over in libre graphics.
The call for papers will remain open until the 7th of August, 2010.
More information for those wanting to submit a paper is available at the lca2011 website: http://lca2011.linux.org.au/
This news via AussieChix
What would you say if you had only 5 minutes on stage? What if you only got 20 slides, and each slide lasted just 15 seconds?
That’s the challenge of the Ignite format, which returns to Sydney on Thursday, 15th July. It sounds crazy, but it results in a fun and fast-paced evening where you’re guaranteed to learn something new – and not to be bored.
The Ignite Sydney organisers want to feature more women presenters, to redress the gender imbalance and allow women to have their say. You don’t have to be a presentation expert, you just need to have something interesting to say. It could be a story, a diatribe, or advice on how to build a better mousetrap.
If this sounds like something you’d like to try, fill out the form at www.IgniteSydney.com/speakers and let them know.
US Chix member Laura/Elwing is in Sydney at the end of this month.
The meetup plan:
Date: Saturday 29th May 2010
Time: 12:30pm
Location: Jaipur Sweets, 188 Elizabeth Street, Sydney
It’s walking distance from Central Station.
Despite the name, Jaipur is not just sweets, it’s Indian food.
Chix, friends, family and Chix-friendly folk of any gender welcome.
To attend please send an email to rsvp.sydney@au.linuxchix.org.
Chix Contact Info
Chix@au.linuxchix.org
http://lists.au.linuxchix.org/listinfo/chix
http://au.linuxchix.org/
It’s going to be awesome! Come on down to Serial!
Where: Serial Space, 33 Wellington St Chippendale
When: Tuesday 4th May, 19:00 for a 19:30 speakoff till 10ish
How: Run script
A fantastically well rounded program for this autumn meet-up.
P R E S E N T E R S
HIROFUMI UCHINO
The gear for noise! Introducing hand-made equipments to make “noise” by Hirofumi Uchino:Australian based Japanese artist who creates “noise” related performances, objects and exhibitions with wide range skills and methods. Founder of “Lastgasp Art Laboratories” and “Defektro”.
LAL website: http://lalweb.com
DEFEKTRO website: http://defektro.com
ALEX DAVIES
Alex Davies is going to discuss 2 projects that incorporate physical computing for childcare (The Robaupair) and entertainment (Häusliches Glück). A must for downtrodden parents and augmented reality enthusiasts alike!
more about Alex Davies’ work: http://schizophonia.com/
SHOW + TELL
If you have anything for a show & tell, bring it along too.
BE THERE AND BE SQUARE
Dorkbot-Syd “Overlord” | www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotsyd | dorkbotsyd@dorkbot.org
Look – we’ve got a nifty new Flickr group for sharing girl geek pictures 
If you weren’t there you missed a fun evening of socialising, information, robots, easter eggs and networking with girlgeeks! We had an inspiring line up of speakers and the venue provided by UTS was great.
Thank-you to our lovely sponsors Thoughtworks and UTS Women in Engineering & IT who made the evening possible.
We were also honoured to be welcomed to UTS by Professor Shirley Alexander, who is a girl geek we can all look up to.
Speakers (in order of appearance):
About: Director of the Innovation and Technology Research Laboratory at UTS, and previously guest professor at USTC. Her interests lie in computational models for decision making, reasoning, belief revision and cognitive robotics.
Designing and engineering innovative technologies is empowering, exciting and fun. In order to enjoy the benefits new technologies offer, girls need to be players not spectators. They must create new concepts, think disruptively, engage in design, construct and build. Girls must lead!
About: Claudia aka blakkat loves Salsa dancing and cats. Used to fix computers of the Windows and Mac variety, and whilst waiting for a long time for the upgrades/or OS installs to install, she used to build and maintain UNIX/LINUX and Windows servers. Blakkat got bored and decided to make pretty websites and now is a happy (soon-to-be-married) web dev at Yahoo.
Easter Eggs: “A virtual Easter egg is an intentional hidden message, in-joke or feature in an object such as a movie, book, CD, DVD, computer program, web page”
About: I’m hand-wavingly frothing-at-the-mouth passionate about user experience, and part of the point of this is that you really need to care about what you do. The joy you get from delivering something that makes people say, “Damn, that works perfectly for me!” is what it’s all about.
How usability and user experience cover all design and construction/development, no matter what the field. My favourite quote about usability came from a child–Building software without doing usability is like making a suit without measuring someone first. If humans are going to interact with it, you need to consider their needs.
About: Technical Business Analyst: Self confessed twitter addict and gadget lover. I specialise in both Web and Microsoft / Enterprise technologies. My background is in construction so I’m passionate about the use of technology in construction.
My talk will showcase how you can build your own online presence using Wordpress with very little knowledge of CSS and PHP. I want to explain how easy it is to have a strong online brand presence with just a few simple tools, and with the great features of Wordpress. Especially the fact that this can be done for just a few dollars, or even free.
A massive thank you to our helpers and supporters:
All the Girl Geeks
Allison Carleton
Andrea Certeza
Bronwyn Holland
Candace Wong
Cathie McGinn
Claudia Mikaelian
Diane Cotterill
Georgi Knox
Jaine Fleetwood
Jodie Miners
Kate Carruthers
Kellie Scott
Laura Waibel
Lynne Hoad
Mark Cahill
Professor Mary-Anne Williams
Professor Peter Booth
Richard Raban
Theresa Cunnington
Theresa Dinh
Thomas Given-Wilson
ThoughtWorks
Trading Technologies
