Talks and Podcasts
Jan. 13, 2022, 6:04 p.m.
FOSS Backstage 2024
All of the most successful fundraising campaigns come from three categories: services rendered, shared identity, or urgency; and are driven by thousands of small actions and follow up to create opportunities clarity and collaboration. Getting the right people to care is a beheamoth task. Large corporations that are expected to write a check and fill the gap of a worthwhile initiative don't show up like we expect; why does money never seem to flow to the right place at the right time?
Through this presentation I'll discuss ways grassroots campaigns strike a cord with their audience to get over the fundraising finish line with some common gotchas:
- The audience you thought would care, doesn't.
- Who has the bank account?
- How much is a handshake worth?
- Getting Western donations to African initiatives.
- Reduce the "I'm going to get yelled at" factor when asking corporations for contributions.
- Creating the next wave of financially and fiscally aware in Open Source.
DjangoCon US 2023
OCTOBER 17, 2023
Embark on a voyage through Djangonaut Space, a one-of-a-kind mentorship initiative within the Django community. With a focus on collaborative learning, sustainability, and long-term growth, we invite aspiring Djangonauts to join our 8-week group mentoring program. Here, participants work at their own pace in a structured learning environment, setting the stage for future contributions and potential leadership roles within the Django community.
The mission is crystal clear: to nurture Django’s next generation of leaders, boost community sustainability, and create a more diverse and inclusive contributor base.
But does this program truly deliver on its promises? Can its unique approach effectively achieve its ambitious goals? Is it the transformative experience it professes to be? In short, will these Djangonauts reach the stars?
With the conclusion of our Pilot Program, we invite you to join us in reflecting on its inception, achievements, and its potential impact on the broader Django universe going forward. Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of the discussion and our mission to shape the future of Django together.
DjangoCon Europe 2023 Keynote
MAY 30, 2023
A coding brontosaurus teams up with other Open Source dinosaurs and unite as a community to advance their project. From The Apprentice-Rex to the Ptero-Python-Party-o-Dactyl, this rag tag group of friends' unique approaches work together to make our journeys better and our communities sustainable.
This keynote, inspired by the playful characters of the classic children's film A Land Before Time (1988) brings a fun approach to how persona marketing applies to the participants in Open Source. We compare project ecosystems, talk friction reducing activities tending to your community, and how iterative product and developer experience design through empathy is essential to project adoption.
Sad Python Girls Podcast
DECEMBER 16, 2022
Welcome to this new episode of the Sad Python Girls Club podcast! In this episode we are having a blast with Dawn Wages, who's not only the Python Community Product Manager at Microsoft, but also a PSF director, DjancoCon organizer, Wagtail CMS core team member, and boundless reservoir of energy 🔋
"I feel like it's people, who are the solution to all of the world's woes, and code is but a tool." Dawn's powerful statement summarizes this episode, where we talk about the evolution of Django and DjangoCon, shaping codes of conduct while being mindful of ethical questions, and a few thoughts and avenues on how to make communities more welcoming 🤝
PATHS Interview - Season 2
JUNE 28, 2022
- 00:00 - 00:38: Intro
- 00:38 - 01:24: Identity
- 01:24 - 04:40: Coming Out and Finding My Labels
- 04:40 - 05:45: Job Explanation
- 05:45 - 08:21: Finding Love for Tech
- 08:21 - 12:16: Experience as a Queer Woman of Color in Tech
- 12:16 - 15:10: Anti-Racist Coding
- 15:10 - 19:10: Importance of Anti-Racist Coding/License
- 19:10 - 22:05: Barriers for LGBTQ+ Individuals Entering Tech Field
- 22:05 - 23:49: Advice to LGBTQ+ Individuals Interested in STEAM Fields
Open Source Stories Podcast
MAY 16, 2022
Ethical open source engineering, farm-to-table open source, practicing anti-racism in open source, fostering innovation through psychological safety, next generation of open source contributors, responsible open source development.
The Django Girls Official Podcast
JANUARY 13TH, 2022
Had a wonderful time on the first Django Girls Podcast episode with Aisha and Leona about my journey to Django starting with Django Girls. I also got a chance to talk about new initiatives with At The Root.
GATSBY + WAGTAIL
May 20, 2021
SEPTEMBER 8, 2020
Exploring if a GatsbyJS progressive web app generator frontend with a headless Wagtail backend could be a solution for small-sized clients and personal projects when I want to "whip something up" quickly without sacrificing design, performance/hosting costs, user or site editor experience (Can I have it all)? Gatsby (https://www.gatsbyjs.org/) is a open source framework based on React. Wagtail (https://wagtail.io/) is a Django CMS with LOTS of cool features for content creators, and "plays nicely with everything else in your tech stack" because its built on and easily integrates with all uses of Python.
I am a JavaScript and Python consultant and used this stack to host a project near to my heart: At The Root: The AntiRacist Ethical Source License. In this talk I dive into a little code, a lot of cool features, and some important ways Open Source Engineers can contribute to the accessibility and accountability of their communities. Other versions of this talk have been given in Python meetups and Pycon Australia with more an emphasis on the developer experience. I hope to give you a primer on what your stack can do with for your projects when you jump into communities that put accessibility at its forefront without sacrificing cool tech.
Learn about:
- Static Site Generators
- Progressive Web Apps
- Python for the web
- React
- Content Management Systems / Blogs / Client Managed Sites
- Ethical Licenses for Open Code
- GraphQL
- "headless" backends
Django Chat Podcast
FEBRUARY 3RD, 2021
Super fun episode with Carlton Gibson and William Vincent where I discuss my journey to consulting, being a "community taught" engineer, my work in React and Gatsby, and the Antiracist Ethical Source License.
#CauseAScene Podcast
FEBRUARY 17TH, 2021
I had the absolute privilege of being Kim Crayton's final guest on her podcast #CauseAScene. We waxed philosophical about whether or not we use Black Girl Magic, is colonialism and capitalism inextricably linked to tech, who leads the movement and why the answer is US!
OPEN SOURCE DINOSAUR CLASSIFICATION : A NEW ADVENTURE IS BORN
JUNE 21, 2018
This talk has taken a few forms over the years. Its firm form began as an introduction to how different "dinosaurs" can learn Wagtail. Borrowing from the fun and playful characters in A Land Before Time (1988), this talk originally given at Wagtail Space 2018 in Philadelphia, looks at the archetypes / "personalities" of people who participate in the Open Source community and how they seek to interact at-large.
This talk is for projects that would like to grow from dozens of users to hundreds, a handful of contributors to dozens, and provide friction reducing methods for learning and sharing in Open Source. We will look at the ecosystems of React / ECMAScript PWA communities, Wagtail and other Python projects, and Ruby on Rails comparatively (with helpful visual aides) and how they reduce the friction for adoption and contribution through starter tutorials, fun incentive programs, intuitive documentation, assistive tools, and partnerships all with _real_ examples of how to be proactive with successful stories. A healthy community is empathetic, welcoming and diverse. Have fun with the Apprentice-Rex, the Fail-Fast-adon and other dinosaur friends, as we learn how they navigate new engineering projects on the way to seek the oasis known as the Great Valley.
