[Events] hello everyone

[Daniel Choi]

Hi guys 

The blog post is ready, if Asheesh wants to use it. 

It's at 

http://snapframework.com/docs/quickstart

It's a Google Doc. If you need to be granted permission to view it, just
request it after visiting the Doc URL.

Dan

On Wed, Jun 06, 2012 at 01:45 PM, Asheesh Laroia <lists at asheesh.org> wrote:

> from: Asheesh Laroia <lists at asheesh.org>
> date: Wed, Jun 06 01:45 PM -04:00 2012
> to: events <events at lists.openhatch.org>
> reply-to: events at lists.openhatch.org
> subject: Re: [Events] hello everyone
> 
> Excerpts from Daniel Choi's message of Wed Jun 06 13:16:30 -0400 2012:
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Daniel Choi and I am a
>> Rubyist in Boston. I love programming and am the author of a few
>> websites and open source projects, including Vmail[1], a Vim client for
>> Gmail. I run a small software shop in Cambridge, MA with my friend.
>> 
>> I'm introducing myself to this mailing list now because three weeks ago,
>> everything changed for the Boston Ruby Community. There were stirrings
>> of malaise in the Boston Ruby mailing list about our lack of diversity
>> and beginner-friendliness.  Our female representation at monthly Boston
>> Ruby meetings is embarrassingly low, and too often our events are 
>> intimidating for beginners and newcomers. We wanted to do something
>> about this, but had no clear idea how.
>> 
>> Then someone pointed to Boston Python as a community that had its act
>> together on outreach and welcoming newcomers. I contacted some people
>> there, and they pointed me to the 2012 PyCon presentation by Jessica
>> McKellar and Asheesh Laroia titled "Diversity in practice: How the
>> Boston Python User Group grew to 1700 people and over 15% women."[2]  
>> 
>> After I watched that video, I urged everyone on the Boston Ruby mailing
>> list to watch it. Then things started happening fast.
>> 
>> Jessica and Asheesh's presentation changed our whole outlook on
>> what is possible for the Boston Ruby community.  In 40 minutes, they
>> opened our eyes to how we were stunting ourselves as a community, and
>> they excited us by laying out such a clear, practical, and feasible
>> outreach strategy that we could follow to change things dramatically in
>> a short period of time.
>> 
>> We were so pumped that a day after we saw the video, we organized a
>> BostonRB outreach organizational meeting to start moving. We even got
>> Jessica and Asheesh to attend it! (Asheesh, 3 time zones away,  was
>> there virtually, thanks to Google Hangouts.) In an hour, we got everyone
>> to agree that we would follow the playbook Jessica and Asheesh laid out. 
>> 
>> Two weeks later, which was last night, we held our first outreach event,
>> a beginner-friendly Ruby Project Night, modeled on the Python Project
>> Night Asheesh and Jessica pioneered. It was a great success. Newcomers
>> went out of their way to thank us for organizing it. The volunteers who
>> helped the beginners loved it too, and everyone who took part feels more
>> engaged and invested as members of the Boston Ruby community.  
>> 
>> Now we are about to start planning our first Boston Ruby Workshop for
>> Women and Their Friends. We are gathering a support and volunteers from
>> all sides. Our outreach effort, which was nonexistent just a month ago,
>> is growing strong and confident legs.
>> 
>> I wanted to share that good news with everyone here. I also hope this
>> message can help inspire new outreach efforts elsewhere. 
> 
> Well, thank you for the unbelievably unenthusiastic email! I'm floored.
> 
> I'll conclude a few things from this:
> 
> * Jessica's plan that people should try running project nights
>   before they dive into an outreach workshop seems to be quite
>   reasonable!
> 
> * Dan, the work you've done is truly amazing.
> 
> * Giving talks is not only fun, but probably a good idea. (:
> 
> Dan, I'm curious if you can write a little bit about the fact
> that Boston.rb renamed the "Hack night" to a "Project night."
> Did you guys change anything in particular about the hack night
> other than the name? (And what sort of feedback did you get about
> the name change?)
> 
> -- Asheesh.
> _______________________________________________
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> Events at lists.openhatch.org
> http://lists.openhatch.org/mailman/listinfo/events

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