🌱 lovely communities, civic tech, plants and animals
Hello, friend!
There is so much happening in the world currently, and the U.S. is not an exception.
It is okay to feel all sorts of emotions. If you are stressed, tense or anxious, check these Recipes for Wellbeing or perhaps these Radical Wellbeing for Activists resources. If you seek little pockets of togetherness, below I included a few lovely online tech communities.
I also made sure to pick really fluffy stuff in the all the fluff section that pertains to plants, animals and some happy news.
However, if you can handle it, please do think about engaging in civic tech and check the events listed below. "Tech is not neutral", as Kim Crayton repeats and it is up to all of us to democratize and decolonize this field.
✨ Civic tech events
đź”» Happening today: Disruptive Technologists: Tech Disrupts Democracy!
A panel featuring amazing speakers who will talk about everything democracy and tech, for instance: how data and technology can help improve democracy, online voting, data collection and protection , what technology innovations can improve the way we engage in our democracy, etc.
The event is taking place today (Wed, Jan 13th) at 6:00pm EST and it will be hosted online.
đź”» Happening today: Ruby event for folks who feel alone and would like to start organizing
This talk is for anyone who feels alone, sitting in front of a monitor, with a mask hung on the door to the outside. Technology can't solve all our problems, and we shouldn't try, but the collective action of aligned communities can change the world. (...)We have to remember that we cannot stand still — not technologically, not emotionally, not politically. (...) You're going to leave with some ideas of where to start organizing, what to start doing, how to break your doomscrolling into something that improves the world.
The Heidi Waterhouse on MirrorWorld event is taking place today (Wed, Jan 13th) at 5:30pm EST and it will be hosted online.
đź”» Let's talk about AI and bias
AI systems are only as good as the data we put into them. When the data used to train AI models are biased, you get biased decisions. With the growing use of artificial intelligence in a variety of fields, how can we ensure the unfair decisions don't exacerbate the equality gaps between different communities.
"AI FAIRNESS: Tackling bias in AI solutions" is an all-women expert panel on the state of AI, its bias, limitations and possible solutions.
Join them on January 14, 2021 (Thursday) at 6:30pm EST.
✨ Lovely communities
đź”» Ruby Book Club is back!!
A meetup that started my profound love for Ruby is back! Hack & Chat (with Book Club!) is an event for women and non-binary folks who want to meet, talk code, work on projects and discuss an assigned reading. The atmosphere is amazing -- 100% fluffy. Even if you haven't read the book/chapter, come and listen to what others have to say!
The event takes place on every third Monday of a month, so for example on January 18, 2021 at 7:00pm EST.
đź”» Next edition of You Got This Conference is round the corner
You Got This From Your Couch is an online community conference which focuses on the non-technical core skills for a happy, healthy work life.
It is a wellbeing re-affirming place for all devs, regardless of their level of experience or identity. This edition is happening on this Friday and Saturday (15th-16 Juary 2021) and it's free.
đź”» Join Code Cafe Online Community
A virtual 'Coffee x Code' community + meetup group. Do you like coffee? Do you write code? Join our Discord or attend an online meetup!
Run by the amazing CodePixi, this lovely community offers safe and warm space to talk code, coffee and tech.
✨ Dev Snacks
- Here's a Hackernoon article on 200 Black Women in Tech to Follow on Twitter -- please do follow them!
- If you're as confused as I am by some of the job titles in tech, Nicole Archambault started a thread where folks explain their roles.
- Divya has been running a daily jamstack-mini-dictionary series with the key concepts explained; the entries include "serverless", "version control", "decoupled" or "immutability".
- If you’re looking to get started with illustrations featuring black folks for your design projects, you should look into BlackIllustrations.com; their library includes free packs as well.
✨ All the Fluff
- Make your twitter feed a bit brighter by inviting these lovely quokkas, chill capybaras, curious dik-diks, happy pigs or the wholesome we rate dogs account!
- It's worth following The Happy Broadcast on Instagram or Twitter that features illustrated positive news from around the world.
- Bioo, an eco company has launched the world’s first piano made from plants. The remarkable instrument uses living plants as biological antennas, capable of perceiving changes in frequency when they are touched -- you can watch a video here or read more on their website about their work that includes, e.g. "a living library: space where plants store voice messages, and when touched, they are reproduced in a whisper".
🛑 News corner
- If you'd like to learn more about why Parler was kicked out from AWS, what that means and why we have cloud services at all, here's a thread by Corey Quinn that breaks that down
- Did you hear about @donk_enby, a hacker who hacked Parler, archived their data?
In an interview Monday, @donk_enby said she began to archive posts from Parler the day of the siege, documenting what she described as “very incriminating” evidence linked to a mob of Parler users on the Hill. When it later became clear that Amazon intended to expel the app from its servers, she expanded her efforts to vacuum up the entirety of its content. (...) Unlike most of its competitors, Parler apparently had no mechanism in place to strip sensitive metadata from its users’ videos prior to posting them online.
- Meanwhile, Github fired a Jewish employee who warned co-workers to stay safe from Nazis on last Wednesday, a move that basically prioritizes comfort of majority over the safety of folks who are on the receiving end of violence:
The message sparked controversy inside the company, with one colleague criticizing him for using divisive language. GitHub’s HR team chastised the employee for using the word “Nazi” in a company Slack channel.
- Twitter suspended 70,000 accounts linked to QAnon, which maybe explains why so many conservatives complain about losing tens of thousands of followers.
- In other news, Marsha P. Johnson Institue is looking for a Website Manager, someone who does know some coding and who deeply cares about human rights of ​black transgender people.
- Speaking of amazing places to work at, Propel is looking for a full-stack dev. One of Propel's products is Fresh EBT, a tool to manage government benefits on an EBT card, save money, and earn income. Even if you don't apply there, please do read about their terrific work.