Next Gen Developer

I am having one of those months where I have so many different things that I want to investigate, play with and learn and so little time to dedicate to them that I feel like I am neglecting my technology roots! (Bad Sarah!) However as I did say a few days ago, I am going to be making a conscious effort this weekend to get back to some of it. So what is on my list of stuff to sit and play with:

1. Playing with Windows Mobile 2005 and interfacing to SQLMobile.
2. Reporting the many bugs that I seem to be finding with Messenger 8.0 Beta (he he he... I can crash it and explorer! - I told you I was bad!)
3. Having a play with Office Live (basics, collaboration and essentials).
4. Play about with Wiki solutions and analyse some of the current issues that occur with wiki's as a collaboration tool.
5. Python with Nokia phones... hmm... need to look into that... (if only I could find my old Nokia! grrr! See there is a use for old phones! Donate them to the devs! :) )

That will do to start with... (it's going to be a busy weekend!)

It is coming back to that time of the year where the developer developer developer day speakers can put themselves forward to talk on technical subjects. Now I am going to go out on a whim here and suggest specifically to the female technolgists and professionals out there with experience to come out and put themselves forward as speakers. Now the reason I say this is that at the last event there were very few female speakers and something that is apparent is that the females in IT are very good at getting information across and explaining it to people. Lets utilise those skills and have some fun.

I went and spoke at the last one on Mobile and Embedded Device development and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was an experience that I would love to do again. In fact I probably will, but what I was trying to say was that as a result I found that I learnt an awful lot at the same time and it's a great environment to get the techies together and talking on subjects that they all love!

It is up to you to choose how you shape the event, the more choice people have the more likely that the subject areas would be diverse. What was missing at the last event was AJAX, python, open source, Java, new media technologies and related subject areas. I would love to see people going with these areas... I don't organise this event but I do certainly advocate it! I wouldn't miss it for the world!

If you are even contemplating speaking after reading this post then you are the sort of person that should be speaking at the event. Passion, communcation of ideas, processes and technology are a must and don't worry about the people they are all really friendly and I can vouch for that, coz I was worried about that at first too. It's really not a problem. If you are worried about doing it on your own, find a co-speaker. It's not a problem!

To sign up to give a talk you need to go here and add your details to the list! I look forward to seeing who turns up and who speaks. If you want any advice or info on past DDD day events let me know. I would be happy to persuade you to talk at it ;)

I was chatting to Adriana yesterday and she was telling me that she has a couple of roles to fill at the Big Blog Company. One is a communications and change management type of role and the other is more technical. If you want to know more about the roles the full descriptions can be found on the website here!

I was talking with Sam Sethi yesterday about who the strong female role models are in the world and how many of them have a strong online presence. We came to the distinct conclusion between us that there isn't a single female that you can categorically say is the technical role model for men or women to look up to.

I can think of a few key women that could have the potential to do this but I'm not sure that they realise that they have the potential to influence and encourage others to venture into the unknown and build on what they know already. My list of top females in IT in no particular order are as follows:

Eileen Brown - Microsoft
Gillian Arnold - IBM
Suw Charman - Independent Consultant
Adriana Cronin-Lukas - The Big Blog Company
Rachel Jones - Instrata
Jen Dixon - Independent Consultant
Sue Loh - Microsoft
Maryam Scoble - Independent Consultant
Rachel Clarke - The Big Blog Company
Miss Rogue! - Riya.com
Molly E. Holzschlag - An author, instructor, and Web designer

Each of the above women mentionned are smart, intelligent, fantastic at their jobs and show a lot of promise for the future. They have all achieved great things on both a business and a personal level. I also know for a fact that they don't see themselves as role models. If you see them as your role model tell them! Let these women know the impact that they can have on people around the world. These are my A list bloggers and women in technology!

The theme for the Women in Technology event last night in London was all about flexible working. Now the first thing most people think about when talking about this sort of thing is children and families. However flexible working is much more than that. It is all about working the hours and in a manner that suits you and the team that you work with. For example think about co located teams... You need to have the flexibility to work late at night and early mornings in the UK to catch the US online. This is when flexible working comes into it's element.

Big themes that came up were monitoring people doing flexible working, trust, reasoning for doing it, how flexible the job is, family, support team, professionalism, promotions.

Questions that were asked on the evening were more about the way that companies cater for children and long distance travel to the office. Eileen Brown, as always did a fantastic speech about her flexible working practice and she doesn't have children, just a very understanding husband and a busy lifestyle! She is a classic example of flexible working in a business environment where communication, technology and understanding come together to make a workable system.

I need to apologise to those people who were expecting a podcast of last nights event... I went out there with the tools and the technology to do the event but somehow along the way the MP3 voice recorder decided there wasn't enough space on it and it didn't record more than one second of the entire event! I will clear down the device and be all ready for the next event! (I'm really annoyed with myself for not checking that out before starting the recording!

The event was a complete contrast to the London Girl Geek Dinner events that we organise, it is very formal and mainly aimed at the high flying executives and senior management. In some ways this is a good thing because it means that London Girl Geek Dinners has a unique market and is hopefully helping to fill the support gaps for people. I like to think of it as an enabler to understand markets, network, learn and explore. I hope others find it useful. From the feedback that I get it seems to just work. I hope that it continues to get the support that it needs. Also look out because there are whispers of Adriana Cronin-Lukas coming over to New York and doing a Geek Dinner or even a New York Girl Geek Dinner! Now how cool would that be! I know so many people are interested in getting these things started around the world. Adriana is looking for a venue that can scale that won't cost us to host the event from in NY! If you know of somewhere central and suitable then let me know and I will put you in contact with her. We are also after speakers for the NY event so if you are someone who is interested in talking at an event on technology and geekdom then we would love to hear from you! :)