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Here is the video proof that I finally did my first tech talk.

I've put the slides up on slideshare.

All facilitators are volunteers, all events are free


- the students become teachers

Hands-on Learning Experience

Safe learning environment
- beginners questions are also difficult for coaches, because it often exposes what you take for granted

- everything is public. Your material is put into the pool and can be reused by others elsewhere
- Google group is public, everyone can see what is being planned and participate

Past Events
RailGirls Berlin success was a real inspiration. Gave them a lot of momentum.

JS for Absolute Beginnners
Installation party Friday night
Sat and Sun programming

Intro to Programming with Python
Saturday, really crowded
Lots of women in the picture from the event

Program a twitter client with Python

Beginners workshop followed up by more complex projects

first wed every month at Co-up. First part is talks (beginners and others) about projects. Then learn and tell. on the Hack and tell format. 5 minutes to show, 5 minutes feedback.

People ask questions and then you have 5 minutes to try to answer it. Can be anything. Will go on with this format for the next month.

Campus Party
43 workshops

Upcoming events
Beginners Meetup

Events are both in English and German.
twitter @beatricemartini

Ugh! Ipad fell of my lap and I lost my post somehow.

I need to learn to use my smart phone as a presentation remote control like Amelie is doing.

term frequency (tf) # of occurences in the doc

inverse document frequency (idf)

high= many times in a small number of documents
lower=fewer times in a document or in many documents
lowest=term occurs in almost all documents

This is not enough for good relevance.

Example of looking for "rope" Foo Fighters song on Soundcloud. Without page rank, you don't get what you expect.

Boost the popular results.

The web is a graph.

Some nodes are visited more often
- Nodes with many links
-coming from frequently visited nodes

If you end up on a page where there is no link, you can enter an address to go somewhere else.

Going to a node without using a link.

Adjaceny matrix can represent the graph of nodes, links, and teleport.
Each row represents a node and the links between.
Empty rows don't link to anything. Add teleport to all 0 rows.

I'm sure this does not make any sense without the diagrams and matrixes. Oh well.

"It's fairly simple when you think about it," she says. I think that is true, but equations with tildas in them intimidate me.

Univeral search on Soundcloud
They wanted users, songs, and sets mixed by relevance.

Their graph has not only nodes, but also node types and how they are linked.
(User A follows user B and created playlist A)

They weight links based on these relationships.
twitter @utstikkar

Introduction to Information Retrieval is a great book for people interested in this topic.

Binary is another way of counting. Computers only have two fingers.

We count

computers count

1 eights 0 fours 1 twos 1 ones=11

While studying Biology, learning binary opened her mind.

Why base 2?

Base 10 (decimal) 11
Base 16 (hexadecimal) B
Base 60 (babylonian)

60 has a lot of factors. Good for division.

What has this got to do with computers? What do computers do?
- store data. books do that, too.
- transform data. transforms data into patterns of light on your screen.
- store audio, image, numbers, text. you want one way to store all different kinds of data. Computers use numbers. Numbers can model anything.

core units can store a 1 or a 0. Memory cell.

8 bits in a byte. Bits have 8 digits per number

The Enchantress of Numbers. Ada Lovelace. Babbage called her the Enchantress of Numbers.

Why did we pick binary instead of another system?
Some people did choose decimal for early computers. in the 1800s, Babbage built a mechanical computer. He had two machines. Differential engine (calculator) and the analytical engine. Never completed, but fully designed. He tried to use decimal

The first computer eniac (?) did not use binary. Its programmers were all women. 8 of them.

Memory cells
each has either a one or a zero.
The circuit was invented long ago. High signal or low signal. Very simple.

Enniac represented decimal using binary memory cells
This is a waste. You can only represent 0-9
If you use binary, you can store 0-255 with the same 10 cells.

Hardware dictated the choice, then, really.

Binary is also used in the Morse code system.

If you want to know the roots of technology, start with the telegraph.

switches are on or off.

Electromechanical switches send an electrical signal and it does the swithing automatically. It has an electromanet inside. The electromagnet flips the switch.

diagrams for switches for AND, NOT, OR

I never thought of these as switches before.
It's obvious, but never seen it before.

switches can do logic, add, store information.

Eniac contained 17,468 vacuum tubes. Another kind of switch.
Core i7 has 781 million transistors
Computers turn crystals into electromagnetic switches.

Switches are amazing. A neuron is also just a switch.

Interesting that she refers to her hypothetical designer as "he."


user-centered design is a holistic approach. Work in future focus, seek innovation.
identify problem, identify people's needs

Collaboration is important.

How to design
Analyze everything
- What is the problem--example of social services project. People thought the problem was access to services, but really it was elsewhere (reputation of bad services, not knowing the services exist at all)
- Who are the users
- What is the product's context--do fieldwork. Observe people. Design anthropology.

Explore details. What do people DO? How? Why? What work arounds do people create in the real world?

observe, listen, ask, immerse, understand

empathize, understand-->define. What is the problem?-->ideate-->prototype-->test

But you will define your own process.

Who is your user? Create a persona
What is the need?
Insight--something extra about the person

example" An easy going waman needs to feel at home wherever she is traveling. This includes the user personality, the need, the insight.

Ask how
Ask more questions
Don't go for the safe bet.

paper product, video
handcrafted is better in first steps.
Get feedback, prototype fast and sloppy
Don't prototype everything at once. You can do it in pieces.
Test it with real people.

Just listen, don't influence people
Unpack the feedback. Go back to the process.

Use your learnings, don't ignore them.

People ignore design that ignores people

Korea is like a country from the future.

Destroyed during war, not many natural resources, makes a lot of culture and tech

Starcraft is the national sport of Korea. Game addiction is a big problem. There is wifi everywhere. 100% of the population have internet and mobile phones. 50% have smart phones. Plan to have paper-free schools by 2015.

1. It's about collaboration.

Subway card--you can have your subway card in Hello Kitty shape, anything you want. You can also use your subway card in the cab. You can also use it at the convenience store. All three phone carriers collaborate on NFC. 3 carriers and 9 credit card companies. 100 shops are ablet ot take NFC payment now. Pay with your phone thanks to this collaboration.

2. Understand social changes and solve problems with technology

Kakao talk--like WHat's app. Everyone uses it.

Couples culture in Korea is different. Not having a boyfriend is weird. Not married before 30 means you will never be married. If you are together, you are REALLY together.You have to be in constant communication with your significant other.

1 billion Kakao talk every day Also have to buy each other gifts all the time, so Kakao talk sells gifts.

March 14 is black Valentines where single people get pity gifts 

3. Know your opportunities


Long commutes are normal. Every subway platform has a digital screen for finding places. You can make a free call to anyone, play games, etc. They look beautiful and are not vandalized. There are phone chargers on the bus. is an interesting

Manager for Etsy Germany.

Ask a lot of stupid questions. Do things you don't think you can do.

Philosophy of being a woman in tech.
Silicon valley is focused on money a lot.
Homogeneous tech scene brings homogeneous solutions and products.

Campus party Mexico
technology is about creating a living and a future for themselves
finding small solutions for their communities, not making something MS would buy.

Should be more older people in tech and differently educated people.

Apologizing for not being a coder. Interesting.

"Finding your voice." Problematic weird idea. Took Calculus in summer school right before college. The class was full of young brainiacs. First time she was afraid to ask questions.

Make yourself visible and heard in the work environment. Ask questions. This is one way to combat the quotidian exclusion that can happen (guys go out drinking together, men go to sauna together)

Respect other people asking questions. Be humble. Be patient. Be helpful.

Sometimes asking questions helps you understand what you are good at.

10:15 AM

This is the first female-focused tech event I have ever been to. It feels like I've fallen into a parallel universe. On one hand, I am a little bit giddy to see all these cool-looking women. I could use a few more great women in my life and this looks like a good place to meet some. On the other hand, it does feel a little weird to be all women.

It's not the same kind of weird as when you go to a networking event and it's all men. It's a nicer, happier, more comfortable kind of weird. It's a weird I like.

I've read in a few articles that one of the problems women have is that, unlike other minorities in tech, they are often reluctant to network around their minority-ness.

Girl Geek Meetup started four years ago in Sweden. It's nice to see this networking reluctance breaking down. Go young people!

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