[okfn-discuss] Women comfortable at speaking at events...

[Rob Myers]

On 25/11/13 11:54 AM, Marieke Guy wrote:
> I agree that getting children interested in technology early on is an
> important part of this jigsaw.

Yes. And the ability of people to use open data is key to its success
(something its critics seem to regard as a surprise for its proponents
;-) ).

> I don't know of any initiatives at the Open Knowledge Foundation looking
> at this in particular - please do shout if I've missed anything - but I
> came across some really exciting activity when attending MozFest (an
> event the Open Knowledge Foundation are heavily involved with) last month.
> 
> My favourites were:
> 
>   * Code Club <https://www.codeclub.org.uk>- nationwide (UK) network of
>     free volunteer-led after-school coding clubs for children aged 9-11.
>   * Hive Learning Network
>     <https://mozillalabs.com/en-US/mozilla-hive-nyc/> - learning lab
>     that engages youth around innovation, digital media and web-making -
>     lots of projects and resources
>   * Hackosaurus <http://hackasaurus.org/en-US/> - using tools tools that
>     make it easy for kids to remix, create and share on the web.
>   * Using Minecraft for teaching (quite a few independent activities
>     around this)

My 12yo wants to learn Java to hack Minecraft.

>   * Teaching computing offline (with logic puzzles and games)
>   * Scratch <http://scratch.mit.edu>- coding for beginners
> 
> There was also a 'girls into technology' session.

Now I'm wondering about the possibilities for and potential of Open Data
Kids' projects. :-)

> As well as including children Mozilla has worked hard at getting a good
> gender balance at its events and it's really starting to pay off. There
> is a different feel to the event and it's a very positive buzz.
> 
> I'd like to echo other people's comments - diversity is an important
> part of open knowledge. If this means that we need to be proactive for a
> while then let's do it!

IMHO I would recommend "representation" rather than "diversity". But
yes, lets.