Wandering into the Web

Sophia Lucero @ Digigirlz: Assemble

Hello ladies.

cout << “hello world!”; console.log (‘hello world!’) System.out.println (“hello world!”); print(“hello world!”);

So hello, a little bit about me…

Hi there! I’m Sophia Lucero

// stellify.net // @sofimi

Philippine Science High School

// The Science Scholar

We didn’t choose any track, but we did have streams. I was in the science stream, which allowed me to take an elective in journalism.

  • 1st year computer class: there were 2 people per PC, and our machine had exactly 16 colors only I’ve used computers occasionally when I was a kid, but it was in HS that I got on the internet. We learned to make websites using notepad and a browser that had no internet, so we could only use the things that were on that computer.

Altavista

  • Before Google obliterated the competition, search engines looked like this. Altavista was one of the better ones - Mozilla Firefox was a spin off from Netscape browser, dominant before MS Internet Explorer
  • I remember first trying Google in the Pisay library computer

Computer Science UP Diliman

// Engineering Web Team // The UP Parser // UP CURSOR // UP ACM

Photo by boink_99 on Flickr

Then I went to college and took CS in UPD. I also had several orgs, one of which was the E.W.T., which made websites for the different departments of the College of Engg.

Social networking sites look like this.

Friendster (and MySpace, Multiply) before FB or Twitter.

  • But even before that, people made their own websites with things like Geocities and LiveJournal, sharing their interests and expressing themselves.
  • So this is how a lot of us learned web design
  • we taught ourselves how to design and code.
  • At that time browsers sucked at rendering; lots of hacks (tables, slices); no browser tabs yet.

Today...

And then I graduated, and I just couldn’t stop doing that this thing I did as a hobby. I still call myself a web designer. In this industry, job titles means different things to every person.

Co-founder, Philippine Web Designers Organization

// Traveling // Blogging // Cats

Photo of my cat

Want to know a secret?

But before I go any further, I want to tell you a secret.

@katrinapallon

Women have been part of tech from the START.

Here’s what I want all of you here in this room to know. Something that isn’t emphasized very often and more people need to realized: Women have been working in computing since the beginning.

Ada Lovelace - Considered the first programmer

You might have heard of Charles Babbage. Ada worked with him. This was in the 1800s.

Admiral Grace Hopper - Developed the first compiler

She joined the Navy in World War II. Her computing career started in 1944.

Hedy Lamarr - Inventor; developed frequency-hopping spectrum; actress

Hedy Lamarr was also around in the forties.

Katherine Johnson - Mastered complex manual calculations & helped pioneer the use of computers at NASA

1953-1958 computer 1958-1986 aerospace technologist

Margaret Hamilton - Director of division that developed software for Apollo

  • Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. Founded Hamilton Technologies. 1960: developed software for predicting weather

During World War II, women operated some of the first computational machines used for codebreaking

  • NY Times

I even found out recently that even in the 50s-60s, the women who worked on computers started their computer companies, or did freelance work in programming, worked at home doing programming.

What happened?

Professors told female students that they were far “too pretty” to be studying electrical engineering - Ellen Spertus / NY Times

Sexism got rampant.

Boys were cheered on for playing with construction sets & electronics kits; girls were steered toward dolls & toy kitchens - NY Times

As computers grew smaller, they were gendered as a thing that boys would do, even though it’s totally fine for boys to play with dolls, or for girls to play with robots.

Schools & companies share responsibility to make tech a good industry for women, not a TOXIC one.

Women were driven out of tech because of toxic attitudes and stereotypes. Empowering women today should not stop at skills training. Everyone needs to rethink even the smallest actions that can affect the confidence of young girls, and what they believe they can or can’t do.

You deserve to be here!

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

  • Eleanor Roosevelt (also Joe to Mia in The Princess Diaries)

So ladies, believe in what you can do.

Almond Rose Obedoza - Youngest speaker at PyCon APAC 2019

Don’t believe me? Meet Almond Rose. She was the youngest speaker at the Python APAC Conference last month.

Web Design

Is everyone here familiar with the term web design?

Web

Web and Internet are two different things: Internet is the global network you are connected to, and Web is the collection of information you access via the Internet)

The web is a millennial

Sorry for dropping the M-word, but the Web is actually a millennial like me. It actually just turned 30 a few months ago. This weekend we’re also celebrating 25 years since the Philippines first connected to the Internet.

Design

Design is how it works

Web Design

So web design is using web technologies to achieve a goal, make something work, solve a problem.

Possibilities

What I like about Web Design is that it combines many different disciplines to create awesome things. Here are a few examples that can hopefully get you inspired.

@ewecandraw

Storytelling, Journalism - The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

One of the earliest mainstream examples of what we call “art direction” on the web. As browser capabilities improved more things became possible, such as editorial, magazine-style layouts and dynamic storytelling that NYT took advantage of.

Art - Diana Smith

http://diana-adrianne.com/purecss-francine/

“Painted” entirely with CSS.

Services - Sakay.ph https://sakay.ph

A web and mobile app that suggests commute options for you

Games - Mamayani http://mamayaniheroin.es/

An Filpino RPG about set during the American and Japanese occupation

Data Visualization - Thinking Machines https://stories.thinkingmachin.es/upcat-passers-gender-gap/

Not a static infographic, but a page whose data you can interact with.

Performance LiveJS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPWRaN2PXZw

This is an interactive production of lights, animation, and music with web technologies at JSConfEU in Berlin last June

Mind Control - Charlie Gerard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KhFO-qCVyg

Also at JSConfEU, Charlie Gerard demos how she used a device that read signals from the brain and relayed input to the browser. Languages used were C++ and JS.

Augmented Reality - Lessons in Herstory https://www.lessonsinherstory.com/

“You can’t be what you can’t see.” This app lets you learn about forgotten women in history that aren’t usually told in history books.

Doodles and Zines - @sailorhg | @una / dev_doodles | @b0rk

Being geeky doesn’t mean you can’t be artistic or girly. Here are examples of amazing women who express their personality and share their knowledge through zines and doodles. And this is also a tip to anyone teaching: if you can make learning fun, easy to understand, and relatable, then people will be encouraged to study that subject.

Where to start?

But where do I start, right? Here’s what happened to me.

Lou Palomar @lou_quorice

Hobbies

(Prize: does anyone know what anime this is?)

  • One my earliest forays into web design was creating fan sites with friends. I also made class sites because who isn’t nostalgic in high school

  • You usually start off in this field as self-taught. It helps a lot that the Web has a LOT of resources for free (now more than ever). It’s a pretty cheap hobby once you get your hands on a computer.

Writing & Art

Start writing your thoughts and learnings as you do it. Make a blog, make a YT channel, make Twitter or Instagram account. It’s a good way to see how far you’ve grown, sharpen your skills, and build connections to people all over the world.

Side gig

  • My first paid gig was in college for an honor society. You could say it shouldn’t count because it’s a referral from my mom, but networks and contacts are super important in career, so take note.

  • The next one that didn’t rely on a referral, but was a job posting on the bulletin board outside the CS department. Always keep an eye out and try everything. See where it takes you.

  • I also worked part time as student assistant for the Engineering Web Team. So besides the DOST stipend, I had some regular side income from that, while I got the chance to do the thing I was interested in.

Consulting

  • Entrepreneurship?

  • No I didn’t design this but I relate to it so much.

  • Right out of college I started doing remote work. First it was a lot of marketing and SEO oriented stuff like article writing, but the pay was pretty good, until I got more and more clients.

  • I liked the flexibility of freelance and consulting, having a good grip on my hours. I also didn’t mind that I worked at night because I stayed up late even since high school.

  • As long as I got enough sleep.

Volunteering

And then I fell into volunteering, which I guess I also kind of did in college with my orgs.

  • How did I become co-founder of the Philippine Web Designers Organization? In 2008, I felt that we needed a web design conference. There weren’t many opportunities about learning web design more deeply in a school setting, classes would just focus on hardcore programming, or it would be part of multimedia arts, visual communication, or information design.

  • So posted about it on social media, then people came together, and things started to happen. That was in 2008.

  • I co-founded PWDO in 2008, so we’re turning 10 this year. No profits, on our free time, and we’ve gotten quite far in what we wanted to achieve on our conference.

  • I help with a lot more than web design stuff, like social media, marketing, sponsorship, creating swags and other event related stuff. So it’s a good place to develop your skills and give back to the community.

  • And I get invited to speak and teach, like this.

What we’ve done since 2008

Form Function & Class

The pioneering web design conference in Asia formfunctionclass.com

  • Most diverse

  • Invited speakers from US, Aus, Europe, Japan, HK, SG and built friendships with other conf organizers in the region

Form Function & Class over the years

Junior Form Function & Class

The premier web design conference for students jffc.asia

MiniFFC

Meetups, workshops, & roadshows mini.formfunctionclass.com

Caritakathon

Microsoft was actually our venue partner for the 2 years that this ran. Website building hackathon for charities

Code in the Dark

In collaboration with Manila.css

15-minute code competition

Women Who Code in the Dark

In collaboration with Manila.css and Women Who Code Manila

15-minute code competition

Philippine Tech Community

Alliance of tech groups in the Philippines phtechcommunity.org

Womentors

support system of mentors in tech & design

You can do it too! (The Web helped us a lot)

Julia Presbitero @optberries

Inspiration

Ira Yu @lunarberri

Git it, gurl

Amy Wibowo shop.bubblesort.io

  • Back up your work, have some sort of version control!

The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life

Jessica Hische jessicahische.is

  • Pursue your hobbies and you might discover some breakthroughs when you combine two different fields. Creativity and innovation happens when ideas intersect.

  • See also: ikigai

Girls support girls

Kelly Malka etsy.com/kellymalka

Support girls

The two states of every programmer

We’ve all been there.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away

Less is more.

Design is content with intent. Intent without content is decoration. Content without intent is noise.

  • If you don’t have content, or if your content is crap, you won’t have good output.

Modes passent, le style est eternel

Yves Saint Laurent; Tobias Van Schneider

  • Don’t be a slave to trends

  • Knowing the foundations of good design and good code is more important

  • Something new will always come along and make things outdated (appearance or tech) or obsolete

Web design is people all the way down

David Wieland noti.st/davidwieland

My mother told me to be a lady, and for her, that meant be your own person, be independent

Kimothy Joy kimothyjoy.com

Join us!

Keep an eye out for our events or hit me up if you’d like to become a volunteer or mentee

pwdo.org

If you want to get to know our community more, visit our site and find all our links, including how you can become a member!

Thank you!

That’s it! Thank you for listening, and let’s open the floor for any questions! stellify.net * @sofimi

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