Girls: get coding.

Nancy Proctor RT’d this Tweet yesterday, and it caught my attention for a couple of reasons. The first is that at MW2011 (maybe the first place I’d been where awesome tech nerds convened en masse), I’d come to realise just how much of the technical side of the web passes me by completely. And that meant that when people would talk about how something did or didn’t work (rather than simply the ideas behind it), I couldn’t participate in those discussions at all… which I think is problematic if I want to spend my career working in digital heritage.

The second reason it caught my attention is that it suddenly struck me that being able to code is the modern day equivalent of being able to fix your own car – or at least change your own tyre. And as the original Tweet says – if women want to have any opportunity to shape the world and even just to be self-reliant in a world that is built on code – then we need to learn that language. This is maybe even where the next feminist battle should be taught – in equipping women to participate fully online.

I wasn’t the only one whose imagination was similarly captured by the idea of organising a “girls get coding” space, or some workshops. There are obviously a bunch of us who have felt this yearning to get in on the conversations, so I think this is something that will progress beyond here.

In the last couple of moments, a few excellent fellas have been sending us links to great places to begin – so I’m going to post their recommendations here, and will drop back into the blog with more info as this develops. Very exciting.

PHP 101: PHP For the Absolute Beginner
Learn to Program: A Place to Start for the Future Programmer
Processing.org
http://scratch.mit.edu/

Thanks to Bruce Wyman and Matt Popke for their useful first links. And to Mia Ridge for volunteering to teach some handholding for webpage languages.

Girls – stay tuned for more updates, and let’s get coding!