Supporting women in open technology and culture

AdaCamp DC update

by Bernt Rostad

AdaCamp DC, on July 10–11, 2012, will be located at the Washington Post building, thanks to our venue sponsor, SocialCode.

AdaCamp DC sponsors who signed on during April include:

• The Linux Foundation
• Intel
• Facebook
• Red Hat
• Collabora
• GitHub

Applications to attend AdaCamp DC are now open. The deadline for application for travel scholarships is May 11. So far we have over 50 strong applications, includes applicants from India, Brazil, Romania, Egypt, Argentina, Macedonia, Peru, Australia, the UK, and the US. This should be an amazing event!

Google is funding two international travel scholarships for AdaCamp attendees. As you can see, there are far more deserving applicants needing international travel funding than we are able to sponsor at this time. The more sponsors we have, the more travel scholarships we can pay. Email sponsors@adainitiative.org for more information on becoming a sponsor.

Ada Initiative advisors in the news

The BBC interviewed Karen Sandler about the importance of open source in her implanted defibrillator.

Mitchell Baker was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for her work on Mozilla.

Selena Deckelmann was quoted in an article on sexism in tech in The Next Web.

Rachel Chalmers was promoted to Research Vice President at The 451 Group.

Sumana Harihareswara was promoted to Engineering Community Manager at Wikimedia Foundation.

New board member: Caroline Simard

In our yearly board elections, we elected Caroline Simard to the board of directors. Read more about Caroline in our announcement. We thank Matt Zimmerman again for his excellent service to the Ada Initiative as a board member, and are glad he is continuing as an advisor.

Upcoming appearances

• July 10–11, 2012: Mary and Valerie will both be attending AdaCamp DC.
• July 12–14, 2012: Mary and Valerie will both be attending Wikimania 2012‘s main program.

New sponsors

O’Reilly, the technology publisher and conference organizer and strong supporter of open technology and culture, is the Ada Initiative’s latest Venture Philanthropist sponsor. O’Reilly strongly encourages women to speak at and attend tech conferences, as well as write about technology, in order to expand their influence and career opportunities. See the list of upcoming O’Reilly conferences here and consider submitting a talk proposal. We thank O’Reilly for their support of women in open technology and culture.

New sponsorship level

We added a new sponsorship level: For $500 – $1999, your company can be a contributing sponsor and get your company’s name and a link on the contributing sponsors part of our sponsors page.

Our inaugural contributing sponsors are Mozilla Corporation, Dyn, Inc., CloudMine. Thank you for your support of women in open technology and culture!

Angel funders and major sponsors

We’re taking this opportunity to thank our early funders again. Without their sponsorship and belief in the Ada Initiative’s ability to accomplish our mission, none of our activities would be possible, including the upcoming AdaCamp DC. Thank you again, Linux Australia, Puppet Labs, DreamHost, Ceph, and our Seed 100 funders. Let our sponsors know you appreciate their support!

Upcoming events for women in open technology and culture

See our calendar for a full listing, and submit any additional events to share@adainitiative.org.

Sponsorship opportunities

The Ada Initiative’s Venture Philanthropist sponsorship program allows organisations to sponsor the Ada Initiative for sponsorship amounts between $2000 and $9999 (USD) with a minimum of hassle. Contact donors@adainitiative.org for larger sponsorship packages.