(Apparently blue logos are quite popular with the AdaCamp DC sponsors.)

You can sponsor AdaCamp DC too – email sponsors@adainitiative.org to find out more about becoming an AdaCamp DC sponsor today!

An important reminder for those who need travel assistance to attend: some travel assistance is available, including international travel, and the deadline to apply if you need travel assistance is Friday May 11, that is, tomorrow!

Apply to AdaCamp DC now!

Notification dates are:

• Deadline for applications requesting travel assistance: May 11
• Final notification of acceptance for applications requesting travel assistance: May 25
• Deadline for all other applications: June 15
• Notification of acceptance for all other applications approximately every 2 weeks
• Notification of acceptance for all other applications: June 29

If you have any questions about the application process, please email adacamp@adainitiative.org. See you there!

Sponsors

AdaCamp DC is supported by our generous AdaCamp sponsors:

• Silver sponsors: The Linux Foundation, Intel, Facebook, Red Hat, Collabora
• Bronze sponsor: GitHub
• International travel sponsor: Google

Contact us at sponsors@adainitiative.org to become an AdaCamp sponsor today!

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.

In addition, Google will be sponsoring two international travel scholarships for attendees of AdaCamp. The deadline to apply for all travel scholarships is May 11. Apply to attend AdaCamp now!

By sponsoring AdaCamp, these organizations are supporting women in open technology and culture in a practical and direct way. AdaCamp DC will be the world’s largest gathering of people working together to increase the participation and status of women in open source, Wikipedia, fan/remix culture, open government, open libraries, and more.

For more information about AdaCamp DC, see the AdaCamp DC web site. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of AdaCamp DC, email sponsors@adainitiative.org and we will send you detailed information on the conference and the benefits of sponsorship.

Location of the channel

Network: Freenode
IRC server: chat.freenode.net
Channel: #adainitiative

A web chat interface is available at http://webchat.freenode.net/

Enter a nickname of your choice in “Nickname” and “#adainitiative” in “Channels”.

Note on channel moderation: We’re not up to following or moderating a fulltime chat channel, so the channel will be set to voice-only (which will mean most people can’t communicate with the channel) when a public chat isn’t taking place. You’re welcome to lurk in there fulltime if that’s easier for your IRC client, but there won’t be activity there outside regular meetings.

If you have any concerns about the channel or anything that happens in it, contact info@adainitiative.org.

(c) Bernt Rostad, CC-Attribution

Applications for AdaCamp DC are now open – apply now!

AdaCamp DC will be July 10 – 11, 2012, in Washington DC, co-located with Wikimania 2012. We are likely to have more applications than available slots, so apply now to have the best chance of attending. Applications close June 15 (May 11 for those requesting travel assistance).

Who should apply

AdaCamp DC will bring together a wide variety of people from open technology and culture, all of whom are working to support women in open tech/culture. We’re looking for people who:

• Participate in open technology and culture: any field involving open/grassroots/community participation and sharing the results of your work for free: open data, open source software, wikis, open government, open libraries, remix/fan culture, open video, and more
• Can share information about women’s experiences in that field, including talking about women’s achievements and the challenges they face
• Want to work together and share strategies to support and promote women in the field
• Share the Ada Initiative’s feminist approach to supporting and promoting women in open technology and culture
• Are young and old; students, professionals and hobbyists; from a diverse range of backgrounds; and reflect the breadth of the open technology and culture field

AdaCamp is open to people of all genders. However, since AdaCamp and the Ada Initiative exist to support and promote women in open technology and culture, prospective attendees who are not themselves women will need to demonstrate a high level of prior engagement and experience with the issues faced by women in those fields in order to be invited.

Find out more about AdaCamp DC at the event webpage.

Sponsors

The Ada Initiative thanks our generous AdaCamp sponsors for making this event possible. Our current sponsors are the Linux Foundation, Intel, Facebook, Red Hat, Collabora, and GitHub.

Interested in becoming an AdaCamp sponsor? Email us at sponsors@adainitiative.org and we will send you more information on the benefits of sponsorship.

After 9 months of incubation, we birthed a beautiful little hackerspace! We’re moving in now, getting our nonprofit status, working on our Kickstarter, figuring out our membership, collecting equipment and furniture donations and startup cash donations…

Until then, stop by and visit us at our weekly open house on Wed mornings 10am-12pm or Thurs nights

Their space is in Adeline St., Berkeley CA. Attendees are all asked to assist in funding childcare.

Got open tech and culture news to share with women in the Ada Initiative’s community? Email share@adainitiative.org.

By sponsoring AdaCamp, these organizations are supporting women in open technology and culture in a practical and direct way. AdaCamp DC will be the world’s largest gathering of people working together to increase the participation and status of women in open source, Wikipedia, fan/remix culture, open government, open libraries, and more.

For more information about AdaCamp DC, see the AdaCamp DC web site. If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of AdaCamp DC, email sponsors@adainitiative.org and we will send you detailed information on the conference and the benefits of sponsorship.

Applications to attend will open shortly. We will announce the opening of applications on this blog, our announcements mailing list, and our Twitter account. Subscribe to one of these options if you are interested in attending AdaCamp DC.

Want to go to AdaCamp, but can’t afford to travel to Washington D.C.? If we meet our sponsorship goals for this conference, we will award a limited number of travel grants to applicants who could not otherwise attend.

Thank you, Linux Foundation, Intel, Facebook, and Red Hat for your support of women in open technology and culture!

We’re thrilled to announce that Caroline Simard, who we recently welcomed as an advisor has also joined our board of directors this term! Caroline has a long history as a prominent advocate for women in technology, including her former position as Vice President of Research and Executive Programs at the Anita Borg Institute, and we’re looking forward to working closely with her as one of our board members.

In addition, the board is welcoming back Valerie Aurora, Ada Initiative co-founder and executive director; Rachel Chalmers, research director of infrastructure with The 451 Group; and Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation; each re-appointed to a two year term. Mary Gardiner and Denise Paolucci, together with Caroline, continue with their present term until 2013.

We’d especially like to thank Matt Zimmerman, who stepped aside from the board at the end of his term, for his service in our crucial first year. In particular, Matt took on the major responsibility of chairing our compensation committee and guiding the committee through the necessary steps. Matt is continuing as a member of our advisory board and we thank him for his work for us as a director and look forward to his future work as an advisor.

The Ada Initiative incorporated on March 18, 2011, making March 18 our first birthday! Thank you for all your support over the last year, whether as a sponsor, a donor, a supporters member, an AdaCamper or a reader or follower.

An especial thank you to our hard working board of directors and advisory board for their substantial volunteer contributions over the past year.

AdaCamp DC planning

by Bernt Rostad

During March we prepared a sponsorship prospectus which we have now begun to distribute! If you are interesting in sponsoring the event and would like a copy of the prospectus, please email sponsors@adainitiative.org. Our venue is close to finalised, and early sponsors will be announced within the next week. We expect to begin taking applications in late April.

We will announce when applications open, but start thinking of people to recommend and session ideas now!

Mary Gardiner to keynote Wikimania

In March we announced that Ada Initiative co-founder Mary Gardiner has been chosen to give the opening keynote at Wikimania 2012! Wikimania is the world’s top conference for Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects, held this year from July 12–15 in Washington, D.C.

Ada Initiative advisors in the news

Donna Benjamin

Audio of an interview that Donna did with Melbourne’s RRR radio station is available.

New advisors

In March we welcomed Kellie Brownell of the EFF; Ellie Young formerly of USENIX; Karen Sandler of the GNOME Foundation; and Caroline Simard of Stanford School of Medicine and the Anita Borg Institute to our advisory board. Thanks for offering to help us with our work with women in open tech and culture Kellie, Ellie, Karen and Caroline!

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.

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.