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I don't feel like I was a terribly productive or successful writer this week. I spent much of the week up in Portland, which definitely disrupted my usual research/writing groove.

That being said, if it was a mediocre week for writing, it was an amazing week for interacting, as I met and chatted with a bunch of awesome folks, including (finally!) most of my Portland-based RWW co-workers.

The Best Stories I Wrote

"Kim Polese Receives NCWIT Symons Innovator Award, Announces Departure from SpikeSource" -- I was really honored to get a chance to sit down and chat with Kim Polese, now formerly of SpikeSource, co-founder of Marimba and the original product manager for Java. It was the culmination of a great few days at the NCWIT Summit in Portland. The statistics regarding women's participation in IT continue to be utterly depressing, even more so when it comes to women working in open source and women founding tech companies. "NCWIT, Compugirls: Building a Diverse Tech Future" -- Just as inspirational as Polese is the work of Dr. Kimberly Scott, whose Compugirls program tackles computer literacy among primarily Latina, African American, and Native American girls in Arizona. Scott noted that by 2025, "minorities" will be the majority, and we are jeopardizing our nation's economic future if we continue to ignore tech training among girls of color.

"Open Source Gaming FTW" -- And in a follow-up to one of last week's best untold stories, I had a chance to speak this week with Jeffrey Rosen, co-founder of Wolfire Games, who helped coordinate the Humble Indie Bundle.

Notice a theme here? Open source. Open source. Open Source. Access. Access. Access.

The Best Stories I Didn't Write

I installed Buddypress on my server tonight. Okay okay okay. Kin did most of the work. But I'd like to do a write-up about the process, as well as some thoughts about these and other Facebook alternatives.

And speaking of which (and speaking of open source and open standards), I didn't write jack shit about Google I/O. I could say that it's because I'm completely bitter and jaded that I wasn't there. But honestly, I wouldn't trade this last week meeting folks up in Portland for anything. Plus, Kin brought home some Google socks from the event for me. And really, what more can you ask for? (The key bit in that last sentence being that Kin is home.)

Audrey Watters


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Audrey Watters

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