links for 2008-06-24

TechFest, TechGirls, GeekGirls and Software Freedom

The last couple of weeks have been CRAZY! After getting back from my incredible Gung Fu week away, It was straight into everything. I flew back Saturday night, Sunday morning Jeff and I ran an OLPC TechFest in Sydney which had some amazing people come along, get talks about the OLPC server and XO projects, and then have some useful hacking time. In the middle of that I ran away to a wedding which was a big and wonderful Italian wedding, so Jeff was left holding the fort at the TechFest. There will be a more full report about the TechFest soon but there is a great write up by Sarah Maddox, so thanks Sarah! Awesome work by Martin Langhoff and Joel Stanley, who both totally rock!

A couple of days ago I spoke at a TechGirls event up at the Central Coast. I was the keynote speaker to about 200 girls aged 11-16 from the area, and it was fantastic! I got some excellent feedback (from girls and teachers alike) and I received this email which made it so incredibly worth it!

I thought you spoke extremely well and you have inspired me and my friends a lot. I aim to be a Graphic Designer sometime in the near future and you have encouraged me to follow my dreams. Up until today i was undecided if that was the career i wanted to pursue but after your speech today it has made my mind up. Thankyou very much for attending and sharing your views today. You have helped me choose my career.

Yes! I got a few other awesome emails and it was so exciting to have so many girls keen to get into IT.

Tonight was the third GeekGirl dinner in Sydney, which was awesome. Over 110 people (about 85% women) all getting together for an awesome evening of food, wine and talks. We had Claudia and another girl from Yahoo, and then Sara Falamaki, and all the talks were awesome. Then we played Guitar Hero for a while and it was a late night home. An awesome night and a major thanks to Damana, all the other organisers and to Yahoo for putting on such a great night 🙂

I’m currently (and have been for a couple of years) President of Software Freedom International, the body behind Software Freedom Day which is coming up in September. This is an awesome day and we had over 330 teams from over 90 countries last year all taking the concepts of freedom, democratic software, and of course FOSS to the mainstream. All the teams generally do events that are locally relevant and you’ll see some teams have an entire village do a march, or a music festival, or, as Nepal did last year, a candle lighting ceremony 🙂 It is a fascinating and exciting event and I’m so proud to be able to help make it happen. Anyway, we opened registrations for teams almost 2 weeks ago and we already have over 160 teams registered for this year! We are expecting around 500 teams. Check out the easy to browse map for teams near you, and register your event today! Only the first 300 teams get a team pack with shirts, stickers, badges, some CDs and more 🙂

sfd-june1308

Lastly, one of my best friends Sue recently posted a whole schwag of photos on Facebook from our trip to China in 1999. It was one of the best trips of my life. I learnt a lot there and it reminded me how much I want to return! Below is a (kind of crappy) scan of one of my favourite photos!

Horseriding along the Yellow River (Huang He) in China

Yes, that is me with short, red hair and riding a young and very fast horse. The locals thought I was lost control but I galloped to the group in the distance and back again. It is one of my best memories 🙂 There are also some photos of us at Shaolin Temple and more, but you’ll have to find me on Facebook 🙂

Eyes wide open

Last week was an amazing week. I had an incredibly instructive, inspiring and mind-awakening week studying with a Shaolin Gung Fu Master who has had quite an influence in my life.

I started studying Gung Fu when I was almost 15 in a small Shaolin school in my hometown run by Shi Fu Jason Parks (Xing Mu). It was amazing because I found people and ideas that challenged me, new ways to look at life, and perspectives that looked beyond the mundane (and ironically back again). I’ve always had a strong connection with Chinese culture, language and martial arts and have over a period of almost 14 years spent about 8 years studying Shaolin, Mezong and White Crane Gung Fu as well as a combination of weapons, Qi Na, Qi Gong and Chan Buddhism. The more I study the more I want to study, and the more sense it all seems to make – which leads me to a core goal in my life, clarity.

Shi Fu with some sickles - awesome!

Anyway, I hadn’t seen Shi Fu Parks for 10 years and jumped at the opportunity to visit his Shan Men Shaolin Gung Fu school for an intensive week of training and study. I spent 4 1/2 days training ~8 hours a day, studying hard and spending quality time with Evie, Shi Fu and his partner Karen‘s beautiful little girl. Karen has also studied Shaolin Gung Fu and is as awesome Pilates instructor. I had a fantastic class with her which was a first for me in understanding the value of Pilates, even though I’d been to classes in Sydney.

An unexpected surprise was when I realised weapons are not nearly as regulated in Tasmania as in other states, so I got to play with a bunch of weapons that I’d need a special permit for in New South Wales (my home state). I played with Nunchucks for the first time which was awesome, scythes and my main weapon, the pole.

One nunchuckTwo nunchucks!

One of the core lessons that arose from this week was how my entire life is actually in fact one big classroom, and how the constant habitual segmentation of life into this and that is both completely unnecessary and ultimately divisive. This sense of wholeness about it all was quite a relief. I learnt a whole schwag of new Shaolin fist and weapons forms, and polished up some existing stuff I already had. It was awesome and although I got a little sore, I was actually quite surprised that I didn’t get much more sore! I guess time goes quickly when you’re having fun 🙂

I spoke to Shi Fu and Karen about getting their ideas online. They were interested and excited about the concepts of FOSS, software freedom and Creative Commons, and it felt pretty cool to explain it all. Jeff and I set up some blogs for them and will be helping explore how something like Gung Fu or Pilates might balance both the ability to engage broadly online, and the personal interaction so necessary in a teacher/student arrangement like you’d have in Pilates or Gung Fu. It’ll be an interesting challenge!

It was also fun to help two non-geeks get excited about WordPress and feel empowered to play and tinker. Karen made the comment that she didn’t expect it to be so much fun, and I’m really pleased to be sharing something back 🙂

Evie!

So a big thank you Shi Fu and Karen for their lessons and time, and a huge hug to Evie who personifies gentle tenacity, and from whom I’ve a lot to learn 🙂

‘freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose’

Wow. I was in a doctors waiting room and picked up a Readers Digest (they aren’t half bad for 30 minutes of distraction) and I read an article about Randy Pausch, who amongst other achievements is the developer behind Alice 3D (an awesome animation/programming tool for learning). It was quite bizarre to be reading about him in this random mainstream magazine, and to have the article talk about how the project was Open Source (a little).

Randy has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he gave an amazing “Last Lecture” talk from which the title of this blog derives, as well as many other amazing jewels of strength, optimism and a firm resolve to live happy and well. It is a funny and inspiring speech that has been translated all around the world, so I wanted to help get it out there 🙂 It is available on his website.

It reminded me about how we need to treasure every moment and really live in the now such that we actually experience what we are here to experience. It is so easy to get caught up in what is happening next week, how I should have done blah at work, or what is the point of it all, and in the meantime precious silken moments slip away from us without a thought. The wonder around us is somewhat obscured by a need to be busy, or clever or successful, and we forget it is only ever as real as we want it to be. I try to capture the moment, even though I also (unfortunately) surround myself with busy-ness, and that moment, that beautiful centre of it all is a quick reminder to not take this all for granted.

Back to Randy, who is still going strong and inspiring people everywhere! You totally rock and hopefully people will be inspired to embrace such humour, optimism and pure tenacity to their own lives 🙂 He has plenty of wisdom for a happier and more rich existence. Thank you Randy!

So my next piece of advice is, you just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or and Eeyore. I think I’m clear where I stand on the great Tigger/Eeyore debate. Never lose the childlike wonder. It’s just too important. It’s what drives us. Help others.

FOSS in Tassie

I’m in Tasmania all this week on a mini holiday, actually I’m going to be doing Shaolin Gung Fu training with a master I used to study with 10 years ago. It was certainly fun transporting my weapons by plane 😉 Hooray! I’m staying in St Helen’s and travelling through Launceston to get here and back.

Anyway, back to FOSS. I have a smallish hard disk in my laptop (40GB) which has pretty much filled up. I bought a new 160GB hard disk ($85, bargain!) but didn’t bring any bits to do the transfer to Tassie with me. St Helen’s is a very small town. About 7,000 people (only a little bigger than my hometown). Anyway, I thought I’d try my luck and see if there was a local computer shop. Bingo! I went in and they had the parts I needed and then came the hard part:

“Do you have any Linux CDs”

The man looked at me a little confused at said “I don’t think there is a difference between CDs that work on Linux and ones that work on Windows”. My heart fell but I persevered with “no, I mean a CD with a Linux operating system, preferably bootable”. He had a spark of recognition and referred me onto one of his workmates who, lo and behold, had many versions of Linux on hand! Rock! We then had a great chat about FOSS, I mentioned that linux.conf.au is in Hobart in January, and why they should _all_ go along. I also invited them to a talk I’m giving at Launceston to TasLUG folks about FOSS, the Census and the OLPC project. They were very interested which was cool, and I think I convinced them about the value and fun of participating in the community 🙂 Hopefully we’ll have a few more enter the fold, mua ha ha!

Get involved at the first OLPC Australia TechFest

The first OLPC Australia TechFest will be held on June 1st in Sydney. It will include demonstrations, workshops about the OLPC hardware and software, developer tutorials and more! Everyone is welcome, though the event is mainly designed to help potential technical contributors get involved.

The TechFest will be led by Pia Waugh (OLPC Australia), Joel Stanley (OLPC “XO” laptop guru) and Martin Langhoff (OLPC “XS” server project lead). Thanks very much to Joel and Martin for providing their insights into the project and volunteering their time for us!

Details on the OLPC Australia TechFest webpage, including full agenda and RSVP.