Your Django Story: Meet Martha Rotter
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Martha Rotter is a software developer and co-founder of Woopie, a digital publishing platform for people who want their stuff read on any device. She is a book & magazine junkie fascinated with the future of reading, digital documents, and interactive content. Originally from St. Louis, she now splits her time between Dublin, Ireland and San Francisco. You can follow her @martharotter.
How did your story with code start?
My oldest brother bought a Commodore 64 when I was about six. He and his friends would trade games around, and I was crazy about computer games. When he upgraded to a Commodore 128 a couple of years later, it came with BASIC 7.0 and a manual for how to use BASIC to make the computer do things. I would type the code from the manual into the C128 and watch it do stuff – it was amazing! I spent a lot of those years playing with BASIC and then playing on BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) when we got a modem. My high school had a Macintosh LC lab where we could do HyperCard programming, and I ended up joining the school newspaper and becoming the Editor-in-Chief so that I could have unlimited access to the computer lab. Throughout my life I’ve remained addicted to computers, but I probably owe a lot of that to my older brothers and the time they spent playing computer games with me.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
My first major in college was international business, because everyone had always told me I should study business, but I wanted to travel & learn about other places, too. It sounds ridiculous now, but I didn’t know you could get a job working as a programmer – I didn’t even know anyone who used computers for their jobs at the time I was entering college. During my first semester, I took a programming course in C as an elective and started reading about computer science as a career.
A few weeks later, I called my parents to tell them I was going to switch majors and they freaked. They told me I could study programming but I could not drop out of business school (they didn’t know anyone who was a programmer either!). So I did both & graduated with degrees in computer science, international studies and business administration. It took me five years, but it was definitely worth it.
What do you love the most about coding?
Probably solving problems. There is nothing like that feeling you get when you figure out how to do something complex and making it happen. I also love that there is always something new and interesting to learn – I find it’s impossible for me to get bored as a programmer because there are always exciting new concepts, tips and tricks, APIs and languages to learn.
Why Django?
I have been programming in Python for a long time, and one of my first consulting projects back in 2010 ended up being done in Django. I fell in love with how quickly I could get things done, how flexible and how powerful it was. I think the community that has built up around Django is excellent and so there are now not only a lot of great libraries out there but also wonderful people to learn from.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Right now most of my time is focused on my company Woopie (http://woop.ie), which is a digital publishing tool to help businesses and publishers create documents and publications that work everywhere. I am very passionate about reading experiences and new devices, and I don’t think anyone has solved this yet as it’s a big problem, so it’s very exciting to me.
What are you the most proud of?
Besides developing Woopie, I am also proud of Idea magazine (http://readidea.com). In 2011, I was disappointed with the lack of coverage for startups and interesting tech happening in Ireland. There were a lot of cool companies and great people, but no one ever talked about them. I came up with Idea magazine as a bi-monthly magazine to cover all of these topics, to do things like featuring forward-thinking design studios, cover how-to’s, get opinion and investigative pieces, etc. We shut down the magazine after 6 issues because the platform we had created to generate the magazine (which was Woopie), was taking off more than our magazine subscriptions! I loved working on it, though, and it gave me a lot of insight into digital publishing and the magazine world.
What are you curious about?
Generally everything! But some areas that I have really gotten interested in over the last few years are data journalism and quantified self. I have done some hacks/hackers workshops and really love the overlap of tech and journalism - it’s so powerful what we can learn and how data journalists are able to educate people this way. The news organizations that are reporting using solid data are making a huge difference. With quantified self, I find it really empowering that people can own their understanding of their health and learn more about how what they do will affect them on a daily as well as long-term basis. Wearables like fitbit and Nike Fuelband have moved quantified self interests into the mainstream, so this area will only get more exciting.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
In my limited spare time, if I’m not working on Woopie or side projects, I love cooking and running. I also enjoy travelling a lot and learning languages. And I love any kind of dancing, from tap to ballet to breakdancing!
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
Find a community. I love working in startups and on small teams, but one of the best things I found about working in a big company is that there is always someone to ask, someone who has been there, done that. So if you start out in a small team or working for yourself, it’s seriously important to find a community of people, online or offline or both, where it’s okay to ask questions and there are people who you can learn from. Barcamps (like the wonderful Django Bar Camp in San Francisco last weekend!) and Hackathons are often great ways to do this too.
Thanks Martha! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Emmanuelle Delescolle
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Emmanuelle is a full-stack developer who loves Django. She was born when programming was still done using punch-cards, in a body that wasn’t truly hers. She lives in Belgium and France. Emmanuelle first ran into python around 1998 and got her first python job as a core developer on odoo (known at the time as TinyERP or OpenERP). Her first contribution to open-source was known as Knoppix-Freevo. She first discovered Django in 2009 and started embracing her true self, meaning transitioning and becoming the woman she has always been in 2010 (both events are not linked). Emmanuelle has been curious about open-source in general ever since she got her first internet connection and she has also always been passionate about re-sharing what she has been able to learn. Her role-models in computer sciences have been her 3rd grade teacher who introduced her to computers and a colleague at one of her first jobs, both great women.
How did your story with code start?
My story with code started by getting myself kicked out of tapestry workshop in 3rd grade, but I guess it deserves a little more explanation :-)
When I was in primary school, every thursday afternoon, there were workshops and every kid from grade 1 through 6 could choose one of several workshops that they would attend for 3 months. There was cooking (not every time), tapestry and various kinds of sports. I wasn’t much into sports and liked cooking, so I would pick cooking whenever it was available and tapestry when it was not. But after attending the tapestry workshop for something like 4 times in a row, I was told I wouldn’t be allowed to choose tapestry anymore, that I would have to pick something else.
The next time, cooking was not available but there was this new workshop that was happening for the first time. It was called computer programming. The school had just bought a brand new ZX80 and one of the teachers had taken an introductory course and was willing to teach whoever wanted to learn.
So, I signed up for computer programming and during the first instance of the workshop I learned about writing some awesome program that would ask for my name and then personally say “hello” to me.
The time after that, I enlisted for the computer programming workshop again (with most of the people who were with me the first time), but this time we had ran through all what the teacher had learned during her introductory class, so she went and bought some books, subscribed to some programming magazines (there used to be those magazines that would publish huge print-outs of code that you could try for yourself, a bit like tutorials except you couldn’t copy-paste the code) and she learned more with us. I never got kicked out of the computer programming workshop :-)
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
My story with programming having started when I was 8, I’m not sure how to answer this question. I guess I was just a kid, I “sold” (I got paid with toys) my first real program when I was 15 so it doesn’t leave much for “before”, except being a kid.
What do you love the most about coding?
Well, to me coding is a lot like poetry.
It uses a language with its rules and its own set of guidelines. If you ask two people to write a piece of code to achieve a specific goal (to express a specific idea or feeling), they will write totally different things.
Like poetry, coding requires creativity.
Like well written poetry, well written code is somewhat artistic, it is not just attaining a goal, expressing an idea, it is more than that, if you know how to read it, it is beautiful.
I also like coding and more specifically open-source because I like to understand how things work and that’s something you can do with open-source code. If you want to know how django works, all you have to do is open it’s source code and start reading.
And finally I guess that writing something that works well and is useful to yourself or others provides a very rewarding feeling.
Why Django?
Django for several reasons. I have written my first web-framework/CMS around 2001 and the reason I did it is because I couldn’t find anything that allowed me to do things the way I wanted to do them. I improved and rewrote it several times but kept an eye out for something similar and better. And one day I stumbled upon Django and found out it was built around the same principles as what I had been building for year, except it also had a community. So that’s how I came to Django.
The reasons I sticked to Django is because it is well written, it gets the job done quickly and painlessly but also because of the great community and documentation.
I have seen too many projects stating things like “don’t even bother trying to contribute, you’re not good enough” or beginners asking questions and being turned down (quite rudely). I can’t say I’ve never seen this kind of behaviour inside the Django community but it is a minority and most people are trying to stay nice and be helpful which is great!
And as I was saying (IMHO) Django is the open-source project with the best and most complete documentation there is.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Too many I guess… I am currently in the processes of setting up a new company (http://levit.be) which will revolve mostly around Django, there will be 3 of us, all girls, one of them is co-founder and the other one will start as a sub-contractor.
I am also working with a local hosting company which currently, aside from VPS and dedicated servers, only hosts PHP-based websites. Our goal is to build a “django-server” with an easy deploy mechanism that integrates into their current management interface.
And the last project I’ll mention is the tutorial series I’ve started this year (http://www.lasolution.be/blog/tagged/tutorial.html). It is a Django-based tutorial series whose goal is to learn how to build and deploy a Twitter-like website. It covers the most basic aspects of Django as well as bootstrap (and later some javascript too) and slowly brings the reader to more advanced topics. It is inspired by the Jobeet tutorial from Symfony (http://symfony.com/legacy/doc/jobeet/1_4/en/01?orm=Doctrine). And when I am done I am planning on turning it into a free e-book.
What are you the most proud of?
Never giving up I guess. I’ve run into several obstacles during my life, some bigger than others but I never gave up and I guess while mentioning that I also have to thank everyone who ever supported me when I needed them the most (they’ll know who they are).
What are you curious about?
A lot of things, ranging to from M-theory to why I can’t keep plant lice away from my basil pots. I like to understand how things work, taking them apart if necessary (and sometimes having trouble putting them back to together).
I guess being curious is a requirement for programmers ;-)
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I like cooking a lot. Whether it be fancy meals, experimental cuisine or everyday food but I generally enjoy cooking them for different reasons. Experimental cuisine is another outlet for creativity (if you’ve never tried it strawberry/basil risotto is a treat), fancy meals are to please and everyday cooking is more like an escape from work.
I also enjoy reading and creating polymer clay jewelry.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
Don’t be afraid to take lots of notes, have a wiki, an ipython notebook or whatever full of them if you need it and don’t be afraid of looking at other people’s code. Like if you want to understand generic class-based views in Django, you can always go to http://ccbv.co.uk but the best way to learn is to look at the source code even if you don’t understand everything at first. The more you’ll look into other people’s code, the easiest it will be for you to understand it and to learn from it. And don’t be afraid to ask either, there are plenty of people out there who have the knowledge you are trying to acquire and who are willing to share it with you.
Thanks Emmanuelle! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Becky Smith
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Becky is a recent convert to programming and currently works for Hogarth as a python developer. She is the founder of PyLadies Edinburgh and organiser of Django Girls Edinburgh. In her free time she likes knitting and aerial dance.
How did your story with code start?
Very recently! Unlike many (most) people in this series, I haven’t been coding very long at all. I did a little bit of coding many years ago when I was doing my doctoral research, but I only started properly learning Python in February this year. did online courses and worked on some small projects of my own. A dance school I go to had been let down by the web designer they’d hired, so I made their website (my first foray into Django). In July I quit my job, went to Europython, founded the Edinburgh chapter of PyLadies and started an internship as a junior Python developer.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
I have a degree in Psychology and PhD in Neuroscience, and I worked in the pharmaceutical research industry for 12 years before switching careers.
What do you love the most about coding?
I love the fact that I’m making something, and that my job feels like solving puzzles all day! I love that what I do at work now is what I want to do for play too.
Why Django?
Django made everything simpler for making my first web app. I started off planning to make a simple static site, but wanted to do more, and Django had so much built in to help me.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
I’m organising Django Girls Edinburgh, which will happen at the end of November. I also started the Edinburgh chapter of PyLadies, and it’s been awesome to find how much support there is in the local Python community for both.
What are you the most proud of?
Most recently, I’m proud of myself for finally taking the plunge and quitting the secure, well-paid job that I didn’t enjoy to pursue a career as a developer. It’s been pretty scary, but definitely worth it. I’ve gone from knowing more-or-less nothing at all about programming, to working as a member of a team of developers and getting code I’ve written into production…in the space of 8 months!
What are you curious about?
Most things…as such a new convert to programming, I realise how much more there is to learn. My daughter is 7, and I want to see how she learns to code, and what sort of things keep her interested.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
Circus…I do silks, trapeze, aerial hoop, pole…anything I can hang upside down off, really. I guess I never really grew out of kids’ playgrounds :)
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
Find a project to do. There are some really good online resources and tutorials, but you can only get so far with them. If you have a goal in mind, something you really want to get working, you’ll learn by trial and error as you try to figure out how to do what you want. Also, get involved with your local community groups. PyLadies is always a good bet, and in my experience, the local python user groups may be male-dominated, but they’re also friendly and welcoming to beginners (and mostly they want to increase diversity in their group, but don’t quite know how to go about it).
Thanks Becky! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Leah Culver
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Leah Culver is a iOS and Python developer. In 2007 she co-founded Pownce, a social networking and micro-blogging website, which was acquired by Six Apart in November 2008. She has co-authored both the OAuth and OEmbed open API specifications. Leah promotes open source, APIs, and the Django web framework on her blog at leahculver.com.
How did your story with code start?
I started making webpages when I was fifteen years old. My parents had a computer and modem for us kids to use, supposedly for school work, and I loved playing around on the internet. I’ve always loved the internet.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
I started studying art in college. I remember wanting to be a web designer. I switched my major to computer science after taking one class in JavaScript. It thought it was really interesting and wished I had been exposed to more computer programming at a younger age.
What do you love the most about coding?
I love the moment when the solution becomes obvious, the “ah-ha” moment.
Why Django?
Great documentation. Seriously. Django’s docs have always been very easy to read and easy to get started building a website right away.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
I’d like to make an app for the Apple Watch. I’ve been playing around with the new Swift programming language and I’m just waiting for Apple to release the WatchKit framework… hurry up Apple!
What are you the most proud of?
I’m really glad I’ve released some of my code as open source. It’s nice to feel like I’m giving back, even if it’s just a little bit. I also am proud of contributing to other people’s open source projects and helping out when I can with open source projects.
What are you curious about?
I’m always curious about new apps. I try out everything and am often a beta tester for friends’ apps.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I like running in my free time. I run a few days a week and it’s such a nice change from sitting at a desk.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners
You are just as smart as everyone else. Programming is tricky but you’ll learn and get better. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and don’t give up.
Thanks Leah! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Tracy Osborn
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Tracy Osborn is the founder of WeddingLovely, a supportive hub for engaged couples and wedding vendors, focusing on making the wedding planning and vendor booking business more sane. In her spare time, she’s an avid backpacker and tries to spend as much time outside.
How did your story with code start?
Ha — funny story. I started playing with computers very early on because I had two family members that worked at Apple and IBM. When I was 11, I started making websites for fun (you know, table-based-websites and all that jazz) and was convinced I was a “programmer,” which lasted all throughout High School. So, naturally, I went into Computer Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Literally day one, hour one, of CSC 101, I thought I made a mistake. The class was all about the parts of a computer and I remember everything going right over my head, when there were people in the class nodding along. I went to the professor after class and he convinced me to stick with it, but long story short, I made it through the year, trying futilely to learn Java, and finally gave up and changed majors to Art to focus on graphic design. I was determined never to program again and convinced I hated it.
Five years later, I was working as a freelance web designer and wanted to build a startup. I initially tried to find a cofounder (a long story for another time), and finally came to the realization that I needed to build what I needed, not find someone to do it for me. Which meant programming. Thankfully, this time around I tried Python and had a much better time!
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
My one and only “real” job was working as a web designer at a small startup — literally in a garage in San Luis Obispo. I stayed with them for 4.5 years before jumping into freelance web design for about a year, before jumping into the startup world (and programming world) with WeddingLovely.
What do you love the most about coding?
As someone who does design as well, the I love the fact that coding success feels way easier. It doesn’t work until it does! (Of course you can always improve the code, but besides that.) Design is so qualitative, and never really a 100% “perfect” design, always something more you can do. With coding, I can think of a problem and work on it until it works, and then move onto another problem — whereas with design, I always wonder if I could have done better because there is no 100% sure way to say it “works.”
Why Django?
I love Python for its simplicity and cleanness, and Django is awesome for the sheer amount of awesome things built in to make web app development super fast. Django 1.7 now comes with migrations built in, which is just awesome and will make new development and new projects a lot simpler. Django is simply the best for a new developer creating their first Python web app.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Other than my startup WeddingLovely (which I’m proud to say I’ve build everything myself!), I’ve been writing a book to teach web app development using Django, called Hello Web App. I’m self-publishing and funded the book through Kickstarter (woohoo!) though it’s taking a lot longer to write the book than I anticipated. It’s really exciting though — the book focuses on teaching web app development with Django for non-programmers and especially visual learners, and I’m hoping it’ll help a lot of people learn how to build web apps that have felt intimidated by programming before.
What are you the most proud of?
Broken record — my startup! I’m not a runaway success by startup standards, but I make enough to support myself and I get to promote small/local businesses and promote sane wedding planning to boot. And all the code is 100% written by yours truly — every year I work on WeddingLovely I get better and build more awesome and complex features. Building WeddingLovely has helped me become a better programmer, as well as allowing me to work from home, run my own business, and travel.
What are you curious about?
Teaching — which is the main reason why I’m writing Hello Web App! I’d love to learn how to teach and help people launch web apps, though I’ve only given one tutorial so far (at PyCon 2014) and definitely need more practice. I consider public speaking and conferences talks teaching too, and would love to do that more and get into that world.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
Travelling! I’m lucky that I can work anywhere. My husband (another Python programmer) and I worked for three months in Europe last fall — rented apartments for a few weeks at a time and alternated tourist and work days. I love traveling and try to do it as much as possible. When I’m home, if I have spare time (and lately I haven’t), I work in my garden. Right now it’s a mess though because I haven’t had the time.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
If something isn’t working for you (a particular tutorial or technique), see if something else exists that’s better for you. Particularly with tutorials, there is such a range of quality, and just because you’re not “getting it” from one source doesn’t mean you won’t have that lightbulb moment with another. I started with the default Django tutorial, which didn’t work at all for me, but after some searching and recommendations from friends, I found a few that were more my style and I was able to figure things out. I also started working on a real project, not following the tutorials verbatim, which made learning more fun and more interesting for me and really helped make things “stick.” Plus that random project turned into my startup, which was pretty awesome too!
Thanks Tracy! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Julia Elman
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Julia Elman is a designer, developer and tech education advocate based in North Carolina. She has been working her brand of web skills since 2002. Her first dive into Python was at World Online in Lawrence, Kansas in 2008, as a Junior Developer/Designer. In early 2013, she helped start a local chapter of Girl Develop It and empowered over 850 members to learn computer programming. She also helped organize the 2013 Teen Tech Camp, where 20 local teens learned Python programming in a one-day event. Julia is also the co-author of “Lightweight Django”, published by O’Reilly Media. You can follow her @juliaelman.
How did your story with code start?
Computers have been part of my life since I was a kid. At seven years old, I was introduced to Logo on an Apple 2E at my elementary school in Kansas. I learned how to play chess on the same machine and run basic math equations. I really think that this helped make me less intimidated about working with computers. From my playing “Discovery Math” on my Amiga 500 to then building my own games with Python, I can definitely see how the original path from Logo initiated my journey into a career in tech.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
Art and nature. I’ve always had a knack for drawing, as well as a love for nature. My formal education is primarily in fine art, but I originally was focused on becoming a geologist.
What do you love the most about coding?
Making things that not only delight users, but that I am constantly able to keep perfecting. I believe that being a computer programmer is not a profession in which a project is ever really done. You are always trying to think of new ways to make your applications faster, easier to use and more overall efficient. I think that’s why I also like design. Always learning, always building.
Why Django?
In 2008, I met a few folks at SXSWi that mentioned a new web framework that they had been working with called Django. They worked at the Lawrence Journal-World in Lawrence, KS and said something to the effect of, “You live in Kansas City and you’ve never heard of Django?!?” Soon thereafter, I quit my job at Hallmark Cards to join the amazing team at the Lawrence Journal-World and learned Django.
While I can attribute being from Kansas as the primary reason for using Django, it is not something I see as the most logical of reasons for using a web framework. When I joined the team at the Lawrence Journal-World, web frameworks were still relatively new in web development. Having the ability to scaffold an entire site quickly became easier when using Django and I loved the ability to do so.
On another note, I like working with Django because of the people who are involved in the community. I have had the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented and caring people throughout my career in Django. I am proud of the work the community has done to help promote diversity in tech with not only PyLadies, but now Djangogirls too.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Currently, I am working on wrapping up a book called “Lightweight Django” from O'Reilly Media. It’s been a year in the making and I am pretty thrilled to be able to see it hit the shelves in a few months.
What are you the most proud of?
I am most proud of my daughter. She is truly the light of my life and is my primary source in motivation for my career as a programmer.
What are you curious about?
I am curious about new ways of teaching Django and how else we can remove any barriers of entry to the framework. It’s important to think about this as we continue to grow the community and onboard new users.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I do a lot of volunteer work with PyLadies RDU and Girl Develop It RDU. Both are organizations I helped found and am constantly working at new ways to grow communities for women in tech.
I also enjoy spending time with my family and friends, eating amazing food. playing video games and enjoying nature.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
Programming is hard, even for those of us who have been doing it for a long time. It’s about problem solving and the better you get at it, the harder the problems get. If you start feeling like, “Why don’t I get this? I should be understanding this faster?”; just know that we all feel like that at times and you are not alone.
Thanks Julia! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Magdalena Rother
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Magdalena is a postdoctoral researcher at the Humboldt Universität Berlin where she works on the development and maintenance of the rxncon software. She lives with her husband, Kristian, and her two children in Berlin. Madgalena was a coach at the first Django Girls workshop at EuroPython in July.
How did your story with code start?
My story with code started in a thick forest with scratching shrubs, nettling nettle, and stinging bugs. I was a biology student doing field research for her master thesis. Wetland ground always had surprises to offer to my feet. I was breaking through bushes, scratching because of mosquitos and losing my way more times that I can remember. It was so much fun, I absolutely loved it.
During two years I collected a lot of data and photos on vegetation in Krajkowo natural reserve. Writing everything down sounded just too boring. Fortunately, I had attended a Python programming course. It had been given by a great teacher who inspired and encouraged me to do a real Python project. I started with little knowledge and great enthusiasm. I made many mistakes, there are probably thousand things I would do differently now. The code wasn’t perfect. The result was a Python CGI program with a web page and SQL database of results and photos. It helped me to defend my thesis and was maintained for the next half a year. I liked the experience so much that I decided to keep going.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
Besides being a programmer I recognize a good deal of plant species, I know a lot about RNA 3D structures, I can paint a flat, and knit a sweater.
What do you love the most about coding?
Freedom. When coding you have freedom to be yourself. To create, to solve problems, to structure, to test, and to serve other people.
Why Django?
I think Django is very organized and allows to create a solid structure for a project. Yet, I haven’t programmed many web applications. So I am not an expert on web frameworks.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Currently I work with my husband on a book on Software Engineering.
What are you the most proud of?
During my studies I developed the program ModeRNA for 3D modeling of RNA. I am still helping with maintenance and answering questions by users. Once, I got an email from a PhD student who told me that it is great to use ModeRNA and it was inspirational for him. I felt very proud then that I developed code that made a difference for somebody.
What are you curious about?
I am curious about many things: about other peoples’ stories, about creating better software, about how to attach a lamp on the ceiling.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
I love to spend time with my family, preferably outside enjoying sunny weather. I like to play board games, my favorite ones at the moment are Dominium, Hanabi, and 7 Wonders. I like to sweat while working out. Recently I also become a member of Mercury Toastmasters Berlin– which means “communication geek” and not a person who can use a toaster.
Do you have any advice/tips for beginner programmers?
Just go for it!
Thanks Lena! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Anna Warzecha
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Anna is a software engineer at 10Clouds . She has been in the developers’ world since 2007. She loves coding in Python, sewing, cycling and drinking coffee. She is 28 years old and has recently moved to Wrocław, Poland where she will be co-organizing a Django Girls event.
How did your story with code start?
My story isn’t any kind of special fairy tale. I have studied Computer Science and started working as a developer. It was hard at first, but I met a few very inspiring and helpful people, some of who stayed with me and made me progress. I started with PHP and classic ASP and managed to retrain myself to Python as a next step.
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
I didn’t work before becoming a programmer. Earlier I imagined myself as a systems administrator because I was interested in unix-like systems. In the end programming proved to be more fulfilling and exciting.
What do you love the most about coding?
I like creating new things by myself and feeling that I am useful. It is great to know that I am able to create whatever I can imagine.
Why Django?
At the moment that I decided to go from PHP to Python, Django was the most popular Python framework. It was easy to learn, with a lot of online resources to take from and a great community.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
Currently I am creating my first iOS application, this is also my first experience with mobile application development, so everything is new and unknown to me. I am also in the process of co-preparing a new Django Girls chapter in Wrocław, Poland and that is even more exciting!
What are you the most proud of?
I am most proud of learning that each developer has a different set of skills. It made me understand that I am a valuable developer with the exact set of skills I own. I don’t need to know the computation complexity of all sorting methods to create applications that work, look nice and meet the needs of end users. I am also proud that when I don’t know something I am not afraid to ask someone who has a different set of skills and knowledge range.
What are you curious about?
I am curious about new technologies. I get bored quite quickly with the things I work on and technologies I work with. During last two years I was switching between many different languages while working in the same company.
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
It probably won’t be surprising if I say that I like making things. My main hobby is sewing. I love 40’s and 50’s style so I am creating dresses and skirts in that style.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
Programming can give you a really hard time at the beginning but don’t give up. It took me a long time to understand some things that were simple and self explanatory for other people I have been working with.
Don’t be afraid to ask! A developer isn’t by any means a person who knows everything. It is always good to consult your idea with another person. Asking somebody for help will save you time and nerves.
If you are stuck - describe what you have tried and what is your main problem, the more information you provide, the easier it will be for you both to come up with a solution.
Now that I am an experienced developer I find myself asking for help more than ever. It is not the domain of beginners!
Thanks Ania! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Elena Williams
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Elena Williams is a web developer currently working in Perth, Australia. She’s a Django Software Foundation member and Django Girls Australia organizer. She’s spoken at PyCon US and PyCon Australia. She is enthusiastic about open source, teaching programming to non-programmers, kitesurfing, endurance navigation sports and making/understanding things.
How did your story with code start? What did you do before becoming a programmer?
Coding is probably a good fit for my brain. I’ve always been fascinated by technology, problem/puzzle solving and understanding how things work. Unfortunately at my teenage years I had no interest in trying to be involved with the technical community after some bad experiences with the boys, therefore I came back around to computers through an indirect path later. Initially I worked in the finance industry (stockbroking then banking), studied a business degree and had a strong interest in reporting and accounting systems. I consulted both professionally before I was 24 and specialised in implementing computerised accounting systems and making customised reporting for a little while. Yet everywhere I went I was told that I was “really good with computers, had I considered doing that”.
As part of my specialisation in accounting reporting from my very earliest days I’d been writing logic that was as sophisticated as was allowed in ms excel, and then ms access. I immediately understood databases, parsing and schemas before I would say that I touched any code or had any idea what CS was. Honestly I feel as though I was thinking in the logic necessary for code basically forever. Not to mention that I had always been really curious about how computers worked and had a real interest in knowing how they fitted together and what all the parts were, once I left home one of the first things I did was to save up for and build my own computer, this was one of my hobbies for many years.
The internet has always been a passion for me, by 2004 I was having second thoughts about the finance industry. I sat down one spare day late in the year and said to myself “I am going to make a website today” and by late that night it was done (I think I still have it somewhere). Just a static website, but a start.
From then on I dabbled and learnt tools, picked up ColdFusion, ActionScript and PHP, but I got really serious about learning to program in about 2005/6. I’d been playing a lot of computer games but over winter I injured myself on a snowboarding trip and was stuck, bored and I decided to have a go at understanding how game engines worked. Some days later I was playing a games when suddenly, something snapped in my brain, games were suddenly finished for me, all I could see now was the game engine: I stood up from my computer, closed the game for the last time and opened a text editor – I decided at that moment that if I spent as much time learning to program as I had playing games I could probably learn to program.
Since then I’ve spent as much of my time programming/making websites as I can. I’ve maintained an average of making about one website per month.
What do you love the most about coding?
To be honest I can’t exactly put my finger on what it is that I inspires that deeply impassioned feeling. That feeling of “flow”. Most of the time I feel daunted by how ignorant I am and how many mistakes I make!
Though occasionally, just occasionally, something “clicks” that captures my interest, or I’ll get deeply into a problem at home or at work and I feel like I’m doing gymnastics in my head – like doing many different creative and technical acts at the same time and many happy, energetic hours disappear. Some of these times I actually manage to finish something that works(!), and I feel happy, satisfied and fulfilled. I feel good about myself. I aspire to have this feeling as often as I can.
While I’m still coming to terms with the fact that it’s an infinite learning progression and I’ll probably never feel “complete” in terms of how much I know, I do it for that feeling of actually being able to solve problems and do what I want.
Why Django?
In around 2007 I was working at the ANU, my best friend at the time Mike left (as is the way with universities) to take up a fellowship at Stanford. He left behind both me and another of his close friends, Dave. I didn’t know Dave very well, in fact I was kind of intimidated by him, as he’s very quiet/taciturn and apparently very smart. Turns out Dave is very smart indeed as he already loved Python and Linux and over the years since he has given me some of the best advice I’ve ever been given (he also recommended I use Python and emacs). Despite being a scientist he also has an interest in web development, as part of this he had discovered this brand new “Django” thing (it was 0.95 at the time), he was curious about it and he recommended I give it a go as well. Both Dave and I tried our first django installations soon afterwards. I did my first big paid Django job later that year (which is still live and actively used by the client!).
To this day am not that interested in using any other web development tool, though still regularly try out others. The Python and Django communities are also remarkably wonderful. I really do love the Django community culture as well as the technology.
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
We’re in the very early days of setting up some kind of Django news distribution which a bunch of Django community members many of whom don’t currently actively participate in the community, which is exciting.
I’m also involved with a push to update the djangoproject.com website, working with an amazing team! This is still in very early days also, but we have high hopes!
I’m keen as anything to continue to be involved with DjangoGirls this is the best initiative I’ve seen in a long time. I’d love to be part of the USA event.
What are you the most proud of?
This is very hard to say as I’m the hardest critic of anything I’ve been involved with, despite having had privilege of working on some amazing projects over the years.
It is true for me to say that I’m probably most proud of my own personal, independent progression. That I’ve stayed true to myself and that I hold my head up publicly in the technical world. It has been a long road for me to have the confidence to be here.
What are you curious about?
Of all the things I’ve ever been obsessed with understanding, the interaction between people, and the cultures which groups of people establish has been the most complicated and fascinating. Leveraging this to make more (and better!) positive culture is something we are just coming to understand, especially with the use of new information technologies. It’s very interesting to me and very exciting!
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
My old answer to this used to be “computers”, but now I do computers for a living my non-computer hobbies have taken off! Gosh, I have a lot of hobbies and am always trying (and failing) to cut down!
Sports, I’ve settled on some quite difficult (endurance navigation) and quite technical (kitesurfing) sports that I’m gradually working at improving at. I also love camping and riding my bike places.
I like doing hard and technical things because they’re hard and technical and knowing how things work or are made. I find it fun and compelling to make the things in my life “from scratch” if I can, such as food and objects, though struggle with it not being a good use of my time.
I grew up in a very artistic and creative environment, My Mum had us involved with community arts projects and teaching things like ceramics from a very young age, so I can’t help but occasionally spending time working on my creative skills (though I know this is not a good use of my time either!), for example I’ve just finished intensively leatherworking for several weeks. Before that I was learning audio editing for the podcast. I’m an active member of our local hackerspace and last year I learnt how to use the 3D milling machine, and spent several hundred hours working on projects with it. This year our hackerspace got laser cutters (which I love!) and I have several ongoing laser projects.
Of course I’ve also done volunteer work forever, which nowadays often takes the form of open source projects and community building. Yesterday for example (after I packed away all my leatherworking gear), I spent some hours working on the latest version of what will hopefully be the Django news delivery mechanism that Curtis Maloney, me and some others have been trying to initiate this year that I mentioned above.
I quite enjoy public speaking and teaching people to code and have given a few talks lately, though don’t have any planned soon. It’s likely I’ll organise another event or talk or some more DjangoGirls some time soon, as although it’s time-consuming I get restless if I don’t do these things every so often.
Of course I occasionally make websites for myself and my friends in my spare time.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
Don’t worry if someone knows more than you. Everybody who has ever learned has been where you are now and therefore knows how it feels (even if they’ve forgotten!).
Don’t let anyone get you down, don’t take rubbish that people say to heart. Work hard, study hard and do it for yourself.
Do your “homework”, you’ll never regret it.
Regularly make things for yourself, even if you never show them to anyone (but show them to people if you can!). Finish projects, then pack up all your workings and put it away neatly – keep things tidy for your own sake. You don’t want that stuff cluttering up space in your brain.
Oh, and have a good system to keep your things organised, and do constant maintenance. Have a good “To Do” system and have a good backup and logically organised file system.
Never ever feel ashamed.
Thanks Elena! :)
Annabell Ossowski
@OssAnna16Your Django Story: Meet Ola Sendecka
This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.
Ola is one of the founders of Django Girls. She is self-employed and works as a web developer and lives in Kraków, Poland.
How did your story with code start?
When I was in high school, I was interested a little bit in graphics. I was thinking about computer graphics as a possible career and decided to study Computer Science at Jagiellonian University.
When I decided I want to study CS I had absolutely no idea what programming is all about. We had only a little bit of Visual Basic at school. All I knew is that in the middle school I loved HTML and playing with Flash (especially with ActionScript). And I was ambitious and I liked Math a lot, so I asked myself: why not? It seemed cool. I was the only female taking the CS exam that year in my school.
In the end I don’t do anything connected to graphics right now, but during the studies I discovered that programming is a thing for me: it’s logical, organised and beautiful. It perfectly fits me!
What did you do before becoming a programmer?
I was a normal high school student who didn’t know what to do in life :). I loved science as well as humanities. However, I didn’t like to memorize too many things, so Math-related things were on top of my list when I thought about my future career.
What do you love the most about coding?
I love that being a programmer means that I am a problem solver. I’m a type of person who loves fixing things. I also love to create. Programming has both. It is also organised and logical.
Programming is a great tool to build things. And I think that I always wanted to build something.
Why Django?
During my CS studies we had the freedom of choosing the programming language we want to use to implement some projects. I started writing projects in Python. Computer simulation? Python was great! Writing your own parser? No problem for Python! Web application? Why not using CherryPy?
Then, my boyfriend started to talk about Django and I decided to write my Bachelor project with it. And every time I thought something would be a lot of work - Django had it out of the box: authentication, admin and many, many more. It was awesome! This is how I fell in love with Django. I think it was Django 1.0.
Then I went for my first Django conference: DjangoCon Amsterdam. I had written only one project in Django till that time. I felt I am the dumbest person there. Everybody knew so much! But then I met friendly people who said to me: “We are here for you. If you have any questions - we will help you!”. And during a Django sprint I did my first Django contributions - including some ORM bug fixes - and I was super proud of myself! The awesome community made me believe that I am capable of doing cool stuff!
What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?
I don’t know yet. I am still in the middle of Django Girls :). And I don’t like to plan too much in advance.
What are you the most proud of?
It’s a difficult question. I am proud of being a member of a such wonderful Python community. I am proud I organised DjangoCon in Warsaw with great people. I am proud of Django Girls. I can find many, many things I am proud of: it could be fixing a bug for a client at work today, writing some cool piece of code or contributing to open source.
What are you curious about?
It depends on the day :). One day I’m watching all Physic-related Youtube channels I can find on the Internet. Another I’m checking out how to bake your own bread - actually I was making my own bread when I was in Scotland for a year. I’m curious about how things work or, to be precise, how to make things. For example, in a few days I’m attending a one-day woodwork workshops and I’m super excited about it!
What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?
As I mentioned, I like to know how to make things. I love to test stuff. It could be polymer clay, soutache, screen printing, vector graphics or Arduino. The only problem is that after a moment I’m bored and I need to find something new to try.
I could list things I love to do in my free time, but you cannot call them a hobby: reading, watching movies, playing board games, fitness, travelling.
Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?
It is very hard at the beginning when we know almost nothing. The worst thing is that it is hard to ask good questions. We don’t know what we don’t know :). All answers are there - you will find them on the Internet, books, you can ask people around you. But knowing what you want to know is crucial. So you don’t need to be perfect at the beginning. You will make many, many mistakes and that’s ok. You will improve. The best thing you could do is learning how to ask questions and how not to be afraid of asking them.
Thanks Ola! :)
