Sydney, June 26, 2013 – This weekend leading IT organisations and volunteers are joining together to host a free workshop in Sydney aimed at teaching women programming.
A global non-profit organisation, Rails Girls provides free weekend workshops to teach girls and women how to code using Ruby on Rails, an open-source web-application framework. Events around the globe are put on by local sponsors and volunteer technologists.
Founded in 2010, Rails Girls started with a beginners workshop in Finland and has exploded into a global phenomenon with 120 Rails Girls workshops scheduled in cities around the globe for 2013.
Rails Girls in Sydney came about when a handful of motivated individuals decided to come together to put on an event and convinced their employers, including Australian technology services company DiUS Computing and cloud computing company Ninefold, to act as sponsors.
Paula Burton, one of the organisers of Sydney Rails Girls and Community and Partnerships Principal at DiUS, says the company’s involvement in Rails Girls was an opportunity to encourage more females to consider a career in IT.
“I was lucky enough to be introduced to technology by my father at a very young age, giving me the confidence to build a fulfilling and exciting career in IT.
“DiUS sees community initiatives like Rails Girls as a really important way to make technology more approachable for girls and women.
“Whether they use it as an avenue to get into an IT career or build their great idea, Rails Girls gives them a chance to learn the basics and de-mystify the jargon,” she said.
The first Sydney event was quickly filled up, with 45 women from all walks of life signing up to attend the workshop at Ninefold’s Sydney office this weekend.
Friday night will be dedicated to installation and getting to know each other, where participants meet up at 6pm to prepare their laptops with development environments, while they have some food and a few drinks.
On Saturday they’ll be taken through the fundamentals of designing, prototyping and coding using Ruby on Rails with the support of 15 volunteer coaches who will be on hand to answer any questions and to help them have a go at building a web application.
Four technologists from DiUS have volunteered to be coaches at the inaugural Rails Girls Sydney workshop, happy to apply their commercial knowledge of Ruby on Rails to a good cause.
Due to the popularity of the inaugural Rails Girls event in Sydney, the sponsors are making preparations for another event. Women and girls that are interested in attending can follow Rails Girls on twitter @railsgirlsau for more information.
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Media Contact
Kirsty Miller, Marketing Consultant, DiUS Computing, 0400 211 616 or kmiller@dius.com.au
About DiUS Computing
DiUS Computing is an Australian technology services company that helps clients innovate and grow. Since 2004, DiUS has developed and enhanced the technology products of many blue-chip companies, extending offerings into new areas to give them a competitive edge.
DiUS works with clients on a strategic level, helping to define and shape their product and technology strategy. Beyond consultation, the company specialises in delivering software with speed, agility and scale that extends the boundaries of clients’ essential systems and transforms the way they do business.
The DiUS difference comes from a passion for delivering smarter software to create value for clients, as well as a stimulating company environment that empowers more than 100 employees to explore better and more effective ways to deliver software.
In addition to delivering results for clients, this focus on technology investigation has successfully created the DiUS software product portfolio: SpringSense, Percepscion and ChargeIQ.