For the second day of InnerSource Summit EU Spring 2020, we have the CAKE IN A CUP CHALLENGE!! The main thing is we suggest that you gather these ingredients BEFORE the challenge begins. If you do this, it will take less than 5 minutes to complete and you'll get to share your creations with us at tea break (and eat them while they're still warm)...
Here's everything you need to know:
A) Choose a recipe. Here are two basic ones, but you can freestyle as well. We advise you to stick with these basic proportions. Be sure to gather your ingredients BEFORE we get to the break...maybe even the night before? Don't mix them until just before you pop your cup in the microwave, however...
Recipe One:
Ingredients (please locate them all before the activity):
4 tsp of self-rising flour (or regular flour with an 1/8 of a tsp baking soda added)
4 tsp of granulated sugar (use superfine or caster sugar for best results)
2 tsp of cocoa powder (NOT chocolate milk powder)
1 egg beaten
3 tsp milk
3 tsp light oil (like canola)
2-3 drops vanilla extract
1 handful chocolate chips
1 large (1 pint) mug or 2 c. (480ml) pyrex jug (measuring cup)
Microwave oven
---
Recipe Two:
Ingredients (please locate them all before the activity)
1. Place the butter in a large mug and microwave it for 20 to 30 seconds until melted.
2. Add the egg* and whisk it in with a fork or small whisk.
3. Stir in the milk, vanilla, almond and sugar.
4. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix the batter with a fork or whisk until smooth (no lumps).
5. At this point you can cover and place in the fridge for up to 25 hours. When ready to serve microwave for 1 minute and 20 seconds on high. Top with whipped cream and fresh berries and enjoy
---
B) Bring your cake in a cup back with you to the Zoom channel so we can all feast together! We're very interested in how this turns out for you. Extra points for using the cup or mug you entered in the Cup Challenge the first day.
Busy 3rd week at PayPal (so busy I didn't have time to blog...must set aside a regular time).
Interestingly formalized on-boarding process. I met with my group's HR minder about a week ago, so she could give me a many-page "Onboarding Plan", including helpful advice about how to make friends, how to set myself up for maximum impact, how to set goals and what the cadence of required meetings for my group will be (but still no dates of standing meetings so I can actually fill my calendar :-( ). Since my boss has been traveling the past two weeks for work and her executive admin is leaving the company, I was pretty much on my own. I spent the time a) meeting EBay and PayPal people who wanted to meet me because of the press I've received b) setting up my desk with the necessaries (tea fixings, snacks, spare pens, stability ball) c) recruiting for my open position and d) the usual stuff I do hanging around the hub of open source making friends.
Here's a quick report-out:
a) met with PayPal peers, PayPal people working on open source projects already in play, and PayPal people looking to open source things their teams have built in equal measure. There is plenty to do (and much if it is actually pretty interesting). By far my favorite conversation was with one of the leads on the PayPal Beacon project. More on that in a future blog.
b) still need a good variety of chocolate for my San Jose desk, so I'll be visiting Fog City News next week! I'm thinking about obtaining a teeny refrigerator for under my desk to hold coconut creamer (which doesn't expire within the window I can expect to keep it in the shared fridge)
c) my open position is listed as a "Tech Evangelist" but I'm going to be treating that person more as my "partner in crime". It currently lists the incomparable Aimie Aronica as hiring manager, but its being transferred to me. If you're interested in this position, please ping me directly.
d) by far my most interesting outside meeting this past week was the Benetech open house. It was great to catch up with Jim Fructerman and my great friend (and Benetech Board Member Brian Behlendorf) and also to meet Benetech VP for Human Rights, Enrique Piracés, and Caroll Bogert, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.
On the subject of Admins...I seriously need one and so does my boss!! Apparently I'll have to justify mine because of an irksome PayPal policy about who gets that kind of support, but I know I'm MUCH more successful when I have somebody back-filling the things I'm not great at (which include routine paperwork, tracking deadlines for completion of things like required trainings, expense reporting, medium and large meeting logistics, keeping my calendar and travel booking). My boss gets a new admin automatically because she satisfies the normal policy requirements, but I'm guessing her actual needs are similar. If you know a great Executive Admin, I know we'd love to talk to them.
Last week I started in the middle of the 2-week "new hire" cycle, so until now I've not had to sit through "new employee orientation", but Monday was the day. As I was driving down to San Jose for a 9:00am start (groan), I was musing on the many orientations I've attended over the years ...
By far the longest was my first entry into Apple (in 1991) which consisted of a solid week of endoctrination. Apple had a special building for this activity, where we role-played ethical decisions, was introduced to the Mac operating system and the company's both dubious and illustrious history, met executives who graciously stopped by from time to time. We were taught about AppleLink (global internal email years ahead of its time) by logging in and each penning hate mail directly to John Scully ... and then using the "unsend" feature to erase it before he ever saw it. At the end of the week we were given our "Journey is the Reward" tee-shirts and away we went, each believeing we were going to help Apple "Change the World". It was heady stuff.
Microsoft, by contrast, had a half-day that was pretty dry in 1994. Key skills I gathered at that orientation were learning to navigate the famous "X" buildings (which have seemingly miles of identical corridors) and what to do if I got an email from Bill (RUN, don't walk to your manager and ask for help).
Back at Apple 4 years after I started, I found that orientation had morphed into 1.5 days, no executive visit (there were videos), no tee-shirt. Such was the "Steve doesn't work here anymore" tonal shift. I did experience my first-ever "sexual harrassment" segment in orientation. It was 15 minutes long.
Symantec's orientation was completely forgettable, except that then CEO Gordon Eubanks did make an in-person appearance. Once I got back to my desk, my colleagues were interested to hear what I thought of their mandatory harrassment training and honestly I didn't remember hearing it. I'm certain I would have remembered learning the "Symantec and the Law" hand gesture (extend your right index finger and thumb into a letter L shape, then pantomime and S shape) which they reflexively did anytime a conversation veered in the direction of somebody feeling harrassed.
Sun Microsystems famously recruited me from an overheard conversation in a sushi bar in Cupertino. I remember their orientation being refreshingly un-insulting to my intelligence, and very sparse on the rah-rah factor. In fact that was a theme that would play out in all of my time at Sun, and might be one reason why I thrived there. As I was technically joining JavaSoft we got extra things like free sodas (maybe not such a good thing, in retrospect) and frequent beer bashes ... it was good to be elite, was the main messaging I remember. Oh, and also according to the big marketing campaign at the time, we wanted to "Stop the Technology Madness" which was really confusing; didn't Sun sell technology? I gathered they needed better messaging people. We did get a fly-by visit from Scott McNealy at my orientation (no idea if this was normal, but it happened to ours).
And now we've come to Intel ... before I tell you this one, I have to say that I actually broke out in hives during this orientation. I had done an earlier consulting gig at Intel and I found their culture to be de-humanizing and possibly damaging (this was during their "Constructive Conflict is Healthy" phase, and I'd seen that phrase used to justify outrageous and unprofessional bullying behavior). I became an employee 5 years later because I liked the project I was going to work on, and my hiring manager convinced me he would sheild me from the negative aspects of the culture (which promise he honored, I'm happy to say). But at orientation I was still really uncertain, and I went in with misgivings. The content was delivered by a retired Intel employee doing part-time service as a welcoming committee, which on the face of it is a charming idea until you factor in that this person was a S-L-O-W talker. When I left (and I left early, which was clearly a controversial thing to do, but I couldn't stand it anymore) he was already an hour overtime, and he was by no means finished. After I left I went immediately to a bon-voyage party for me being thrown by Sun colleagues at a local restaurant. I remember hugging each of them and thinking, "I'm never going to be allowed to hug anybody at Intel; I am *so* screwed". So all in all it was pretty negative. The one thing that I found really valuable in that experience was (and you're sensing a theme by now) their harrassment segment. It was 90 minutes long by itself. During this segment we were asked to practice a) asking a co-worker out on a date b) declining such an ask c) behaving respectfully once refused. I found it fascinating that they actually had us model these behaviors. I wish more companies did this.
While I've been writing this post, my orientation has been proceeding and now its done. I have to say EBay/PayPal exceeded my expectations at least in the orientation. They did their best to make a dry subject fun and informative. We did a scavenger hunt at one point which taught us a bit about EBay history and the facility. Instead of talking at us about the companys' achievements they had us do guided research and prepare (in small teams) presentations on aspects of the company. The last bit was a visit to the "Customer Innovation Center" at PayPal to see present and future products in "action" at mock storefronts and livingrooms.
My big "ah-ha" this was during segment. I had no idea that PayPal thinks of itself first and foremost as a benevolent risk-management company for small (and some large) merchants. This is just so far off what I and most of my friends think of first (payments company and necessary evil of internet commerce) that I'm intrigued (and I've added a blog on my explorations into this gap for the future). So, as always I guess stay tuned...
I've taken a long break from this blog, but as part of my new job I have set myself the task of writing regularly about what it's like to work on open source at PayPal. So here's a quick take on my first week...
I've joined a team that's been working to transform engineering practices, most famously with a mass-migration to agile methodologies. The job was interesting to me because PayPal is aware they have to continue to learn and change to grow. I am a huge believer in cultivating mental agility and lifelong learning. And they'd already begun with open source projects like kraken and the bootstrap accessibility plugin.
I spent my first week doing the normal first week things:
-Setting up a new laptop and phone (shoutout to Dylan Capener and his team member Victor Garcia for amazing IT customer service)
-Meeting people (most of whom I'll have to meet a few times before I remember their names)
-Doing press briefings for public coverage of my job change (see additional articles here, here, here and here) I'm especially happy with that last link, where I got mentioned in a larger story about women in technology and the first majority female enrollment in computer science disciplines at UC Berkeley
-Attending a 2-day offsite where I learned a lot more about what my peers are working on and my boss Kirsten Wolberg's vision for the future
All in all, it went by in a blur! As I tweeted to a former Sun colleague who sent me congrats and a query about what I'll be doing, "Stay Tuned..."
Favor Number One:
...and this is the really more important one, but also takes a little effort. I just did it (and timed myself)...it took 7 minutes. Can you beat that time? I O U a beverage if you can (let me know on comments below). Deadline is end of day TOMORROW, August 31st, 2012.
Can you please cast a vote for Literacy Bridge to present at TED 2013? Your vote could mean the difference in whether dozens of the poorest villages get access to our Talking Book program.
My friend Cliff Schmidt was invited to audition for one of the world’s most prestigious and influential conferences: TED. In four minutes, he summarized Literacy Bridge’s work, and now TED is looking to online voters to determine whether he will be invited to speak at TED 2013. This opportunity would give Literacy Bridge far more exposure than they've ever had, which will enable them to expand their impact dramatically.
If you are willing to help, here is what I’m asking you to do:
Brief Version (see detailed instructions below if you have trouble):
1. Sign up for a TED.com account here: https://auth.ted.com/users/new?referer=http://www.ted.com/profiles/edit(you can skip the profile page after submitting name/email/password)
2. Watch the 4-minute audition here: http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Cliff-Schmidt-On-demand-access
3. Vote ("Rate This Talk" on the same page)
4. Comment (on the same page) --- this is as important as the vote; please leave a quick note.
5. Recommend on Facebook (on the same page).
6. Please tell all your friends to do the same!
That's it! Thank you so much!
=====
Here are the detailed instructions if the ones above don't work for you:
1. Sign Up for an account on TED.com: https://auth.ted.com/users/new?referer=http://www.ted.com/profiles/edit
You will need to:
a) Fill in first name, last name
b) Email address
c) Provide a password
d) Agree to the terms of service
e) Fill in and pass the "Capcha" test
After you fill in the info and click on "Submit" button, you may be presented with a screen to enter Profile info. You can skip this page if you like and go right to the video link below.
2. Watch, Comment and Rate the Video:
a) Watch the video at http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Cliff-Schmidt-On-demand-access
b) Add a comment –what you write will help TED decide who to invite
c) Rate the video:
- On the right side of the screen, there is section titled "Rate the Talk".
- Click on the stars under "Rate on Content" and "Rate on Presentation Style"
- Make sure that the stars that you click on become bigger, that is the sign that your rating has registered.
3. Click the Facebook "Recommend" Button Under the Video (Optional)
This is not the official rating. It just helps a bit to spread the word via Facebook.
4. Ask Your Friends to Watch/Vote Also!
Thank you for helping Literacy Bridge get in front of a global audience.
and now for the more self-interested Favor Number Two:
Yup, its that time again....vote for one or more of the SXSWi proposals my name is on. You'll find them here and here. I'm undecided which I'd rather do, they would both be really fun. Last day to vote is, of course, tomorrow, August 31st, 2012... and if either gets accepted and you're there, I'll also be happy to comp you a beverage :). Not bribing, just saying thank you.
The Code of Conduct debate around Open Source conferences has been much on my mind again lately. Just today somebody called my attention to this blog post about yet another attempt to fix what some see as a real problem. I have to admit that my take is a little different, and some will find it disloyal to my gender (as I was accused back when I gave a keynote at OSCON a few years ago). I actually like the cards the blog is talking about. Its a clever hack and one that promises to at least create more timely communication when people feel uncomfortable, which IMHO is preferable to some of the passive-aggressive behaviors we have witnessed recently.
I've not written until now about my take on all this appropriateness chatter over the past couple of years. When it all started I happened to be the only female CTO in the top 10 most popular websites in the world and I felt my opinion on it would be artificially amplified by my position. I was troubled by what I saw as strong-arm tactics employed to force conference organizers to police attendees, and I did have a number of conversations privately with women who agreed with me and were also troubled, and also with women who completely and vehemently disagreed with me.
A little background: I have worked in the Tech industry for more than 20 years and in some pretty visible positions. It is not unusual for me to be the only woman a room full of men in meetings or at conferences, and I've seen my share of inappropriate behavior.I've also worked for several of the larger Tech companies, which means I've seen a variety of approaches to training people about these issues (most Tech companies present between 15 to 45 minutes of training on this issue during new employee orientation, and many require additional training for managers).
The watershed moment for me was when I experienced Intel's orientation. People tend to work at Intel forever, and dating amongst co-workers is really common there. They also have a melting pot of cultural expectations because they hire from all over the world. Their policy says (my paraphrase) that its every person's responsibility to set clear boundaries. Their orientation on the subject (which was the longest I've attended) included skits showing how to ask a co-worker out on a date, how to decline an unwanted advance and how to act after you've been told "No, thank you". The orientation went on to explain that if you set a clear boundary and the other person continues to harass you, then Intel's management would support you in a grievance against that person.
My eureka was to hear them explicitly say "It is up to you to clearly say "No" initially". I know at least one woman prominent in the Code of Conduct movement who felt that this was too much of a burden, that it created a hostile work environment, but I thought it was clear and brilliant.
So here's my general take: some of the women who want to see strict Codes of Conduct are really seeking to be absolved of their fundamental obligation as human beings to set clear individual boundaries. They want the organization (or the conference) to do this for them so they'll never be made to feel uncomfortable. The problem with this is that living in the world involves dealing with all kinds of people and just as fairness isn't an inalienable right, neither is interpersonal comfort. Its a messy business figuring out what other people's intentions are in the best of cases, and we owe it to our fellow humans to be as clear as we can on our end in just our normal interactions.
That said, there are certainly creeps out there, of all genders and both intentional and unintentional ones. I think its positive for people to be given tools that help them give effective feedback (such as the clever cards used at DefCon). I just hope they come with instructions for the card-bearer to hand them out AFTER exhausting more normal feedback with an offender. Otherwise I fear handing out these cards will become a proxy for normal human boundary setting and will further contribute to the death of authentic interactions between people wherever they are used.
In Chicago at my first Drupal Association Board Retreat. So far, I'm mostly listening.
First of all, let me say that I really appreciate that even though I've not blogged here in nearly 2 years, I still have a steady stream of followers. That's loyalty. Thanks.
Most of the time I've been away I was blogging at and for the Wikimedia Foundation (mostly on their Tech Blog, since I was the CTO). I'll be posting eventually some more about that job...what I loved about it, what I hated and why I ultimately left (but in the meantime, please do go DONATE ... It's an amazing project, you know you use it, and I still have a lot of friends working there). I'll also post about my new project(s) (yes, more than one) and how much fun I'm having now, but...
The subject of today's blog is...AT&T. I have been a customer of theirs essentially my whole life. First of course I had no choice...they "owned" US Telephony. Then they were the only provider of iPhone service in the US. And most recently (albeit 10 years ago), they were the only provider with whom we could sign up for Home Internet when we moved to the fabulous Castro District of San Francisco (because we are plagued by elderly wiring).
Lately I've been an increasingly unwilling AT&T customer. Their service overall continues to degrade in San Francisco, both cell (in town and at home) and home internet. When I worked for Wikimedia we literally couldn't get cell reception inside our building, which was ironic because we were across the street from world AT&T headquarters. They occasionally tell us that they've installed a new cell tower that "should fix our problem" with cell reception at home (although I suspect the real reason our cell is so bad at home is the fact that we live in a 1912-era Faraday Cage...still it's hard to believe that when a friend with Verizon can get a call in our house but we can't...)
And today our Internet Modem died. The poor thing was a decade old, and its been flakey as hell for the past few months. Now its belly up. Of course I was in the middle of a work-related Skype call when it happened...and of course I'm recovering from a chest cold and didn't want to go out in the cold today...
So I got on the house phone and called 611 and was eventually routed to the "DSL Hotline". The nice woman, who was quite obviously speaking to me from somewhere in Manilla, said that if I would just drive down to an AT&T store they would give me a new modem. She even looked up the store address and gave me a 6-digit "pickup code" as proof that this would be the fastest and best fix for me. I bundled up and got in the car. However, upon arrival at the store, it turned out the manager there didn't know anything about a "pickup code" and wasn't going to surrender a new modem for less than $100. Yes, folks, that right, I was going to have to pay $100 to replace AT&T's ancient equipment so I could enjoy more of their crappy service. There was no "lowest common denominator" option. Take it or leave it...and determining this fact took 45 minutes of my time during which I felt truly awful (coughing, sneezing, etc.). To be fair, they did give me a chair after about 30 minutes...but I was already *so* done with them. You know that kind of "if you keeled over right now in front of me I wouldn't shed a tear" kind of done? I was finally there.
I asked the manager if there was a return policy on the modem? The answer was "Yes, a 30-day unconditional money back return policy". So I cheerfully paid them $100, took the modem home, configured it (so I could have internet again) and then I called Astound, because they left one of those endless door hang tags on our front door just yesterday...
So day after tomorrow, I'll have fiber to my house (no more excuses about the wires in the house being too old, Astound has pulled fiber to the Castro :-) ). I'll have 50mbps to the house, and a landline...and its going to cost me $40 less per month than I was paying to AT&T.
Now, about jailbreaking this iPhone...:-)
So it has been announced. Starting next week I'll have a new job. One friend pointed out that I could put "Wiki Witch of the West" on my business cards ;-).
But seriously...I meant it when I said in the press release that the challenges ahead are both exciting and daunting. I'm such a big fan of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Commons, but until it got tweeted, I hadn't realized this hire would make me the only female CTO in the Top-10 websites ...must admit that spun me around for a minute...
I've been working for so long on awareness of the gender imbalance in Open Source, but I've always thought of my own career as a collaborative effort (as in, "It takes a village"). In fact, when I was interviewing at Wikimedia Foundation and described my approach to solving technical challenges, I said something like "I rely on taking in as many well-informed opinions as I can find, digesting them collectively, and reaching an essentially collaborative conclusion." This may be my Apache roots showing.
Anyway, the announcement hit the web while I was in São Paulo, Brasil for CampusParty, so of course the local Wikimedia Brasil folks came by for a chat, and I quickly learned that there are a variety of opinions about what to do "next" from a Technology standpoint to keep the Wikimedia Community vibrant. Very interesting discussion. I can see that gathering the well-informed opinions is going to be an intense but educational process.
Another fascinating outcome of the announcement was the attention my personal wikipedia page received. My page was initiated by some students in Pune, India during a talk I gave (about risk-taking in one's career) at the GNUnify conference. I wasn't even aware they were doing it at the time, and they wrote it with next to no citations. There ensued a lively Wikipedia discussion about whether my page was "worthy", and it was decided that the page could stay largely on the merit of my long-time involvement with the Open Source Initiative...over the years the page has been modified to reflect my employment changes, but this past week it got a through going-over by the Editorial Community and one effect was that I found myself defending certain factoids about myself (by for instance searching out online references to the Chairman's Awards I won at Sun). I completely understand why citation verification is important, and I want Wikipedia to be as authoritative as possible...but...
One factoid erasure that really surprised me was the fact that I have long been a follower of Indian guru Meher Baba. It was surprising because it is such a personal detail and because it was deleted not only from my page, but my name automatically also disappeared from another Wikipedia page listing followers. For the record, I've been following Meher Baba for more than half my life (since 1979), and the pursuit has brought a lot richness and self-understanding to my life. Hopefully this citation will re-establish the fact officially (can one self-verify? I'm sure the Community will let me know).
I was delighted to read coverage of the announcement from Sean Michael Kerner that recalled the Great Knitting Incident of 2007. That I knit in public is another factoid that I'd like to see included on my Wikipedia page at some point (and I've already written about it at length here). If you're interested in learning to knit to test out whether it helps you concentrate...there are tons of wonderful online resources to help you now. It's a great thinking tool in my experience.
Anyway...Rest assured I'm in rapid learning mode about all things Wikimedia now. I've cruised through lots of recent management communications (kindly sent along by Erik Möller) so I can be reasonably productive as soon as I get back to San Francisco. I really appreciate the ton of well-wishing messages and new followers the announcement engendered, and I'm so looking forward to serving the Wikimedia Community. Thanks everybody.
I still know a lot of Sun people, and so avidly watched yesterday's press conference where the muck-mucks from Oracle described how they plan to assimilate the Sun assets...at least the ones they think will make enough money to justify the trouble...
What they didn't talk about is their plan to subjugate Sun culture.
Most of the people I know who are still at Sun are active participants on a site I helped to create: Blogs.Sun.Com. Back when we set it up, the rules of play were revolutionary, but pretty simple (my paraphrase): "Don't defame people. Don't disclose confidential or trade secret information. We hired you because you are smart...Don't screw up."
Sun was the first large tech company to create an employee blogspace. The right to blog was a huge perk of working for Sun for the past nearly six years and brought many Sun people satisfaction. Heck, it made some careers as people discovered it was cool to be passionate about your job. It was cool to expose a little of your life online and discover your voice. It was cool to mix life and work in writing...but alas, no more!
As part of this next phase of assimilation...Oracle recently made available the new rules for blogging. If you work for Snoracle starting now, you must obtain your manager's permission before each public posting that relates to work. In theory that means before every tweet. Remaining Snoracle employees have until May to migrate their personal blogs to a non-Oracle-owned hosting service...but if even after such migration, anyone who mentions work on a personal blog forfeits their editorial self-determination, as Oracle believes the blog then becomes Oracle property subject to their draconian rules.
This isn't the only act of cultural imperialism we'll hear about as Oracle teaches Sun that "resistance is futile", but for me its a particularly poignant reminder that the party is truly over.