Category: Current Events

Scenes from the LaunchCode CodeCamp’s all-women cohort’s graduation

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 16, 2020
2 Comments on Scenes from the LaunchCode CodeCamp’s all-women cohort’s graduation

Photo by Maria Vanessa Moreno. Tap to see at full size.

On Tuesday, Anitra and I attended the graduation ceremony for the latest LaunchCode CodeCamp cohort, a class made up entirely of women. It was an immersive “coding boot camp”-style course that they attended for 14 weeks, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., where they learned programming in Java and Python. With the effort and time required, it’s a commitment that the students couldn’t take lightly. We’ve met a good number of the women in the class, and we were happy to attend the ceremony!

Photo by Joey deVilla. Tap to see at full size.

The goal of the 14-week program is to teach its students how to code, but more importantly, how to think like a computer programmer. The curriculum comprises these four phases:

Programming fundamentals: An introduction to the concepts of programming, using Python (a good choice, in my opinion). The idea is to set up the students with the building blocks that every programmer needs.
Universal web: A look at the foundations of a modern web application, as well as languages, frameworks, and other tools used in web development.
Java deep dive: Hibernate and Spring MVC. The fact that they were made to use frameworks that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole and a hazmat suit speaks volumes about the dedication and capabilities of these women.
Portfolio project: After all of the above, they spent the last few weeks of the program working on a project to showcase what they’ve learned and what they can do.

Here‘s local news coverage of the event:

LaunchCode is an unusual coding school: It’s a non-profit that provides its courses free of charge. Their goal is to help people enter the field of technology by providing them with what they need to do so: accessible training and job placements in paid apprenticeships.

LaunchCode was founded by Jim McKelvey, the co-founder of the payment processing company Square. Square started in McKelvey’s hometown of St. Louis, but he moved it to Silicon Valley when he couldn’t find enough talent at home. LaunchCode started as his to help people from his hometown find work in technology. It has expanded from St. Louis to four other U.S. metros, including Tampa Bay.

Here are the photos I took at the event:

Photo by Joey deVilla. Tap to see at full size.

Jill St. Thomas, Executive Director of Tech Tampa Bay, gave an inspirational commencement address. She reminded us that women make up slightly more than half of the workforce, yet are underrepresented in many areas that define modern life and society, including technology and leadership. Rather than emulate men, she said that women should embrace that they are different from men and play to those strengths.

The students were given an opportunity to speak for a couple of minutes to talk about their experiences during the 14 weeks. They told stories that will be familiar to you when you think of the first time you encountered programming, look back on your first serious project, or if you’ve ever been in a group with a strong sense of camaraderie.

Photo by Joey deVilla. Tap to see at full size.

Congratulations to the graduating class!

Photo by Joey deVilla. Tap to see at full size.

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, January 13, 2020)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 12, 2020

Every week, dedicated individuals and organizations in around the Tampa Bay do more than just their “day jobs”. They get involved in events where they share their knowledge, make connections and friends, and gather together to build strong tech, entrepreneur, and nerd communities. That’s why I do this every week: I put together a list of tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events to make sure that they can be found and you can attend them!

Here’s what’s happening in Tampa Bay this week!

This weekly list is posted as a voluntary service to the Tampa tech community. With the notable exceptions of Tampa iOS Meetup and Coders, Creatives and Craft Beer — both of which I run — most of this information comes from Meetup.com, EventBrite, and other local event announcement sites. I can’t guarantee the accuracy of the dates and times listed here; if you want to be absolutely sure that the event you’re interested in is actually taking place, please contact the organizers!

Monday, January 13

Tuesday, January 14

Wednesday, January 15

Thursday, January 16

Friday, January 17

Saturday, January 18

Sunday, January 19

Do you have an upcoming event that you’d like to see on this list?

If you know of an upcoming event that you think should appear on this list, please let me know!

Join the mailing list!

If you’d like to get this list in your email inbox every week, enter your email address below. You’ll only be emailed once a week, and the email will contain this list, plus links to any interesting news, upcoming events, and tech articles.

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, January 6, 2020)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 5, 2020

Happy new year! I hope you enjoyed your holidays and perhaps even got a chance to take a break to rest and recharge. 2020’s now in full swing, and so is Tampa Bay! I’m back back with my weekly list of the area’s tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events.

Monday, January 6

Tuesday, January 7

Wednesday, January 8

Thursday, January 9

Friday, January 10

Saturday, January 11

Sunday, January 12

Do you have an upcoming event that you’d like to see on this list?

If you know of an upcoming event that you think should appear on this list, please let me know!

Join the mailing list!

Join the Tampa Bay Tech Events list and always be informed of what’s coming up in Tampa Bay!

Tags Tampa Bay Tech Events

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in Tampa Bay’s tech scene this weekend

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date January 3, 2020

Here’s a quick list of what’s happening in Tampa Bay’s tech, entrepreneur, and nerd scene this weekend! The regular list will resume in a couple of days.

Friday, January 3

Saturday, January 4

Sunday, January 5

Current Events Humor

Fake ad, but true statement

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 19, 2019

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

This is why I’ve been posting most things — even if it’s just a single photo or link — on my blogs rather than social media. As far as I’m concerned, the primary purpose of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are to direct readers to my blogs.

Current Events Security The Street Finds Its Own Uses For Things

The 2020 presidential campaigns aren’t ready to fight disinformation. It might be up to us.

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 16, 2019

In today’s New York Times, there’s a frightening article titled 2020 Campaigns Throw Their Hands Up on Disinformation, which Techmeme succinctly summarizes like so: Campaign staff and researchers say almost no political campaigns, including presidential ones, have teams for spotting and pushing back on disinformation.

Welcome to the downside of the old internet promise that anyone can be a publisher or a journalist: It’s that everyone also has to be an editor, a fact-checker, a media critic, and yes, an investor too.

Start with these basics:

Also worth reading: The Internet Broke the News Industry—and Can Fix It, Too, by Jimmy Wales and Orit Kopel:

The people-powered solution

In the end, what may end up making a big difference is the rise of contributors who care enough to give up some of their time to act as independent fact-checkers and watchdogs. That’s how the Urban Legends Reference Pages got its start, and it eventually became Snopes. Just as social media accounts can be used to spread disinformation, they can also be used to spread the truth. Algorithms have been weaponized against people, but they can also be harnessed to protect them.

Someone’s going to have to take on the challenges that the campaigns and social media networks can’t or won’t do, and as the drivers of the information age, that responsibility will fall to us. Are we up to it?

Current Events Tampa Bay

What’s happening in the Tampa Bay tech/entrepreneur/nerd scene (Week of Monday, December 16, 2019 through New Year’s Eve)

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date December 15, 2019

It’s the last “Tampa Bay tech events” list of 2019…and of the decade!

The time around Christmas always sees a sharp decline in tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events, which is why this edition is listing the events for the last two weeks on the year. I hope you had a great 2019, and I’ll see you in 2020!

This weekly list, which I started in 2017, has been around for about three years. and I hope you’ve found it useful. The mailing list version is a relatively new thing — thanks to Justin Davis for the suggestions — and will continue into the new year and the new decade.