MARTYHAUGHT

Blind Reviews at RailsConf 2013

For RailsConf 2013, we used a different approach for reviewing all the proposals we got — all reviews were blind. This is where the reviewer can only see the proposal’s title, abstract and detailed information. We reviewers had no idea who submitted the talk, their experience level or gender/ethnicity. Though I have been organizing conferences in some fashion over the last seven years, this is the first time I’ve done a blind review process.

Opportunity Scholarship at Rocky Mountain Ruby

I wanted to pass along a cool new program we’re trying out at Rocky Mountain Ruby. We’ve been in discussion the past couple months about diversity in our programming communities. A small community around RailsBridge has formed and they’re beginning to bring in new women programmers. We wanted to build on that by creating the ‘Opportunity Scholarship’. It’s a free pass for the conference and workshop for beginner programmers that are primarily women, minorities or other under-represented groups. We’re going to also match these folks up with experienced programmers to be their guide during the conference. This way the whole process isn’t as intimidating. If you or someone you know fits into this description, encourage them to read more and apply: Opportunity Scholarship

Deadline is September 7th but we strongly encourage those interested to apply immediately. We have limited spots available and will be rewarding them as they come in.

We’ll see how this turns out but I’m excited to give it a try. One component about this is that part of this program’s success will be to reach out to those that aren’t as connected as many of you. Any help on passing this along is appreciated.