---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mary Gardiner <mary@adainitiative.org>
Date: Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 9:29 PM

(This is a short version of the full announcement at http://adainitiative.org/2011/10/ada-initiative-to-hold-first-adacamp-in-melbourne-australia/ . If you are not already following our website, consider subscribing to our RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/AdaInitiative/News )

Dear all,

One of the major goals of the Ada Initiative is to organize a series of meetings of women in open technology and culture around the world, which we’re calling AdaCamp. As Ada Initiative directors Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner will be attending linux.conf.au 2012 in Ballarat, Australia, we intend to hold our very first AdaCamp the weekend before, as a one-day event on Saturday 14th January 2012, in Melbourne, Australia.

Attending AdaCamp Melbourne

Approximately 30 to 40 women will be invited to attend AdaCamp Melbourne. Invitations will be based on an open application process; that is, women interested in attending submit a short application, and attendees will be selected from among the applicants. Attendees will be selected based on leadership in open technology and culture, and interest in contributing to supporting women in the community.

Expressions of interest

Applications for AdaCamp Melbourne will open shortly. However, we’d like to gauge interest in the community so that we can plan a better event, and to attract sponsors to offset the cost of the event, so if you are interested in attending, please fill out this form and we will contact you when applications open.

https://docs.google.com/a/adainitiative.org/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dEhNQ0Y0TThVNXlhSzlqX0NWWkNFZFE6MQ#gid=0

Q&A

How much will AdaCamp cost? Will you offer travel or accommodation subsidies?

AdaCamp Melbourne will have free admission. We would like to offer travel and accommodation subsidies, if our budget permits. If so, these will be announced in due course. Not that it is very unlikely that we will be able to offer subsidies that will greatly offset the cost of an international flight to Australia.

What do you mean by a leader in open technology and culture?

We include activities like:

substantial amounts of openly available creative work, such as open source software and freely licenced educational or artistic works
project leadership or substantial volunteer community work in a open tech or culture project
involvement in outreach for open technology and culture, such as running programming workshops or photowalks or mapping drives
involvement in or leadership in women’s groups related to open technology and culture, like Wikichix, Geek Feminism, GNOME Women and so on.

When will there be an AdaCamp in my country/region?

Depending on funding, the Ada Initiative intends to run a few AdaCamps every year, likely shortly before or after major open technology and culture conferences. Watch our blog for other AdaCamp announcements.

We also hope and expect that other events and summits for women in open technology and culture will continue to be run by other groups: let us know if you’re running one and we’ll be happy to help you spread the word.

Contact us

If you have further questions, please email info@adainitiative.org.