I have a saying: “Talking is good; making is better.” By that, I mean that discussion in all forms is an important means of learning, teaching, and shaping ideas. But it’s even more important to create, whether it’s writing, code, sound or objects.

So since the beginning of this year, I’ve been putting my motto into action by creating Write/Speak/Code, a conference by women developers for women developers.


The five of us co-organizers — Rebecca Miller-Webster (who hatched the idea), Vanessa Hurst, Celia La, Rachel Ober and I — have put together a three-day, hands-on, action-oriented event that will empower women developers to be more visible online and in mass media as opinion writers, at tech conferences as presenters and keynoters, and in the open source community as code contributors.

It’s important to me that technology is shaped by the many people who come in contact with it. I’m encouraged that women developers have signed up to talk and to make over the next three days because I have high hopes for what we’re about to do together, and the change everyone involved can cause.

Write/Speak/Code going to be awesome, and I’m really looking forward to seeing more women of code out there talking and making after Write/Speak/Code.

If you’d like to follow along on Twitter, you’ll find updates at @WriteSpeakCode.

URI.lv

My slice of the online universe let out a collective “Nooooo!” when Google announced it would be shutting down Google Reader on July 1. It also sent lots of people off in search of an alternative to Feedburner, Google’s RSS management service.

Today, I’m giving URI.lv a shot. In addition to whitelabeling, a WordPress plug-in and relatively easy migration, it’s got a pretty nice feature set for free. A $30/year premium subscription gives you display and click tracking, and upgrades to free features.

If you use URI.lv, I’d love to know how you like it.