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Hack City Highlight Reel

See the archive of the event here.

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This is dope.

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511.org - MTC SF Bay Area

Role: User Experience Team Lead. Product Manager.

As a contractor, I owned the design initiatives to produce the front end experience of the SF Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission's 511.org Next Gen redesign for the region's 8 million residents. The site integrates and manages data from over 30 transportation agencies (i.e., ferries, CalTrain, BART, buses, shuttles, bike route, carpool/vanpool, and on demand shuttles) parking locations (including real-time availability), camera feeds, digital displays and more. The completed solution was a fully mobile-responsive, and 508 compliant accessible MTC NextGen 511 website. The system leverages both proprietary data sources produced exclusively by the organization and blends them with open source applications like the Google Maps API to lend the greatest utility to end users. MTC on the Civic Connect Platform by Civic Resource Group

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December 2015 - Yes We Code

A short conversation with the next "Yes We Code" cohort about who I am, what I do in tech, and highlighting challenges I've faced as a young women of color (and entrepreneur) in the tech industry. My reflections on the experience and "Diversity in Tech":

"Diversity In Tech - isn’t just about these ongoing coversations that stress increasing percentages of people of color, various genders, socio-economic status, physical abilities etc. in the tech industry. It is also about equipping those pioneers, who venture into the scene, with cliff notes on how to navigate different (sometimes funky) communication styles, a myriad of micro-aggressions and unspoken rules (or etiquette) that we all inevitably come up against.

This morning, I had the opportunity to share insider knowledge with the new @YesWeCode cohort of 10 black and brown folks who will begin at Dev Bootcamp on December 28th. I shared my experiences, as a non-developer (basically a hacker), Web Producer and entrepreneur. Hopefully, they can skip some of the mistakes and pitfalls I had to learn from when venturing out on my own.

I’m delighted to know they will enter the program in SF, with Michael J. Walker as the lead of the SF division. It reflects so many opportunities for more of “us” to get into the industry, and I can’t wait to see the results in 2016."

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Curiosity, multidisciplinary thinking and the confidence to counter ideas and requests with critical questions are all signs of a great product manager. This is an incredibly valuable combination of skills, traits and experiences that isn’t easy to find.

"Nobody gets product managers. -_- Project managers draw up an execution plan for a project, coordinate the necessary people and resources and keep everyone on deadline. Their largely operational role is an important job, but not the product manager’s. Instead, product managers are like mini CEOs – and to get them to onboard with you, you need to communicate a role that they can get excited about."

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“2nd Generation In Tech”

Essay By Krys Freeman in "Lean Out" (Anthology) Edited By Elissa Shevisnky

You can read my essay here. You can buy the anthology here.

"Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech + Startup Culture" Released August 2015

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My team and I have compiled a list of both entrepreneurs and ventures that are the real deal, in no particular order.

Craig Newmark (Cragislist, CraigConnects)

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KingstonFarady.co

Information Architecture, Website Relaunch, Theme Customization

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With public transit being the primary way East Bayers get around, you don’t want to let HeLLa Rides pass you by.

Natalie Meier (Oakland Local)

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StackOverflow FTW - Angular.js Course Correction (for CodeSchool)

Continuing the discussion from Shaping Up with Angular.js Level 5 Challenge 3 [FIXED] - re: ngRepeat/dupes error:

paulajbastos said:

Nevermind... my mistake with json written

In the previous thread, the author reported that it was his mistake re: the issue with the JSON, but I wanted to clarify this a bit further, as I ran into this problem not because of a small error.

The issue here is, we wrote our code in the HTML file originally, using a very basic array. When we pulled that code out of the HTML file into a JSON file all its own, it wasn't properly formatted to hold its own as a legitimate JSON file.

Seems simple, but it took a few tries before I was sure that the formatting had to be the problem. After a couple of different attempts at debugging my issue myself I turned to google because I was determined to get through the final challenge and finish the course.

It turns out that copying our gem array from the app.html file into a JSON file, doesn't quite get us where we need to go. As was explained by joakimbl on Stack Overflow:

It seems like data is a string and not an array. This is probably because the response body from the server is not properly formatted JSON. Instead of traversing objects in an array, ng-repeat traverses characters in a string and throws an error on the second tab character (encoded as %0D) it detects.

Here's a link to the full explanation (question posed by a fellow codeschooler):

stackoverflow.com

$http dependency injection throwing error

asked by mtpultz on 08:01AM - 07 Jun 14

javascript, json, angularjs, dependency-injection

The author of the solution (our buddy joakimbl) even goes so far as to provide a plunker with properly formatted JSON to prove the case: http://plnkr.co/edit/XbPuXkykzv36NyH3sSeu?p=preview

In lieu of reformatting my own code (which differed marginally) I swapped in his and my app got back to working.

But I just found a JSON formatter/validator and went back in, cleaned my code and swapped it back.

It worked!

You just need to clean up your array before expecting it to work in a standalone JSON file. Then (and ONLY then) will you stop getting that unhelpful "ngRepeat/dupes" error -- offering no data about where the dupes are. The reason that happened is because it's basically reading a duplication of an empty file, since it can't read the array correctly.

Another piece of sage wisdom that he offers:

You shouldn't use the minified version of Angular while developing. You'll get better error messages when using the non-minified version.

I totally feel you joa!

But of course, we were following the course directions, and well... the course directed us to go minified. That said, in the same vein... following the course line by line ALSO got us into this little bit of a pickle to begin with. In any case, if you were hitting a wall, I hope this helps.

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Let me preface this with... I supported #CancelColbert. I also thought it interesting the content of the song, given the context of the performance. I dunno. I think a lot :) Enjoy the music.

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CJNY

Community Justice Network for Youth Consulting, Wordpress, Customization, Project Management

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GreenBiz Group

Website Re-Design: Project Management, UX/UI, Q/A, Content Development, Mobile Responsive

Recognition: 2015 Finalist in MinOnline's Best of the Web & Digital Awards

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Transgender Day of Remembrance

Black is Blue Interviews

Earlier this year I was invited as a documentary expert on Gender/Sexuality/Queer Politics for an on camera interview supporting "Black is Blue" and got to sit down to discuss a variety of things with the esteemed Cheryl Dunye. "Please don't ma'am me." - Krys Freeman I talked a bit about being called sir, passing/clockability, and regional gender nuances for masculine of center women.

Cheryl Dunye's award winning film "Black is Blue," is a short narrative that tells the story of Black — an African American Transman, who works as a security guard inside an apartment complex in present day Oakland, California. My friend Kingston Farady plays the lead role of Black.

Watch more of the "Black Is Blue" interviews online here.

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Oakland Surf Club

Website Relaunch: Consulting, E-Commerce, Wordpress, Shopify, Information Architecture, Project Management

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If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again..."

This article I read is an oldie, but goodie, even if the title is mostly sensational - The Rejection Gene. I was turned onto the piece after attending a panel discussion entitled "Hacking Gender: How to build an inclusive & non-discriminatory culture in the tech industry for female executives, entrepreneurs, engineers and programmers" held earlier this year at Bloomberg West's offices.

Admittedly, it took me a few weeks to muster the calm to open it up and read it. Put off by the title, and concerned that I would be summarily disgusted at the end of it, I found myself intrigued by the ideas put forth in the piece. The possibility that learning risk at a young age, especially if said learnings may be divided along gendered lines, might influence your comfort with rejection as an adult entrepreneur, was... well... a bit eye-opening.

Further, it took me down a rabbit hole of self reflection wherein I could see how perfectionism was one of the ways I, whether consciously or unconsciously, try to protect myself from rejection.

And then I thought... "The mere act of avoiding the article, in a way, corroborates the content... yikes" LOL I found the analysis, and the author's self critical approach to broaching what could be seen as a sensitive topic, and perceived by some at face value as patently sexist, well... kinda logical - even if it makes heteronormative assumptions.

My takeaway, ultimately, was a reminder that a "NO" or rejection is often an opportunity to rework a prototype or re-tool some skill. I am further reminded that the extremes of absolutely blaming any rejection on the person (or institution) that relayed the bad news OR ascribing said rejection to an intrinsic flaw in my character don't best serve my (or probably anyone else's) needs. #Message!

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Lava Mae - Mobile Showers for the Homeless

Congratulations to LavaMae on their successful IndieGogo campaign!