A Woman TechMaker (WTM)

A community is a group of people who share characteristics that are strong enough to unite them regardless of their differences.

I never really knew the importance of travel and meeting people from different countries, beliefs and culture as mine till when I arrived to the summit. It was my first time sited with people from about 18+ countries from all over Africa. We come from the same continent but we are very different, we have very different cultures and It takes you being in the same room to realize that. I came to appreciate learning different languages, even though I never paid attention when learning them in school and I got really challenged to find out more about my country cause some of the questions people asked me about my country I would just look at the smiling and in my head be like "How The Hell Was I Supposed To Know That?!!!" But all in all, its good having knowledge about where you come from.

I have been out of the blogging zone for quite sometime BUT I am back with more to write about. I recently attended a series of summits in Nairobi courtesy of Google. It was a really amazing experience and I got to learn a lot that I will try share with you. 

First, about WTM and GDG.

GDG basically consists of small GDG groups in cities all around the world with the common goal for a community, learning and growth for anyone interested in Technology(esp. google technologies). So now, WTM falls under the GDG of the specific regions they belong to. Example, I am in Eldoret, Kenya hence I joined GDG Eldoret formerly known as GDG Moi because that's where it began. Check Out: GDG to find out more about these amazing communities.

For ladies, we have a special our special community called WTM. Among WTM's goals is to:

• Create a supportive global community in which women can connect, be inspired and encourage each other to realize their passions.
• Provide opportunities to develop industry neeeded skillsets, aid career development and support women become industry leaders in all phases of their careers.
• Showcase the work and passions of women in technology industry by providing a platform to celebrate their talent and spotlight role models.

So since I am in Eldoret, Of course, I won't fail to mention our community. We highly encourage every woman in the field of technology to join the community and always be active. There are amazing opportunities and people that you may only get the chance to meet when you get involved in a community.

WTM Eldoret

So now to the summits. Its impossible to stress how meeting with people and interacting with people really opens up your mind. 

It was really fun and informative. I think among my favorite sessions was one on meditation. Maybe it was the calming and relaxing feeling it made me feel or how easy I just got lost in the breathing process and suddenly felt a sense of relief and a feel of letting go.

We were taught several meditation techniques that can be incorporated into even the busiest of schedules. But I think meditation is something worth taking a look at in order to improve your health and how you manage and deal with issues affecting you.

Learn more about meditation 

We had so many sessions on building communities and how to manage communities. It was quite interesting hearing GDG community leaders and our mentors share about there communities, there successes and failures to learn from. 

I will share a link to a summarized PDF on the techniques that were discussed. Feel free to add more to them via the comments. I will update on this soon as I am still working on the summary.

Web Accessibility

For Web Developers, we had a talk on Web Accessibility. This was something I had never thought of or even heard of before the summit. Web Accessibility, from my understanding now, is adding features to your website that makes it usable by those who have disabilities. those who cannot interact with your site as other normal users or in scenarios where your some of the elements e.g images fail to load etc. Some of the features were as minor as adding labels to images which allows it to be known that there was an image there in cases where the image fails to load.

Not to forget, I just got an android things kit from the summit. Its really dope. I am so psyched to start sharing about it. Just started thinking of projects. Feel free to share ideas of projects that can be done with it. We can actually do it together or if you are a part of GDG Eldoret or WTM Eldoret, you can be lended a kit for you to try out your project

Android things kit after being assembled

The modules contained in the android things kit

I think we should have more diverse communities as that. not necessarily 18+ countries but rather 10+ tribes, mixed male and female, beginners, intermediate and experts,  all sharing a common goal and working together to achieve it.

If you are in any field of specialization, male or female, I encourage you to join a community, not necessarily this community but one that allows for you to grow and one that you feel included. Its important to develop and share your skills.