My Hacktoberfest2021 Journey

#hacktoberfest #womenintech #devops

Hacktoberfest 2021 ~ Women In Tech App/API creation ~ A Web Dev's Reflection

Hacktoberfest2021

kwing25 / Women-Who-ve-Changed-Tech

Updates coming soon 2023... Women Tech Pioneers API & React App 👩🏻‍💻. List of amazing Female Tech & STEM Pioneers. Contributions to the list are welcome!

‣The Project ‣The Beginning ‣The Future ‣Being a Maintainer ‣Women In Tech ‣Thanks ‣See more

This was my 1st time being a Contrbutor & Maintainer in Hactoberfest. I'm a new Bootcamp Grad & Developer and this event was a great opportunity to contribute to Open Source Projects.

The Project

Looking at the many open source projects I decided I wanted to do more than just contribute. For a while, I've wanted to do a Female Tech Pioneers Web API/React App after noticing that there aren't many sources online of just Females in Tech. I decided to start a project that would build the foundation of an all-Women Tech & STEM Pioneer API and Website. I wanted to have multiple contributors building a list of Female Tech Individuals. It's been surprising to see the number of people Contributing to the list. I didn't think that there would be many people who would see the Repo and it's been incredible working with people all over the world 🌎.

The Beginning

I started with the goal of developing a simple Front End React JS and a JSON & Yaml File for the API List. Creating the basic structure of the site I used Sass/SCSS for Styling, Bootstrap for Structure, and npm packages (Font Awesome, React-Scroll-Motion). For the API Development I used Postman.

The Future

This project is just in its infancy and I plan on developing this into a full Web API using REST & React.js as the main technologies. Having multiple Collaborators & Contributors will help to the project's development. Contribute☞

Being a Maintainer

Being a maintainer on a repo can be very rewarding but also involves a lot of work. GitHub & GitLab make Devops/Repo Management accessible for users and is vital for open source collaboration. Issues, Docs, PR's, Tracking, Actions, Projects, Etc.. One of the most important things I've learned is that having strong connections & communication with other collaborators can make a huge difference in a project.

Women in Tech

My experience as a Woman in the Tech Industry has come with challenges. I started out taking Computer Networking courses and wanted to get certifications in IT and Security. There were very few women in these classes and sometimes I was the only one. I never let this stop me from going into this field and I don't want this to stop any other woman from pursuing a career in tech. But I had to learn and grow more confident in myself. Amy Hood the CFO of Microsoft put this feeling into good words-

"Every job I took, I was deeply uncomfortable in terms of feeling unqualified. Every step, every risk I took, built confidence."

When you love a certain field and are passionate about it you can achieve about anything (usually easier said than done). There are so many talented women in the Tech Industry and so many that have made a lasting impact. My ultimate goal for this project is to document women in Tech and make sure there remembered in Tech history.

Thanks

👏 Many great Contributors on this project. See the list ☞ github.com/kwing25/Women-Who-ve-Changed-Tech/graphs/contributors

See more

Contact-

Ada Lovelace was my first entry to the list. ✦ Known as the 1st Computer Programmer. Ada was brilliant in Mathematics & Computing. She lived in the 1800s and is still remembered today for her contributions in this field.

  {
    "id": "1",
    "name": "Ada Lovelace",
    "known_for": "First Computer Programmer",
    "Bio": {
      "Summary": "The daughter of famed poet Lord Byron, Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace — better known as \"Ada Lovelace\" — showed her gift for mathematics at an early age. She translated an article on an invention by Charles Babbage, and added her own comments. Because she introduced many computer concepts, Lovelace is considered the first computer programmer"
    }
    {
    "Fields": [
      {
        "Computing": [
          "Programming",
          "Algorithms"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "Legacy": "Lovelace's contributions to the field of computer science were not discovered until the 1950s. Her notes were reintroduced to the world by B.V. Bowden, who republished them in 'Faster Than Thought - A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines'. Since then, Ada has received many posthumous honors for her work.",
  }