Akkana Peck: Presentations and Tutorials

Upcoming:

Wednesday, July 15, 2009, ACM Cupertino, CA: GIMP Demystified, tips and techniques for image manipulation.

July 22, 2009, San Jose, CA, OSCON 2009, two talks:
Bug Fixing for Everyone (even non-programmers!) and Featherweight Linux: How to turn a netbook or older laptop into a Ferrari.

Speaker Bio: Akkana Peck is a freelance software engineer and author based in San Jose, CA, specializing in free open source software such as Linux and the GIMP. She has contributed to numerous open source projects, is active in educational groups such as LinuxChix, and is the author of the book Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional.

Akkana is an active member of Toastmasters (AC-G, CL) and enjoys giving presentations on a variety of topics, including computers, math, science and nature.

She has presented tutorials and technical talks on computer topics such as image editing and programming at numerous conferences, including LinuxConf Australia, SCALE (Los Angeles) and UbuCon (Mountain View), as well as at user group meetings around Silicon Valley.

She also designs and presents tutorials on science and computing for educational groups such as GetSET (a summer technology camp for high school girls) and the AAUW's science outreach for middle school girls, and for clubs such as the San Jose Astronomical Association and the Los Angeles Astronomical Society.

I'm also listed on Chix Who Speak (which I also help maintain) and GeekSpeakr, two excellent lists of technical women presenters.

Some Past Presentations

Technical presentations on open source topics: Long presentations and tutorials ranging from 45 minutes to several hours. Some examples:

What Makes the Lizard Roar? A Tour through Mozilla Architecture (Linux.Conf.Au 2009)
Gimp-fu and You: Writing GIMP Scripts and Plug-ins (Linux.Conf.Au 2008)
Bug Fixing for Everyone (SCALE & OSCON 2009, LinuxChix MiniConf, LCA 2007, PenLUG)
GIMP Uncovered/Demystified (SCALE 2008, Linux.Conf.Au 2007, UbuCon, LUGs, other venues)
Programming in Javascript (GetSET high school workshop, 2004-7)
Mozilla Tips and Tricks (PenLUG 2003)

Science presentations for general audiences: Short talks on subjects like "Walking the San Andreas fault", "Moon rocks", "How do airplanes fly?" or "Cosmology and dark matter", as well as longer tutorials on subjects like "Programming in Javascript", "Fibonacci numbers" or "Observing the Moon".

Short talks (e.g. for Toastmasters meetings): A wide range of topics, with titles like "Drive Like a Racer!", "Bellwether", "Stone Soup for the Milennium", or "The Genesis Rock".

If you'd like to see a presentation on one of these topics (or any related subjects), please mail me and we'll talk! If you're not in the San Francisco Bay Area, though, I might need travel expenses.

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...Akkana