Akkana Peck: Presentations and Tutorials

Technical Conference Presentations on Open Source Topics:

These range from 45 minutes to several hours or all day.

GIMP Demystified, GIMP for Public Speakers, and other GIMP talks and tutorials
SCALE 2008, Linux.Conf.Au 2007, OSCON 2008, NextStep Toastmasters 2010, Texas Linux Fest 2016, and many other venues
Fun with Linux and Devices: Getting started with Arduinos and hardware
SCALE10x 2012 and several smaller groups (video).
Writing GIMP Scripts and Plug-ins
PyCon 2012, SCALE9x 2011 (video), Libre Graphics Meeting and OSCON 2010, Linux.Conf.Au 2008
Featherweight Linux: Turning a netbook or underpowered computer into a Ferrari
OSCON 2009, SCALE 2010 (audio), SVLUG, PenLUG
Bug Fixing for Non-Programmers
SCALE & OSCON 2009, LinuxChix MiniConf, LCA 2007, PenLUG
What Makes the Lizard Roar? A Tour through Mozilla Architecture
Linux.Conf.Au 2009
Mozilla Tips and Tricks
PenLUG 2003

Planetarium Presentations

For the Los Alamos PEEC Nature Center, and occasionally other venues (can also be presented as simple slide talks without the planetarium).

These talks are written by me, co-presented with David North:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Moon: Visit the Moon Without Leaving Your Home Planet (2019)
Stonehenge, and Other Henges (2019)
Sextants, Stars and Satellites: Celestial Navigation Through the Ages (2018)
The Analemma Dilemma (2018)

plus an assortment of "What's Up in the Sky This Month?" presentations starting in 2016.

Planetarium talks written by David North, which I co-presented:

Big Honking Telescopes (2019)
Size of the Universe, Part 2 (2018)
Size of the Universe, Part 1 (2018)

Written and presented jointly by both of us:

How to Use (and Maybe Buy) a Telescope (2016)

School Workshops

Sextants, Stars and Satellites: Celestial Navigation Through the Ages (2019)
An adaptation of my planetarium program for a high school astronomy program.
Robots and Sensors
A high school workshop on Arduinos and hardware design for the SWE GETSET program, 2011
Programming in Javascript
A high school workshop for the SWE GETSET program, 2004-2010
Astronomy Workshop
Demonstrations for middle-school girls for AAUW Tech Trek, 2006-2009

I've also been involved with a few other programs for kids, such as Coder Dojo at Los Alamos Makers.

Science presentations for general audiences:

I love talking about science, particularly astronomy and geology. Most of these talks are suitable for anyone but can be beefed up for more technical audiences.

I have some short talks ready to go on topics such as "Walking the San Andreas fault", "Observing the moon" and "Moon rocks", "How do airplanes fly?", "Cosmology and dark matter", "Fibonacci numbers", "Telescope Making".

Plus Longer tutorials on "Programming in Python", "Programming in Javascript", "Observing the Moon", "Planetary Observing", "Astronomical Sketching".

Short talks (e.g. for Toastmasters meetings or Ignite):

Short 5-20 minute talks on a wide range of topics with titles like: "Bellwether", "Becoming Kaylee", "The Glower Hour", "Drive Like a Racer!", "Better Technical Presentations", "Stone Soup for the Milennium", "The Genesis Rock".

Some are specific to issues of technology in society, such as open source, open data, privacy, DRM, data literacy.

If you'd like to see a presentation on one of these topics (or a related subjects), please mail me!

Speaker Bio:

Akkana Peck is a software engineer and author based in White Rock, NM. Her career has specialized in free open source software.

She has contributed to numerous open source projects such as Mozilla and the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), is active in educational groups such as the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), LinuxChix and Los Alamos Makers and is the author of the books Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional and Jumpstarting the Raspberry Pi Zero W: Control the World Around You with a $10 Computer.

She has presented tutorials and technical talks on computer topics such as image editing and programming at numerous conferences, including LinuxConf Australia, Libre Graphics Meeting (Brussels), OSCON and Southern California Linux Expo, as well as at user group meetings around California.

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. See her listing on Chix Who Speak (which she also helps maintain), a list of women technical presenters.

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.

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