Queer Code Yorkshire

Queer Code is a community for queer programmers who wish to write code within a supportive environment

For the January 2018 edition of Queer Code Yorkshire we’re back in Leeds for an evening of talks.
Queer Code is a community for queer programmers who wish to write code within a supportive environment. Participants and organisers agree to follow our<A HREF="http://queer-code.org/coc.html" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> Code of Conduct</A>.
Sorry, this event is not meant for allies.  See our <A HREF="http://queer-code.org/mission.html" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Mission Statement</A> for more info.
Schedule:
18:00 Welcome and networking
18:30 Kim Foale
19:00 Break
19:15 Lucy Davinhart
19:45 Networking
20:00 Finish
Talk 1 - Kim Foale - Coding whilst queer: towards an embodied ethics of technology 
This talk is in many ways an attempt to make sense of the last decade of my life. I've spent most of it involved in various forms of social activism around Queer/LGBT+, feminist, anti-racist, economic and environmental issues. While doing this I've worked as a freelance web developer for small charities and campaigns, as well as completing a PhD in 2014.
Post-graduation, I knew something needed to change: I was effectively living three incompatible lives, all of which to me had huge potential to inform the others. I started a social group to talk about these overlaps between research, technology and social activism called Geeks for Social Change, which is currently becoming a social enterprise.
“PlaceCal” is the first project to come out of this ongoing personal process and public dialogue. PlaceCal is a low social capital social network designed to help people with low or no technical skills work together to publish community events. It was made in partnership with PHASE@MMU (an applied architectural research centre creating Age Friendly Cities), CityVerve (Manchester's Internet of Things demonstrator), and the Hulme and Moss Side Age Friendly Partnership.
Through this project we are developing a radical place-based method to deliver holistically co-designed and co-produced tools called Community Technology Partnerships. These partnerships I have now come to realise directly embody Queer Theory's principles of prioritising and appreciating difference, placing value in relationships, and holistically critiquing the multi-faceted nature of oppression. Using this framework I will argue that the patriarchal structures that have created our current software idioms, places of work, culture and tools have made their mark in ways we are only beginning to understand; and that a better, queerer way is possible.
Talk 2 - Lucy Davinhart - Distributing DevOps tools using GoLang and Containers, for Fun and Profit!
A look at our approach to distributing DevOps tools between many teams (and CI), using a GoLang app to launch containers.
We needed a way to reduce the overheads associated with onboarding new starters, so instead of a document giving a list of software that needed to be downloaded, e.g. ChefDK, Vagrant, Terraform etc. etc. they could just download a single thing which gave them a ready made development environment whether they used Mac or Linux PCs.
Initially we used Vagrant for this, but that ended up being rubbish.
Then along came Docker for Mac, and we quickly realised that, by manipulating the GoLang Docker SDK, we could just run everything in containers. Because we wrote this in Go, we could also interact with other Go SDKs for products and services we look after, like AWS and Hashicorp Vault, to prepare an environment for these containers.
This worked really well! Too well, in fact, as people from across the company started asking us "can you add XYZ to this tool?". We didn't want our tool to become bloated, so we open-sourced the guts of our tool for other teams to create their own versions, with the tools they needed.
Speaker Bios
Kim is a researcher, developer and social activist currently based in Manchester. Their interests include place and community, sound and senses, access and inclusion, identity and intersectionality.
Lucy Davinhart is a senior automation engineer, Go developer, and accidental emoji expert. In their spare time, they like to establish communication between systems that aren’t designed to talk to each other.
Directions & Accessibility
Car parking: <A HREF="http://www.wellingtonplace.co.uk/amenities/indoor-outdoor-parking/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.wellingtonplace.co.uk/amenities/indoor-outdoor-parking/</A>
Map: <A HREF="https://goo.gl/maps/4Pmk9JAfxHv" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://goo.gl/maps/4Pmk9JAfxHv</A>
The event is taking place in the Sky Betting & Gaming offices on the third floor of 6 Wellington Place.
There is a level route from the NCP car park (which has limited accessible parking spaces), CitiPark, and the train station.  The venue is on the 3rd floor with multiple lifts available.
There is wheelchair access. There is basic seating, an accessible toilet and a gender neutral toilet. There isn't a hearing loop, a bsl interpreter, or a designated quiet space.
Get in touch with us via Twitter<A HREF="https://twitter.com/queercodeyorks" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> @QueerCodeYorks</A> if you have any questions.

Sky Betting & Gaming

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Queer Code Yorkshire

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