Duchess
Globally Connecting Women in Java Technology

For those who have not yet seen it, we redesigned our website for more member participation and to forge a closer community.

Here are some of the new things on the site:

• Comments are open.
• Posting is open for all members.
• Write posts directly on Duchess or link to your own blog to increase traffic.
• Tag your posts with useful classifications for easier grouping and searching.
• Social networking – LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter – connect with Duchess on social networking sites.
• Bring one male guest to Duchess events.

Help us collect information about women in IT from all over the world.

On 23 December, 2008, we have visited the notary to become a foundation. This will enable us to make our organization more professional and will help us organizing more events.

On Sunday, 23 November 2008, we reached 100 members world-wide. Please tell your colleagues about us and continue to spread the word!

Remember to sign up for our next event – Agile Workshop – by Michael Franken at the iProfs office in Utrecht.

Agile is a way of working that focuses on communication, teamwork, and delivering business value with quality software in a cost effective and timely manner. The work is done by self-organizing teams with a leadership focused on facilitating and inspiring.
We will first go through an introduction to agile and then play the Planning Poker Game – an effective way to teach the ideas of teamwork, business value, feedback, and improvement.

Sign up at http://jduchess.org/events/duchess-agile-event.

The first one who replies to this email receives the free pass for Eclipse Forum Europe which takes place on 20-24 April 2009. The only condition is that you write a recap about your experience there on Duchess.

Although, we didn’t speak at JFall, Linda was in the video which can be seen at http://jduchess.org/blog/jfall-better-late-than-never.

At our BOF at Devoxx, there was very little time for discussion. Apologies. Please continue our discussion in the comments at http://jduchess.org/blog/recap-bof-devoxx08.

Clara wrote a series of articles ‘Women in IT: Challenges, Reasons, and Strategies’ based on the information presented at the Devoxx BOF. The articles can be read at http://jduchess.org/tag/series1.

Our total list of recaps from Devoxx can be found under the tag ‘devoxx08′ at http://jduchess.org/tag/devoxx08.

In an attempt to involve our members from other countries and to help build some global connections and closer ties between our members, we would like to introduce a global mentoring program. Mentoring is an important part of career development, so getting feedback from someone who has been there is very helpful.

Mentoring is a process through which an individual offers professional expertise and support to a less experienced colleague. A mentor serves as teacher, counselor, and advocate to a protegee. Mentoring should be a mutually beneficial relationship.
Being a mentor gives you an opportunity to develop leadership skills and make a difference in someone else’s life.
Being a protegee gives you a chance to learn the ropes of the trade and receive feedback on your performance.
Although mentoring can involve technical topics, perhaps the choice of technology to get into, it is more about career development.

Some example questions that can be discussed are:

• What kind of career opportunities are possible for a Java developer?
• What kind of steps do you need to make to become for instance a software architect?
• How do I minimize the fallback when I get children?
• How to deal with sexism at my office?

If you have questions and ideas, or would like to help with setting up our mentoring program, please send us an email.

Please let us know if you are interested in participating in our mentoring program by filling out a poll at http://jduchess.org/news/mentoring-poll.

The theme for 2009 is Visibility and Connections.

Visibility

In 2009, we will work on increasing visibility for Duchess – in the Java community, in business circles, in the press, and in society in general. In parallel, we will help our members to become more visible with their skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Connections

2009 will also be a year for increased connections between our individual members. In addition, we will be looking into connections between Duchess and other organizations with similar goals, which will also increase our visibility.

• What do you want to learn more about that would help you in your career?
• Are there speakers that you would really like to meet in a smaller setting such as ours?
• Do you have ideas on how to involve members in other countries in Duchess activities?

Please send us an email.