What have I been focusing on this week? Recovering from a stomach bug, holding a 1 day old baby (life!!!), pulling data out of a system, firming up a procedure at work, navigating an upcoming staff transition, supporting my community in a time of mourning, and plenty more. Winter turns to spring! There are blossoms!
Given all of this movement, I wanted to write a blogpost that’s brief but chock full of tips.
5 articles I’m reading
Hanna Thomas on building a “product team” at 350.org. More here! Favorite quote from link #2: “Suddenly, there is a kick-ass team in place to focus on this piece that is so essential to their success. A legitimate product team of experts, owning the organization’s technology products and dedicated to supporting the heck out of everyone who uses them.” This sooooo relates to the kind of leadership I want more organizations to have when it comes to using technology! Supportive, assertive, knowledgable folks. A beautiful sight to see.
Love this title… “I do QA (I break things)” podcast interview with Gillian Bruce and Marciana Davis. (full transcript available here). This podcast was awesome because Marciana shares some of her personal story with starting her career in the Salesforce ecosystem and gets into software testing, which is something I’m trying to learn more about. This post from the Salesforce.org developers blog is also a great resource about making sure that systems actually work – and how to do that!
“Racism, whiteness, and burnout in antiracism movements: How white racial justice activists elevate burnout in racial justice activists of color in the United States” long title, but totally descriptive of the piece and critically important! Use this link to access a free version of this scholarly article. This one is hard to summarize, but worth a read and some real introspection.
A new colleague (and hopefully friend) introduced me to the blog at the Equitable Eval Initiative, and I especially connected with this post about what constitutes “data validity.” Here’s a great quote: “When people think about generating valid findings, often their brains go straight to things like sample size. In other words, methodological considerations that academia had taught them to associate with good science. However, there is more to valid findings than methodological designs: things like which voices are represented, how accurately they are represented, if the data collector is trusted, if the report is trusted, and more. This is a concept called “multicultural validity.” ”
Finally, here’s an article that was a labor of love and represents sooo much great thinking by people I respect. 6 Ways to Put Equality in Your CRM from the Salesforce.org blog. So many good tips and examples, it’s hard to pick one to highlight!
Stock photos
Not to be confused with “photos of stock…” (harhar), stock photos are professional pics that are available online royalty-free. They’re the backbone of lots of blog and website content. They’re supposed to be generic, but for FAR TOO LONG stock photos galleries haven’t provided access to pictures of racially diverse people doing everyday things. That is starting to change, and I wanted to share some resources here for everyone in the TDAA community. (Including galleries of photos available for sale that aren’t considered “stock photos” but are AWESOME and we should all use them!)
- NEW! Stock photos beyond the gender binary (oy and read these gorgeous guidelines too!)
- beautiful, free, high res photos of black and brown people
- beautiful, free photos in general (including nature photos)
- beautiful, free photos of Women of Color in Tech (attribute to http://www.wocintechchat.com)
- amazing collection (free and for purchase) photos of Black women and women of color
- gallery of 6,000 images of women and girls (proceeds benefit LeanIn.Org)
- gallery of body positive and racially diverse photos (for sale)
Spreadsheets, of course
Easy, breezy, beautiful tips for making a more readable spreadsheet experience that anyone can do! Here’s a link. My favorite was “don’t be afraid of white space” – it can help your spreadsheet users find what’s most important!
