Dance Hack Day is a global celebration of technology and the choreographic arts. Participating in this year’s Amsterdam sister site event with an evolution of my light-up motion-responsive Arduino costume was a joy and a privilege. My biggest learning from the weekend is that with the right kind of supportive and open environment, even someone … Continue reading
Tag Archives: tech
Duologue, the chatbot that rescues you from uncomfortable silences
The highlight of my week (and possibly my year) has been finally releasing Duologue, a chatbot that rescues you from uncomfortable silences by prompting you with questions to ask when the conversation starts to dry up. You can check out this Facebook messenger bot on the Duologue Facebook page. Duolouge is also open source, so … Continue reading
Let there be light! (An Arduino Adventure)
I think there is no greater power on this earth than creativity: the freedom to forge, even in a small way, the world in the way that it should be. And I knew that my world needed a new creative fabric-and-programming project in it. I’m not sure exactly when I got interested in learning to … Continue reading
Nesta’s Future Festival
Nesta recently held the two-day FutureFest covering innovation in a range of areas like work, play, and love. With talks and roundtables interspersed with interactive, immersive experiences, there was certainly plenty to stimulate the curious mind. There were several sessions on the future of education. Most of these were slotted into the ‘Work’ theme of … Continue reading
Adventures in coding-land
I dreamed about a canvas painted in thick smears of black, spread so thickly the strokes seemed to move, roiling over and around each other giving depth and heft to the obscurity. Smudges of color which never quite resolved into shapes blossomed and faded on the surface, giving the impression of sinister figures shrouded in … Continue reading
On Imaginary Things
San Francisco always seems imaginary to me. Unlike many of my friends I’ve never felt the urge to move here because it would be like asking to live in a daydream: beautiful and otherworldly but insubstantial. But then, the digital worlds that we build of which Silicon Valley is the spiritual home are no more … Continue reading
Mozilla Festival 2015
I went to Mozilla Festival again this year, Mozilla’s annual convention dedicated to building a better web. What I noticed most this year was the greater emphasis on discussion in sessions. The first two years that I went were much more focused on building and doing. I had mixed feelings about this: I always view … Continue reading
Ada’s List Member Survey
For a while now I’ve belonged to a London-focused Women In Technology group called Ada’s List. It’s a fantastic way to find out about events and training, but more importantly, the frank conversations which form part of the group’s ethos really help me to feel more confident in my career. Even when I’m not actively … Continue reading
Mozilla Festival 2014
Mozilla Festival is many things to many people. For me, it’s mainly encapsulated by a feeling. That feeling is passion for sharing joy in technology, tempered by a sense of responsibility to curate the web as a community space. I find trying to explain the festival in any more detail than that makes the description … Continue reading
Scaling Twitter
On Thursday evening I went to an event at Twitter hosted by their Women in Engineering group featuring a series of lightning talks on the challenges of designing technologies that scale. As ever, I’ve put together a Storify of the event here. Tom Woolway, one of Twitter’s engineering managers, also collated a tweet collection summarising … Continue reading
In a Merry Hour: Caitlin E McDonald 