Katy Dickinson

SEED Mentor Matching

The 110 new participants in Sun's worldwide Engineering mentoring program are now working on their Mentor Wish Lists, due on 3 December. 14 of them have already submitted their mentor requests. Creating the Mentor Wish List is probably the hardest part of the SEED program.

The SEED Engineering mentoring program takes a long-term view and does not have a preference for one kind of learning over another. That is, the mentoring partnership learning does not have to have anything to do with the participant's current job. Some people want to learn to be better technical managers, others want to know how to get their ideas to customers faster. Many want to improve their soft skills: public presentation or speaking, negotiating, conflict management, and coaching. Still others want to improve their work and family balance and still have a great career. It takes time and mature consideration to work through all of this. In creating their Mentor Wish List, each SEED participant needs to make two hard decisions:

1. What they want to learn
2. Who has already accomplished the kind of things they want to do
   (that is, who is already down the path that they see themselves walking)

SEED provides a list of over 430 senior and executive staff who are eligible and willing to be mentors. Most have provided their biographies, personal web page links, blog links, and other background information to give program participants context. Researching potential mentors is like writing a university paper - hunting for leads, backtracking, looking for key words, hunting again. Most SEED participants spend many days creating their Mentor Wish Lists.

Sometimes the fastest way to find biographical information on someone (both inside Sun's public web pages and on the public net itself) is to use an internet search. Search results will show if the potential mentor has a Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networking page and if there is a blog associated with them. I advise SEED participants to search for information about themselves first, to give them an idea of what is out there.

For example, a Google search of "Katy Dickinson" produced 3,590 results with links to individual blog entries plus:

1. Katy Dickinson in The People at Sun Labs/CTO
2. Blogger: User Profile: Katy Dickinson (not sure why this is hit #2 since I don't use Blogger and the page is empty)
3. Katy Dickinson » Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (I am on the ABI Advisory Board)
4. Katy Dickinson | Facebook
5. katy.dickinson's Profile on icanhascheezburger (I didn't know I had a profile here but I do like that photo of my cat)
6. Katy Dickinson - ACM author profile page
7. Katy Dickinson's Public Profile on Plaxo
8. Katy Dickinson - LinkedIn (I have a LinkedIn account but this is someone else with my name!)

Which is to say, there is a great deal of public information available on anyone who has even a small presence in the world.

More?
More information on the SEED worldwide Engineering mentoring program is available at http://research.sun.com/SEED/

Posted at 12:26PM Nov 25, 2008 by katysblog in Mentoring & Other Business  | 

Wedding Reception

On Sunday, we went to a wedding reception at our old church. Two of our friends were married after living together for 34 years. They were married at home but wanted to celebrate with their church family too. The reception was a joyful event with little kids running around and long-time friends of All Saints' Episcopal Church catching up on each other's news. My husband and son and I had a good time and were happy to be invited to toast the "new" couple.

I served on the Vestry (Episcopal parish business committee) and outreach committee with both Jeff and John. I know them to be profoundly dedicated to making the world better for those less fortunate than themselves. I have deep respect for both as good men and good Christians. John wrote in the church newsletter: "After 34 years together, it is wonderful to have an actual anniversary day! We now know what others had told us: marriage *is* different from 'domestic partnership'."

Because of the social controversy and recent divisive public battles over California Proposition 8 (2008), this small community celebration of the lives of two good men had a little flavor of a political event. Spending by groups both for and against Prop 8 and same sex marriage surpassed that of every political campaign in the US except the presidential race. So, the topic was on our minds. Everyone I talked to was full of joy for Jeff and John but also concerned about the pending lawsuits over the Prop 8's constitutionality and their effect on the lives of our friends.

Posted at 11:05AM Nov 25, 2008 by katysblog in News & Reviews  | 

SMUM Book Club, week 3

Last Thursday started the third week of the new book club at SMUM Studio 17 (Santa Maria Urban Ministry). Tonight is our final meeting before the program's winter break.

How it works:
Every week, each of the older children in the after school homework program has the opportunity to check out a book from Studio 17's book shelf, read it, then give me an oral report. Prizes are offered! Credit will be given for each book read before Thanksgiving. (Studio 17 does not meet between Thanksgiving and New Year's.) Prizes to be paid today in a Target gift card.

Status:
Week two was slower. Many of the kids forgot to bring the books they finished back to trade in. But several more kids did trade in completed books. Also, we have two new club members (Edgar and Alejandro). Here is where we are:

• Roald Dahl The BFG
  reader: Robert - started 20 Nov
• James Howe The Bunnicula Collection (3 books in 1 volume)
  1st reader: Abigail - started 6 Nov (read most of book 1, passed it on)
  2nd reader: Jose - started 13 Nov (extended for a 2nd week)
• Madeleine L'Engle A Wrinkle in Time
  reader: Stephanie - started 6 Nov (extended for a 3nd week)
• C.S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
  1st reader: Jose - started 6 Nov (read half, passed it on)
  2nd reader: Abigail - started 20 Nov
  3rd reader: Edgar - started 20 Nov
• Jack London Call of the Wild
  reader: Alejandro - started 20 Nov
• Christopher Paolini Eragon
  1st reader: Robert - started 6 Nov (read half, passed it on)
  2nd reader: Carlos - started 13 Nov (extended for a 2nd week)
• Tamora Pierce Alanna
  reader: Leslie - started 6 Nov (extended for a 3rd week)
• Tamora Pierce First Test
  reader: Jocelyn - started 6 Nov (extended for a 3rd week)
• Louis Sachar Holes
  1st reader: Carlos - started 6 Nov (read it, passed it on)
  2nd reader: Robert - started 13 Nov (read it, passed it on)
• E.B. White Charlotte's Web
  reader: Abigail - started 20 Nov

The list by reader:

• Abigail: Charlotte's Web, The Bunnicula Collection, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Alejandro: Call of the Wild
• Carlos: Eragon, Holes
• Edgar: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Jocelyn: First Test
• Jose: The Bunnicula Collection, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
• Leslie: Alanna
• Robert: The BFG, Holes, Eragon
• Stephanie: A Wrinkle in Time

The Studio 17 kids liked the pictures I posted from the Make Your Own Kaleidoscope software toy. Even more kids requested that I take their photos so that they can play with their own images next time. Here are two more Kaleidoscopes:

Images Copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Posted at 09:07AM Nov 25, 2008 by katysblog in Church  |