Get Started Programming With Code & Supply

This Saturday, at 1PM, Pittsburgh technology community Code & Supply invites you to their latest installment of their #StarterSeries. Their #StarterSeries project promotes basic programming and coding literacy and encourages everyone to code. Their hope is to grow the Pittsburgh technology community, not just by making it attractive to existing developers, but by teaching Pittsburghers how to be great software developers.

This month’s installment expects a basic familiarity with programming. They intend to explore the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern and the fundamentals of Object-Oriented-Programming (OOP). MVC and OOP combined are the basis of nearly every program and application you interact with, and this is a great opportunity for aspiring programmers to learn the basics.

To keep up to date with the #StarterSeries and all of Code & Supply’s other events, join their meetup group.

http://www.meetup.com/Pittsburgh-Code-Supply/events/221470479/

Summer Harvest: Come Support 412 Food Rescue and Help Fight Hunger in Pittsburgh

On July 25th, The Livermore will be hosting Summer Harvest, an event that celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship in Pittsburgh while raising money for an important social cause: fighting hunger in Allegheny County. All proceeds from this event will go to 412 Food Rescue, a non-profit started by Leah Lizarondo (The Brazen Kitchen) and Gisele Fetterman (The Free Store).

412 Food Rescue hopes to “rescue” every bit of food that stores can no longer use and convert them into meals for more than 175,000 “food insecure” people in Allegheny county, including over 43,000 children.

According to the Pittsburgh City Paper, this space is largely occupied by food banks that are unable to accept every donation in time to adequately provide for those in need. 412 Food Rescue’s approach quickly finds donors and brings the food directly to households in need, much like an “Uber for food-rescue.”

The co-founders of 412 Food Rescue: Gisele Fetterman (left) and Leah Lizarondo.

With the additional support of Jenny Liu, Geoff Misek, Nate Cochran, Jessie Schalles, and Shawn Rancatore, 412 Food Rescue won both the Jury Prize and the People’s Choice award at Steel City Codefest in February 2015. Currently they are actively recruiting volunteer drivers, app developers, and fundraisers to further their cause.

Summer Harvest will feature some great perks for its attendees:

Music by Heardle, an up-and-coming music startup in Pittsburgh
Light food provided by one of Pittsburgh’s top restaurants
Two complimentary drinks in The Cloak Room

Tickets are $20 ($25 after July 21st) to attend, and every cent of proceeds from this event will go directly to 412 Food Rescue. According to Lizarondo, for every ticket sold at Summer Harvest, 412 Food Rescue will be able to provide meals for a family of four for an entire week.

Food rescued for many needy families. Photo courtesy of 412 Food Rescue.

Summer Harvest is supported largely in part by Startup Weekend Pittsburgh (@swpgh), a local group of community leaders who organize 54-hour events that teach entrepreneurship through competition. The next Startup Weekend will be a civic-themed competition on September 18-20 in Pittsburgh’s Allentown district.

Lee Ngo, Summer Harvest co-organizer and one of Startup Weekend Pittsburgh’s community leaders, says that Startup Weekend has been a core presence in Pittsburgh for over three years, cultivating a family of solutions-oriented collaborators in the community. He feels that it was time that they give something back to the city and make a real difference in the lives of Pittsburghers who struggle daily.

This is the first time that Startup Weekend Pittsburgh has ever donated to another cause in the city. Community leaders believe 412 Food Rescue is an obvious first choice, as it is introducing a substantial difference in the way our city engages intelligently with food in our community.

For more information or to purchase your tickets, go here: summerharvestpgh.eventbrite.com

Summer Harvest is also accepting sponsorships and donations for the event. Contact Lee Ngo for more information.

Techburgh: Show and Tell with Code & Supply

This Monday, local Pittsburgh software community, Code & Supply gathered some of their best and brightest in the old Paramount Film Exchange (now a co-working space) to show off what they’re working on.

Matthew Beatty (@beattyml1) gave the developers a tour of his code generation suite called “Codgen“. This little library lets programmers speed up their development by helping them generate the same basic code architectures in a way that works on Android, iOS, the web, and anywhere else a developer wants to target, without forcing them to rewrite the same code again and again.

On the softer skills side, Marie Markwell (@duckinator) shared her new blog project, Inatri. Businesses gather personal information and interact with the public in ways that can rapidly become problematic. After a personal disaster involving her private information being abused to harass her, and interactions with businesses which misgendered her, Marie decided enough was enough. She assembled Inatri as a place where businesses could received guidance on how to gather personal information and use it in a way that respects and protects their users.

Her key point is that the personal biases and assumptions of developers can and does “leak” into the software they develop.

Matthew Elper (@kinographCC discovered a very different problem. While traveling in Jordan, he discovered thousands of film canisters of Jordanian cultural history- and no one knew what was on them or what how to preserve them. He put together his own home-made film digitizer, using off-the-shelf parts, and discovered lost footage of the previous king of Jordan- an act that drew the attention of the current king.

Digitizing film is expensive- it’s roughly $1,000 per reel, and standalone machines cost upwards of $250K. Small archives, universities, and libraries simply can’t do that, and so Matthew started the Kinograph project, an open-source platform that uses cutting edge computer-vision software, mixed with off the shelf (and sometimes 3D-printed) hardware. You can follow the instructable for the hardware (although Matt recommends holding off- he has a cheaper, easier to build version in the works), and the get the software from GitHub

His project’s been featured in Make Magazine, and he’s looking for collaborators who are passionate about saving cultural history before it’s forever lost.

Finally, Jackie Vesci (@JVesci) came with her startup project, Tagalong Tour. This project is a passion project among friends that offers walking tours of Pittsburgh, with audio guidance. They’re still experimenting with what makes a great tour, but they’ll help you “Meet the Neighbors” in East Liberty, find the highlights of public art in Downtown, or play the best pinball in Lawrenceville.

They’re looking to expand their tours, and grow their user base- which is growing at roughly 10% a week. You can check them out at the next OpenStreets, where they’ll have a Karaoke booth, and you can download the app and try it out yourself.

It was a great night to see what’s going on in the Pittsburgh tech scene. If you want to get involved, join Code & Supply on Meetup to learn about these events. Their monthly Build Night is a great place to meet and network with technical folks, and if you’re not a technical person, don’t worry! They have a #StarterSeries event every month, which will get you started. The next one is July 25th, and will cover a key design pattern for building software.

Have You Seen Me? A Memorial to Slavery. Artist Talk & Kickstarter Party

Pittsburgh artist Alexi Morrisey is in the final 2 weeks of funding for his Kickstarter project for “Have You Seen Me? A Memorial to Slavery.” One of the reasons I think this project is worth a look is that it brings together several different types of story telling medias – milk bottles, advertising, oral history – to tell a story.

One of the many interesting things about this project is that it uses the 1980’s “kid on the milk carton” to create a memorial to slavery:

By putting the faces of real slaves on hand-crafted, archival, milk bottles, we are seeking to both repurpose the European obsession with pure white porcelain, as well as pay homage to the slave’s life – by attaching these precious images to a precious material we give the slave a dignified voice in a context historically unavailable to them.

You have not one, but two chances to meet the artist, and learn more about the project in person this week. I am including the Kickstarter video below, but if you have some time on Tuesday or Friday, come meet Alexi and see his work in person.

Artist Talk: Alexi Morrissey will give an overview of his art practice and discuss in detail his most recent project “Have You Seen Me?”
Tuesday, July 7, 7pm @ Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Melwood
Free, please RSVP on Facebook

Artist Talk: Alexi Morrissey will discuss his current project “Have You Seen Me?” | Facebook

“Have You Seen Me?” Fundraiser Party
Friday, July 10, 7-10pm @ Union Pig & Chicken
Free, please RSVP on Facebook

“Have You Seen Me?” Fundraiser PARTY! | Facebook

Morrisey is originally from Boston but has been living and working in Pittsburgh for the past 2 decades. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. You can read more about his 2010 Artist Residency at the New Hazlett Theater in this Q & A from Pop City Media.

As of today, “Have You Seen Me?” is only 38% funded, with 11 days to go. Each bottle is a limited edition and the milk bottles will sell for $400 and up after the Kickstarter campaign. There are a handful of bottles left at the $300 level. If $300 is bit much for your art budget this year, Morrisey has some prints of the bottle logo designs starting at $25.

Follow the project on Facebook & Twitter @MilkBottleProj.

Kickstarter Page: http://kck.st/1Usk8Hk

Project Website: milkbottleproject.com

The Northside: Neu to me

The Northside hosted the Pittsburgh Fringe Festival earlier this year. As expected from preview press nights and word-of-mouth, the Northside proved to be a vibrant, bustling location for this innovative art-filled event. Between the great food and drink from East Ohio Street establishments – including Max’s Tavern, the Park House and Arnold’s Tea Room – and the open-minded people embracing creative happenings and impromptu street exhibitions, any and everyone involved will forever connect the Northside to special memories of their Fringe weekend.

What did come as a pleasant surprise was my introduction to the Neu Kirche Contemporary Art Center. Located at 1000 Madison Avenue, this 125-year-old renovated church is quickly becoming a hub of activity with programs ranging from public art and urban regeneration initiatives to residency opportunities and weekly youth yoga classes. To find out more about all the center has to offer, please visit their website at http://neukirche.org/.

Interior view of the Neu Kirche space. (Photo credit: Neu Kirche website)

While you peruse what there is to see online, just know pictures could never do this space justice in both atmosphere and acoustics. When my Fringe Festival show, Resurrection, was moved to their sanctuary, the gift of presenting while surrounded by stained glass windows and serene silence brought a new level to the piece that could not be matched.

Floor plan of studio space at Neu Kirche.

Artists of all disciplines are welcome to apply for studio spaces at the Neu Kirche, while organizations can use other rooms for meetings and events, including the chapel. The staff, Lee Parker, Sarah Keeling and Oreen Cohen, are so inviting and approachable that even the most introverted of creatives can feel at ease with any questions and/or joining any programs of interest.

I would strongly suggest signing up on their mailing list to make sure you do not miss the latest and greatest from what is an inspiring Pittsburgh spot for innovative artistic practices.

Follow Neu Kirche on Facebook & Twitter @Neu_Kische.