Ruby, a “small girl with a huge imagination,” is the redheaded star of Hello Ruby, an illustrated storybook dreamed up by Linda Liukas (also a redhead) as a way to make computer programming fun for young girls. Liukas, a Codeacademy alum and cofounder of Rails Girls, a nonprofit that hosts coding workshops for women around the world, created Hello Ruby and the accompanying activity books to spark the imaginations of young readers and introduce them to what she calls the “magical world of technology.” Earlier this month, Liukas started a Kickstarter campaign to help bring Ruby to life. Her goal was fairly modest: raise $10,000 in order to pay for and distribute 1,000 copies of Hello Ruby in the U.S. and Finland, where Liukas was born and now resides. Ruby herself couldn’t have imagined what happened next. Within a few hours, the fundraising goal was surpassed. As of this writing, almost 5,600 backers have now pledged more than $236,000 to get Hello Ruby in the hands of youngsters everywhere.
MORE: The High-Tech Ride That’s Getting Kids Excited About Coding
Liukas wrote and illustrated Hello Ruby herself, casting technology as a world of beauty and possibility. But she didn’t always see it that way. Liukas first became interested in programming at age 13, when she built a fan site dedicated to her teenage crush: Al Gore. (Yes, you read that right.) “[When I first started taking classes], I thought programming was stupid and I didn’t want to work in technology,” Liukas told Fast Company. “It was hard not having a computer science or computing background. Why would a young girl care about computers?”
It’s no secret that there is a glaring gender imbalance in the computer sciences. According to the Department of Education, only 18 percent of graduates from computer science programs were female in 2011. However, women account for 78 percent of active users on social networking sites, which were almost solely created by men. To help rebalance this equation, Liukas created Ruby, who, through her spunky adventures, teaches girls about programming principles, sequences, open source culture, and storytelling. “Hopefully, this project will lead to a new kind of Internet,” Liukas says. “A gentler Internet.”
ALSO: Chicago Schools Just Made This Tech-Savvy Move. The Rest of the Country Is Next
Tag: kickstarter
These College Students Couldn’t Afford a 3D Printer. So They Built One.
For SUNY Purchase student Shai Schecter, the 3D printer on campus wasn’t a viable option due to its high cost and lack of usability. So Schecter enlisted the help of three friends to build a low-cost 3D printer that uses plastic. The Deltaprintr is a streamlined product that creates prints that are comparable to the high-end printers on the market, but at a fraction of the cost. What started as a project that would make affordable 3D printing available as a learning tool for educational institutions has been met and surpassed, as the Deltaprintr nearly sold out of preorders on Kickstarter in one week alone — an incredible feat for a team of twenty-somethings hoping to close the gap between professional and educational tech.
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Can a Pair Of Blue Shoe Laces Kickstart American Manufacturing?
Most retailers seem to be in agreement that Americans don’t care about where their products come from as long as they get what they want. Thanks to The Blue Lace Project, retailers might be in for a rude awakening this season. In an effort to prove Americans care about domestically produced goods, New York-based clothing manufacturer Flint and Tinder partnered with Portsmouth Ohio-based Sole Choice to create “the very best shoelace they’d ever made.” The result is a blue double-waxed canvas shoelace strong enough to pull a 13,000 pound truck. Founder Jake Bronstein hopes both the product and the color blue will serve as a symbol to retailers and others that there is strong demand to restore American manufacturing. The project met its original $25,000 funding goal on Kickstarter just 10 hours after it became public, and went on to raise over $150,000 in just 30 days. It’s not too late to support the movement. You can still buy a pair of blue laces for $5 at Flint and Tinder.
These Gloves Will Keep You Warm and Help Renew American Manufacturing
Somewhere along the line, “Made in the USA” changed from a sign of quality to the sign of a high price tag. Brooklyn-based Bram Robinson is one of the people who are trying to turn back the clock . His company Upstate Stock makes knit gloves and hats in an upstate New York factory. Check out the company’s Kickstarter page to get in on the American-made movement.
Improve Your Bike Commute by Re-Inventing the Wheel
Bicycling is a great option for an outdoor fitness routine, but even if you’re not training for a long ride or racking up miles on uphill climbs, you can still take part in the practical benefits of riding a bike. A bike commute, for example, helps you reduce your carbon footprint, save on gas money, and turns your commute into a workout, rather than a stressful ride through traffic. Some cyclists, especially commuters, are looking for a little extra boost in their ride, and while a few bikes come with small motors, the FlyKly Smart Wheel is a unique bike addition that has already raised four times as much money as its original Kickstarter goal. It’s designed to fit on almost any bicycle, and the motor, which takes two or three hours to completely charge, kicks in as a rider starts pedaling and cuts out upon stopping. The high-tech side of this product shows up in a mobile app that allows cyclists to lock the motor or track the bike if it gets stolen; it also lets riders set a top speed. It’ll even monitor the wheel and provide alerts when it’s time for maintenance.