Tag Archives: stickers

Conferences

BlueHackers @ linux.conf.au 2014 Perth

BlueHackers.org is an informal initiative with a focus on the wellbeing of geeks who are dealing with depression, anxiety and related matters.

This year we’re more organised than ever with a number of goodies, events and services!

– BlueHackers stickers

– BlueHackers BoF (Tuesday)

– BlueHackers funded psychologist on Thursday and Friday

– extra resources and friendly people to chat with at the conference

Details below…

This year, we’ll have a professional psychologist, Alyssa Garrett (a Perth local) funded by BlueHackers, LCA2014 and Linux Australia. Alyssa will be available Thursday and part of Friday, we’ll allocate her time in half-hour slots using a simple (paper-based) anonymous booking system. Ask a question, tell a story, take time out, find out what psychology is about… particularly if you’re wondering whether you could use some professional help, or you’ve been procrastinating taking that step, this is your chance. It won’t cost you a thing, and it’s absolutely confidential. We just offer this service because we know how important it is! There will be about 15 slots available.

You can meet Alyssa on Tuesday afternoon already, at the BoF. Just to say hi!

The booking sheet will be at the BoF and from Wednesday near the rego desk.

The BlueHackers BoF is on Tuesday afternoon, 5:40pm – 6:40pm (just before the speakers dinner). Check the BoF schedule closer to the time to see which room we’re in. The format will be similar to last year: short lightning talks of people who are happy to talk – either from their own experience, as a support, or professional. No therapy, just sharing some ideas and experience. You can prep slides if you want, but not required. Anything discussed during the BoF stays there – people have to feel comfortable.

We may have some additional paper resources available during the conference, and a friendly face for an informal chat for part of the week.

Every conference bag will have a couple of BlueHackers stickers to put on your laptop and show your quiet support for the cause – letting others know they’re not alone is a great help.

If you have any logistical or other questions, just catch me (Arjen) at the conference or write to:  l i f e (at) b l u e h a c k e r s (dot) o r g

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If you want BlueHackers stickers…

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We’re seeing a lot requests for the stickers, which is great – we’re happy to post some, but we do need to optimise things a bit otherwise the logistics (and cost) won’t be practical. So here’s the deal for the currently remaining roll of approx 500 stickers.

If you are active for a local user group, conference or company, and want a sticker for yourself as well as some to hand out at your next meeting or just among your colleagues, send us an email at l i f e (at) b l u e h a c k e r s (dot) o r g with a brief note on what group/company/conference it is, your address of course, and how many stickers you need.

I think numbers of up to a couple of dozen are practical at this stage. Remember, we’ll be printing more stickers anyway so this is just to get things going and spread the word further. We’ll gather the emails and do a mailout about once a week, and of course we’ll reply to let you know when they’ve been posted, and how many you get. Okidoki?

By the way, if you’re on Facebook you can also join the BlueHackers cause, again to help make the issue more visible.

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Stickers at Linux.conf.au Tasmania

bluehackers-sticker-roll-lca2009Last week was linux.conf.au in Hobart, Tasmania. This seemed like an ideal opportunity to try the stickers idea. However, this being so soon after the summer holidays (yes xmas is in the summer when you live in the Southern hemisphere!) we weren’t particularly organised. Eek!

Luckily I got hold of a bright and helpful printers in Hobart who couldn’t do exactly what we needed but just arranged everything for us locally. We were pondering a few designs and sizes, but we decided on doing small stickers (of the “powered-by” shape and size) to mainly see put on laptops. Since they’re small, the chances of someone putting them on are increased. Yet the logo is so distinct that it will be spotted. Win! It’s just our logo with the url below, one colour print with gradient, and just paper (no vinyl nasties).

So what’s the objective? For as many people as possible to have these little stickers on their laptop; laptops travel around to conferences, user group meetings and work places. And thus other people get to see this quiet sign of understanding! So it’s not just a sticker to be used by people who have dealt with depression or related issues themselves, it’s for everybody wanting to show this form of support.

As we all know, the feeling of being alone with your problems is a very important aspect. The bluehackers stickers addresses this in a friendly non-intrusive way. Over 500 stickers were handed out during the last days of the conference, so they’re already travelling around the planet to be spotted elsewhere; various people also have strips of stickers with them to hand out to local user groups, colleagues, and others.

I did a lightning talk on the last day which got a fab response and triggered numerous interesting discussions afterwards. It’s clearly struck a chord, and so I guess another objective of BlueHackers is to make the topic more open or at least not taboo. Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier wrote up a  very nice blog entry about us also (“Even Hackers get the Blues“). I have another roll of 500 stickers here, which I’ll send out in chunks to various people around the planet. And more things to come.

So who’s funding all this? Well, some of the best gestures cost little or nothing. Getting the stickers made cost me a few hundred dollars, and while the stickers were handed out for free donations came in and recouped the cost plus the same again (and we still have half the stickers left as well). It’s a matter of running low-cost, and sheer numbers. We’re pondering whether to do a paypal account, but that brings up the question of whether to become a registered non-profit as we don’t want any individual to get stuck with financial or other liabilities. We’ll work it out. Naturally all donations given so far go directly towards BlueHackers activities anyway.

Through the various discussions we’ve gained additional insight in what activities might be useful, and how to go about them. More to come! And remember, the best gestures are free or cheap. Small things can make a huge difference to a person, or perhaps even many.