Web Start Women is an organization devoted to bringing more women into the web design and development fields.

We believe that there are too few women producing awesome content online and we aim to change the ratio by cultivating open, supportive, intimidation-free environments where women and girls of all ages can learn, build and code together.

We host courses on relevant web development topics:

HTML/CSS
PHP & Ruby on Rails
Design / Photoshop
JavaScript
Ajax
WordPress
Drupal
Git

And we build community via friendly, accessible events:

Get-togethers where we share food, challenges and ideas.
Coworking sessions where we practice material covered in classes or work on individual projects.

Sound like fun? Welcome to WSW :-)

Here's a sampling of some of the curriculum we teach...

‣ Wrangling HTML & CSS (4 class series)

In these classes, you will start at the beginning and develop all the skills you need to publish a webpage. Tags, attributes, elements, tables, styles, and all that jazz. Bring your ideas and learn how to code them into reality. Newbies welcome. :-)

What you'll need

Curiosity
No previous coding experience necessary

‣ Web Applications: PHP & MySQL (4 class series)

Now we're getting to the nuts and bolts of web sites: server side coding! Maybe you've built some static pages up to this point, but what if you want to have users log in to store information about them? You're going to need a way to communicate with your server and a database to store that information. That's where PHP comes in. PHP is one of the most common web programming languages and we'll use it to learn how to build robust, dynamic, content-filled sites that help you get, store, and manage the data you need to keep your users happy and coming back for more.

What you'll need

Understanding of HTML / CSS

‣ Photoshop for Web Developers (1 class)

What has a square blue logo and more tools than a Swiss Army knife? Photoshop! The good news is that you only need to know the specific tools that will be most useful to you as a web developer. The aim of this course is to help you learn 'em.

We'll cover the best strategies for mocking up a full design and then translating it into HTML/CSS. We'll also learn about working with jpgs, pngs and gifs and when you need to use each extension. Finally, we'll talk design strategies and visual conventions so you can make sure your work gets the message across to your audience in a clean and clear fashion.

What you'll need

HTML/CSS would be useful for the portion where we cover converting design to code.
Photoshop

‣ Dynamic Pages: JavaScript + jQuery

Anytime something changes when you are viewing a website, you've just seen JavaScript in action.
When you:

are on Facebook and a notification pops up that you have a new comment
are filling out an online form and a flag indicates that you made an error on the previous field
hover over a movie at Netflix and the description pops up
see something animate, grow, shrink, fade in or out

that's JavaScript doin' its thing.

JavaScript is the key to making your website dynamic and responsive. Using it effectively will help you manage input and respond to your users. This course will give you a good working understanding of JavaScript and how to manipulate the page. We'll start with the basics and progress towards jQuery - a JavaScript library that will make your pages go whizz, bang, boom. (In a good way, of course!)

What you'll need

Understanding of HTML / CSS strongly suggested. If you've completed our HTML / CSS series, you'll be set!

‣ Ajax! (1 class)

No, we're not talking about powdered cleansers. We're talking about super-dynamic web sites.

Remember "back in the day" when any time you entered and submitted information on a website it had to reload the entire page to save it? What a drag.

Nowadays, things are much snappier with Ajax. We can change specific parts of the page and save information to the server, without reloading the whole shebang.

When you:

fire up Google, begin typing and watch the auto suggest do it's magic
leave a comment on Facebook and it's instantly saved, sans page refresh

that's Ajax at work, and in this course we'll give you the tools you need to make such magic happen.

What you'll need

Understanding of HTML / CSS and JavaScript
Understanding of PHP and databases; If you've completed our PHP series, you'll be rolling in no time!

‣ Practical & Realistic SEO (1 class)

SEO. Three little letters that get thrown around a lot in the web business world. If you've ever wondered how you can start seeing your site closer to the top of search engine results, you've probably come across them.

You know what a search engine is and optimization is almost always a good thing, but what's it really mean? And better yet, why should you spend your precious time doing it?

In this class, we'll cover what we've learned from experience about the honest, content-driven way to get your site in the browsers of the users that are looking for it. There are no silver bullets - just clear advice on title tags, meta tags, urls, keywords, site organization and most importantly, content. It's not a magic potion, just a recipe for reaching your site's best potential; these elements combined won't help you game Google, but they will work with Google to get you closer to where you want to be.

‣ Integrate! You.com + Facebook / Twitter / Etc. (1 class)

Most social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and many others provide ways for web developers to tap into their content via API's - Application Program Interfaces. This opens a lot of doors for connecting with users, building your audience and piping in (and out) dynamic content from your site. In this course we'll cover the following:

making the content on your site play nice with Facebook's "Like" and "Share" features
making your site interact with Twitter or Flickr by pulling and pushing information
parsing content from any RSS feed directly onto your site

What you'll need

Understanding of HTML / CSS and JavaScript
Understanding of PHP and databases; If you've completed our PHP series, you'll be rolling in no time!

‣ When the coding's done... (3 class series)

In this course you will learn the essential next steps in programming for the web: how to create your web identity; set up domains, servers, and custom email accounts; how to use blogging as a tool to promote your project; sell things on line and deal with money; in short, all the behind the scenes skills that go into launching and developing a web business.

Class 1: You.com and you@you.com (domains and email accounts)
Class 2: I haz cool shiz, you tradez meh yur clams? (selling online and dealing with money)
Class 3: You, your site, and all your fans (identity and audience)

What you'll need

Understanding of HTML / CSS strongly suggested. If you've completed our HTML / CSS series, you'll be set!

‣ Do it! (1 class)

In this small workshop, we will discuss topics and problems you are encountering in your current projects. You will get direct feedback and benefit from group discussions about issues of common interest. Best of all, sister geeks will offer each other the extra support and encouragement that will enable you to get your project up and running.

By signing up you're committing to attend all classes in this series. If you can't make one of the classes please give us 24 hours notice so we know your spot can be filled by a fellow girl geek on the waitlist.

Our philosophy

Coding is awesome. The environment where coding instruction typically takes place is not always awesome. Ever have the experience of being in a web class and having some know-it-all snatch the keyboard out from under your hands? (we have.) Ever gotten lost in an example exercise because you felt silly asking a question about something that everyone else seemed to be getting? (yep, we have too.) Or maybe you've avoided programming altogether because you have been intimidated by the whole idea of building a website.

We think programming and other web business skills are terrific assets that not enough women have access to. We would like to change that, at least in our small corner of the world.

If you decide to take a Web Start Women class (and we hope you do!), you'll be joining a friendly, open group of women who share a common goal: learning to program. Women and girls of any age with any level of experience--including none--are welcome. We encourage questions and embrace mistakes. Yes, that sounds weird, but think about it like this. If you aren't doing some things that don't work one of two things is going on: either you aren't doing anything or you aren't trying new things. Mistakes, fizzles, and flops are all necessary and valuable parts of the learning process.

Meet Your Geeks

Susan Buck (Co-founder) heads the educational aspects of WSW. With over 15 years of web development experience, she has taught at Penn, the University of Miami and has been programming for the past five years with Photojojo.com.

Before that she studied digital media at NYU and UNC Asheville, and before that she spent a lot of time teaching herself all about creating things on the web. In short, she's been hacking up the internet for a good long while and is pretty excited to teach you how to do the same.

You can learn more about Susan at http://susanbuck.net. She's also available for consulting or private tutoring and adjunct teaching opportunities in the Boston area.

Nicole Noll (Co-founder) heads the community aspects of WSW; though somewhat of a newbie to web development, she's excited about the opportunities and challenges it presents. Nicole has her Ph.D. in Social Psychology and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies. She is a College Fellow at Harvard, where she teaches courses in Persuasion & Communication, Nonverbal Communication, and Research Methods.

Nicole studied psychology at Temple University, James Madison University, and Wilson College. She enjoys running, gardening, and learning about what makes people tick. Nicole is excited to help you discover how psychology relates to online endeavors.

See you in class!

Those of us who are starting web-based businesses never seem to have enough time to do everything that needs to get done. Precious hours are lost to pesky life chores like sleeping, showering, and exercising. Then there's eating. Three times a day?! Really?!

Make the most of at least one mealtime per month by sharing it with other women who feel your pain. Bring your favorite snack, appetizer, or dessert and join the WSW crew for a picnic. We talk about our latest milestones and challenges, brainstorm, troubleshoot, pitch problems that we're facing to the group and get the benefit of collective experience. And of course, EAT! We can't promise you'll leave happy, but you definitely won't go home hungry.