海峡论谈: 林书豪旋风

美国之音海峡论谈: "林来疯"从纽约吹到海峡两岸，不论你看不看篮球赛，最近一定都知道有个林书豪，尤其是台湾的媒体和民众可说是全体陷入这股"林来疯"，也已经有很多很多的相关报导了，今­天我们的节目希望以一种比较理性的态度来谈一谈，林书豪究竟为什么成功，他的成功经验能够为两岸的父母和年轻人带来什么启示?

[Video] Heather Payne talks Ladies (and Gents) Learning Code

We’re a women-run not-for-profit group working to empower everyone to feel comfortable learning beginner-friendly technical skills in a social, collaborative way.

Today’s customer portrait introduces you to a talented social entrepreneur whose innovative workshop series is taking Toronto by storm!

Heather Payne is the founder of Ladies Learning Code, a women-run not-for-profit group working to empower folks to feel comfortable learning beginner-friendly technical skills in a social, collaborative way.

Believe it or not LLC was born out of a tweet Heather sent out to the Toronto community to gauge if there was interest in an accessible learning environment to introduce folks to programming! Someone casually suggested the name but it fit the workshops perfectly. LLC now runs multiple events each month on topics ranging from Getting Started with Ruby to how to enhance your personal brand using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

We’re proud to have folks like Heather in the FreshBooks family! Watch the video to hear Heather talk about the life of the entrepreneur, on why Ladies Learning Code isn’t just for ladies, and what it’s like to trust your instincts and see a great idea take flight.

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A graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business, Heather spent most of her first year post-graduation living in China and working towards a Masters in International Relations. That's also where she first learned to build a self-hosted Wordpress site (a blog about fitness, which she sold after a year). Upon her return to Toronto, she excelled in a corporate marketing role before her desire to join a startup became too strong to ignore. In July 2011, Heather joined a Toronto-based, three-person tech startup building on the Facebook platform. Her experience there (in a non-technical role) has made her even more determined to learn to program - so that she can contribute to building something of her own one day. Like everyone involved with Ladies Learning Code, Heather has been blown away by the support the group has received from Toronto's tech community, and beyond. If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas for Ladies Learning Code, feel free to contact Heather at heather [at] heatherpayne.ca

Melissa was born and raised in London, Ontario. When her family purchased their first computer, she began spending her evenings and summers coding a Harry Potter fan site (by trial and error). She then entered high school, where computer science was not promoted or encouraged, and lost touch with coding. Melissa went on to graduate from the Richard Ivey School of Business and since her first startup in university, she's realized what an advantage a technical skill set would bring. Since then, she’s always dreamed of a group for women that makes coding and tech sexy and really makes it accessible to complete beginners. She thinks the buzz around the #ladieslearningcode is case in point that Toronto (and the world) needs groups like this and she couldn’t be more excited to be part of it. Ladies Learning Code is more than a resource to her, it’s a community.

Breanna was born and raised in a small village in British Columbia, and knew the big city of Toronto was calling her name when she started her own online business at the young age of 10. Breanna attended The University of Toronto, Computer Science and finished her degree in Information Technology Management at Ryerson University. In her spare time, you will almost always find Breanna "Googling" anything and everything - usually from her iPhone, reading the latest technology magazines and blogs, catching a concert, Facebooking, blogging and tweeting galore! As a woman that works in IT, she wants to help encourage other women to get involved and help make tech less intimidating and scary.

Laura grew up all over Southwestern Ontario, moving around her whole life. Always “the new girl” Laura began to understand, pretty early on, the importance of relationships and “staying connected”. With an educational and professional background in Human Resources, Laura made the shift to the world of consulting 4 years ago and has not looked back. The link between technology and human relationships fascinates her. This has ignited a personal passion for exploring and helping others to learn, women in particular, how to leverage and evolve the technology available to us in our world today and even tomorrow. In her spare time, Laura is exploring what technology has to offer and how it can help her do her job better, much like many of Ladies Learning Code’s beginner-level students. She has recognized these untapped resources at her fingertips and is energized to help others break through into this world of opportunity!