CUSEC Part One

This week I’m at the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference (CUSEC) in Montreal. So far, I’ve been to two of the opening day keynote speeches. First up was Leah Culver, a stunning software engineer from San Francisco, arguably most famous for founding the social networking site Pounce, which unfortunately, recently  shutdown.  Leah is an enthralling speaker, and I found her advice energizing.  She suggested that we need to take risks, get out there, push ourselves, and to use the tools we have available.  I’ve been a fan of Leah for a while, because of her use of Django, and success with her free laptop project.

It’s too bad Pounce wasn’t successful, but I’m confident she’ll have a lasting influence on the software industry, as evidenced by her involvement in open source projects, such as OAuth.  Not to mention, she knows quite a few other famous people (some more than merely “internet” famous), to whom I’m now only seperated by two degrees!  I was lucky enough to speak with her for a few minutes before her presentation, but hopefully I’ll have a chance to ask her advice about building a website before she leaves.

I’ll have more to report in the coming days.