User:Kimmie46/Moinworld

Moinworld e. V. (derived from „Hello world“ and „Moin“; „Moin“ is a greeting used mainly in Northern Germany) is an NGO (non-profit association) which was founded in Hamburg, Germany in 2017. It emerged from the local Women Techmakers community, which was running already in Hamburg at that time. Moinworld wants to increase the amount of women in computer science and the tech industry. The focus is to promote women and girls to get into tech and eventually start their career path in the this industry.

History
The proportion of Women in computing in all Western countries including Germany is small at around 17 %. The current chairman of moinworld, Anja Schumann, launched the Women Techmakers Meetup in Hamburg in 2016, from which the NGO emerged in 2017 to offer women in IT a network. Women Techmakers was founded in 2012 by Megan Smith. This program, initiated by Google, offers women in the tech industry visibility, a community and resources to connect and grow.

The offer of moinworld has expanded since its inception to include programming courses. In these courses beginners can meet like-minded people and enhance their programming skills. As a result, moinworld has also become a platform, in which developers can pass on their knowledge and make their contribution to gender equality by teaching women.

The after-work meet-up format was supplemented shortly after its founding by the community with a conference format. This conference format was created to provide mainly women a platform in which the audience can exchange ideas about technological innovations. The first moinworld conference took place in 2017 under the name Blockchain Day and was repeated in 2018 and 2019 under the name moinblockchain.

moinworld quickly achieved visibility beyond the borders of Hamburg and Northern Germany. The first courses were offered in Munich in 2018 with the cooperation partner Siemens AG. Today, triggered by the restrictions of the corona pandemic, all courses take place online and are therefore also accessible from other locations.

With the support of the Lufthansa Help Alliance, the first project at Hamburg schools under the name moinschool was implemented in 2018. The first project as part of moinschool was implemented at the Winterhuder Reformschule school in Hamburg.

The offer for school girls was expanded in 2019 to include an extracurricular program. On the one hand, courses for girls from 5 years of age were included in the association's program and, on the other hand, a summer camp format was launched, which is aimed at older girls with the aim of offering professional orientation in the IT area.

In 2020, the range of courses for girls has been expanded to include events for Girls’ Day and preparatory courses for IT competitions such as the German Computer Science competition Bundeswettbewerb Informatik.

Goals of moinworld
moinworld's activities starts at the root causes why women stay away from the tech field and computer science. One reason is the socialization of girls. Therefore, moinworld combines its activities for the education of girls in the field of computer science with the education about unconscious biases.

Women often come into contact with Computing later in life or develop an interest in it late. moinworld offers regular programming courses for various programming languages such as Python or JavaScript for this target group. Developers can share their knowledge with beginners in these courses. In an open atmosphere, women and girls can gain their first experience in programming and learn the basics for a further path into Tech.

moinworld tries to balance the feeling of minority and to empower women in the tech industry. An important part of moinworld's work is therefore to network women with one another and thus connect members with experts. The meet-up formats that take place regularly are mainly used for this purpose.

Moinworld has started a mentoring program in the beginning of 2020. Women, who are mostly at the beginning of their professional careers, are supported by their mentors, who already have more professional experience.

Promotion and education of female students
In general, the proportion of girls in STEM subjects is low, but even fewer female students choose technical subjects such as computer science. moinworld has turned its attention to the education of children in particular, since the low is the major blockage for future interests. Trainings at moinworld are done with the idea “Girls coach girls”, young girls give programming courses for children in different age groups. The participants of training classes are presented as role models that guide other girls to find interest in Computer science and tech.

As part of the moinschool project, moinworld cooperates with various schools. The moinworld course instructors go directly to the school and teach programming. This brings students into contact with this area, although it is not yet standard in many schools to have programming courses in school. An example is the Winterhude reform school in Hamburg.

Summer Camp

moinworld organizes a summer camp once a year together with its partners.Female high school graduates get an overview about a professional career in the tech industry. They are presented workplace at different companies (e.g. Google, MOIA, Airbus, NEW WORK SE). They also get an introduction to programming through workshops held at the companies at the summercamp.

moinworld has partnerships and connections to public career development programs such as the German CS competition.

Achievements
In 2019, Moinworld received the Innovation in Digital Equality Award for equal opportunities and visibility of women, presented by the City of Hamburg.

In 2019, moinworld received the ITEC Cares Award from the IT Executive Club of Hamburg @ work.


 * IDEA Award
 * ITEC Cares Award

Weblinks

 * Website of moinworld