Hello

I'm Gicela, a mother, trainer, web developer and engineer. I have many years commercial experience in web development. I founded Codingbug which aims to inspire young people into computer science and tech. I'm now combining my three passions for coding, craft-making and electronics. A bit more about me.

Codingbug

I set up Codingbug in 2012 with the aim of introducing children to coding. I run after school coding clubs, workshops and summer coding sessions for primary and secondary school aged students. Visit the Codingbug website for more details.

Workshops

I offer the following workshops to businesses and organisations:

• WordPress for small businesses & individuals
• Digital Skills for adults
• Training on HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Creative Coding for children
• E-textiles for children and adults

Get in touch if you are interested on any of the above workshops.

Web Development

I have over 25 years experience building websites.

I always take great care when building a website and use HTML, CSS & JavaScript for front-end development. I use WordPress and I can tailor it to meet your own requirements.

Over the years I have worked with profesionals, businesses and organisations; including The Guardian, Microsoft, Local authorities, Aardman, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and many more, for example...

• Brett Humphries
• Make Clothes That Fit
• Steve4yatton
• Codingbug
• Mexicansilver
• Morph
• St John's Chambers

Other Interests

I sell Mexican Silver jewellery and I love making beautiful things - especially knitting, crochet, quilting, sewing and craft making.

I also enjoy playing with electronics - stuff like Arduino, RaspberryPi, micro:bit, robotics, etc.

I love walking, cycling and swimming.

About me

I've been pretty much glued to a computer since my early days at school. I wrote my first code in Fortran and Pascal, before going on to complete a degree in Electronic Engineering.

Back in the mid 90's, I picked up Issue #1 of Internet magazine, and quickly enrolled onto the UK's very first electronic publishing course, which was offered in Hoxton in East London. I hand-coded my first HTML, created my first hyperlink, and learned about Photoshop, animated gifs and image maps.

In 1996 I joined the Guardian New Media Lab and built websites such as 'Shiftcontrol' (which pushed the boundaries of 'tables'), Eurosoccer.com (for the Euro 96 footie tournament), the Orange Prize for Fiction (developed only by women) and a website overnight following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August 1997.

I helped launch Expedia UK - www.expedia.co.uk, which was then part of Microsoft. I was the program manager in a small UK team.

During the heady days of the dot com boom I was involved in all of the stages of production for a number of dot com start-ups, including e-garden.co.uk and dontforget.com. I also set up www.mexicanwave.com, which won an award from the President of Mexico and was the most frequently signposted independent website in most of the popular guidebooks, such as Lonely Planet and Rough Guides.

As well as working as a web developer, I teach children coding - see Codingbug for more details.