[clug] Open Source Software's Dirty Little Secret

[Jessica Fryer]

I wonder if any of the men would like to volunteer what they think would be
the advantages of having women more involved in Linux and the Open Source
community.  What would you like us to contribute? What do you think you are
missing?

I have some of my own ideas about why I am personally reluctant to get
involved but I'd appreciate your thoughts while mine settle into something
more coherent than the angry rant I've been drafting since I saw Lana's
message.


On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Daniel Pittman <daniel at rimspace.net> wrote:

> Michael James <michael at james.st> writes:
> > On 10/09/2009, at 10:01 AM, Lana Brindley wrote:
> >
> >> Without in any way wanting to restart the flame fest we had recently
> over
> >> the topic of women in Open Source, I did want to share this article with
> >> the list:
> >>
> >> http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3838186_1/
> >>    Sexism-Open-Source-Softwares-Dirty-Little-Secret.htm
> >> (You're going to have to put the 2 halves of that lobng URL back
> together)
>
> [...]
>
> > The problem is ongoing despite the statistics sticking out like dogs
> balls.
> > So there is probably something wrong with the approaches taken.
>
> I suspect that part of the issue is that this is an old problem, but has
> only
> recently become part of the zeitgeist in the free-and-open-source
> community.
> Look back a few years and it was a known issue, but it wasn't an
> "everywhere"
> issue, as far as I can tell.
>
> So, people are now approaching the problem as a problem, rather than mostly
> ignoring it or simple never encountering the question at all.  I can
> certainly
> say that, for me, this was the case five or six years back with some
> confidence.
>
> [...]
>
> > Someone researching this could do an analysis of forums with a high level
> of
> > female participation contrasted to the FOSS and other male dominated**
> > forums.
>
> You might want to look at the research that has already been done on that
> specific topic; various studies of participation in the DreamWidth project,
> for example, focus on precisely this.
>
> Regards,
>        Daniel
> --
> ✣ Daniel Pittman            ✉ daniel at rimspace.net            ☎ +61 401 155
> 707
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