[clug] Open Source Software's Dirty Little Secret

[Daniel Pittman]

Jeff <smee.heee at gmail.com> writes:
> On Sat, 12 Sep 2009 00:41:12 +1000 Jacinta Richardson
> <jarich at perltraining.com.au> wrote:
>
> Not that I really want to get into this "discussion", but...
>
>>  You *can* make FOSS a more fun place for the women who are already involved
>> and for those who have the skills (or who want to develop them) to get
>> involved. Making FOSS a more fun place for women should make it more fun
>> for men too. There are lots of men who aren't involved in FOSS for similar
>> reasons to the women; they find it exclusionary, cliquey, they don't like
>> to be flamed for trying to learn, they don't want to dedicate 40 hours a
>> week to a project but would rather be a more casual contributor...  There
>> are lots of men in FOSS who stay despite disliking many of those
>> characteristics.
>
> I think you have hit the nail on the head here Jacinta.  To a certain
> extend, we shouldn't be worried about making FOSS more inviting to Women,
> but more inviting.  As you have pointed out, there are men out there that
> don't get into FOSS, for the exact same reasons as we're claiming women
> don't.

There is a range of research behind those general statements[1], for what it
is worth, rather than just a handful of people espousing personal opinions.

> So if we make it a more inviting area as a whole, then it should naturally
> start to attract those women and men that want to become involved but don't
> due to the reasons stated, and it should then be a more enjoyable experience
> for all.

Yes.  That is a *great* statement of what I am trying to achieve.

My difficultly comes once I looked at it, then worked out that it wasn't a
level playing field: those women, or the male people of colour, or the female
people of colour, or disabled people, that I worked with and met had a *much*
harder time because of their gender, or their race, or both, than the white
men.

My decision, at the end of the day, was that focusing my efforts on the
biggest problems was a more valuable use of my limited time and energy.
Plus, y'know, trying to help where I actually had some semblance of
understanding of the problem, which makes a difference. :)

Regards,
        Daniel

Footnotes: 
[1]  Specific instances, obviously, are specific, but the big picture "why"
     things are generally not just anecdotally based.

-- 
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