[Bf-committers] Women and Open Source (Fwd: Call for diversity)

Christopher Cherrett stuff at trackingsolutions.ca
Wed Jul 29 21:49:34 CEST 2009


I don't think there is anything to confront. I just fail to see how this 
matters.

I spend so much time on the computer programming and have grown to hate 
it, I am glad that more women are not as stupid as I am.

Go Women!

-------- Original Message  --------
Subject: [Bf-committers] Women and Open Source (Fwd: Call for diversity)
From: Toni Alatalo <antont at kyperjokki.fi>
To: bf-blender developers <bf-committers at blender.org>
Date: 07/29/09 13:28
> "Summary
> Many men in Open Source refuse to confront the fact that they need to 
> do something about the lack of women in Open Source -- partly because 
> they don't believe that there are so few women."
> http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=263671
>
> I think that is a worthy goal for Blender development too. Also we have 
> one or two experts who can perhaps give hints or do something ;)
>
> This issue was also raised by someone at the BConf some years ago, and 
> I think everyone agreed that the current situation is a pity, but AFAIK 
> no one has done anything about it. I don't think many of us have a clue 
> about what we could do. So perhaps that initiative could help.
>
> BTW one thing that has surprised me positively in virtual worlds 
> related dev that have been involved with recently is that there are 
> relatively many female developers, a very active core committer to 
> OpenSim and some others too, and also in other projects (Kirsten Lee 
> fork of the official Linden Second Life viewer, employees of Linden 
> etc., LSL scripters etc). My guess is that it has at least sometimes to 
> do with the social emphasis of typical applications in that area .. but 
> also Blender is partly similarily about graphics and animations and 
> stuff so perhaps there is some of the same potential.
>
> That said, I think many women could contribute to any area .. like 
> hopefully the initiative in the post below will get some language 
> entusiasts to Python core dev etc., and who knows perhaps we get a 
> female 3d math viz enthusiastic with Blender some day :)
>
> I don't have any ideas and probably can't do anything about this 
> myself, but am interested in learning about the issues and hoping that 
> someone else could consider doing something with this within Blender.
>
> ~Toni
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>   
>> From: Aahz <aahz at pythoncraft.com>
>> Date: July 29, 2009 4:31:55 PM EEST
>> To: python-announce-list at python.org
>> Subject: Call for diversity
>> Reply-To: python-list at python.org
>>
>> The Python community is both incredibly diverse (Python 3.1's release
>> manager was not yet eighteen years old) and incredibly lacking in
>> diversity (none of the regular committers is a woman).
>>
>> Kirrily Robert gave a keynote at OSCON last week about women in Open
>> Source, and I blogged about the lunchtime aftermath (if you're not
>> familiar with the issues, I suggest making sure to follow all the links
>> I included):
>>
>> http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=263671
>>
>> Thinking further, I believe that the Python community really needs to 
>> be
>> more active in creating diversity.  As my blog says, the first step is
>> for us to admit that there is a problem.
>>
>> I believe that the next step is for us as a community to make a formal
>> statement supporting diversity.  I've created a new mailing list
>> (diversity at python.org) to discuss the wording of a diversity statement,
>> along with discussing diversity issues in general.  I invite anyone
>> interested in the subject of diversity to join the list -- even if you
>> disagree that actively supporting diversity is needed, I would like a
>> chance to convince you.
>>
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/diversity
>>
>> Please note that I believe that the Python community is generally
>> welcoming and that the Python community would jump on anyone who 
>> behaved
>> in an overtly prejudiced way (unlike some controversies in other
>> communities).  However, I think that we have also inherited the lack of
>> diversity in Open Source as a whole, and I believe that taking a more
>> active role in building diversity will build a more vibrant Python
>> community.
>>
>> After all, as Kirrily pointed out, the more inclusive we are, the more
>> people we have working on Python.
>>
>> I just started a new job this week, so I'm not going to be pushing this
>> any time soon -- but I also feel that I need to throw this out so that
>> other people can get involved if they want.
>> -- 
>> Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         
>> http://www.pythoncraft.com/
>>
>> "Many customs in this life persist because they ease friction and 
>> promote
>> productivity as a result of universal agreement, and whether they are
>> precisely the optimal choices is much less important." --Henry Spencer
>> -- 
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-announce-list
>>
>>         Support the Python Software Foundation:
>>         http://www.python.org/psf/donations/
>>     
>
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