Standing Out in the Crowd: Women in Open Source

Keynote presented at OSCON 2009 (and subsequently at several other conferences). Note: this is from before I changed my name.

Transcript

1. Standing Out
   in the Crowd
   Kirrily Robert
   http://infotrope.net
   

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2. Linux Kernel Summit, 2008
   

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3. Open source developers: 1.5%
   

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4. Perl users: 5%
   

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5. Drupal: 10%
   

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6. Tech industry: 20%
   

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7. Open source developers: 1.5%
   

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8. xkcd.com
   

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9. 0
   20
   40
   60
   80
   100
   Yes No
   Have you noticed sexism
   in the open source community?
   

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10. An Archive
    Of Our Own
    http://archiveofourown.org/
    

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11. OTW is committed to protecting and
    defending fanworks from commercial
    exploitation and legal challenge.
    

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12. OTW is committed to protecting and
    defending fanworks from commercial
    exploitation and legal challenge.
    

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13. ... a noncommercial and nonprofit
    central hosting place for fanfiction
    and other transformative fanworks ...
    

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14. THE THRILLING TALE
    Python and Ruby meet in a dark
    alleyway. What happens?
    1) They fight!
    2) They kiss!
    Your choice:
    Ruby is victorious! Python weeps
    bitter tears and plots revenge.
    THE END
    1
    

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15. 60,000 lines of Ruby etc.
    20+ coders
    100% female
    

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16. http://dreamwidth.org/
    Dreamwidth
    

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17. 210,000 lines of Perl etc.
    40+ coders
    75% female
    

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18. “We welcome people of any gender
    identity or expression, race, ethnicity,
    size, nationality, sexual orientation,
    ability level, religion, culture,
    subculture, and political opinion.”
    

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19. “We think accessibility
    for people with disabilities
    is a priority, not an afterthought.
    We think neurodiversity
    is a feature, not a bug.”
    

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20. Dreamwidth: 75%
    

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22. I’d never contributed to an
    open source project before,
    or even considered that I could.
    

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23. I didn’t feel like I was wanted.
    

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24. I never got the impression
    that outsiders were welcome.
    

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25. I considered getting involved
    in Debian, but the barriers to entry
    seemed high.
    

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26. It’s kind of like being handed
    a box full of random bicycle parts:
    it doesn’t help when you don’t know
    how they go together and just
    want to learn how to ride a bike.
    

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27. People without a ton of experience
    get shunted off to side areas like
    docs and support, and those areas
    end up as the ladies’ auxiliary.
    

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28. What I like most is that there isn’t
    any attitude of ‘stand aside and
    leave the code to the grown-ups’.
    If there’s something that I’m able
    to contribute, however small, then
    the contribution is welcome.
    

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29. Deep down, I had always assumed
    coding required this kind of special
    aptitude, something that I just didn’t
    have and never would...
    

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30. ... It lost its forbidding mystique
    when I learned that people I had
    assumed to be super-coders
    (surely born with keyboard
    attached!) had only started
    training a year ago. ...
    

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31. People without any
    prior experience!
    Women! Like me! Jesus!
    It’s like a barrier
    broke down in my mind.
    

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32. Recruit diversity.
    

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33. Say it.
    Mean it.
    

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34. Tools.
    (tools are easy)
    

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35. Transparency.
    

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36. Don’t stare.
    

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37. Value all
    contributions.
    

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38. Call people
    on their crap.
    

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39. Pay attention.
    

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42. Image credits
    Linux Kernel Summit
    Jonathan Corbet, lwn.net
    How it works
    Randall Munroe, xkcd.com
    Kirk/Spock
    dreamlittleyo on LiveJournal
    Further reading
    geekfeminism.wikia.com
    

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