Hi there! I’ll post a full synopsis of our panel here when it’s over. For now, we’ll use this blog post to share resources we know we’ll be bringing up during the panel. If you have any questions for us during or after the talk, feel free to post a comment.
Update: Xanthe has posted a blog post on this talk. Please check it out:
Why Are We Here?
(From the SXSW Program)
Open source communities pride themselves on the premise of egalitarian communication where every voice is valued, heard and documented. Despite this noble goal, this panel discusses how women and their communication style might nevertheless result in their marginalization or deter them from participating in open source communities in the first place.
This dual presentation, moderated by a journalist, brings together two women with different perspectives and experiences working in open source communities. Together they will discuss how the marginalization of women in open source affects process and product outcomes, particularly with regard to design. We will also discuss strategies to improve participation in open source communities both from an industry and educational perspective. We look forward to starting a conversation about problems with, and solutions for, working in open source communities.
To make this dual conversation engaging and interactive, it will take questions from the crowd and ask for examples/testimonials from men and women about gendered communication in open source communities.
The Panelists
- Andrea Hickerson Moderator, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Xanthe Matychak, Lecturer, College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology
- Máírín Duffy, Interaction Designer, Fedora & Red Hat
Resources
Mentorship
- Open Hatch
- GNOME Women’s Summer Outreach Program
- Google Summer of Code Program Mentors List
- Google Summer of Code
Women in Open Source & Technology
- Ada Initiative (adainitiative.org)
- Geek Feminism Blog (geekfeminism.org)
- Geek Feminism Wiki (geekfeminism.wikia.com)
- LISA ’11 Boston: Women in Tech Panel notes
- Women in free software: Recommendations from the Free Software Foundation’s Women’s Caucus
(New) Breaking Into Open Source
- Open Advice: What we wish we knew when we had started Ed. Lydia Pintscher, CC-licensed book with tons of useful info on how to get started as a new open source contributor.
Culture
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain – her TED talk is fantastic, too.
- The Power of Vulnerability TED talk by Brené Brown.
