Heya Max, I don't represent TAI, I'm just a supporter like you :) However I wanted to suggest that far more valuable in welcoming a gender-diverse membership than a name change would be having a Code of Conduct clearly stated on your website and in meat-space, also having a defined process for how you will deal with people who over step its boundaries.
I think the term 'hackerspace' is pretty well ingrained in the geek-sphere and that is what your group will be called even if you label it something else; women and girls are 'hackers' too! Best wishes, Pomke On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Max Klein <isa...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello All, > > My name is Max Klein and I recently listened to Mary Gardiner speak at > Wikimania which was a profound and transformative moment for me. I am a > man, Mary elucidated for me that a lot of current verbiage can be > alienating women. In fact I noticed (and tweeted) that in Jimmy Wales > speech, directly after Mary's Keynote, when he announced that he was giving > $5,000 as a prize to Wikipedia User:Demmy, which he'd never met before, he > assumed that this user was male. "I haven't met Demmy, but I'm sure he's a > great guy" said Wales which was the precise second that I understood how > large of problem this gender gap really is. > > Here is my latest predicament. I belong to a 'hackerspace' called Sudo > Room in Oakland California, that was in part founded to be an alternative > to the more "Boys Club" existing 'hackerspace'. For instance we are doing > things to be less 'Star Trek' and 'Mountain Dew', like opening our > 'hackerspace' on a citywide Art-Gallery night and making and displaying LED > art. Today I brought up the issue that I think the term 'hacker' is loaded > with a gender-connotations, and we should move to a more neutral lexicon. > There was some pushback, but in the end the group asked me to present > choices to which we could move. They liked neither "makerspace" or > "creativespace." Thinking about that now, I agree, we should coin a new > moniker to that hasn't got past baggage. > > So if it's not a hacker- maker- or creative-space, what is the best > language that Ada can suggest for us to use? > > Best, > Max Klein > > _______________________________________________ > Supporters mailing list > Supporters@lists.adainitiative.org > http://lists.adainitiative.org/listinfo.cgi/supporters-adainitiative.org > > -- _.--. .' ` ' Pomke Nohkan ``'. .' .c-.. Spotted Skunk `. `````` .-' po...@pomke.com -'`. )--. .'` http://pangur.com.au, http://pangurpad.com `-`._ \_`-- ==============================
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