thanks for sharing your experiences ginger, they're really useful to
hear. the brussels LGM was my first LGM, & while there were things that
made me feel like an outsider, there were other things that made me feel
welcome, compared to other events i've been to.
it was pretty easy to find the registration desk & at the time that i
arrived there were not many other people about; the two people at the
desk were very welcoming & friendly which was great. (i've been at other
events where i've felt like walking out as soon as i arrived, as i've
been totally ignored or it's not clear where to go & so on). the badges
were a great way to start chatting to strangers but it would have been
good if people's names were bigger & easier to read. i confess to being
a fan of name tags, it makes meeting & remembering lots of people at
conferences so much easier, & it's much easier to be a brave newcomer if
you can identify who people are.
it was clear that most of the people at LGM were good friends from
previous LGMs, & were more interested in catching up with each other &
their specific projects than in meeting new people; this is totally
understandable, given that the LGM is a brief opportunity for
face-to-face meetings of a geographically disparate community. but it
does mean that newcomers can feel excluded, especially if you're also
outside of the dominant demographic. luckily for me there were a couple
of people i knew from other events which meant i had a sort of group to
belong to, but i imagine that for someone who didn't know anyone it
might have been difficult to "break in" to a group.
obviously there are organisational things that can make it easier, such
as the communal lunches which were done well in brussels. but it
shouldn't just be down to organisers (who are busy with everything
else), or to newcomers to be brave & persistent. as ginger says, if we
fall at the first gate, the community may be missing out as well as the
indivudal. the "regulars" can also regard it as part of their role as
members of the community to be actively welcoming to newcomers.
obviously this is an issue for any kind of conference/event/distributed
community gathering, & in my experience of such things LGM is by no
means the worst :) but i think that the LGM community in particular has
a lot to gain from including a diverse range of artists & users outside
of the developer role & while it's good to hear that it is becoming more
open, it's still good to be mindful & proactive in this area.
h : )
On 13/01/11 12:52 AM, ginger coons wrote:
That calls for even more clarification :) How do you feel about it
now, after two more LGMs? Have you become more like others, others
more like you or was it a mutual motion towards each other?
Tough questions. I think (although I don't have much past experience
to compare against) that in the last few years, there's been a lot of
movement within the Libre Graphics community and specifically at the
meetings, towards both the involvement and the inclusion of people who
don't fit the traditional developer role. For me, that's meant that
I've experienced an awful lot of interest in what I do as a
designer/artist/user/whatever and have also found others who share my
own outlook. Not only that, but I've noticed (again, in my limited
experience) more and more involvement from people who are not the
stereotypical 30+ white man many people might think of in conjunction
with F/LOSS.
At the same time, it's almost impossible for me to distinguish whether
I've become accustomed to the community or whether it's shifted.
Although I think it's a fair bet to say that there's been some of
both. The important thing here, as Helen pointed out, is that, in all
this, I'm an example of someone who, while at first alienated and put
off, eventually persevered and came to know the community for the
generally nice and inclusive place it is. The worrying possibility
here is that maybe there are lots of other people who feel that
outsiderness and never get beyond it, depriving them of the
opportunity to discover the depth of opportunity available in the
community and also depriving the community of their potential
contributions.
--
ginger "all-lower-case" coons
adaptstudio.ca <http://adaptstudio.ca>
647.865.7757 (Toronto)
514.213.1318 (Montreal)
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helen varley jamieson: creative catalyst
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http://www.creative-catalyst.com
http://www.avatarbodycollision.org
http://www.upstage.org.nz
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