Correction :- On 07/01/2019, shirish शिरीष <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear all, > > I would request people to read it in full, maybe take some time and > then respond. > > Also please CC me if somebody responds as I'm not subscribed to the > list but did read the archives of this month and the last :) > > Recently, Debutsav was organized in Kerala. You can read about the > event at debutsav.in and whatever I could recollect and share at [1] > > Obviously I had to keep it short as it was supposed to be mostly about > the technical aspects of the 2-day mini-conf/meetup rather than also > the social side. > > Having been 'singed' on couple of previous occasions by A-H, as part > of the team I advised the organisers to have both a CoC and have a > team with women to fully staff it and have some sort of button, badge > or something which people could call upon to sort out in either > situations of hostilities or any sort of abusive behavior happens. > While the latter could not be prepared due to shortness of time ( it > was hardly 2 weeks where everything was organized) but I do feel we > could have done better. > > I along with others also opined that we should have two women on the > panel instead of just one just to keep the panel sort of > gender-neutral but only Shruti was on the panel. I simply do not know > the reasons to presume or assume why it happened but do care enough to > point it out and to ask what we could and should have been better. It > wasn't as if talent wasn't around. As far as people from LGBTQIA+ or > non-binary people are concerned, I am afraid though, the road is long > ahead as it wasn't even part of the discussions anywhere. Although I > do hope after de-criminalization of Sec 377 we would see these > conversations happen [2] [3] > > One of the intersting conversations I had with quite a few > participants is how much they had looked at the website and the CoC. > Sadly, it seems many didn't, at least not in any detail. > Interestingly, it was both the genders who didn't take or have the > time. > > I do remember some blog posts in the pasts, maybe in Pycon 2018 or in > some other international conference, they had a banner which had the > CoC written on it. Maybe that could be something that both Debconf and > the various miniconferences could emulate aside from agreeing to the > CoC ? > > Coming to the debian side of things, there doesn't seem to much > documentation about gender diversity as far as documentation is > concerned. In fact, the wiki doesn't seem to have an article on gender > diversity and even the diversity statement is all to brief for > somebody new to the term 'gender diversity' . It doesn't tell the > person anything. Please put yourself in the shoes of 22 year old > person who may come across this page for the first time and see the > term for the first-time. It is a touch point so it would be nice if we > could either elaborate it either there or link it to some page which > better defines the terminology and the context. [4] [5] > > Even in debconf the term diversity is only a single page which doesn't > explain what diversity is apart from sharing few examples . Could it > be defined more better, more coherently, I hope so From what little I > understand of the meaning and the terminology, it is a broad inclusive > term rather than an exclusive term but then I'm no expert. I hope we > can come up with some better wording or at least a somewhat better > structure than the current wiki page we have. [6] > > Coming to Debconf 2016, few of the blog posts I wanted to write and > had partially written about were about Rhonda and my interaction with > them (using Sarah Sharp's pronouns [7] .) I wanted to share both > their celebrations, the interactions and questions raised and answered > about gender, my own uneasiness in how should I address them when > writing as a third-person in a blog post as both the terms he/she felt > wrong. I shared one of my blog posts with few DD's whom I respect and > hold in high-esteem so they may help me in this delicate situation but > none of them answered.
Oops, seems the correct name is now Sage Sharp. Apology - > > Eventually I junked the blog posts because I felt even excluding them > from few presentations where they made an interesting point or an > insight, wouldn't that be an erasure of identity? > > I could have used 'somebody asked x or y question' which many a times > I do use simply because I don't remember a person's name but in this > situation it was different and I couldn't publish the blog posts with > that knowledge in good conscience. With no way out, I simply junked > the posts. In light of recent happenings it does seem that that the > DD's did me a favor. It is very much possible that they were pretty > much confused or indeterminate as I was. What would be a good way to > address this ? > > Could there be a possibility of having of having a debian-diversity > mailing list on lists.debian.org where some of these touchy topics > could be untied or unknotted in a civil manner ? > > Sorry for being too long and there is a strong possibility that I > shared or coupled too many things together but I do feel strongly that > they are all related to one another. > > I would point out that I scanned the mail multiple times to see if I > intentionally or unintentionally hurt somebody. I do say sorry to > Rhonda whose name I have taken now and couldn't do right with them > then and have no excuses. > > Apart from that if somebody feels hurt, I do apologize but only to the > extent that whatever I shared is so that we should and could do > better. > > 1. https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2019/01/04/debutsav-kochi-2018/ > > 2. > https://barandbench.com/arundhati-katju-interview-section-377-supreme-court/ > (sorry, paywall) > > 3. > https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/cover/after-377/article25908623.ece > > 4. https://wiki.debian.org/Gender > > 5. https://www.debian.org/intro/diversity > > 6. https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/Diversity > > 7. https://sage.thesharps.us/2017/10/24/binaries-are-for-computers/ > -- Regards, Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com EB80 462B 08E1 A0DE A73A 2C2F 9F3D C7A4 E1C4 D2D8
