I think that efforts such as Outreachy work well in helping bootstrap people to gain their own merit. There are extenuating circumstances that seem to prevent people from even making that first step as a contributor in the first place whether it be pull requests, bug reports, mailing list posts, etc., and identifying and helping fix those hurdles could go a long way toward increasing D&I as well as encouraging more contributors in general. In the case of Outreachy, like GSoC, this targets specific people who are eager and ready to learn and work on OSS, though with structured guidance and student stipend, regular mentor feedback and review, etc. These efforts should hopefully also identify general issues that prevent newcomers from contributing to our projects, though this group will likely find more information about this from the survey efforts. Similar to how GSoC helps mentor and bootstrap university students into the professional world of open source software development, Outreachy mentors underrepresented people in the same way. This whole positive equity building process is one of the big things that really attracted me to volunteering with Outreachy in the first place last year.
On Thu, 18 Jul 2019 at 05:51, Jim Jagielski <[email protected]> wrote: > > I also like that analogy and I think it matches what we are trying to do. We > are trying to do all we can to allow for equitable opportunity for all. We > need to know what "blockers" there are and what we can do about them. I have > no doubt that the Outreachy effort will help with that. > > The concern I have is ensuring there is a realistic understanding of what > equitable opportunity means, and how to implement them, especially as it > impacts the concept of merit here at the ASF. Because it is never too early > to remind ourselves of some basic tenets, one core idea of the Apache Way and > our do-ocracy is that merit (or reward) is dependent upon what you do, not > who you are. As such, we should always keep in the back of our minds that > such solutions as "you are from an under-represented group and therefore you > don't need to earn that much merit" or, conversely, "you are someone with > privilege and therefore needs to do a lot more to earn the same amount of > merit" will assuredly not stand at the ASF. > > No, I am not worried about that happening, but just wanted to make sure that > this aspect of the Apache Way was known and acknowledged. > > And the final reminder is understanding that, at the end of the day, not > everyone will want to look over the fence. And that's OK. That is not a > failure. Some people may simply not be interested in watching whatever is > going on over there, no matter how easy it is we make it for them to do so. > > Cheers! > > On 2019/07/17 17:03:55, Rich Bowen <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > On 7/17/19 10:52 AM, Michael Mior wrote: > > > I'm familiar with that cartoon although I recently came across this > > > article that goes a little deeper. > > > > > > http://culturalorganizing.org/the-problem-with-that-equity-vs-equality-graphic/ > > > > Yeah, that's a cool extension to the conversation. > > > > Analogies are ... just analogies. They are not reality. Taking them too > > far - their "logical extreme" - always results in problems. > > > > I do like the extension of the analogy in this article, but even then, > > it eventually breaks down. > > > > The fence, for example, protects us from line drives. :) > > > > We strive to bring more people to the table, and make the table bigger, > > and yet we have angry voices complaining that we'll run out of food. One > > of these days, I need to write that "Open Source as pot-luck dinner" > > blog post. The more people we bring to the table, the better dinner will be. > > > > I am saddened by all of the anger and outrage that is generated by > > wanting to have more friends come to dinner. > > -- Matt Sicker <[email protected]>
