Lovely email - Is it intended as an anonymous op ed? If you want to celebrate ALD and women in science, I encourage you to take 15 minutes to update or create a biography celebrating the life and achievements of someone amazing who you've learned about recently.
SJ (briefly at an Ada Lovelace editathon earlier today :) On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 12:15 AM, Students for Free Culture <[email protected]> wrote: > **Today is [Ada Lovelace Day][1], a holiday celebrating the achievements > of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.** > > The Free Software Foundation has [a fantastic post][2] up by their new > campaigns manager, Libby Reinish, about how "even though there are even > less women in computer science than in other [STEM fields][3], and even > though the number of women in free software may be even lower than that, > [...] the free software movement may be uniquely positioned to do > something about it". > > Libby supports this claim with three points: that free software is meant > to entirely displace proprietary software and therefore needs to reach > people of all races, physical/mental abilities, sexual orientations, and > genders; that the free software movement is a community and therefore > can come together to intentionally create [safer spaces][4] for > alternative and non-dominant identity groups; and finally that free > software exists to challenge proprietary and hierarchical power > structures and therefore needs to align itself with marginalized groups > in order to of empowering those most disadvantaged in society. > > This applies to free culture as well. Free culture is an expansion of > the free software movement, applying the same ideas critical lens of > software to technology and media more broadly. Free software is an > inseparable element of the free culture movement because without it free > media and free thought is not possible. We expand upon the work of the > free software movement by also investigating how copyright on all media > and technology beyond software (for example the structure of the > internet) plays into privileging some and oppressing others. In order > for free software and free culture to achieve our goals, we must keep > Libby's points in mind and frame our work around critical examination of > power and privilege. > > [1]: http://findingada.com/ > > [2]: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/happy-ada-lovelace-day > > [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_fields > > [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space > > URL: http://freeculture.org/blog/2012/10/17/happy-ada-lovelace-day/ > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss -- Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freeculture.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss
