Hi, On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 5:58 PM, David William Bitner <bit...@dbspatial.com>wrote:
> Dave, > > As indicated by Jeff and Doug, this has not been an issue at any previous > FOSS4G event. What has been an issue has been the diversity that we have > been able to bring into both our community and our events. We are still a > predominantly White European/US/Canadian male community. There has been a > lot of work done by many tech conferences to try to make sure that > conferences are more welcoming to a more broad array of folks (the rotation > of NA/Europe/Elsewhere is one thing FOSS4G has done). The > anti-harassment policy follows the lead of others and pulls from the > template provided by Geek Feminism > http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/index.php?title=Conference_anti-harassment_policy. > Additionally following advice from other events as well as many members of > our community, we are making the community review process for presentation > submission author anonymous as a concern with how we have done this in the > past has been the fear that many folks have of feeling publicly shamed with > critique and voting of their proposals. These are only two small steps that > we are taking to addressing an environment in the overall open source world > that by the numbers is very unwelcome to women and other groups (while > there have not been any overt issues that I know of as part of any FOSS4G, > if you look at the percentage of female conference goers or developers in > our community, we do have a long ways to go). > Thank you for rising this interesting topic. I don't exactly know why women (according to the numbers) prefer other fields instead of open source software (as I am a woman and I feel comfortable in this community maybe I'm not the right person to ask why other people don't). But I can certainly say why many people don't (can't) join the events.. as I wasn't able to do so as well.. Please don't take it bad, but the FOSS4G event is bloody *expensive* to afford! I am not surprised not to see at such events many people from developing countries, while in Europe and especially in US, research institutions allocate more funds for missions etc. my 2 cents madi > > Hope this helps understand the rationale, > > David > > > On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 7:51 AM, Jeff McKenna < > jmcke...@gatewaygeomatics.com> wrote: > >> DaveP, >> >> There have been no specific problems at FOSS4G events but I support the >> FOSS4G-NA's initiative for diversity and harassment-free policies. >> >> -jeff >> >> >> >> On 13-01-16 12:56 AM, Dave Patton wrote: >> > >> > David et al: >> > >> > I have no issue with the Harassment Policy, but I am curious >> > as to it's origin. Is it a result of specific problems at >> > other FOSS4G-related events? >> > >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> > > > > -- > ************************************ > David William Bitner > dbSpatial LLC > 612-424-9932 > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > -- Margherita DI LEO Postdoctoral Researcher European Commission - DG JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES). Unit H03 – FRC Via Fermi, 2749 I-21027 Ispra (VA) - Italy - TP 261 Tel. +39 0332 78 3600 margherita.di-...@jrc.ec.europa.eu Disclaimer: The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstance be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss