HI Boris, Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts - and what I see as a good challenge to expand beyond our default thinking about inclusion governance (and who we’re missing) with global context.
Your email (and Emma & Henri’s) makes me feel optimistic and hopeful that the signal of this proposal is already making us more intentional and deliberate in thinking about who we’re missing, why that is, and why that matters to our work, and mission. In our D&I research last year, we identified a number of underrepresented demographics to consider in our work, of which a few you mentioned. I feel optimistic we’re already on our way. I’ll mention again my intention to keep this discussion open (separate from the proposal), with a kick-off discussion on our ‘Inclusive Open Governance call’ on June 27th. I’ll ensure at least one panel question comes from what has been shared here - and if you can’t make it, you have my commitment to follow-up with you after that call with recordings - and maybe some proposed next steps for this discussion. How does that sound? Thanks again! -Emma Irwin On Thursday, May 31, 2018 at 7:14:41 PM UTC-7, Boris Zbarsky wrote: > On 5/30/18 12:01 PM, Emma Humphries wrote: > > Let's add a fourth item to Henri's list on the role of > > authority/leadership/maintainership in OSS to elevate and sponsor the next > > generation of authority/leadership/maintainership, and to emphasize that > > the next generation of OSS leadership should come from underrepresented > > groups since they carry knowledge of the blind spots and owches that the > > projects we work on have. > > I strongly agree with the last clause, but I have to admit to some > qualms about coupling that to the specific term "underrepresented > groups", because I think a lot of people have preconceived notions (not > always identical) of what it means. > > As a concrete example, I don't think "people over 50 with somewhat > failing eyesight" is commonly considered an "underrepresented group", > and yet: (1) it is, in the context of web browser development and (2) > members of this group definitely carry the sort of knowledge you > mention: young people with good eyesight tend to make all the text too > small. > > To be clear, I agree that we want a lot more participation from groups > that are not participating right now. I suspect (but please correct me > if I'm wrong) that we also agree that this applies to more than just the > typical set of groups involved in US identity politics. Examples could > include the elderly, people in countries with oppressive regimes, people > who are poor, people in rural areas. I'm sure there are others I can't > think of right now, which is a problem in itself. Anyway, I worry that > the term "underrepresented groups" is irrevocably coupled in the minds > of many to the specific context of identity politics in the US and that > will affect both perception of our stance on the matter and actual > implementation of the policy in detrimental ways. > > -Boris _______________________________________________ governance mailing list governance@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
