An Open Letter to the Open Source Community

[Eric Dunbar]

On 28/05/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> Robert Carr wrote:
>
> >Unless we are willing to accept what I think would be some pretty
> >outrageous numbers (the open source community alienates greater than
> >20 women contributors for every one it attracts?) I think the problem
> >lies elsewhere.
>
>
> I find those numbers entirely believable. Check the Ubuntu Community
> Manager's response when Caroline Ford dared consider a sexist joke on
> an Ubuntu mailing list a Code of Conduct violation (as I would have
> thought any sane person would):
>
> http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=932
>
> Not only was the trying to get her to withdraw the complaint, other
> Canonical employees were emailng her to try to get her to withdraw the
> complaint, with veiled threats that they would treat her complaint of
> CoC violation as a CoC violation. 'Cos shutting up the complainer
> makes the problem go away, doesn't it.
>
> Thankfully, Jono appears to have gained a clue since then:
>
> http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=971
>
> So I guess everything's marvellous now! Of course, that's one
> contributor driven away and unlikely to come back (hell, she
> considered Wikipedia work less infuriating than Ubuntu work), but at
> least Ubuntu was protected from the scourge of political correctness
> for a time.

I'm impressed. This poster has gone from "Fair and Balanced (TM)"*
discourse to respectful and equitable discourse.