[UbuntuWomen] IRC Meeting Notes for 9 June 2007

[Elizabeth Bevilacqua]

Full log and these meeting notes also available on the wiki:

http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/Meetings/20070609

= Ubuntu-Women IRC Meeting June 9 21:00 UTC 2007 =

 * Ubuntu-Women Chapters?

  * Vid Ayer posted to the mailing list with a couple topics for the
   meeting: [https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-women/2007-June/000946.html
    and this included a suggestion and link to
   [http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/UW_Circle] which outlines some ideas for 
   casual local groups of Ubuntu-Women
  * It was discussed that the purpose would be to bring more Women into
   Ubuntu
  * Nightrose, myriam_rs, Susana and pleia2 expressed that there aren't
   enough people in their areas to have such a group, maybe for more
   densely populated areas?
    * myriam_rs said "I definitely think this to be a good idea for more
     populated regions on the globe, like Asia"
    * Susana pointed out that more populated areas often have !LinuxChix
     chapters
      * It was discussed that currently !LinuxChix is primarily
       english-speaking, with a few notable examples like !LinuxChicas,
       !LinuxChix Brazil and a couple of the European chapters
      * myriam_rs suggested that there might not be as many !LinuxChix
       chapters in Europe because "maybe the LUG culture in Europe is
       less hostile to women" - myriam_rs herself is a member of two
       LUGs!
      * pleia2 brought up Vid's India example, and said that a loose
       knit group of UW there might be one of the examples of a place
       where such a group would have a place.
      * myriam_rs mentioned there is a !SheGeeks group in Switzerland
       that actively participated in Feisty Release Party
      * Susana expressed that having existing women in tech projects
       handle the local role might be the best for now
  * pleia2 expressed concern that it might take away from loco teams, or
   be seen that way - we'd could be open for attack as trying to
   segregate women further
  * myriam_rs said that we should strongly suggest women to join their
   local teams when they join UW
  * It was asked whether some !LoCos are known as hostile and pleia2
   mentioned that there had been "incidents" at a few of the teams that
   have driven women away. It was agreed that UW should continue to
   help bring these incidents to the CC.
  * pleia2 suggested the following plan moving forward that was agreed
   upon for the Local issue:
    1. Join your !LoCo team
    2. Join the !LinuxChix/Gender Changers/Womens Linux or IT group in
       your area
    3. If neither are an option (for whatever reason) it's fine to get
       together with some other women and have a local meeting of Ubuntu 
       Women

 * Girls Inc Local Philadelphia Project

   * pleia2 was a bit late to the meeting because she had just gotten in
    from a !LoCo team event (in partnership with her local !LinuxChix
    chapter) where Ubuntu and Windows were installed on 10 PCs donated
    to the Girls Inc organization.
   * The event went well, several of the girls who were taking the PCs
    home showed up to be shown around Windows and Ubuntu by the
    volunteers.
   * Photos of the event were posted by Joe Terranova:
    [http://www.joeterranova.net/photos/girls_inc/]
   * Although this wasn't directly related officially to Ubuntu-Women we
    want to encourage women to get involved in such projects and report
    successes to the team!

 * Mentoring Program

   * pleia2 introduced the [http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/MentorRequest] 
   page - which includes requests for Courses
   * Nightrose suggested posting to the mailinglist again to encourage
    people to mentor and ask for metoring
   * pleia2 suggested we contact some Teams directly (bugs, motu) to see
    if people would be interested in giving courses
     * myriam_rs will be contacting the bugs team
     * Susana is an admin of the portuguese translations team, she
      offered to together a translations course!
     * Baby offered to be a Mentor!
   * JanC brought up the very valid question of why Ubuntu Women have
    their own courses ("duplicating work of existing course in
    Ubuntu"), we explained:
     * We've tried to encourage women to go to general courses in the
      past, it hasn't been successful
     * The two courses we have had brought in new women and were
      successful
     * Experience (with Debian Women, !LinuxChix) has taught us that
      starting such courses and documentation on the -Women level does
      help women get a "foot in the door" of the whole project and then
      branch out to the rest of the community
     * Our courses heavily encourage getting women to get involved
      directly with the community in general, UW is simply an entry
      point
   * JanC was concerned that specific courses address the symptom but do
    not address the underlying problem of women not wanting to come to
    the general courses. Indeed - we're working on this! But it's not a
    problem that can be solved overnight, for now we're chipping away
    at that issue and doing what we know works right now.
   * ''Note: This was a long conversation in IRC, locating this in the
    logs and reading specifics is encouraged if you would like to
    comment''

 * An update on HCI was requested, but dinda was unable attend the
  meeting.
 * An update on the Ubuntu For All project was also requested, but
  elkbuntu was unable to attend the meeting


-- 
Elizabeth Bevilacqua // lyz at ubuntu.com
Ubuntu Women Project: www.ubuntu-women.org
Ubuntu PA US LoCo Team: www.meetlinux.com