[UbuntuWomen] Meeting Notes for March 11, 2007

[Vid Ayer]

On 3/14/07, Elizabeth Bevilacqua <lyz at princessleia.com> wrote:
>  * dinda noted elkbuntu's suggestion of keeping an index of our wiki on
>   the old U-W wiki page so it is searchable

Sounds good.

>  * The topic of translated content on the old wiki was brought up - what
>   should we do with it?
>   * Put it online somewhere on our new wiki and label it archive?
>   * pleia2 wondered if we should just delete it since it's so old and
>    may not be useful to future translating efforts?

It may not be useful in the present form but while writing content for
our existing pages I took great care to see that I retained large
chunks (from the old wiki) as much as possible  so that translators
could just cut/paste or rework some parts of already translated stuff
instead of rewriting a whole new document from scratch. But then
languages differ and translation in whole or part is always a
time-consuming task so I want to avoid burdening grrls working on it
with repeat work every other week.


>  * Translations in general - Susana mentioned that data on the wiki may
>   be too transitional to keep translated.

In a way she is right (wiki being transitional).  How about keeping
some pages (like the IRC guidelines and mentoring survey) locked. By
that I mean we discuss major changes (if any and why) to those pages
on this list and inform the translators which parts have changed. This
*will* require co-ordination and follow-up with concerned
translator(s) on a regular basis if it happens.  We also need to find
out what the women translating these pages think about it before doing
a brain-dump on them.


>   We decided we should be open
>   to translations of the static pages on the site in the future.

Sounds good. In that case we can easily keep changes to the static
pages to a minimum. The old wiki was translated in 5 languages
(guessing?) earlier so if the current pages are translated we can use
the wiki for storing and link it via the menu. Thoughts?


>  * We agreed this would be good - and could be our first "course" for
>   our mentoring project!
>  * Susana said she'd be available for it on the 19th or 20th

Do keep the fridge-devel list informed for publicity.  Many newcomers
to Ubuntu would not know much about bug triaging and this is a good
way to get them to start contributing. Some curious folks may just
drop by to see what the fuss is all about.
We could also post to the appropriate Linuxchix list... maybe women
there would be interested.


> Mentoring Project
>  * Nightrose mentioned she'd like to be a contact in the mentoring
>   program

Its great that more women want to be involved.  Here, I would like to
mention some points which I feel are important :

*  Being a contact involves a lot of work which is not openly
apparent. Since Ubuntu is Debian/Gnome/KDE-based one needs to observe
and know who is involved where.  You dont need to know anyone
personally, just the work they are doing, checking that it loosely
fits in with UW goals/framework, keep trolls out while encouraging
women to contribute, blah, blah....

*  How does one do that ? - Read different mailing list archives,
planets, by using google to find information about mailing list or irc
behaviour (stuff which is not usually available on personal profiles
or blogs) and such like.
Example: Sometimes people flame others, use sarcasm (subtle and/or
open) and their profiles will not contain that information. Many women
find that offensive/aggressive and may quietly leave or just stay in
the fringes without freely participating.  That is a loss for all of
us and defeats the purpose of UW.

Even with all that its sometimes difficult to know and Google may not
provide the information you are looking for. In that case you should
know where to look for that and how to get this feedback. Also be
prepared to communicate with peers who may be involved in the said
project who could clear and set you on the right track.

All of this and more is very time-consuming and demanding work,
especially since we are dealing with other real people, so be prepared
to walk on glass sometimes.

I wanted to share this with new volunteers who need to know the
responsibility it entails and what they are getting themselves into.
I hope this helps and feel free to mail your thoughts, questions or
discuss anything I may have missed...


>  * dinda suggested an outlet for people to ask for help about the
>   mentoring program

This mailing list is a good starting point, or am I missing something.


> Next meeting will be held on March 25th at 11:00 UTC

I will try to be there [but my typing speed sucks, so wont be making
much noise.]

-- 
thanks,
Vid
[...who is still catching up with her mails]