[UbuntuWomen] An idea on how to get women from the list involved

[Emma Jane Hogbin]

Tricia Bowen wrote:
> On Jan 15, 2008 10:39 AM, Sarah Hobbs <hobbsee at ubuntu.com
> <mailto:hobbsee at ubuntu.com>> wrote:
>     I don't see it as you having to break into a group of men.  I see it as
>     you having to break into a group of people.  Yes, this can be quite
>     hard
>     - - in the development community, for eg, you have to find people to
>     sponsor your new packages, or your patches in, and the speed of this
>     will depend, in part, on how good your work is.  I don't see it
>     depending on who you are. 
>  
> No, it's definitely breaking into a group of men because male members
> are the majority or in most cases the only members. Having an
> androgenous alias is probably the trouble free way to break in without
> having to prove as much, but it defeats the purpose of getting women
> involved.

I agree that it is a group of men that new members are joining. Perhaps
it's the difference between the term "join" and "break into." For
example: I am the only female member in my LUG. My LUG guys are probably
the sweetest and most wonderful group of guys I've ever dealt with. They
answer all of my questions but when topics that I know about come up
they are absolutely gracious in turning the tables and being the
students. Just as my knitting group is a bunch of women who are all
married and with either kids or grandkids, the LUG is a bunch of guys.


>     My other problem with all of this is the idea that women need to be
>     constantly driven by external things - like needing to be told what to
>     work on.  This doesn't work - whether you're a male or a female.  At the
>     end of the day, you have to have the motivation to do what you want to
>     do, and be able to read and process information, else you'll never
>     succeed in your chosen field.
>  
> This is a community dominated by X, to get Y to join/participate there
> has to be some attempts on the part of X to attract/include/nurture Y to
> get Y to join. If Y is successful at participating then Y can stay if Y
> chooses.

Definitely women do need to be motivated by personal curiosity or
passion first. It is not the men/group's job to explain why women should
be excited about being a MOTU (or developer or whatever)--but the group
should be able to articulate the basic procedure required for
participation. In other words: we can't go around thinking it's
acceptable to have a secret handshake to be a part of a FOSS community
(or a specific project); and we can't go around thinking that women
deserve membership to a group based on gender alone. Even if the
barriers to entry are high, they should still be clearly defined.


> Maybe some pointers on how to find a bug on launchpad. How to go about
> fixing one and submitting it for sponsorship/review/approval? Fixing a
> bug could be considered doing a "Job" since there are specific
> requirements for each bug.

I'm pretty sure that many of us will agree that launchpad is...
"difficult" at best. I've done a tiny little bit of google searching to
see if there is a description of how to fix a bug. I've found "how to
report a problem" http://www.ubuntu.com/community/reportproblem but I
haven't found a page on fixing bugs and uploading patches. Does anyone
know where this page is?

regards,
emma

-- 
Emma Jane Hogbin, B.Sc.
Founder, xtrinsic
phone: (519) 371-2665
web: www.xtrinsic.com

HICK Tech 2008: Do you have your tickets yet? www.hicktech.com