[UbuntuWomen] Diversity and Encouraging More Women To Attend UDS

[Susan Spencer]

I would *love* to attend UDS this year.

But it's at the same time as the Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal.
Since I'm an application developer, not Ubuntu developer per se,
I'll be going to LGM.
Maybe I'll even have a tech fashion show if my software gets kickin'
so I can start sewing in earnest.

My reason for wanting to attend UDS:

I'd like to talk to the Ubuntu community about putting pressure
on Wacom to support Bamboo graphics tablet drivers for Linux.
These tablets rock for graphics development support on
Windows and Mac.

So far Wacom has been a bit hostile in discussions about
providing the information needed to develop Linux
drivers. But as Linux use grows, and the Inkscape
& Gimp & Blender user base grows,
Wacom is missing a huge market.

Graphics designers hand over a large % of
their profits to the Microsoft/Apple/Adobe forced
expensive upgrades.  Free these artists to make
more money by supporting alternative input devices
for Linux. Since the world now runs and advertises
using multimedia, it's unfair for these integral
contributors to our economy to have to buy
upgrades for their entire work process whenever
one piece of it changes versions or renders their
old work obsolete because it's in a proprietary
format that's been "upgraded".

My reason for wanting to attend LGM:

They got me started and were incredibly supportive.
It was so cool to get so much advice and interest and
questions from guys (yes men! lots of them)
who were half my age.  I've received lots of
positive feedback from men about this project,
despite my newbie status in their community and
my newbie status as a programmer.

Yes, the FLOSS community is having the same
discussions about gender diversity as the Ubuntu
community.  Every day, in every way, it's getting
better and better.  But it's not quite acceptable...we
have to get to these girls when they're 11 and 12,
just like the guys.

Hopefully my project will help in that direction.
Here's a link to the Linux Pro Magazine interview
last week:
http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/News/Tau-Meta-Tau-Physica-Bringing-Open-Source-to-Fashion?category=13430
Here's a nice blog entry by Zoe Romano out of Milano,
Italy:
http://openwear.org/blog/?p=1196
And by chance I  discovered that I have a wiki page
on the p2pfoundation site:
http://p2pfoundation.net/Open_Source_Digital_Patterns_Making

These articles cover about the same information,
but it's great that these distinguished people and organisations
think this project is worthwhile enough to dedicate valuable
space to spreading the information.

I was asked if I wanted the project to be submitted to the
Google Summer of Code (for the southern hemisphere's summer,
my winter) but the project isn't quite ready yet. Maybe next
time.

Just wanted you to know that there are people out there
who are very supportive of what your group does,
 promoting gender diversity, bringing up a new generation
of programmers with unquestionable acceptance
of women in the technical workforce,
and care if you encounter negative
experiences in the IT world.  And an open source
fashion design and patternmaking project is
accepted with open arms in this male dominated
community.  How frickin' cool is that?

- Susan Spencer Conklin
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