Hi, Your reply cleared up a lot of doubts I had. I guess collective action is simply not possible in a list like this, where the users are diverse in beliefs and perspectives. I'm going to take your advice and put up a post on my blog about this. It's good to know that there is an increase in the number of female users. I'm doing my bit by distributing Ubuntu CDs to people I know, and talking about it at every possible opportunity. I want to do more, of course. I already have a post on the advantages of Linux on my blog (Only post yet, by the way, my blog is still in its infancy) here: <a href="http://scientificruciverb.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-i-like-ubuntu.html">http://scientificruciverb.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-i-like-ubuntu.html. </a> As for the questions that will inevitably follow when people from this list see this blog: I am not a Native speaker of English and I am bilingual. And YES, I want to help translate Ubuntu into my language, thamizh. Ilavenil <div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 8:33 PM, Elizabeth Krumbach <<a href="mailto:lyz@ubuntu.com">lyz@ubuntu.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="im">On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 1:39 AM, Ilavenil Thirumavalavan <<a href="mailto:ilavenil@gmail.com">ilavenil@gmail.com</a>> wrote: > And, is there any action planned from the group? </div>Thank you for bringing up this topic on-list, Ilavenil. There isn't an "action" as such planned at this time officially from the team, but I'd suggest any "action" from this teamp should be in the form of us being inspired to continue on our path of Being Awesome so we can change the culture of F/OSS so it doesn't take thought to avoid comments like the one he made. We should continue to be encouraging and promote each other. This past year has shown a spike in female involvement within the Ubuntu project, several new female Ubuntu Members. This is a trend I think we all want to see continue and our continued positive push within the project will help. Perhaps we should also push harder for more women to start speaking at and attending conferences? In the US this year I've had very positive conference experiences, have met a lot of really amazing women involved with F/OSS, started speaking at conferences myself, and I know several women in the community who are attending the Ubuntu Developers Summit next month. However, reports I've heard from LinuxCon have not reflected my F/OSS conference experiences this year diversity and gender ratio wise, and I can't help but think that with a more diverse crowd at Mark's LinuxCon talk, he might not have made the comments he did, because doing so would have just made him look pretty silly. It's also important to remember that this team is made up of a very diverse group of women, with varied opinions on what Mark said, some who have no problem with what he said, some who were bothered but think he's been wrongfully over-attacked, others who demand an apology, some who see his comment as a very serious one, even some who wish to leave the project entirely over it. If you feel passionately about this topic one way or the other, I want to encourage you to speak out, join the conversation, blog about it! Several members of the team are already very engaged in the discussion. But as a whole team I want to refrain from coming out with any official position on this particular incident because it none can properly reflect our member base. Cheers. -- Elizabeth Krumbach // Lyz // pleia2 <a href="http://www.princessleia.com" target="_blank">http://www.princessleia.com</a> -- <div><div></div><div class="h5">Ubuntu-Women mailing list <a href="mailto:Ubuntu-Women@lists.ubuntu.com">Ubuntu-Women@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-women" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-women</a> </div></div></blockquote></div> -- It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it. -Edwin Way Teale