[TriLUG] More data [Was: Palmer for another SC term; proposed amendment to the bylaws]

[Brandon Van Every]

On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 11:48 PM, Cristóbal Palmer <cmp at cmpalmer.org> wrote:

> I wanted to share a 2006 research paper on the role of gender in F/LOSS
> communities that was shared with me via Twitter today. I recommend at least
> reading the executive summary and reviewing the figures.
>
> PDF link:
> http://www.flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_Integrated_Report_of_Findings.pdf
>
>
I find some of those cultural issues offputting to me as well.  Especially,
preference for code production rather than polishing the end user
experience.  Lately I protect myself by choosing the communities I work
with rather carefully, or else just foregoing open source approaches to
things and just DIY.

In other respects I'm probably "par for the course."  One that I never
really thought about, was less experience = less confidence = less stomach
for "staying in there" when things get rough with people.  I think techies
generally expect techies to be jerky and lacking social graces to some
degree.  Probably not all the time, as that gets old and doesn't lead to
stable working relationships.  But if someone blows their stack about
something, people are supposed to just deal and move on.  Someone has to
*really* be a jerk for people to pick up their toys and go home.


> Please note especially figures 3 and 4, which are on pages 21 and 22,
> respectively.
>
> Here's figure 4 pulled out:
> https://twitter.com/ashedryden/status/328997919493599233
>
>
Sadly, the question for me would be, "Have you seen women in open source?"
and I think the answer is "no."  I don't remember working with any.

I have seen women in other volunteer groups.  As dysfunctional as the
International Game Developer Association was, I never thought women were
having any kind of problem over there.  They assumed all the roles,
including the nasty / nemesis / corporate blowhard role, not just the
stereotypically "communicative and helpful" so-called feminine roles.  When
I finally got drummed out of there, I realized that the IGDA did not have
either a grassroots political culture, or an open source culture.  It had
the dysfunctional autocratic culture of the game industry in general.  No
belief in transparency, top down command structure, get things done only
with the people you actually want to deal with, shut anyone else out of the
process.  I think most of these studio heads were used to getting people to
obey and firing anyone who didn't.  When those are the dominant work values
in industry, why would I expect the IGDA to have the feel or DNA of a
grassroots political organization?  It just wasn't that, much as I and
others may have wanted it to be.  Well, us refuseniks tried to fix things
for awhile, for a few years.  Then we found other things to do.

It's worth mentioning that women were well organized within the IGDA, with
their own SIG to advance their interests.  I know that similar groups exist
for open source.  I was on one of their mailing lists at one point.  Can't
remember if I signed off, was silently dropped, or they just don't
communicate much.  My lack of memory on it, indicates I felt quite
peripheral to it.

Women of course have horrible problems in the male dominated game industry.
 The IGDA proves that better is possible in principle, but the IGDA was
also a paper tiger as far as getting the industry to do anything.  (About
anything, not just women.)  I actually think the Women in Games SIG started
independent of the IGDA, had its own funding base, and resisted some of the
IGDA "normalization" efforts to govern them.


Cheers,
Brandon