[Kde-women] Re: flosspols survey

[Anne-Marie Mahfouf]

On April 7, 2005 06:36 am, Charles de Miramon wrote:
> B. L. Krieger wrote:
> > It is one aim of the flosspols project to provide an understanding of why
> > there are so few women involved in free/libre/open source software (less
> > than 2%) and to reccmmend measures to counteract this trend. So it would
> > be of real help if you could support this survey.
>
> I still don't see how the study of the extraordinary women who are already
> participating can give information why the majority are not participating.
> Studying Margaret Thatcher won't give you much clue about the common
> British woman.
>
> My opinion after having a very minor role in the project for some 5 years,
> is that the number of women will naturally increase as KDE becomes more
> mainstream. What is hindering is the present volunteer pattern in Free
> Software Project. Generally, you have a young man who will one day convert
> to KDE, spend all his time and energy coding and sending zillions of
> e-mails, then burn-out and leave. KDE (and other projects) have a very good
> structure to capture the energy of generations of shooting stars. I think
> that most women would be more interested in participation without full
> conversion where they can volunteer time and work but keep other interests
> and hobbies.
>
> My point of comparison is roller-skating. When I was young in France,
> roller-skating was a pure male activity. As a young teenager, you would
> convert to roller skating, change your clothes, gather in small groups on
> the specific spots in the city and practice for hours difficult figures
> like a rat in a cage. There were some girls in the skater community but
> they were a tiny minority. Today, roller-skating is mainstream, people do
> it every Sundays with your friends or family and the sex ratio has become
> standard. I believe this kind of mutation will happen also for Free
> Software projects.
>
> That is why it is maybe interesting to have a page describing jobs that you
> can do in the KDE project that will fit your free time. Recruiting
> volunteers is a very frustrating job. A lot of people will send an e-mail
> and ask for information and then leave without going further. But, you have
> to do it. By the way, I'm looking for somebody to help (and quickly take
> the responsability) of doing promotional work for KDE in France. No need of
> any technical expertise. It is a 2 hours / week job.
>
> Cheers,
> Charles

Excellent analysis! Yes, more and more women join the project and become KDE 
users. I meet some on IRC.

And yes, I'm not Margaret Thatcher and I roller skate!

Regards,

Anne-Marie