[Kde-women] Women's outreach BoF at Akademy?

[Claudia Rauch]

On 18 June 2012 12:23, Claudia Rauch <rauch at kde.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I think it's time for a women's outreach BoF at Akademy. I'd like your
> input on this topic, whether or not you can attend.
>
> This was triggered by reading the blog post from Sebas about the
> personas created during the Next Iteration workspaces sprint last week
> [1] I was wondering how a bunch of guys can create a female user
> persona. Of course, the female persona, Carla, likes " convenience of
> technology but is mostly interested in how it improves her life, not
> for the sake of technology". Knowing the people involved, I'm sure
> they meant well :). But it also shows that we need to improve our
> female quote within the community, not only for the sake of diversity
> but to ultimately also broaden our user base.
>
> Lately, there has been a great deal of buzz about how and why to get
> more women into tech [2], [3] and [4] are just some examples. One
> common conclusion is that you need role models to get more girls and
> women involved, and that seems very reasonable. There are a few
> initiatives around like the GNOME Foundation women's outreach program
> or a German initiative to get more female speakers for Tech/Geek
> events which is a list of women in tech that are willing to speak at
> events (common excuse of organizers: we do not know enough women that
> we could invite to speak at events).
>
> I'm personally part of a women's network here in Berlin, called Berlin
> Geekettes, and participated in two Railsgirls workshop that aimed at
> teaching women how to code [5]. I find a great deal of solidarity and
> positive energy in these groups and events and would love to see this
> happen in KDE as well. I don't think we suffer from the "brogrammer"
> phenomenon [6], but we can surely do more :).
>
> BTW, there are also a lot of companies investing in women's outreach
> programs, so this could even be a way to get more funding.
>
> And one more question: I'd also like to invite guys to the BoF. What
> do you think?
>
> Thanks and very much looking forward to your feedback,
> Claudia
>
>
> P.S: even more food for thought: [7], [8].
>
> [1] http://vizzzion.org/blog/2012/06/plasma-personas-carla-and-raj/
> [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUvRPmL61SI
> [3] http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-57431869-256/why-we-need-to-keep-talking-about-women-in-tech/?tag=postrtcol%3Bposts
> [4] http://www.fastcompany.com/1836031/can-tech-companies-continue-to-innovate-with-no-women-at-the-table
> [5] http://railsgirls.com/
> [6] http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/04/silicon-valley-brogrammer-culture-sexist-sxsw
> [7] http://geekfeminism.org/2012/05/21/how-i-got-50-women-speakers-at-my-tech-conference/
> [8] http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/researcher-reveals-how-%E2%80%9Ccomputer-geeks%E2%80%9D-replaced-%E2%80%9Ccomputergirls%E2%80%9D

I've booked a BoF room for Wednesday, 4 July, from 9.30 to 12.30,
http://community.kde.org/Akademy/2012/Wednesday#Room_227

-- 

Claudia Rauch
Business Manager
KDE e.V.
Linienstr. 141
10115 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 30 2023 7305 0
Fax: +49 (0) 30 2023 7305 9
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