O'Reilly Community

Selena Deckelmann, in her article, To Sir, with Love: How To Get More Women Involved in Open Source, suggests three ways to get more women involved in open source.



What are your ideas for getting more women involved in Open Source? Do you think it's important?

I agree that all of the ways outlined here are very important for attracting women to open source, and that it's important to value *all* contributions to help increase the diversity of those who choose to contribute to projects. Another of our biggest hurdles is dispelling the myth that you need to be at a ninja level of whatever you do to have something to contribute to an open source project.

My story goes like this:

I first read about the idea of open source software in the mid-90s and was tinkering around with Linux back when Debian fit on 7 floppy disks. The free software ideals mesh very well with my own, so I would voraciously lap up anything I could read on the topic, and watched with keen interest the community interactions of some of the larger open source projects.

In so doing, it became apparent to me that all of these people were *really smart*. And since I was just self-taught with a sprinkling of community college, there was no way I could possibly be part of this wonderful explosion of innovation and activity. So I would watch from the outside, silently cheering everyone on, always dreaming that maybe someday when I'd developed some "real world" development experience, I might one day be *worthy* of entering this wondrous and glorious world.

(People who actually contribute to open source projects are probably laughing their butts off about now... we "insiders" know that most of this code starts out *really bad* and is only through rigorous peer review process that it becomes an awesome textbook example.)

Flash-forward *ten years* later. Just before I graduated community college, my instructor (who knew I was one of those open source hippies since I was constantly pushing the school to add PHP and Perl into the curriculum to balance out ASP.NET and Java) informed me that there was this program called Google Summer of Code, where you could essentially apply for a grant to work on an open source project over the summer.

This was my in. This poked a tiny hole in the impenetrable wall I had perceived of "you must be THIS smart to participate" -- after all, if it was for *students* then they must be expecting that we don't know *everything* yet. So I gave it a shot, and spent a full week on my application to the Drupal project, then waited on pins and needles for the next month. And somehow, miraculously, I got accepted into the program.

Once I got to "inside" of that wall, my mind exploded. I realized two things right away:

1. While there certainly are very smart people involved in open source, they:
a ) certainly don't know *everything*
b ) make mistakes too, and
c ) are really down to earth and willing to help you

2. But more than that, there are all of these *other* people who were not born clutching a copy of the UNIX Bible on their way out of the womb; they're just "regular" people like me who want to help people in whatever area they have a particular expertise in, and try their best.

The rest, as they say, is history. I now have become completely immersed in the Drupal project; in fact, almost frantically so because I'm making up for so much lost time.

Wow, that was long! What I'm trying to say is this: we as open source participants need to actively spear-head efforts that take on and break down that mythical wall that doesn't actually exist except in "outsiders'" heads, and help spread the word that contributing to open source is for *everyone* regardless of educational background, work experience and, yes, gender. We know we're already losing people who could improve projects in various non-technical aspects. But, tragically, we're even losing like-minded geeks who would otherwise be a perfect fit but for the picture they have built in their heads of how "good" you have to be to start.

Wow - great point, Angela! Thanks for sharing your story and bringing this up.

I also wanted to mention that Call for Proposals is now open for the Open Source Convention which will be held in San Jose in July 2009.
http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009

I'd love to see more women presenting at OSCON and also attending.

I suggest that more of our formal Computer Science university classes use open source projects for assignments and examples.
This solves two problems...
it introduces all students to the open source community, and
second, it provides unsolved problems for the students to complete.
*so they can't just find the solution online elsewhere and plagiarize it

This post has been edited by Sarah Kim: Dec 19 2008, 10:04 AM

Angela, I can't thank you enough for sharing your opinion, both here and in person last summer at OSCON. I've spent years (10+) working in one form or another in the tech industry, but have constantly questioned whether I knew enough to contribute to various projects. So often, I assumed that because I didn't know something inside and out (say, every switch to every command), I couldn't speak up. In fact, I figured I'd get laughed out of the room.

After a five minute conversation with you, I realized that my perspective was all wrong. I've got plenty of experience! I can contribute on a number of levels (and now do) because I've got enough geek cred (which is subjective *anyway*) to speak up and offer my experience to whatever project I find interesting.

Thanks for the pep talk!

-- ubergeeke at dotfiveone dot com

This post has been edited by ubergeeke: Jan 15 2009, 11:53 PM

well the two projects Ubuntu and Drupal, I think these are absolutely great initiatives. In the long run, I think these projects will inspire other initiatives to support diversity more. The old days of the sexist hacker groups will fall in no time.I really enjoyed the speech at OSCON about women and Open Source. Very moving.
gud luck to all the initiators

So what if people start weakly in the open sources? That is something I ahve seen all along. Once they understand the language and dynamics, they improve.

So simply treat this as a regular part of teh process, and there is nothing specifically wrong either with women or with men for running into such issues.

----------------------
Infrared sauna Far infrared sauna Portable sauna

Really a educative and informative post, the post is good in all regards,I am glad to read this post.


Acai Force Max

For example, if you have an open source project, and you need more programmers to contribute — what do you do? What I’ve observed is that the project advertises explicitly – they say, “Hey, we’d like more developers – interested?”

The leaders of the project call up their good friends, and ask those people to help out. Then they present at conferences, saying “Hey, look at our cool project. Want to join us?” They talk to individuals, they talk to groups. They say the same thing, “We’d really like you to join us. So, why don’t you download our code, ask me some questions, and contribute!”

Bottom line: they network, and they find the people that they are looking for.

So, I think this model works equally well for getting more women involved in open source projects. You say to your group of friends, “Hey, I’d like more women contributing to my open source project. Do you know any?” You go to conferences, and you say explicitly, “Hey you – would you like to participate in my project? What are you interested in? Can I help you find a project that is of interest to you?” You go to user groups, and you talk to the women who show up and find ways to keep them engaged in the group, and in the code.

All the hand-wringing over this problem that starts with “I don’t know what to do” can be solved by simply asking people to be involved. Politely, insistently and like you’re bringing them the best party you’ve thrown all year.

The open source world is rich with opportunities: Working with people of all cultures from all over the world; Collaborating with some of the biggest and brightest minds on the ultimate solutions to complicated problems; Changing the world by providing free tools for organizations such as non-profits, educational institutions, and governments; Building up marketable skills and practical knowledge.

But yet, so many women are missing out. Why is that? And what can we do to change it? This talk will endeavour to answer these questions, as well as provide tips and strategies for women who want to dip their toe into the waters.




Fantasme a Deux

I think we will definitely start to see more and more women enter and succeed at this. The industry is growing and becoming big fast.

I find this discussion interesting. I've never noticed any gender specific barriers to getting started with the open source projects I'm involved with. Sure, you may have to wade through pages and pages of documentation, and sometimes the documentation is rather hard to find, but everyone I've encountered has had an issue with that - both male and female.

Maybe the issue isn't with the FOSS community, but just with a lack of interest? I spent last night taking part in the Ubuntu Bug Day. All of my female friends thought that sounded incredibly boring (and to be fair, triaging bug reports isn't exactly glamourous ). My male friends enjoy competing to see who has the most Launchpad points.

Personally I think that the people who lead open source projects should make sure that people who want to get involved can do so without having to wade through piles and piles of out of date / contradictory documentation. Make it easy to get involved, and make sure the community is friendly to newbies, then welcome whoever comes - whatever their age, gender, or race.

everyone is different , try to mix them for one jop and your opensource project will be work great..




------------------------------
mandtbank