Comments on: New to Open Source http://www.banane.com/2009/12/08/new-to-open-source/ Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:03:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: banane http://www.banane.com/2009/12/08/new-to-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-379436 banane Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:34:30 +0000 http://www.banane.com/?p=1379#comment-379436 Ah Tim, the point I was making is that the % of women in open source, compared to the % of women in technical fields, is far lower. Not of women in general, or people in general, but women *in* technology. <br><br>I recently talked at a session at She's Geeky - a women's tech unconference- on this very issue, getting into open source. The women who attended floored me their hard-core, deep down tech skills. Basically, Linux kernal engineers. So uh, nope. It's not that women don't have the skills to contribute. Ah Tim, the point I was making is that the % of women in open source, compared to the % of women in technical fields, is far lower. Not of women in general, or people in general, but women *in* technology.

I recently talked at a session at She's Geeky – a women's tech unconference- on this very issue, getting into open source. The women who attended floored me their hard-core, deep down tech skills. Basically, Linux kernal engineers. So uh, nope. It's not that women don't have the skills to contribute.

]]> By: banane http://www.banane.com/2009/12/08/new-to-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-375053 banane Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:34:30 +0000 http://www.banane.com/?p=1379#comment-375053 Ah Tim, the point I was making is that the % of women in open source, compared to the % of women in technical fields, is far lower. Not of women in general, or people in general, but women *in* technology. <br><br>I recently talked at a session at She's Geeky - a women's tech unconference- on this very issue, getting into open source. The women who attended floored me their hard-core, deep down tech skills. Basically, Linux kernal engineers. So uh, nope. It's not that women don't have the skills to contribute. Ah Tim, the point I was making is that the % of women in open source, compared to the % of women in technical fields, is far lower. Not of women in general, or people in general, but women *in* technology.

I recently talked at a session at She's Geeky – a women's tech unconference- on this very issue, getting into open source. The women who attended floored me their hard-core, deep down tech skills. Basically, Linux kernal engineers. So uh, nope. It's not that women don't have the skills to contribute.

]]> By: Tim http://www.banane.com/2009/12/08/new-to-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-374467 Tim Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:33:47 +0000 http://www.banane.com/?p=1379#comment-374467 Personaly, although I'm a programmer and work with open source bits and bobs a lot, I don't contribute. I'm a guy by the way. <br>For little changes, like we might want to make on some software, the time investment getting to know the code is far to great for the small improvement we'd see. It just wouldn't feel satisfying. <br>At the same time, its rare to find projects that give you a "way in" to the main project, looking after and managing thier volunteers. Maybe KDE. Usually, the more interesting / important a project is, the more elitist it is about who's patches actually get added, and if your outside the core dev team, there is little emotional reward in terms of interaction which would coincide with what you are saying. <br><br>I think that the low proportion of women in opensource has more to do with the low proportion of women in "hard core developer" jobs, where they would get the skills they need to contribute. <br>There are a lot of things behind that - socialization, feeling intimidated to enter a male dominated field. <br>Anecdotaly an ex girlfriend told me last week that she was leaving programming for an unrelated field. She had never felt accepted by her team, a little patronised, and unable to relate to car / scifi talk or banter. <br>She was the only woman in her team. Where I work, in a group of 200 programmers, discounting support staff and manual testers, there are 3 women in developer roles. This is not typical of other industries in the UK, and lol not desirable for me a single guy. <br>I would querry whether interaction is such a strong gender divider as you suggest. Female dominated fields such as admin, libary work, some production line work, involve the same amount of detail focused lone working. <br>There is a lot wrong with the culture around programming, engineering. <br>These things are often cited at reasons why women are not in the profession, opensource, whatever. <br>Sure it would be nice to correct them, but I think that the reason there remain more men in that line of work, is that more men seek to enter it, and find it easier to progress because they do not meet discrimination. Personaly, although I'm a programmer and work with open source bits and bobs a lot, I don't contribute. I'm a guy by the way.
For little changes, like we might want to make on some software, the time investment getting to know the code is far to great for the small improvement we'd see. It just wouldn't feel satisfying.
At the same time, its rare to find projects that give you a “way in” to the main project, looking after and managing thier volunteers. Maybe KDE. Usually, the more interesting / important a project is, the more elitist it is about who's patches actually get added, and if your outside the core dev team, there is little emotional reward in terms of interaction which would coincide with what you are saying.

I think that the low proportion of women in opensource has more to do with the low proportion of women in “hard core developer” jobs, where they would get the skills they need to contribute.
There are a lot of things behind that – socialization, feeling intimidated to enter a male dominated field.
Anecdotaly an ex girlfriend told me last week that she was leaving programming for an unrelated field. She had never felt accepted by her team, a little patronised, and unable to relate to car / scifi talk or banter.
She was the only woman in her team. Where I work, in a group of 200 programmers, discounting support staff and manual testers, there are 3 women in developer roles. This is not typical of other industries in the UK, and lol not desirable for me a single guy.
I would querry whether interaction is such a strong gender divider as you suggest. Female dominated fields such as admin, libary work, some production line work, involve the same amount of detail focused lone working.
There is a lot wrong with the culture around programming, engineering.
These things are often cited at reasons why women are not in the profession, opensource, whatever.
Sure it would be nice to correct them, but I think that the reason there remain more men in that line of work, is that more men seek to enter it, and find it easier to progress because they do not meet discrimination.

]]> By: agence de de communication http://www.banane.com/2009/12/08/new-to-open-source/comment-page-1/#comment-367434 agence de de communication Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:08:44 +0000 http://www.banane.com/?p=1379#comment-367434 I think you partially explained why women are not more into the open source community. I think you partially explained why women are not more into the open source community.

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