[FOSS4G-Oceania] The Panel Session - It's Time...

[adam steer]

Hi Alex

Based on a discussion in the program committee (thanks Emma Hain) I think a
panel discussion on ’strength in diversity' might not reach the audience
who *needs* to hear it. It also might not get the people on the panel we
really *need* to discuss the topic.

This sounds weird from someone who has pushed really hard on diversity and
inclusion topics, right? Bear with me… and also caution - some of these
thoughts really need more developing.

I took a lot from a talk titled ‘Open communities - we love to hate’ in Dar
Es Salaam - by Steven Feldman. It struck me that, in order to really
discuss diversity we need to look at it in a ground up way. What are the
things about our community that make it approachable or not? Why, where and
how can the open source community lead? What can we do better?

Again, in the program committee I proposed ‘what does community mean in the
open geo-space?’; and the more abstract ’spatial futures..’ - from my view,
they let us as a community explore diversity and inclusion as fundamental
components of what we do. We can certainly head into controversial
territory, I would expect the session chair to take the conversation there,
and the panelists to expect some really curly topics :D

What do you all think?  We need to talk about diversity and inclusion, and
keep talking about it ad nauseum, especially if we are old-ish blokes
talking to other old-ish blokes and challenging some old ideas.

Cheers

Adam


On Thu, 4 Oct 2018 at 10:18, Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Folks
>
> It is now time to get stuck into the details of the panel session.
>
> Three things need to happen:
>
>    1. Establish a topic
>    2. Find a moderator
>    3. Bring together 4-6 panelists.
>
> As you may be aware, I'm very enthusiastic about running the topic on
> Diversity and Inclusion. The reason I want to do a topic on D&I is that
> it's something that everyone is talking about now, and it's particularly
> important in the spatial industry. Gaby, the past president of SSSI, pointed
> out recently
> <https://sssi.org.au/knowledge-hub/president-s-message/president-s-message-september-2018>
> that our industry has gone backwards, in terms of female representation.
> Atlassian are doing great things in this space, and their latest effort has
> rebranded to 'Balance and Belonging <https://www.atlassian.com/diversity>'.
> And we know that some of the stalwarts
> <https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-takes-a-break-from-linux/>
> in the open source community are recognising the need for change.
>
> Really, in brief, I think the topic should be 'Strength in Diversity' and
> that we should talk abut the human aspects of our community. I think it
> will be a very interesting discussion, and perhaps controversial in places,
> and I think that this is exactly what we need in order to make our even
> stand out from others. I think that by taking a bit of a risk, and being
> open to discussing difficult issues, we can make sure that voices are heard
> and that we can have an impact (even if it's modest).
>
> Ok, so, how do we feel about the suggested topic here?
>
> And if you have an alternative, now's the time to raise it.
>
> Once we have a topic, we can pick a moderator and start forming the panel.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alex
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Alex Leith
> 0419 189 050
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>


-- 
Adam Steer
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Adam_Steer
http://au.linkedin.com/in/adamsteer
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0046-7236
+61 427 091 712
skype: adam.d.steer
tweet: @adamdsteer
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