[FOSS4G-Oceania] The Panel Session - It's Time...
Cameron Shorter
cameron.shorter at gmail.com
Thu Oct 4 03:42:39 PDT 2018
Alex, I put forward a presentation topic on diversity which I assume was
put to the community to vote up/down. It would be interested to see
where the community ranked it. (Don't worry about hurting my feelings -
I'm totally ok if it was ranked very low).
If it was ranked low, then it is a good indication that John's concern
is right, and that people would prefer hearing OSGeo topics than
Diversity topics at our conference.
I think that dealing with this topic requires much deeper discussion
than can be covered in a 30 minute plenary, which by definition limit's
each person's contribution to mere minutes.
The "diversity" topic lead to very strong opinions, and then to very
personal accusations, and hence requires quite a bit of trust to work
well. A room of 200+ people is not the right place to test trust.
Maybe select a topic which is less threatening, like
"What future would we like to see for OSGeo within Oceania within the
years to decade?"
This is broader, less threatening, can touch on diversity, but also
cover community building in other ways, and hopefully will be something
that everyone in the room could feel connected to.
On 4/10/18 2:56 pm, John Bryant wrote:
> I have some concern about reaching the audience. The cited Atlassian
> report says:
>
> /People are tired of talking about diversity and inclusion,
> frustrated by talk not turning into impactful action, and
> overwhelmed by the number of issues./
>
>
> We've scheduled the panel session as a plenary, so there's no other
> programming at that time. If the topic isn't of interest to a large
> part of our audience, they might feel let down that a significant part
> of the program isn't for them.
>
> I'm not suggesting we should try to be all things to all people, we'll
> never make everyone happy, and that's OK. But if a large part of the
> audience doesn't show up to the panel discussion, that feels like a
> problem.
>
> Or, from a more constructive angle, how can we frame this topic so
> that we can ignite interest?
>
> On Thu, 4 Oct 2018 at 13:42, Alex Leith <alexgleith at gmail.com
> <mailto:alexgleith at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Adam, I think you're on the money there.
>
> What I'm proposing is to have that discussion at our event. To be
> a bit more exciting than just 'what the future of tech' or 'lets
> look at ourselves'. It's about talking about the community and how
> we can improve it.
>
> I think we set the panel up so that it DOES have the people on it
> who need to discuss it. I think we open up to the floor and
> encourage the difficult questions. And I think we can have an impact.
>
>
>
> On Thu, 4 Oct 2018 at 13:13 adam steer <adam.d.steer at gmail.com
> <mailto:adam.d.steer at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> to add another perspective - we get to do something audacious
> here - and set the tone for how we roll as a community for
> years to come. What can the open community pull off that can’t
> be done in industry conferences? where can we lead the
> discussion?
>
> what really strikes to our hearts about what we want the open
> geo community to look like? how should it flower/mature/fruit?
> this first-event-in-a-long-time might be a once in a decade
> shot at exploring some hard issues there.
>
> Yes, we can do it again next year and the year after and so on
> - but by then there is momentum and expectation. Right *now* I
> see a chance to be outrageous in our ambitions/direction
> setting/discussion...
>
> Cheers
> Adam
>
> On Thu, 4 Oct 2018 at 11:49, adam steer
> <adam.d.steer at gmail.com <mailto:adam.d.steer at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> 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 <mailto: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 <tel:+61%20427%20091%20712>
> skype: adam.d.steer
> tweet: @adamdsteer
>
>
>
> --
> 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 <tel:+61%20427%20091%20712>
> skype: adam.d.steer
> tweet: @adamdsteer
>
> --
>
> Alex Leith
> 0419 189 050
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--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254
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