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

Thu Oct 4 19:51:55 PDT 2018

Firstly, we need a panel session title.

Here's my suggestions:

   1. Strength in Diversity
   2. Open Source, Open Data, Open Minds
   3. Strength in Diversity: Open Source, Open Data, Open Minds
   4. Balance and Belonging
   5. Not Just Another Boring Panel
   6. ???

As I said in the meeting now. I feel that we are close to agreeing about
content, and we just need a label to frame the discussion.

Secondly, I have another suggestion I have is that Maurits van der Vlugt is
attending the conference, and he's run a panel for me before. He's very
thorough, and good, and I'd like to ask him to moderate the panel. Can I
get a show of support for inviting Maurits?

Kind regards,

Alex

On Fri, 5 Oct 2018 at 08:38 Edoardo Neerhut <ed at mapillary.com> wrote:

> I like the way you're coming at it Martin. I'm more interested in
> fostering a diverse range of views, whether than comes from a diverse range
> of people or not. Hopefully it does.
>
> In terms of a theme, why not an industry specific them that people are
> drawn to? Diversity could be woven in and we could make sure the panel
> comes from a diverse range of backgrounds. I did not come up with any
> concrete themes in the shower, but maybe I will before our meeting.
>
> Bottom line: Definitely a balance here between moving the needle and
> giving people what they want. Looking forward to discussing this more this
> afternoon.
>
> On Thu, 4 Oct 2018 at 21:58, Martin Tomko <tomkom at unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I am +1 ( or many more) in a diversity + inclusiveness topic, but I also
>> am happy to entertain a way to wrap it up under an unassuming title – and
>> make sure the moderator is the right one, and sharp, to drive this.
>>
>>
>>
>> For me, diversity and inclusion is much more than underrepresented social
>> groups in FOSS4G – it is the variety of ideas, or approaches, the openness
>> to others, including exposing our own intellectual contributions to others
>> for scrutiny. I think the time is ripe to discuss this. See the very recent
>> scandal of Linus (Linux founder), finally having to step down from the
>> Linux foundation due to rude statements and vulgar communication style (
>> against all). The R community used to be also quite harsh on newbies, until
>> the new wave of tidyverse, resulting in a huge uptake. Python has been –
>> almost by desing by Guiodo – always very supportive.
>>
>>
>>
>> Can we discuss inclusiveness from this perspective?
>>
>>
>>
>> M.
>>
>>
>>
>> *From: *FOSS4G-Oceania <foss4g-oceania-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on
>> behalf of Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>> *Date: *Thursday, 4 October 2018 at 8:43 pm
>> *To: *"foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org" <foss4g-oceania at lists.osgeo.org>
>> *Subject: *Re: [FOSS4G-Oceania] The Panel Session - It's Time...
>>
>>
>>
>> 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> 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> 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> 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> 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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>> FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> 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 <+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 <+61%20427%20091%20712>
>> skype: adam.d.steer
>>
>> tweet: @adamdsteer
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Alex Leith
>>
>> 0419 189 050
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> FOSS4G-Oceania at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>>
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>>
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/foss4g-oceania
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Cameron Shorter
>>
>> Technology Demystifier
>>
>> Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
>>
>>
>>
>> M +61 (0) 419 142 254 <+61%20419%20142%20254>
>>
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-- 

Alex Leith
0419 189 050
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